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[CaptainArchmage]

Status of everything so far (in spoiler):

Spoiler: The Big Question in FULL HD (click to show/hide)

RP Clarification

I've put out a list of RP-able dwarves in game at the bottom of this post (which I'm going to clean up . There are a number of fudged characters, which means they aren't simulated in game but play a significant role, like Chancellor Urnbreath and Uncle Nil. We have a grand total of five scientists, and any are up for grabs. I'm playing Ral Undertrumpets and I've written up shit for Chancellor Urnbreath. The Chancellor will probably die from a freak accident involving a barrel organ and a +Green Glass Window+ since he's written actually living IN Old Boatmurdered. If you want a simulated leader (governor, scientist, admiral, general, any elected leaders) I can do that but there's a hard cap. If you want a non-simulated leader (i.e. captains of individual ships in the fleet, guild representatives, dwarves on the Imperial Senate) write up a name for your dwarf, and the position you're filling in.

Spoiler: tl;dr history of dwarfs in space since 2200 (click to show/hide)

We're starting out on Nir Kodor in Istam Anriz, quickly colonised the nearby ocean planet of Unatra III now known as Ir Kodor, and started aggressively observing the disgusting industrialised fungus fuckball that is also next door to our system.

We aimed to explore the Demon's Eye Nebula, which brought up a lot of anomalies - some data centre in the underground vault of a species which once lived on a devastated world, and evidence for an alien race known as the Yuht living in the area about six million years ago. Unfortunately, the expedition was turned around due to hostile space wildlife in the nebula. We also have a mission to collect sublight probes, and the returning mission should hopefully get at least one of them.

We then recovered an alien cruiser from a gas giant, which is like five times as strong as our fleet and nuked our economy to run. During extraction of the DIS Salvage (literally how it showed up), we bumped into the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai, a race of fundamentalistic "Elder Things" run by a citizen stratocracy. The Elder Things closed their borders to us but it doesn't seem like a crisis can be further precipitated. Yet.

So I found this page, and decided it didn't have anywhere near enough dwarvery in it. We're "other games", but this is Bay12Games, which means we do Dwarf Fortress too. So I took Dwarf Fortress and put it in another game, yo. This will be a Let's Play, I'm not doing a succession yet with this (requires all DLC and so on) but will try to make posts to update progress on a semi-frequent basis (and unlike Dwarf Fortress Stellaris doesn't seem to have as much of an FPS-death issue). I wanted to start this from the beginning but my test game became the full game... and I've annotated (20 days of gameplay in) the system map. See below!

That's right folks, we're doing Dwarf Fortress, Kingdom mode IN SPACE. Which means we're doing it in Stellaris. This is like the only game where you can unleash a bunch of non-gendered cyborg automatons on the galaxy by taking away their AIs and then blast their planets with neutron sweeps.

I will be roleplaying as ONE character, who has been chosen by His Imperial Majesty Urist III Angkosh to oversee the, uh, expansion of the Dwarven Star Imperium, formerly known as the Glorious Dwarven Imperium (back in my 1.9 game I used as a test run). When that character dies, I'm going to create a new one or take over an existing one and do some shit (I mean this is the fucking future, who says we can't upload our dwarven consciousnesses to some kind of machine?). The character I've created is Ral Arôlsåkzul, or in the human tongue, Ral "Undertrumpets". The dwarven minimum life expectancy is about 100 years and Ral is in good shape so he's predicted to live until 125 AT LEAST.

The parts of the expansion we'll be overseeing will be the banal ones. The tricky ones. The monotonous ones. We'll be dealing with calculating hyperspace maneuvers and suboptimal expansion patterns. We'll be dealing with whatever awful shit is living out there among the stars. And some of the shit we're dealing with, I assume, will be !!FUN!! and !!AWESOME!!

Note: If you want a dwarven "character" in game, give me a name and a job title. It won't be that easy to fill LEADER positions due to the need for credits (as of this new version) to hire them, and the flow will be low in the start. However, you could be "dwarf'd" as the captain of a particular ship...

TL;DR: The Dwarven Star Imperium has developed hyperdrive. As Ral Undertrumpets, the governor of the core sector, we're doing what the fuck we should to get dwarves to the stars. ARMOK VULT! General shit that's repeated elsewhere is placed below for quick reference.

Spoiler: Annotated Map of the Dwarven Home System, 20th Opal 2200 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Dorf Traits and Civics tl;dr (click to show/hide)

Portrait: Human
Traits:
Strong (1)
Industrious (2)
Enduring (1)
Wasteful (-1)
Deviants (-1)

Civics and Ethics:
Imperial Government: Star Empire under Urist III Angkosh
Fanatic militarist
Materialist
Mining Guilds
Aristocratic Elite

Note: This page WILL undergo some edits. Expect changes, additions, and extra pics to arrive. Some of this was written back in 1.9 when I did a test run for the Dwarven Civilization and got a good deal of the Beta Quadrant under my control within a few years.

Journal of Ral Arôlsåkzul, Ral "Undertrumpets", 2200 Nicol Ashok

So I decided to take some time off at Eshimumid club, known to the humans as "Freefall", in the deep elven settlement of "Whiplash", and that's how I got into this mess to start with. It was a quick magloop ride from Archcrystal, when I get there though the place is packed and I get taken to the side by some representative from the Miner's Guild of Kinmelbil. He tells me someone from the office told him I was going down here, and I apparently have some high end assignment which I can't refuse. He said it wasn't optional, and it sure isn't since they've now transferred my pension plan and all that to some governmental level. I mean, I either refuse the order and have to rebuild my 420K from scratch, or I get like five times the pension, five years sooner, and a mansion in my own name where I want it. Nor are the Miner's Guild of Kinmelbil any dwarves to be fucked around with, given how they support our fucking empire these days. Even the new Emperor Urist III Angkosh doesn't want to get on their bad side these days. That's going to get a lot worse soon enough too.

I'm given a whole binder full of various papers told I need to see Chancellor Libash Urnbreath in Boatmurdered. He's apparently some high end advisor who doesn't run anything but provides all the guidance necessary to keep shit in order. The train takes me about 2 hours to arrive in the capital and drops me off above ground, and I spend the next hour wretching under the expanse of open sky between the gigantic skyscrapers. That's right, whoever decided to plan out the city made it mostly aboveground, and the cavernous architecture means the buildings are literally like artificial caverns. They didn't think of roofing off the outside though - or moving the magloop terminal inside.

Libash's office is in the old fortress. As in, the place where everything started - the whole decline of Kinmelbil, the second age of myth, and eventually the collapse of old civilisation. It's also where the restoration began, when Urist Sankis Angkosh found the fortress and launched the great crusade that eventually united Nir Kodor under the Dwarven Imperium. The fortress used to support, like, 100 dwarves at its peak, and most of the additions are post-reclaimation. It's now like 15,000 dwarves in this fortress and most of the old rooms were converted into offices. Even the imperial palace isn't in here, that's a large arcology outside.

Project "Fuck the World" device employs the majority of dwarves living in the fortress. The magma flow is routed outside to a series of geothermal power stations that keep the whole city - and much of the planet running smoothly.

The guards lead me to the room and knock on the door. The room is small-ish, with most of the old furniture moved to the side serving as a support for paperwork and a number of holoscreens. The old decor has been immaculately preserved, and is as legend describes it - elephants killing dwarves, elephants on fire, cheese, and dogs melting. There's also a display case with the old currency on it, which depicts a tentacle demon wrapping its appendages around some elves. Chancellor Urnbreath sits behind one of the old dining tables, wearing a felt top hat and monocle. Clearly I am in the presence of the elite.

"Ah, Ral Undertrumpets. I have been expecting you. Or should I say, we have been expecting you. You have been selected for our 'new blood' program, specifically our attempt to perform an outreach and employ younger dwarves in an attempt to create a more interconnected and more in touch society with-"

he drones on for about five minutes about how this system works, and I do some doodling in a book to make it seem like I'm taking some notes on this horseshit.

"- and after reading the resume your uncle sent me we decided you would be the first ambassador to this program."

Uncle Nil, of course. I should have known he'd be up for saving my ass post-graduation from an office job.

"Allow me to brief you on current events. This should tell you what you're up against."

He pulls up a map on the holographic display. "This is the current state of the Dwarven Star Imperium, also known as the Glorious Dwarven Imperium to some. It is but the nineteenth of the year, also the month of Opal. The Courteous Act, the only moon of our world, has a number of physical anomalies that warrant a permanent base, but one has not been constructed yet. Over here" - he points to the white star. "We have our shipyard orbiting Istam Anriz. 1st Squadron is congregated at that shipyard. We also have a solar energy collection system in position around the star." He shifts his attention to the other side of the screen. "Over here is the gas giant Bridepurged, which is subject of a research station. There is also a mining station around the moon of Festivalcherish, while The Ordered Coal has prospected minerals. The Miner's guild suggests it is high time to build a mining station around that world. Finally-" he points to the bottom of the map - The Famous Gravel has a large reserve of antimatter and fusion energy fuel within its Van Allen belts. If we should exploit that, we should be able to run a few more ships."

Great. So we've not yet fully exploited our home system, and we don't even have a physics base on our Moon, yet we have almost complete facilities on the other side of the solar system? Oh well.

Chancellor Urnbreath then focuses on the starmap. No idea how these guys managed to work out all the hyperlane connections, really.

"This is the current state of the galaxy. As you can see, there are about a thousand systems in the entire galaxy that represent strategic locations, all connected by these hyperlanes. We worked out the shape of the network by sending out hyperwave pulses into the transdimensional detemporalised subspace matrix, or so the scientists say. As far as we know, we can only use the hyperdrive to travel along these lanes, and not outside of them."

"Of course, someone needs to give directions. Expanding to the stars almost certainly sets of a bureaucratic cataclysm in the long wrong. That's where you come in."

So these guys have waded into a shitshow and I am the new star to sort out their bureaucratic mess.

"We have arranged for a shuttle to transport you to the DIS Matonmuthir, also known as the Joke Column, a newly-commissioned Gudaslased-class science ship. This will serve as your remote work base, as a home away from home, and an office away from the office in your capacity as Governor of the Core Sector. The Matonmuthir will head to the hyperspace point and accompany the scientist Gomath Chancetome to the system on the other end, where you will decide how to command the further expansion of the Dwarven Imperium from the core sector outwards."

In other words, I get to run a whole interstellar empire! Isn't that cool? I take some advice from the Chancellor before leaving for some celebratory swamp whiskey in the Boatmurdered Fortress Bar.

Spoiler: Full HD Map of the Dwarven Solar System (click to show/hide)

This is the first chart for the original homeworld, Nir Kodor, circa today, 2200, interposed over a map of the Istam Anriz system. I've annotated it myself, so you can see most of the features. Each time represents an area of the homeworld, and there are about nineteen areas. All have seen some kind of settlement in the past, usually by dwarves, but not all of them are being worked to the scale normally acceptable for a post-industrial civilisation. I've labelled most the primary fortresses and administration centres here.

I take my leave, get drinking, and wake up the morning with the sun shining down on me through the side of the skyscraper I've been booked into. Fucking cretins. Switching on the news, well, I see this.

//Lora Ipsum//


Turns out the new Crown Prince is Tosid Creamloves Angkosh.

Docking with the Joke Column is successful around the molten world of Yellowlover. Introductions with Gomath Chancetome are amicable, and it turns out he won the University of Sparkgear drinking contest 101-98 in my freshman year! I proceed to get to work with shit that needs doing.

Ral Undertrumpet's Orders: 20th Opal 2200

Spoiler: The Starbase, before I ordered the Trade Hub built. The Pseudo A.I. "Vir" has commentary on this too. (click to show/hide)

Firstly, I order a Trade Hub built at Istam Anriz Station. Apparently this only requires 80 Space Urists worth of minerals, as our illustrious Emperor Urist III Angkosh has put in place the industrial connections to ensure maximal efficiency of making a home in the sky in a mere 180 days.

Spoiler: The new mining station site (click to show/hide)

Second, in order to fulfill the demands of the Miner's Guild, I have directed the construction of a mining outpost at The Ordered Coal, the frozen outer moon of Bridepurged. This will grant us additional mineral income, worth at a base 3 Space Urists. This operation will be conducted by the D.I.S. Prim Tattoo.

Finally, I have directed some 100 Billion Urists of energy towards gentrification of the area surrounding Gemclod. Once home to the largest steel smelter and titanium refinery on Nir Kodor, the workforce suffered massive layoffs starting in the late 21st century, and increasing in the middle of the 22nd century as efficiency in the plant improved. In total, about 90% of jobs were shed, and the now-outdated infrastructure and unemployed population now produces negligible contributions to the economy, but not for much longer! Once the cleanup is complete in like 98 days, it will be possible to assign productive dwarves to the location, re-start mining and build a better mining network! In the meantime, I have organised the large-scale redistribution of the Undergrotto-Icemachines workforce to the Severedcoils area, where they will establish small-scale mining and energy extraction while we consume food from our significant reserves. This will optimize planetary operations towards extracting energy and minerals for up to 50 months before food supplies run out.

29th Opal 2200

Spoiler: Unedited still of The Famous Gravel flyby and gravity assist (click to show/hide)

Today, we passed The Famous Gravel, the outermost gas giant of the Istam Anriz system! This image was captured by one of the newscast chase ships as we pass the two largest moons of the planet. The inner moon is known as Tarnishedslave, while the outer moon is known as The Mournful Night. Ahead of us lies the hyperspace jump-off point, to an unknown system. I mean, isn't this like one of the nearest stars? All I have is it's a G-class star, and that's supposedly good news.

11th Obsidian 2200

Spoiler: The Joke Column warming up hyperdrives, with The Famous Gravel in the background. (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Unedited still from a newscast ship livestream (click to show/hide)

The hyperdrive of the Joke Column is now warming up gneissly, Gomath tells me we have 7 days to go before we're catapulted across several light years in the space of a few days. Into the unknown!

18th Obsidian 2200

There's probably a mega party going on at Boatmurdered right now, because we've just entered hyperspace. Since Gomath is coordinating data collection at the helm, I am going to do some "liver crossfit".

19th Obsidian 2200

HOO BOY! We come out of hyperspace at the edge of the "Unatra" system to find this...

Spoiler: Prime Beachfront Planet (click to show/hide)

In total, long range scans show Unatra III is a large Ocean planet slightly larger than Nir Kodor! This is closest to the hyperspace point, so we're heading there first. There is a second habitable world, Unatra II, though it is arid and thus not suited to dwarven life. Of the other planets, Unatra I is a frozen barren planet, and Unatra IV has a thick atmosphere and is probably poisonous to known life...

1st Granite 2200: The State of the Imperium

Today would have been the first day of the year, the first day of spring, and also known as "arrival day" in times of yore. In those oldern days, dwarves would set out under the dizzying expanse of open sky, seven to a cart, with two mules, a wagon, and a barrel of -plump helmet biscuits [5]- to a new peak where they would await the arrival of a metalsmith, carrying an anvil, and pray to whatever powers they believed in that he or she would not be eaten by unicorns before they crossed the stream. In times more recent, but still long ago, the tailing metalsmith was cut out and dwarves brought anvils at great expense themselves, but they would endeavour settle any location that wasn't completely underwater, or entirely atop a mountain. After those times, after the end of the era of Headshoots and Syrupleaf, and in the times of Gemclod and Battlefailed, the anvils became cheaper, and the supplies became more complicated, and eventually "arrival day" became flexible.

Today, our great world of Nir Kodor is populated by billions of dwarves. A group of seven dwarves will at most be planning and ordering the construction of a new town plan, a new city plan, or a new megaforge. Here in space, there is no sense of spring. However, this first day of Granite, we have now made new ground, arriving in the Unatra system, and running straight into the very first habitable planet. No, our first pair of habitable planets. Already on the homeworld, plans are being drawn for the construction of our first colony ship, which shall transport thousands of dwarves to establish a beachhead on one of these planets. They will be followed by hundreds of civilian transports to build up the population for a number of years. Once the endeavor is over, we shall be faced with a new dawn among the stars. Ir Kodor! VOX NIHILI VULT!

Wait, I'm not speechwriting for the Emperor, am I?

Official Policy Change: First Contact Protocol

Spoiler: The old first contact protocol. (click to show/hide)

We have changed the First Contact Protocols to Peaceful. This will remain in effect for at least ten years.

You're probably wondering what was up with that. I mean, we certainly had a directive to "be on the look out for pirates" and so on. There's no guarantees that aliens will be friendly, right? That doesn't mean we're going to shoot first though. We're not going to start the fire. At least, not so fast. That said, for now we're going to be changing the First Contact Protocols. For some reason, there has been the expression of some surprise that they were even set to Aggressive in the pre-hyperdrive era in the first place.

State of the Leadership and Aristocracy

Spoiler: Leaders (click to show/hide)

The current state of the Leadership and Aristocracy is summarized here, though without the Emperor and Crown Prince, who are covered in another datasheet. I happen to be the only governor of a sector, which happens to be the core sector. I am governor, of course, only by subwave extranet telepresence from Istam Anriz, though many apparently think I am actually present in Boatmurdered. I am aged 36, and my fitness levels are off the charts. Like, nobody is as healthy as I am so I am expected to keep going for another 89 years AT LEAST.

Of course there is Gomath Tenshedbal, or "Gomath Chancetone", the captain of the D.I.S. Joke Column, I am three years his junior he is about as fit as I am. OK, but that's just a tie for the best. I think I've covered that elsewhere, the trouble is Gomath focused on college sport and didn't develop as much of a focus as the other leading scientists did.

I grabbed a copy of the research arrangements at the beginning of Obsidian, to check where things are going. This is a bit dated so we should have another month's worth of progress on this shit down.

Spoiler: Research Focuses as of 11th Obsidian, 2200 (click to show/hide)

Firstly (lastly on the Research rooster), we have Bushos Shislugitdun, or "Bushos Muddlecharm", aged 47 with ph.D in Materials Science from the University of Sparkgear, leading Engineering research dedicated to designing, building, and establishing new dedicated engineering institutes on Nir Kodor or elsewhere. It is rumored that she intends to upgrade Sparkgear's engineering research capacity. Conveniently, we outpace research in engineering over research in other sectors.

Secondly, we have Lolok Tiriststot, or "Lolok Rimsurprise", aged a mere 32 years, leading society research in "Planetary Unification", a socio-political project that should complete the unification of the various dwarven (and non-dwarven) nations on Nir Kodor fully under a common set of principles. Lolok grew up in Flamebanner under poor economic circumstances, but graduated from the University of Boatmurdered with decent honours. His further academic work at the University of Sparkgear is obscure, arcane, and in most cases under top secret classification. He has a reputation as a maniacal polymath, so he isn't focused on the "Eren Ducim" but is rather taking a "mere interest" in them at the moment.

Finally, we have Dustik Kabegeth, or "Dustik Namemisery" the head of physics research, aged 42 years old. Educated at the University of Flarechannels and graduating with the highest honours, he is known for being adaptable, so he'll gain experience faster. He is looking into designing an "energy grid", which would increase the output of all power plants on Nir Kodor, and would also allow us to implement edicts to further boost power generation by overloading the capacity.

State of the Imperium: Government

Spoiler: Government, Civics, Ethics, Ruler, Heir, etc. (click to show/hide)

Finally, we have the government of the Dwarven Star Imperium itself. As you can see, we are a Star Empire under Emperor Urist III Angkosh. Our ethics have been strongly oriented towards militarism due to the way our homeworld was (re)unified. They are also strongly oriented towards mechanism due to the history of our civilization and society. Finally, our civics consist firstly of an aristocratic elite, which means only the finest dwarves graduate to governorship and we have somewhat more capacity in our ranks. Secondly mining guilds such as the Miner's Guild of Kinmelbil and House Lam have backed dwarven society since antiquity and probably prehistory, and they remain in place today giving us a significant boost to minerals production.

Our Emperor, Urist III Angkosh, aged a mere 27 years, rose to power following the death of his father. His agenda is focused on "Fleet Expansion" which means Shipyard construction is a bit faster, shipyards are subsidized, and the upkeep of the various spacecraft in our empire is lower. As a result, he dreams of a grand fleet of the dwarven star imperium, which can reach out to other star systems and colonize them, while defending us from whatever horrors might actually seek to attack us. He reaches for the stars, thus has also subsidized the construction of starbase modules in general, as well as any upgrades they may need. He also believes that food production should be efficient, and has increased our farm yields by approximately 10%.

The current heir to the throne is Crown Prince Beratishis Angkosh, aged 21. He is the younger brother of Urist III. He is warlike, and believes that dwarves should rather seek to fortify themselves and subdue other empires actively.

3rd March 2200

We are entering orbit around Unatra III and are beginning initial scans! The world looks like a blueish marble from up here. Once we have a better idea of topography, we will send down some shuttles for a closer look at the world!

7th Granite 2200

Spoiler: Policy Overview with background image of the Joke Column scanning Unatra III (click to show/hide)

For some reason, the order to change first contact protocol was not changed. Not sure why. It all started when I got a news report that dwarves were being displaced from Gemclod during the slum removal program, which is now entering it's half-way point. I decided to check what the policies are, and probably should have done that earlier. Now, not only were first contact protocols still set to aggressive, but we're permitted to displace "undesirables" and forcibly resettle dwarves. I mean, holy shit, who wrote that? I sent a hypermail to the Emperor's office, and have now been informed those changes have been enacted. For some reason they never realized they were like that. Something's fishy, and it isn't the planet we're orbiting.

16th Granite 2200

Spoiler: THE DISCOVERY OF ALIEN LIFE (click to show/hide)

FUCKING FINALLY! The news is out - we've discovered life. Not, like, intelligent life, but sufficiently complex life. Lolok Rimsurprise is giddy at the news, he says he can use this for his "project". I wonder what it tastes like.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The great news, is we have a potential landing spot where there are ample geothermal sources of power. You see, unlike Nir Kodor where there is a moon to make tides and shit, Unatra III has no moon and the tides are less pronounced, only being generated by interaction with the star's gravity, but the planet seems to be a bit more geologically active. There's also a material nearby the proposed landing site which is called "Betharian Stone". These are energetic stones which Gomath says were deposited by meteor impacts, and while we can't use them currently we might be able to use them in a !!power station!! one day given research.

While we could establish a research base orbiting the planet to collect data on native lifeforms, I'd rather establish a full-on colony here. The habitability rating is "60%" which means we can set up a colony with not too much trouble, though it isn't optimal. Best avoid the regions of poisonous kelp, and the islands with sever volcanic activity. Wait, what? I thought we could tap volcanoes like over a thousand years ago? Dude is this like some kind of fucking space volcano that we can't tame without "research"?

1st Slate 2200

Scans of Unatra I are disappointing as there are no resources of note on the planet. It's literally just a frozen ball of rock orbiting suspiciously close to it's star.

16th Slate 2200

We've just completed the scan of Unatra, the G-class star at the centre of the system. It seems like we can establish decent energy supply from the star, which is like half the maintenance for a colony ship or colony under establishment.

Meanwhile back home, news of our discovery has spread all around Nir Kodor. I am getting get to do a few interviews when I get back to Istam Anriz!

28th Slate 2200

Gentrification efforts around Gemclod have finally been completed, and I have ordered a new mining network and industrial facilities to be constructed down upon the site. Once again, Gemclod shall be a place where great things are made! This phase of the project will take 206 days. I have also re-assigned the workforce from the power stations at Deathgate, Murdermachines, and Slaughterhelm to the site to start mineral extraction as best we can, thus maintaining maximum output of minerals.

7th Felsite 2200

We're current entering orbit around Unatra II, the Arid world that has about 73% the surface area of Nir Kodor. I can see a few lakes from the ship, but no large bodies of water. Most of the forests are going to be in polar regions.

19th Felsite 2200

Scans of Unatra II are complete. There are a number of accessible mineral deposits, but a lot of areas are covered in quicksand basins, colossal sinkholes, and there's an active supervolcano on the planet that's so active we can't build anything permanent there. With habitability assessed at 20%, I have decided this would be an ideal mining location until we get a better grip on how to colonize worlds such as this.

1st Hematite 2200

Summer has arrived in the northern hemisphere of Nir Kodor, and with it, the news that our new mining operation is in place around The Ordered Coal. Since we don't have the minerals to build another station yet, I have ordered the D.I.S. Prim Tattoo to plot a course for Unatra to establish an outpost. We have all the political capital in place to establish control over the system, and we only need to scan this last poison planet and collect the minerals, both of which will have been done by the time the Prim Tattoo arrives.

23rd Hematite 2200

Survey complete! Unsurprisingly Unatra IV has no useful resources for us, and cannot be colonized. We will set a course back to Istam Anriz, carry out a press conference on Nir Kodor, and head to another system adjacent to our homeworld.

20th Malachite 2200

Some more good news from Istam Anriz - the trade hub at the starbase has been completed, restoring our income to a level sufficient to cover the maintenance of a colony ship or colonization effort.

10th Galena 2200

The D.I.S. Prim Tattoo just exited hyperspace and flew by us - damn, we need to be more careful. Can't have any collisions going on down these hyperlane exit points, can we? Oh well we only need to repaint this thing.

7th Limestone 2200: The Press Conference

The good news is that the hyperdrive can be used more than once. If that weren't possible, we could not return home, and exploration would be a lot harder.

With the Joke Column passing Nir Kodor on the way to the next neighbouring system, me and Gomash took a team of "away dwarves" to a press conference, which has been arranged by Chancellor Urnbreath. I end up sleeping through most of it. The main questions are about whether intelligent life has been discovered, whether we're going to be conquering anything, and when the "embark" is due. The existence of the numerous active volcanic island chains has many excited.

One of the attendants then chimes in with a question: "So is there like, edible food and fish on that planet?"

The question catches everyone else off-guard. I reply that the planet is about as fertile as Nir Kodor in total, but some of the kelp isn't safe to eat.

10th Sandstone 2200

Spoiler: Expansion and Exploration plans (click to show/hide)

Today, we jumped off from the second jump point! In the meantime, I've drawn out how I'm planning to do the exploration and colonization.

14th Sandstone 2200

After four days in hyperspace, we have entered the Baltris system. Baltris is an M-class red dwarf, which means the system size is smaller, and habitable planets either orbit close to the star, or have a massive greenhouse system to keep them hot. I've annotated the system overview, there is a size-16 savanna planet which curiously shows up as Jurg-Faliigh rather than Baltris I I mean, who named that? It seems very random, though this system was checked from afar by the Dwarf Wobble Detection Array commissioned by Urist I Sankis Angkosh himself, and later by the Dwarf Hypertelescope Array under Urist II, but was then given the designation "Baltris c" owing to it being the second planet detected around the system.

Baltris I is orbited by a molten moon, probably molten due to tidal forces.

28th Sandstone 2200

We've arrived at Baltris II (formerly known as Baltris D). The planet looks like it's a bit cold from here, so the temperature is probably a little under freezing. That, or it's covered in huge plains of flood basalt.

10th Timber 2200

Today, we scanned Baltris II. It again checks out to be a barren planet which for now, does not have any use to us until and unless we can set up some large space stations in orbit.

24th Timber 2200

At long last, the Gemclod mining network is finally finished! Not one year into the Dwarven Star Imperium's journey to the stars, we have finally restored Gemclod to something resembling its former glory!

28th Timber 2200

The star of Baltris is confirmed as an M class red dwarf, which can still produce us some energy if we build a processing plant around it.

8th Moonstone 2200

We have finally arrived in orbit around Jurg-Faliigh. The planet looks like it's covered in grasses, and there are quite a few more likes than on Unatra II. Maybe we'll be able to get to the bottom of the mystery...

11th Moonstone 2200

Unatra station is completed, and we have claimed the first dwarven system outside of Istam Anriz! Now time to establish a mining outpost here.

16th Moonstone 2200: Intelligent Life

After getting off the hyperlink after a full five days of negotations with House Lam, a representative of the Lanternwebs Mining Guild, and the Kinmelbil Miners' Guild, I go to Gomath's office to requisition some of the sunshine from his fridge. As I return to my office I hear a full concert of explosive bowel movements from within. I find Gomath himself inside, listening to a recording that has been taken by one of our scan probes. Turns out, it is Jurg-Faliighian opera. Well, shit.

This is what the Provalguvor, the fungoid inhabitants of the planet look like. Well, not always. It appears they are a compound life-form with some animal forms of life. The Provalguvor are pretty disgusting, and seem to be able to communicate by smell and spores as well as by other means. They can "talk", using whatever the the vocal cords of whatever creature they can infect. They don't live very long and breed slowly, as they have to begin their symbiosis procedure, but they can adapt to any environment with ease, and each one is about as strong as a dwarf. They have reached the industrial age, and a large portion of their planet is covered in slums and industrial wasteland.

None of the crew want to get near any of these things for obvious reasons, and it is fortunate they will be planet-bound for a few more years a least. They do have redeeming features though, as a society they have the same ethics, though different priorities.

17th Moonstone 2200

After transmitting our findings back to Nir Kodor, I immediately get a call from Lolok Rimsurprise. He congratulates us on our discoveries, but then says he wants me to mandate an "observation post". I ask him what he means, and he says he actually wants to fucking monitor the Provalguvor, and it will increase our social research speed massively. I tell him the things are disgusting, and he says that's literally part of the point. Fine, guess we were going to build an outpost here anyways, but not before the Imperial Senate has regained the political capital to do so.

1st Opal 2201: New Year's Report

In the past year, we literally got a shitload of stuff done. We've established a presence in the nearby Unatra system, and discovered not one but two planets within! Unatra III will be our first colony once we get a ship built. We've explored nearly two star systems outside of our own, and have also discovered alien life in both unintelligent and intelligent forms. Unfortunately, the intelligent life is not just one of the disgusting kind, but is right next door to Istam Anriz.

Convenient List of Simulated Characters (and anyone doing RP):
Ral Undertrumpets: The new Governor of the Core Sector. Age 36 years, born 2163. RP yours truly.
His Majesty Urist III Angkosh: The current Emperor of the Dwarven Star Imperium. Age 27 years, born 2172.
His Dwarven Highness Tosid Creamloves Creamspiral Angkosh: The current Crown Prince. Age 21 years, born 2178.
Gomath Chancetone: Scientist and Captain of the D.I.S. Joke Column. Age 39 years, born 2160.
Bushos Muddlecharm: Scientist in charge of Engineering Research. Age 47 years, born 2152.
Lolok Rimsurprise: Maniac Scientist in charge of Society Research. Age 32 years, born 2167.
Dustik Namemisery: Scientist in charge of Physics Research commanding the D.I.S. Buttonjail. Age 42 years, born 2157.
Alnis Crewblench: Scientist in charge of Physics Research, replaced Dr. Namemisery. Age 53, born 2152

Unsimulated Characters (and RP Participants)
Chancellor Urnbreath: Member of Emperor Urist III's cabinet. Voiceover guy.
Uncle Nil: Uncle of Ral Undertrumpets. Deeply connected businessdwarf.

Spoiler: List of Commissioned Ships (click to show/hide)

DIS. Joke Column, commissioned 2198, launched 2199.

Note: Probably might be hiatus until early weekend. Editing the images is time-heavy for good results so these will start going in. Expect some coverage of the scientist crew running research, too.

[CaptainArchmage]

Reserved Post.

You can start posting now, don't worry.

[CaptainArchmage]

Creating a new post to cover the second year. I'm going to be pulling back on the RP as Ral settles into his role as Core Sector governor. Lots of work is still to be done on images though, including previously.

If you want a dwarf, let me know and I will try to sign you up one. We're probably going to be getting a second science ship built too.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2201 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Journal: The Second Year (Nicol Ashok 2201)

7th Opal 2201

We finally survey Baltris IV and complete the scan of the system. We can now continue our exploration path as previously planned through the hyperspace network.

11th Obsidian 2201

Thanks to Lolok Rimsurprised's efforts back on Nir Kodor, we have now have the Habitable Worlds Initiative organized! We need to survey 8 more habitable worlds and then we're good to go.

3rd Granite 2201

We've just jumped off towards the final neighbouring system of Istam Anriz. This happened to be connected to Baltris so we're using that hyperspace node.

9th Granite 2201

The arrival in Impan is smooth, and scans show a lot of planets. Armok help us, we're going to need a second science ship! The good news is the system has the most Nir Kodor-like planet in it, though one that is a bit smaller. We're probably not going to colonize that one until later.

30th Slate 2201

When the mining station around Unatra II was completed, I ordered another one built around the star. Unfortunately, our energy surplus is getting a bit too low for my liking, and we need more power if we're going to start colonizing worlds. In other news, we have maybe 32 months worth of food left. Population growth in the Undergrotto is sufficient that the month after that we'll have enough dwarves there to get the farms running again. If there's a stop-gap measure required I will re-assign labor from Archcrystal.

22nd Limestone 2201

Today, the D.I.S. Prim Tattoo is beginning construction of a fusionable-volatiles mine in orbit around The Famous Gravel. Before I claim Baltris, I will complete the mines and research bases I've been asked to build in Istam Anriz.

30th Limestone 2201

Scans of Impan II are complete. The planet is the most habitable yet to dwarves, but does not have the resources available on Unatra III. It will probably be a second target for colonization.

12th Timber 2201

We have finished our scans of the Impan system. Impan II would make a suitable mining outpost until colonization, while Impan IV has large reserves of fusionables in its upper atmosphere. I have conferred with Gomath, and we shall carry on our exploration strategy, which travels into the Demons Eye Nebula at the outer rim of the galaxy.

28th Moonstone 2201

With all exploration of Impan completed, Gomath is feeling more competent. We're also jumping off to the next system in the chain. A new year awaits!

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2202 (click to show/hide)

1st Opal 2202: Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report

My second year consisted mostly of ordering new platforms and exploring Impan with Gomath. Gomath is now more competent, and I realize that this might leave him in a better position to do science than the other scientists back home on Istam Anriz.

Economic conditions have improved, and we are pulling close to 30 Mega-Urists of Minerals monthly net. We are also pulling 12 Billion Sankis of energy.

For the next year, we shall aim to begin construction of the colony ship and embark for a journey to Unatra III, which shall become the new home for thousands of dwarves.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2202 (click to show/hide)

2nd Opal 2202

Scans of Ecio show there are many planets in this system, again. Among them is a Size-25 "Etag-Nitam", or Big World. It is unfortunately arid, like Unatra II, but we might be able to colonize it in the not-too-distant future with robotic technology. The F-class star is brighter than Unatra, but still conductive to life.

24th Opal 2202

I am starting to take more shuttle trips with Gomath as my tolerance to being in space increases. I convinced chancellor Urnbreath to divert some more funds towards maintenance, which I have put towards the transport installation of artificial gravity generators and a new fridge dedicated to bubbly river spirits and sunshine. I also have an automated dispenser for Baronial Grey Tea. Next up, I'm doing a survey of what's hot and what is not for leather seating.

The latest survey target has been Ecio IV, a cold barren world aligned well with Ecio II, so we'll be traveling there afterwards. The expedition has shown nothing out of the ordinary.

27th Obsidian 2202

When I looked upon Ecio II from close up, I started to get concerned and excited at the same time. The scanners were showing a large number of active supervolcanoes on the surface, and I could see large expanses of sinkholes and quicksand basins, all identifiable from orbit. The descent from orbit was sickening, as atmospheric entry happens at speeds much higher than those encountered when entering Nir Kodor's atmosphere. Many a time, I spilled my bottle of +2201 Breadbowl River Spirits+. Today, however, we discovered something that looked like structures - artificial ones. The anomaly warrants further investigation. Could some ancient civilization have established itself on this world, and if so, what happened to them?

1st Granite 2202: Not the State of the Imperium

I've decided to order the Prim Tattoo to Baltris to establish an outpost there, rather than wait until the construction of The Courteous Act science base is complete. The reason is we need to save up more minerals for the construction of the D.I.S. Torretdoge, our first colony ship.

2nd Limestone 2202

Today I learned Emperor Urist III has asked the Imperial Senate to determine the best kind of traditions we should try to establish first in our great Imperium. Chancellor Urnbreath has now referred this matter to me; I promptly chose Exploration. We're nearly six months out from launching our first colony ship and our first colony, so we need to bump up the speed at which these can be established. After that, I intend to reduce the political capital needed to establish new outposts; this is expected to come to pass in 41 months at the current rate.

After the scan of the system is completed, I'm ordering the Joke Column to turn around and scan the anomaly on Ecio II. Gomath says it's risky, but we'll give it our best shot.

22nd Sandstone 2202

We've finally finished our investigation of the anomaly on Ecio II, and it seems there was a civilization present on this world. Regardless, the structures were ergonomic to them, and not designed for our use. Something about species having very different sensations to ours was mentioned, and I had to go through my Philosophy 169 notes. Unfortunately, I dropped Exobiology 101 back in college, so I can't be of more assistance than Gomath on this.

Regardless of the result, we have a good level of engineering and social know-how stored for use by the research teams back home. I still think we should get to the bottom of the mysteries of this world, and think we're missing something big.

15th Timber 2202

Construction of our second outpost and third starbase, Baltris Station, is complete. Another system claimed by us - and time to build that "observation post" in orbit around Jurg-Faliigh. Lolok will be most pleased by this development!

18th Moonstone 2202

Yesterday we finally arrived in the Unur system, and were greeted by this thing - some kind of strange gateway that is possibly a few million years old. It's probably too old to have been left behind by the former residents of Ecio II though. There are only two planets in the Unur system and neither is habitable, but this will make our scan quick.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2203 (click to show/hide)

1st Opal 2203: Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report

Another year of glorious progress. We have begun construction of the D.I.S. Torret Doge, which will take the first colonists to the ocean world of Unatra III in Slate of this year. We have constructed a mining operation in orbit around Unatra II. We have discovered an absolutely gigantic arid world, which had strange anomalies on it. We have further expanded our domain to the system of Baltris, where we are building an observation post above the vile fungus-world of Jurg-Faliigh in order to monitor it's industrial-age inhabitants. Lastly, we have discovered an ancient derelict gateway, which might have been able to transport starships and fleets around the galaxy in the distant past.

Once the Torret Doge finishes construction, we will begin construction of a second science ship, to explore the systems Core-ward. The expedition of the Joke Column will continue in the meantime towards the Demons Eye Nebula at the galactic Rim.

Unfortunately, the food situation is becoming a bit serious. We only six months left before our food supplies run out, so I have made some emergency re-assignments, moving the workforce from Glazedcoast back to the Undergrotto to begin farming again. To cover Glazedcoast, where a new mining network is being constructed, I have transferred the workforce from Gemclod, and finally to cover the mining operations at Gemclod, I have transferred most of the Geothermal Engineering Guild out of Archcrystal. This leaves us in a risky situation energy-wise, and we'll need to get some more power generation facilities online quickly to cover the expected shortfall.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2203 (click to show/hide)

27th Opal, 2203

Scans of Unur II show it is a poisonous world with a massive blanket of greenhouse gasses. However, it seems we can do some social research there... what are you up to, Lolok?

26th Obsidian 2203

The observation post is finally complete. Apparently, Lolok recommends aggressive observation, which will probably write off a lot of equipment and shuttles due to the smell. In any case, this has increased our society research output by 2.67 times, so it looks good for me. At this rate, we'll finish research on planetary unification in about 5 months!

3rd Granite, 2203: State of the Imperium

Just as I fix the food problem (we're stockpiling again), I realize I cannot rename the vile fungus world to something more fitting. We did, however, discover a strange anomaly in orbit around Unur I, which I will have investigated as soon as possible. In order to plug the power production gap, I am having a mining station built around Baltris.

I have also changed the policy on "native enlightenment" to "allowed". If we find reason to enlighten the fungus people, we should go ahead and do it anyways. Just don't put me on the same shuttle, the observation post has already two written off due to the smell despite them being ozoned out for two days straight.

1st Slate, 2203: The Launch of the D.I.S. Arrugkumil Torretdoge

Today, we launched the D.I.S. "Musty Armory of Torretdoge", the very first of the Frost Union-class of colony ship. This is one of the greatest embarks in Dwarven history, in the words of His Majesty Urist III, launching a few thousand dwarves and a metric fuckton of supplies to allow them to establish a colony on Unatra III, which shall soon be known as Ir Kodor."

As expected our income flow has nosedived into the negative. We'll hopefully fix that as the workforce grows faster in the coming few months, but if the worst comes to the worst I will have to re-assign dwarves out of the Undergrotto again.

28th Slate, 2203

The mining complex has been completed at Glazedcoast, and while our minerals income has risen, our energy deficit has also increased.

1st Felsite 2203

We finally found what was in the pod orbiting Unur I, some sort of 5,000-year old reptillian alien mummy, holding up a picture of one of his or her leaders. Lolok has again downloaded the data (96.0 units of society data, not sure how that is calculated) for his own projects. Fortunately, the mummy did not show any signs of un-life.

11th Felsite 2203

Newscast crews have captured these views of the Torretdoge passing by The Famous Gravel. Onward!

26th Felsite 2203

Thanks, V.I.R., it's not like I hadn't done those calculations before. Also, the Torret Doge is just about to enter the hyperspace conduit.

12th Hematite 2293

I've commissioned the new science ship, and have ordered the Prim Tattoo to head to Impan and get ready to build our third outpost. Once this is built, Istam Anriz will be secured on all sides.

26th Hematite 2203

We're currently carrying out a scan of the Ussaldon system, a red dwarf. This is a slight detour from the original course we charted towards the Demons Eye Nebula, but nonetheless is considered an appropriate option. Ussaldon IV is a gas giant and Gomath thinks it might yield some useful resources.

2nd Malachite 2203

With the influx of research from the Vile Fungus Ball, Lolok has announced the completion of the Planetary Unification research. His Majesty Urist III Angkosh and the Imperial Senate have finally put in place the finishing touches of the project to unite all the various dwarven nations and states on Nir Kodor. We now have increased civic leverage (also known as "unity") and can enact a large number of campaigns such as education, recycling of materials, and how to not catch forgotten beast pox. Unfortunately, we don't have the money for any of those yet, and won't have enough for the foreseeable future.

For future research, I have requested Lolok focus his efforts on researching Genome Mapping. Since the quantity of industrial pollution on the planet is keeping check on them despite increased prosperity, this will slightly increase the growth rate of the dwarven population.

29th Malachite 2203

Today I watched as the D.I.S. "Musty Armory of Torretdoge" burned through the atmosphere of Unatra III and set down on a volcanic island chain. The hull cannot be salvaged, but it was not meant to be - rather it will be converted into the first administrative center upon the planet. A temporary spaceport is being set up and our dwarven citizens, the new residents of this planet, from this day on known as "Ir Kodor" or "New Dawn", are establishing themselves upon the islands. A crack team of geological engineers are tapping the nearby volcano to extract energy. Nearby is an island chain with ample supplies of Betharian stone, fertile soil, and a smaller volcano.

Great things are being made. Next up I will have to upgrade the starbase in the system, so we can build some trading facilities. I am told we can build those even before the initial colonization is completed. ETA on completion of the colony is 33 months.

10th Galena 2203

Today, the homeworld launched the D.I.S. Sidosteskom  or the D.I.S Button Jail into orbit. I then get a notification from VIR that we need a new scientist so I ask Chancellor Urnbreath to forward me all the resumes. We have 336 Gigasankis of energy reserves, and it costs me 200 of those to recruit a weapons scientist, who is named Alnis Ginetrotig ("Alnis Crewblench" to you humans out there) to fill in a physics position. The others are "eager", which means they cost less to recruit, but I'd like to have a weapons scientist on hand just in case. Alnis studied at the University of Lanternwebs, and is aged 50 years old. His ph.D thesis was in the efficient use of hypersonic minecart cannon.

Meanwhile, since Dustik Kabegeth was getting agitated in his position as physics head, and wanted to "get out more", I gave him command over the Button Jail and made Dr. Crewblench the head of physics. The first destination of the Button Jail will be a pulsar system next door to Unatra.

22nd Galena 2203

Orbiting Ussaldon I, one of our scans showed up a strange mountain formation in the planet's southern hemisphere, which could be artificial. The planet orbits its M-class star in less than a week or so, and is quite molten. Notably, the habitable radius of the system is quite small since the star is small and not very bright.

3rd Sandstone 2203

Professor Muddlecharm just announced the new designs for the "Mark I Engineering Facility", and I've been requested to set aside funds and minerals to upgrade the facility at Sparkgear sometime. I've directed her new research efforts towards powered exoskeletons, which should increase both soldier strength and mining yields. The Miner's Guild of Kinmelbil has issued a commendation of this, and apparently my 420K will be generously buffed. Can you say "two pensions"?

3rd Timber 2203

Our excavation of the mountains shows that the formation is really a gigantic skeleton, about 3.4 billion years old. However, the planet would not have been able to support life according to Gomath's calculations at any point in its history. He has issued a new special project on the matter, but says we don't have enough experience at this time to carry it out.

24th Timber 2203

The D.I.S. Button Jail arrived in Wir Thosk, the pulsar system. The radiation and magnetic fields emitted from the neutron star has knocked all shields offline, and also wiped out about a hundred Terabytes worth Dr. Namemisery's 3D "specialty videos".

12th Moonstone 2203

Once again we're around to the last month of the year, and have claimed another system! I've diverted resources to building an energy collection around Impan's star, so we can fill in our shortfall.

25th Moonstone 2203
Dr. Namemisery apparently gained another level. Given his adaptability he'll probably get superdwarvenly research skills even before Gomath. Even Gomath is certain of this.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2204 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report, 1st Opal 2204
We're now entering my fifth year of being Core Sector governor, and it will also be the 40th year of my life. Normally, dwarves at this age are just getting started out, but I happen to be at least indirectly guiding a new interstellar empire! Uncle Nil must be so proud of me.

This year, we claimed yet another star system, Impan, and began work on our first colony at Ir Kodor, formerly known as Unatra III. This will be done after the middle of the decade (1st Felsite 2206), unless further advances in technology happen to speed that up. We have ended our food shortage problem and the Undergrotto is now fully staffed. We also had our first technological advances, leading to full unification of Nir Kodor, and the issuance of the new engineering lab design. The quest for the Demons Eye Nebula has had a minor, but encouraging detour, and we have a new science ship under the command of Dr. Namemisery, named the D.I.S. Button Jail.

Unfortunately the construction of the Musty Armory of Torret Doge and colonization has put our finances in the red, but we have about about 22 months of energy reserves before we go bankrupt and I can have twice the shortfall up by the half-way point of the year due to population growth and new orbital energy-extraction facilities.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2204 (click to show/hide)

30th Opal 2204

Dr. Namemisery reports the presence of an ancient shipyard in orbit around the molten world of Wir Thosk I, in the pulsar system, which seems to have been shot up. Curious.

15th Obsidian 2204

We have finished the scan of Ussaldon, onward to the great nebula! The upgrade of Sparkgear's engineering facilities is also underway and will be finished in the middle of the year. Also thanks to the population growth, Archcrystal is now once more producing energy.

1st Granite 2204: Not the State of the Imperium

Istam Anriz is now surrounded on all sides by outposts, while the quest for the Demons Eye Nebula continues. In the meantime, our homeworld population has grown further, and food supplies are back up. We have also just about balanced the budget.

9th Slate 2204

Dr. Namemisery has finished his investigation. It seems like we can restore the automated shipyard to operational status, if only we could get a construction vessel. This is a good reason to start building a new construction ship - we could probably increase our fleet size without having to put in too much effort.

Entering the Xu Nur system, it is once more full of planets. One of them is a jungle world which is strangely named Bhafsch as opposed to Xu Nur IV.

1st Felsite 2204

In order to further boost mining yields, I have ordered a mining station built around Impan II, the continental world, seeing as we probably can't colonize it within the following 22 months it will probably yield a net mineral profit.

19th Hematite 2204

While the Joke Column scans the jungle world of Bhafsch, the Button Jail has discovered evidence of a strange precursor civilisation named the Yuht, an arthropoid alien race that inhabited this sector of the galaxy (at least), about six million years ago.

29th Hematite 2204

The Hann'Felir civilization inhabits the planet of Bhafsch. They are a race of decadent mollusc people, but apparently they really love outsiders. They seem to be socially conformists and learn quickly, likely because of all the dangerous wildlife inhabiting their planet. They are in the machine age, so they experience heavy urbanization and their world is nearing full capacity given their current strengths. There are already three areas full of industrial garbage, and two overrun with slums. Due to the distance of this system, we probably won't be able to start observation for a while.

17th Malachite 2204

Dr. Namemisery announces the entry to the Ijaagin system. Ijaagin is probably the jackpot so far - three habitable worlds, two of which are highly conductive to dwarfkind in a size-24 jungle Planet (Ijaagin II) and size-15 continental Moon (Ijaagin IIa) system. There is also an alpine world (Ijaagin Ia), which is surprisingly not conductive to our people but which we can adapt to. The star is a class F. We will thus direct our outpost expansion in this direction instead.

15th Galena 2204

The Impan II mining station is complete. We're turning the construction vessel around, stopping by the gas giant Impan IV to finish mining out the system of minerals and energy. Then we will travel onward to Istam Anriz, and finally build the physics station around The Courteous Act. After that, we shall attempt to reactivate the ship, probably sometimes next year.

17th Limestone 2204

Another anomaly has been detected, some kind of derelict vessel within the gas giant Ijaagin III. Dr. Namemistery says it's risky until we gain some more skill with science to actually retrieve it.

2nd Sandstone 2204

Both Lolok and Bushos have gained a "level" in their skill. Hopefully this will increase research speed.

26th Sandstone 2204: The Mission

It's the end of a tiring day and I'm consuming the last of the sunshine from my personal fridge, and Gomath tells me I have an urgent message from the communications blister. Someone from the homeworld. It's Chancellor Urnbreath.

"Governor Undertrumpets, I have an urgent mission for you. During the reign of Urist II, several usb-light probes were launched from the Homeworld towards a number of nearby star systems at relativistic speeds. It seems now this mission was... ill-advised. I am told that those sublight probes could give away the location of Nir Kodor to... dangerous powers. It would be a good idea to retrieve them, and we know exactly which systems they were sent to. The destinations were the Hodranus system, Kodracca, Teae, and Zathmak. I trust you can do this with reasonable expediency. Chancellor Urnbreath out."

Guess we're going to have to vary the mission a little.

21st Timber 2204

//Lora Ipsum//

With the exploration of Xu Nur completed, and our supplies restored, we're plotting a course to an unknown Black Hole system. I have highlighted the locations of the probes on this starmap.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2205 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Five Year Report, 1st Opal 2205

After five years of Dwarven hyperspace travel, we have claimed a total of three systems outside of our own, and begun the colonization of one other planet. In the last year we have discovered a number of anomalies, such as the existence of an automated shipyard (currently ruined), a spaceship within a gas giant, and a 6 million year old precursor race known as the Yuht. Colonization Ir Kodor continues progress, with 16 months to go. Our journey towards the Demon's Eye Nebula on the Joke Column continues. Finally, we have a new objective to recover some sublight probes launched decades ago.

Our budget balance is acceptable now, and our mining capacity continues to grow. We can grow enough food for two more groupings of population before we have to expand farming capacity.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2205 (click to show/hide)

7th Opal 2205

To mark five years of dwarven hyperspace travel, I have ordered three kinds of designs for military ships.

The Urist-class is a purely anti-hull anti-armour, laser armed corvette.

The Locus-class is a nuclear-armed corvette which also carries a mass driver. I have the feeling these will be the mainstay of our fleets.

The SWATJester-class is a nuclear-missile armed space platform, which will defend our outposts and starbases.

18th Opal 2205

Seems like the Moon Ijaagin IVa has some kind of writing on it. Massive writing too.

4th Obsidian 2205

Some say black holes are portals to other universes. Personally, I don't want to get any closer - "Ascension's End" is a scary name for a system such as this.

27th Granite 2205: Not the State of the Imperium

I have not turned around the Joke Column, and we are proceeding towards the target nebula as originally planned. However, Dr. Namemisery did make a surprising discovery on Ijaagin IVa - the story of an alien mercenary carved into the stone by means of a laser.

I have also had the existing corvettes refitted into the Locus-class. Work on The Courteous Act's research base continues in the meantime; four months from now we will be able to implement Urist III's plan to reach for the stars and permanently reduce the political capital required to order new outposts built.

9th Felstie 2205

We're entering and scanning the Nicor system, just outside the Nebula's reach. Onward! Armok Vult!

I've asked Dr. Namemisery to investigate the derelict vessel in the gas giant in the meantime, after which we'll aim to investigate one of the sublight probes.

22nd Hematite 2205

You'd have thought we'd have built this base over a century ago, but no, we didn't. We didn't even build it when we obtained hyperspace travel. But now, we have a physics base to monitor anomalous phenomena around our Moon, The Courteous Act. This will now be used as the primary research station of Professor Ginetrotig as he leads our physics research.

30th Hematite 2205

Gomath has leveled up again, and seems to be developing a focus on propulsion expertise. He also discovered a strange signal emanating from the world of Nicor I, which we're going to be investigating soon enough.

1st Malachite 2205

Today, Urist III officially inaugurated the Reach for the Stars plan as a permanent tradition in our society. We can now officially expand faster than we could before.

16th Galena 2205

We have a bit of a problem. While Dr. Namemisery has ascertained the location of the gas giant ship, we need a scientist of level three to bring it up - and the only person qualified to do so is Gomath. I've decided to send Gomath through subspace shuttle to the Button Jail, while Dr. Namemisery travels to the Joke Column and continues us on our journey. This will only take place after Gomath finishes investigating the current anomaly on Nicor I.

3rd Limestone 2205

Today, Lolok finished researching Genome Mapping and will now begin researching a "Gene Clinic" which can help us with population growth. I have also ordered an upgrade of the outpost in Unatra to a full starbase, so we can take advantage of the resources there.

Special Report by Ral Undertrumpets - D.I.S. Joke Column, in low orbit around Nicor I, 28th Limestone 2205

The investigation of Nicor I is partially complete. It seems like the planet was once host to life, but some cataclysm hit the world and forced the inhabitants into a vault where they died out. The vault seems to have a large number of data storage devices that may still be accessed, and Gomath is skilled enough to deal with them. However, as we need to do the Gas Giant project, I am ordering that to have priority. We shall maybe be able to finish the project on our return from the Nebula.

I now bid goodbye to Gomath, hopefully to see him in about six months when the gas giant project is completed.

16th Timber 2205

Progress is underway on the recovery of the gas giant vessel, and the construction ship has finally reached Wir Thosk. Unfortunately it will take six months for the crew of the Prim Tattoo to fix the shipyard, so I am prioritizing the construction of an outpost around this star. With Dr. Dustik Namemisery having completed the scan of the Nicor system, he has leveled up, and we are progressing into the Nebula proper now.

I am also ordering the construction of a second, uh, construction ship so we can increase our rate of progress. We have the minerals to do this, though it will stretch our energy budget close to break-even.

12th Moonstone 2205

OH FUCK NO.

On entering the Demons Eye Nebula, in the Julau system, we ran into some spaceborn alien creatures, identified as the "Gamma Aliens". They were on the other side of the system, but seemed to be somewhat aggressive. Naturally, the Joke Column is not equipped for combat, so we are making a hasty retreat.

Right afterwards, Gomath reported that an unknown alien vessel had arrived in the system. I have ordered a special project completed by Lolok, to decipher the communications of this alien empire, identified as the "Delta Aliens".

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2206 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report, 1st Opal 2206

Wow, what a year. Not only have we run into two kinds of space aliens, one of which is an entirely space-born organism, but we've had to turn back from the Demon's Eye Nebula thanks to these issues. We also discovered a dead world with some strange vault with a lot of datacentres in it, which I assume isn't some kind of alien search engine. We also, finally, finished the space infrastructure in the Istam Anriz system. I'm going to order our retreat and collect the sublight probe on the way. This is also the year in which Ir Kodor will be established and ready to go as our first colony, complete with a starbase!

Lolok Rimsurprise says he can complete the decryption of the Delta Aliens' comms in about 4 months and set up a translation system, so that's underway. We will not stop Gomath's gas giant extraction project, however. We're expanding our reach to the Wir Thosk pulsar, and then claim Ijaagin for ourselves. This will establish our position in the sector. Hopefully we will get a few more military ships built too.

[CaptainArchmage]

Next five years will go out on here (2206-2210). We have a galaxy to explore and make more dwarfy!

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2206 (click to show/hide)

2nd Obsidian, 2206

Today the D.I.S. "Astelgingik" was launched. Well, was launched. I renamed it the Uzololon, D.I.S. "Oilgear"

3rd Granite 2206: Not the State of the Imperium

Apparently we will be done with the decryption project next month. As Wir Thosk's outpost is now completed, I am ordering the Prim Tattoo into Ijaagin so we can expand our outpost there quickly.

Apparently there is a lot of chaos in the Imperial Senate over the discovery of the Gamma and Delta aliens in particular. This isn't surprising, because there's a history of dwarven conflict with hostile wildlife and this wildlife happens to be able to survive in hard vacuum at the edge of a star system. At least.

28th Granite 2206: SUCCESS

There's some good news and bad news. The good news is we recovered the derelict ship from inside the gas giant, it turned out to be a cruiser with about three times as much firepower as the fleet of Locus-class corvettes. ARMOK VULT!

Yeah there's two pieces of bad news. Firstly, when we re-crewed the derelict, it's caused a massive hit to our finances. We're now in the red by 4 Gigasankis of energy, and the thing requires about 10 minerals per month to maintain. The worse news, is we pulled it out from under the Delta Alien's science vessel as it was scanning a nearby moon.

I'm going to stall the shipyard project until we are sure we can get more resources to cover the maintenance costs.

2nd Slate 2206

Communications have finally been established with the "Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai", run by race of Molluscoid "Elder Things" from a nearby star system. It seems they view us as materialist fools, so relations can expect to be rather poor. In fact, are already poor. Good thing we have the means to defend ourselves.

All of this has been handled by Urist III and the Imperial Senate by the way. Thanks to the political influence gained due to first contact, we'll be able to claim Ijaagin quickly and establish ourselves over the system. We'll now embark on trying to understand what the Gamma Aliens are.

5th Slate 2206

The specs of the D.I.S. Salvage, our new cruiser, are truly out of this world.

8th Slate 2206

The Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai didn't take long to close their borders to us. Well, that was totally fucking unsurprising.

26th Slate 2206

The route to find the sublight probe is again blocked by these "Gamma Aliens" in the Othriga system. Maybe we can sneak around them to the hyperspace point? They're just hanging around a gas giant.

2nd Felsite 2206

At last, the new colony of Ir Kodor is completed. No longer bound to the world of Nir Kodor, our citizens can now survive and thrive on other planets. If Nir Kodor were to suddenly get overrun by giant skelephant husks, we'd have an alternate planet to survive on.

[OOC: Post Hiatus starts here]
20th Hematite 2206

We're taking evasive maneouvers around the Gamma Aliens in the Othriga system, which should lead us conveniently to the Teae system with the sublight probe in it. Meanwhile, the Ijaagin system starbase is under construction, and a new engineering research base is also taking shape around the Wir Thosk pulsar.

21st Malachite 2206

The Gamma Aliens show no signs of bothering us. We have now initiated hyperjump protocols and are seven days out from entering the Teae system, God and Jesus willing / Armok Willing [OOC: dwarf/human translator designed to give emphasis]. In the meantime, I have ordered the DIS Salvage back to the Istam Anriz system, where maintenance costs can be cut significantly. I will then order 1st fleet out to Ijaagin.

30th Malachite 2206

We have detected the sublight probe in Teae and are moving in to collect it. It is nearby the gas giant Teae IV.

2nd Galena 2206

Scientific studies by Mad Lolok (as he is beginning to be known) refer to the Gamma Aliens as "Space Amoeba". Despite this term, they are not single-celled organisms, they just happen to use flagella like these microscopic nasties. They're also very dangerous. A further project has been issued to study the things, which can be completed in six months. I believe it might be prudent to chose that first rather than the 42 months of study of the Gene Clinic.

23rd Galena 2206

It will take a further 170 days to recover the sublight probe. Damn.

29th Galena 2206

The Ijaagin system is ours! Now time to collect the resources within...

3rd Limestone 2206

Latest news from Uncle Nil is that the Unatra Station is now operational! We can now establish a large trading hub around this star system! In addition, I have ordered the gentrification of Towersoared. That way we can use the fertile plains surrounding the area to grow more food, rather than just house more unproductive dwarves in Section VIII housing. Isn't that awesome? I learned that trick from Uncle Nil too!

16th Sandstone 2206

The return of the DIS Salvage to Istam Anriz is greeted with significant celebration. We are already saving minerals and energy by having it properly docked.

Gomath has also detected a curiously rectangular object on the world of Howoz I, which is completely molten. I have ordered him to investigate it.

26th Timber 2206

Gomath says the rectangular object detected on the molten world is an alien mural. I am having it investigated further.

14th Moonstone 2206

Today we surveyed Howoz III, a planet smaller than Nir Kodor, and I also am feeling more experienced since the gentrification around Towersoared was completed on the 11th of this month. I think things are going to be run better now.

Unfortunately Howoz III isn't too useful except for producing food. Literally it's that and dense jungles, though the world is a continental one and good for dwarves to live on.

2nd Opal 2207

Today, in a last for the year 2206 and a start for the year 2207, we discovered some kind of life beneath the barren moon Howoz IIIa.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2207 (click to show/hide)

Ral's Beginning of Year Report, 2nd Opal 2207



Here we see the budgetary status of the Dwarven Star Imperium interposed with the domains currently held. Everything in Adamantine belongs to us. Everything in purple belongs to the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai, that Citizen Stratocracy of the Elder Things. You might notice the budget has taken a gigantic hit in terms of both minerals and energy due to the high maintenance of DIS Salvage, an ancient alien cruiser that far outperforms our own ships. We're also carrying out the activation of an automated alien shipyard in Wir Thosk, which might further yield a hit to our budget. I have saved this by returning DIS Salvage to Istam Anriz, where maintenance is reduced somewhat.

So far we have now completed our first colony on Ir Kodor (formerly Unatra III) and have upgraded the starbase there. We can establish trading routes, which will increase the economic activity of our own empire significantly, enough to maintain another colonization effort. We have also claimed Ijaagin. Unfortunately, the mission to the Demons Eye Nebula was a failure, due to hostile space wildlife consisting of "space amoeba", which we are still researching. I should have factored in this possibility when designing the mission profile.

The good news is we are finally starting to recover a slower than light probe from the Teae system, after avoiding the hostile space amoeba in Othriga, so we should be able to find out what the deal is with these things. I get there might be an issue with some unknown civilization finding them, but we now know the Elder Things came from the planet Ooth-Nargai in the Celephais system. So why is that so much of a deal? Must be something more, and I hope to find out in about 42 days. Also, next month, we should finish our research of the Space Amoeba, formerly known as the Gamma Aliens.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2207 (click to show/hide)

16th Opal 2207

The biological research outpost around Ijaagin IVa is finally operational. As I have ordered a mine built on a mineral-rich island chain of Ir Kodor, however, we don't have enough resources to do anything more in Ijaagin, for now. Next step will probably be a physics outpost around Ijaagin Va, though.

2nd Obsidian 2207

Apparently we have boosted our energy output by 5% by analyzing the space amoeba! We can also investigate how their flagella work, these thing seem to be programmed by RNA and be reprogrammable "easily" by their host bodies, which are identified as "animals". Which is to say they are like giant space honey badgers, except with flagella that can be programmed to attack what they want. We might be able to research those, which would be nice.

In other news, Professor Muddlecharm finished the research into powered exoskeletons which means we can now boost our mining yields by a further 5%. The miner's guild is pleased. We have also the option to research robots, which I have now had commissioned. It is estimated to take 77 months, but we can try to reduce that.

13th Obsidian 2207: Personal Log

We've finally recovered the probe in the Teae and investigated it's contents. It seems to be somewhat... interesting. Well, the probe did what it was set out to do, which is to say we have a full picture of the Teae system with two resource bearing asteroids and not much else. Unfortunately, the probe was also carrying a large amount of... personal files and sleazy holovids of royalty of the past... it would be better if those were to stay out of the hands of other individuals, save of course for my own hands.

For now, our mission continues towards the star Beta Caeli.

3rd Granite 2207: Not the State of the Imperium

Rumour has it the Imperial Senate is in uproar over the sudden decline in relations with the Elder Things of Ooth-Nargai. It is no matter, we have contingencies in place. It is now our job to see whether to claim some systems off them, and subjugate them, or whether to conquer them outright. In 24 months, we should be able to put in place the traditions required to demand their subjugation, and maybe claim one or two systems off them in the process. However, to fully rival them we need to claim the system to the south, which allegedly contains a world experiencing a sapient-induced winter of sorts.

The physics outpost at Ijaagin Va is now under construction. We will, after this, need to build some more energy-generation facilities to maintain our systems.

12th Granite 2207

Curious, some silicon-based lifeform seems to be bringing useful minerals to the surface of Howoz IIIa. Maybe this could be useful. However, for now Gomath is going to scan Howoz IV, a Savannah World which will finish off the quota for the Habital Worlds Mission.

7th Slate 2207

We finished the automated shipyard re-activation. Unfortunately, it broke down right after activation! The good news is we have a fleet of new ships to serve us, consisting of the DIS Spectre DIS Ghost, and DIS Wraith. These belong to an ancient "R44" class of spacecraft and are far more advanced than any existing designs. Their maintenance, however, has knocked our credit gain into the negative, and our mineral intake is down a few mega-urists.

5th Felsite 2207

The habitable worlds mission is finally at an end! Well, of course our exploration of the galaxy is only at a beginning, but the preliminary mission has been concluded. We have gained 222 Terasankis worth of energy from the grants and 457 units worth of society research - enough to probably concluded the gene clinic of Lolok quickly! About 18 months are left at this rate.

24th Felsite 2207

Gomath has discovered some curiously powerful storms in the atmosphere of the gas giant Howoz II! This system sure yields a lot of interesting anomalies!

1st Hematite 2207

In accordance with Uncle Nil and the Dwarven Trader's Guild directives, I am now developing the Unatra Starbase into a trade zone.

17th Hematite 2207

The Ijaagin Va physics research outpost is now complete. I have ordered the Prim Tattoo to await a new delivery of resources and finish building an energy collector around the primary star.

22nd Malachite 2207

Gomath's research shows there is no understandable cause for the extreme storms based on climate models. Howoz II would be an ideal site for physics research.

26th Malachite 2207

With the docking of the new ships at Istam Anriz, and the completion of the mining plant on an island chain of Ir Kodor, our resource income is now close to 30 Mega-Urists per month once again.

1st Limestone 2207

We are now building the solar collectors around Ijaagin. Soon enough, we shall balance the budget again!

21st Timber 2207

I have now ordered the construction of new farming facilities around the recently rectified fortress of Towersoared.

1st Moonstone 2207

It seems that His Imperial Majesty has accumulated some new skills in finding talented individuals to do shit for him. Experience gain is now increasing among our leaders on a monthly basis, and their skills will top out at a higher level. It is a good time to be a dwarf!

In other news, the first trade station at Unatra Starbase is completed (and the budget is showing a surplus once more). When we get more resources, a second one will be ordered.

3rd Moonstone 2207

The Regganus System is now surveyed.

12th Moonstone 2207

Once more, we claim more power for the budget. Next up, I will mine either Ijaagin Ia or Ijaagin III for energy and possibly minerals.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2208 (click to show/hide)

Ral's Beginning of Year Report, 5th Obsidian 2208



Unfortunately this report is a fair bit late. Gomath got in a report regarding finishing the Alien Mural research, which means we can get back to work scanning worlds and maybe get more of our probes back. Urist III has advanced his capabilities, and we are starting to increase our capabilities.

The situation with the Ooth-Nargai is stable, but still very hostile. Our fleet power has increased further again thanks to obtaining ancient alien technology at cost to our economy, and our influence is getting to the point where we can start making claims on their systems. Meanwhile, our exploration of Regganus is completed, and the exploration of the "galactic north east" is continuing.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2208 (click to show/hide)

5th Obsidian 2208

Most of Opal was, for Gomath, spend investigating this mural. Apparently, some advanced alien race lived hear 300 million years ago before being wiped out by the creators of the mural. Curious, given that it survived this long.

3rd Granite 2208: Not the State of the Imperium

We have begun claiming the Ecio system towards the Demon's Eye Nebula. Hopefully that starbase will be operation sooner rather than later, and we will begin establishing our mining outposts there.

Meanwhile, Deathgate is running at full capacity once more, and we have a large energy surplus.

5th Granite: Second Contact?

We arrived in the Medgar system a few days ago. Now, we have another alien vessel jumped into the system. I have once more instructed Lolok to decipher their comms, they are known as the "Epsilon Aliens" for now. ETA 2 months.

14th Granite 2208: CRITICAL SITUATION

Gomath jumped into the Kodracca system aboard the DIS Buttonjail, only to find the probe had been modified somehow. It is "hostile", asking whether we were it's makers. I naturally answered yes. Apparently we'll need to blow it up. Well fuck, what the hell is going on in this sector? I have redirected the Buttonjail to explore the Tue system and it's strange planet under a "sapient induced winter".

28th Slate 2208

Talk about a shitty year so far. The reports on Ir Kodor say that the dwarves working the island chain have become infected with Space Bacteria. The best term to call it by is "Space AIDSbola" because it's really, really bad. Like so bad you can't believe it. There's like a lot of strains and it's hard to deal with, threatening the existence of the colony. Well, that wipes the place off as a vacation resort for the near term future. We really can't afford to lose the planet. A plague research base has been established upon the world, and I have ordered the population transferred there ASAP.

2nd Felsite 2208

Lolok's project has been successful, and we have established communications with the Turian Hierarchy. Apparently, they are also fundamentalist zealots. I sense this is going to go downhill very fast.

Minor news, Dr. Crewblench has leveled up.

10th Felsite 2208



I have drawn out the current political boundaries of existing empires. The grey region indicates Turian space.

21st Felsite 2208

Unsurprisingly, the Turians have closed their borders to us. An emergency meeting of the Imperial Senate is now in order.

12th Hematite 2208

We have now claimed the Eclo system. Time to build more mining bases!

18th Hematite 2208

With the farming at Towersoared completed, I have now ordered the post-industrial shitscape around Flamebanner cleaned up. This might be the ideal location for the gene clinic on Ir Kodor after we are done with the research.

29th Hematite 2208

Exploration of the Medgar system is complete. We shall attempt to circumvent the Turian menace for now, exploring towards Beta Careli.

10th Malachite 2208

Finally, some good news from Ir Kodor. The test subjects have been cured! They say we need more test subjects... there aren't any. There's only one group of growing population in the re-assembled colony ship that is left of the DIS Musty Armory of Torret Doge...

1st Galena 2208

A plague memorial has been established at the site of the former research base to celebrate the eradication of the plague. Victory is ours over the alien microfauna! ARMOK VULT!

The influence has driven the Imperial Senate and the court of Urist III to give us more power to colonize systems and make claims. We could potentially establish starbases in two more systems at this rate. We also have more biological research for Lolok to see over.

24th Limestone 2208

With the Flamebanner wasteland clear, we can now establish a gene clinic within the fortress!

7th Sandstone 2208

Bad news is that the Elder things are building a starbase in Tue. Good news is we can probably scan the "tomb world" before they do that.

The Imperial Senate has issued a note to me that we can, afterward, rival the Elder Things, and claim the systems, gain a legitimate cassus belli against them. Within five months we can also begin working on traditions of dominion, so we could perhaps vassalize them too.

23rd Sandstone 2208

I'm ordering another physics base built within Ecio. With this in place, we will get more research done. The influence is apparently needed for some "great project" by Urist III so we're not going to colonize more systems for now...

3rd Timber 2208

Dude, I thought we already knew how to build fusion reactors. OK, maybe these ones fit on spacecraft that aren't the size of space stations...

We can, however, put together a new project for Copperblazes and Oilfurance - an energy grid system to increase energy production by ten percent over all Nir Kodor!

15th Timber 2208

Gomath reports that Tue Ia, the "Tomb World", contains the ruins of a civilization that wiped itself out in some kind of major war using nuclear weapons. I mean, it's not like someone could do something that dumb, right?

1st Moonstone 2208

Winter is upon the northern hemisphere of Nir Kodor, and I have ordered another energy refinery in orbit around Ijaagin III. We need to be able to fund upcoming efforts in future conflicts that may or may not be happening.

23rd Moonstone 2208

Gomath had to make an emergency FTL jump out of Tue. It is no matter, an emergency convention is beginning in the Imperial Senate, and we will soon know how to deal with these matters.

26th Moonstone 2208: Recall to Nir Kodor

Well folks, looks like this is it. After Gomath was forced to make that emergency jump, those of us on the Joke Column had an incoming hail from a shuttlecraft entering our system. Dr Namemisery allowed them to dock as we entered orbit around Molsir V, and some dwarves in black grab me and take me away.


They kind of looked like this.

I wake up with a bag being pulled off my head, and I'm in the Imperial Senate, back on Nir Kodor. It's like earlier today, and Chancellor Urnbreath is present. He tells me that I've been recalled to the capital for my own safety, as we're entering into open rivalry with the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai.



I am now going to be commanding our political processes more strongly as we begin to make claims on their systems.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2209 (click to show/hide)

2nd Opal 2209: Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report



One utterly chaotic but progressive year has passed. We have defeated the rise of the plague on Ir Kodor, and have erected a monument on the planet to commemorate this moment. We have claimed the Ecio system for ourselves, which contains a large arid planet with a lot of volcanoes on it. Ecio gives us a chokepoint in securing our further systems towards the galactic rim and the Demon's Eye Nebula. Our resources took a big hit from the new ships that were brought online, but we have somewhat recovered that by docking them at Istam Anriz. Our food is now at breakeven due to population growth.

The attempt to capture the space probe in Kodracca was delayed as the probe was taken over by some alien force. We are not sure exactly what, but it seemed to be a mysterious biological corruption of some kind. Curious. I will be sending a fleet to dispatch the probe this month.

Unfortunately, diplomatic relations have taken a turn for the worse as we came into contact with the Turian Hierarchy. The Hierarchy has closed borders to us and could represent a second front of conflict in the sector. After the claiming of Tue by the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai, open rivalry has been declared and claims could be made in the near future.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2209 (click to show/hide)

Ral's Recruitment Logs, 2nd Opal 2209: The New Admiral



We have a new admiral, Rumred Gemeshkisul or "Rumred Conflicthops" in Human. He is aged 38, was born in the ghettos of Gemclod and studied at the Boatmurdered Naval Academy.



Did I mention I also rechristened the fleet? It is heading off to engage the probe.

Other developments are that we finished the gene clinic research Lolok was carrying out. He is refocusing on "Adaptive Bureaucracy" to increase our leader pool size and capacity, so we can get more qualified dwarves where they need to go. We don't have the resources to build the one at Flamebanner yet though, but it might be better to build one on Ir Kodor instead.



Here's a big ass-shot of the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai. His Majesty Urist III has, on my recommendation, claimed the two systems Tue and Celephais, the latter of which contains the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai's oceanic homeworld. When we can muster the political resources, we will also claim Immuthin, but the others are more costly to claim than to salvage after the fact.

Now, some on the Senate have been wondering why we're not going down the Vassalization route. There's actually a good reason why - we can only vassalize a power that is very generally inferior to ours. While our fleet is more powerful than the Ooth-Nargai one, our naval capacity and technological level are much the same.

5th Obsidian 2209

Construction of the physics research outpost at Ecio Va. There, in low Orbit around this frozen barren world, they will be doing physics experiments in vacuum where they can ignore inconveniencies such as friction.

15th Obsidian 2209

Gomath returned to Unatra today aboard the Buttonjail. I have ordered him south, to monitor the probe destruction.

1st Granite 2209: The State of the Imperium

Today we had the state of the Imperium address, with Urist III outlining our claims on Tue and Celephais. However, in a change of course, we have chosen to adopt a tradition of "Colonization Fever", which means we produce more culture and tradition from our capital buildings in general on whichever planet they are placed on. The next tradition will take about 49 months to put in place.



Only two of us voted, and both of us voted for Vassalization. Next poll I'm calling is on furniture.

11th Granite 2209

The Prim Tattoo has finished the Ijaagin III fuel refinery, and Uncle Nil says he's moved his office to the Unatra Starbase. For future development, we will aim to claim the Unur system, and the Howoz system. The Prim Tattoo is being diverted to the latter.

18th Granite 2209

Dr Dustik Namemisery, aboard the Joke Column, informs me that there's something strange about the asteroid AZ-11-35-D. So he's going to check it out.

I'm taking down an advisory from the Senate now on what kind of leather seating we should be using. Options so far are elephant, honey badger, donkey, elk bird, and tapir. I'm still accepting suggestions though.

3rd Slate 2209

We're building another energy station around the class-F star Ecio. Political capital is rising to the point where we can put in the third claim, too. Also, we have the plague monument on Ir Kodor fully worked but the population growth is starting to strain our food supply.

9th Felsite 2209: Spaced Out

There's nothing like having 15 missed calls when you wake up at 7AM after drinking 'til 3AM. Back in college, it was go to sleep at 3, wake up at 10. After finding my phone, keys, and wallet from my -pig tail fiber sock- I finally figure out what's going on.



Admiral Rumred's ships aren't built like our science ships. The designers who uploaded the schematics to the automated shipyard added powerful gravatic sensors that can see into the next star system, which is known as "Nunki", and detected a ship belonging to the "Eta Aliens". Surprisingly, this design is not too different from that of our own science ships. I forwarded the information to Lolok so he can begin the decryption of their communications. Hopefully this will go better than it did for others.

Admiral Rumred is now setting a course for the probe and will engage to destroy it. ARMOK VULT!

24th Felsite 2209

Dr Namemisery has finished investigating the anomaly. He says that the asteroid came from a shattered planet, which apparently had water and aquatic organisms in it. The fossils were found on the asteroid, and have been recovered for study, boosting biology research.

5th Hematite 2209

With enough resources collected, I have ordered a second trade outpost for Uncle Nil to get to work on.

14th Hematite 2209

Victory! Admiral Rumred has finally destroyed the possessed probe. More details should be coming through in the following weeks, though it doesn't seem much evidence is left as to who modified the probe to act in this way.

We did get the whole picture on the Kodracca system though, it seems the system contains another abandoned "gateway" structure and also contains a small tomb world.

2nd Malachite 2209: This Sector's Got Humans

Lolok's decryption project is over on the Eta Aliens, who are none other than a human empire! They call themselves the Autocracy of Avadon. Their homeworld is called "Lynaeus", apparently after a large continent where the main administration is located. Their authority is dictatorial; when the Executor dies a new one is elected by the court. Their ethics are authoritarian and xenophile; they call themselves a "Harmonious Collective" and apparently that means they follow customs similar to dwarven ones.

3rd Malachite 2209



This is the current state of the Delta Quadrant, including the Autocracy of Avadon. Strike Force StarkRavingMad is being sent core-ward of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai, as you can see.

6th Malachite 2209

Exploration of Molsir is completed, so the Joke Column is now heading for Beta Caeli.

10th Malachite 2209

Strike Force StarkRavingMad detected a swarm of Space Amoeba in the Durth system, right next to the hyperspace point. Guess we're turning around; I'm ordering this fleet to Ijaagin to await further orders.

13th Malachite 2209

With the Ecio energy collector online, the Uzololon will head to Unur.

5th Galena 2209

Turns out that Avadon is willing to trade some food and energy for minerals on a ten year basis, but not on an instant basis. I'm considering a long term research agreement, but I don't want a trade deal to interfere with colonization efforts.

20th Sandstone 2209

Gomath says that the Sublight probe in the Zathmak has been towed somewhere. Like what, we broke some parking restriction and the probe was impounded? Fortunately we can follow an ion trail and the probe should be at the end of it.

We're also constructing an outpost in the Howoz system, so we can take advantage of its resources.

21st Sandstone 2209



This sounds like a fair deal to me. Just in time for caravan season!

5th Moonstone 2209

The year of 2209 is drawing to a close with the first shipments of minerals from Avadon, and the first shipments of energy to Avadon. We have now completed the second trade hub in Unatra Station, and Uncle Nil is pleased. Unfortunately, there are some concerns among House Lam and the Kinmelbil Mining Guild about the import of minerals, but I'm writing that off as "we're buying more resources to build more mines".

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2210 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Beginning of Year Report, 2nd Opal 2210



This is the budgetary state of the Imperium, overlaid with current claimed systems by the three known alien civilisations. The meeting with the Autocracy of Avadon has lead to us signing a research agreement and trade deal on good terms. We have already recovered another probe, though we don't know who or what modified it to attack us. A third probe appears to have been impounded for parking violations or overstaying by a few decades, and we're trying to find which planet it has been dragged to.

The Howoz system is being outposted and that should be completed in the next few weeks. Food unfortunately is going into a slight negative, but when Towersoared's population rises again we'll be able to farm the place and get more food. I also want to try and colonize the Ijaagin system's large tropical world sooner than later, and if we save up resources from now we can have a new colony ship under construction in six months.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2210 (click to show/hide)

15th Opal 2210

My tenth year of working as Governor of the Core Sector is celebrated with the construction of a new outpost starbase in the Howoz system! We're now going to start mining out another system. Oh, and that colony ship may have to wait.

14th Obsidian 2210

Today, Urist III claimed the Immuthin system. Next up, we have to find a reason to go to wa-wait, we already have one. The thing holding us up is, the Ooth-Nargai are building a mining outpost in Tue, and we want to take that over. Unfortunately, we have to wait for them to finish it first.

1st Granite 2210: The State of the Imperium

With the last claim on the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai, we are ready to go to war. Unfortunately, we'll probably take a huge hit to resource capacity in the meantime, though this will be evened out by the systems we occupy. We also don't have any means of landing troops upon the capital world of Ooth-Nargai...

30th Granite 2210

I've ordered the 1st and 2nd fleets to move out to join with Strike Force StarkRavingMad. We're in the final stages of preparing the space invasion.

13th Felsite 2210

Gomath completed the survey of Zathmak. No sign of the probe. We'll check the nearby star systems.

13th Limestone 2210

No sign of probe in Thirimora either. I asked Gomath to scan the system anyways.

22nd Limestone 2210

Both mining facilities are online in the Howoz system, and a physics outpost is now under construction around Howoz II. We've now counteracted the hit to our economy from running the fleet. I may order another Locus-class corvette too.

9th Sandstone 2210

An anomaly has been detected in the Zosma system - another case of an asteroid with a different mineral composition to the other bodies in the system.

The merging of the fleets is under way now. The Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai have also claimed another system, Unarua

22nd Sandstone 2210

We have been contacted by another empire, the Angaran Citizen Commonwealth. They are also not on good terms with us from the start, though they consider themselves "Democratic Crusaders" and that is the reasoning, rather than the spiritualist-materialist conflict. I sense there might be tensions rising between us.

The political capital obtained from this contact, however, has been used to claim Unur towards the rim, with this system containing the first derelict gateway we discovered.


24th Sandstone 2210



This is the current political layout of the Delta Quadrant. In a few days, this will be changing.

24th Sandstone 2210

The Angaran Citizen Commonwealth closed their borders to us. Well that was fucking unsurprising.

29th Sandstone 2210

Strike Force StarkRavingMad has now merged. I am alerting the Emperor and the Imperial Senate that everything is in place.

1st Timber 2210



I'll just leave this rare mashup here. Do you smell something burning?

26th Timber 2210

The path to Celephais lies clear! We're going to avoid these outposts for now and take out the Celephais starbase. The Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai won't be able to reinforce themselves after this.

11th Moonstone 2210

The first shots of the war are fired as a construction ship of the Ooth-Nargai comes under attack. It quickly makes an emergency jump out of Tue.

17th Moonstone 2210

More asteroid fossils have been found in Zosma by Dr. Namemisery. The anomaly is identical to that of asteroid AZ-11-35-D, and has granted us some more research.

19th Moonstone 2210

A non-aggression pact has been signed with Avadon. This will keep the fires in the Delta Quadrant under control, for now.

We also got a response to the war declaration. They wonder what took us so long. It is no matter, their institutions are now going to be seriously undermined.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2211 (click to show/hide)

General Report by Ral Undertrumpets: 1st Opal 2211



At last. To war. This is the political state of the galaxy as of today. We expect to claim Celephais's orbital space by the middle of the year, but it will probably take a while to clean up the remaining outposts. Occupied systems will turn their minerals and energy production over to us, boosting our productivity.

The food issue still persists, but we aren't looking at starvation anytime soon. Our mineral production has increased, energy surplus has gone down, and all this despite fielding an extra big-ass fleet.

Relations with Avadon are improving and I might consider putting forth the notion of Federation with them in the future, but that will be a while because we need the right traditions to do that.

[scourge728]

PTW

[CaptainArchmage]

General update:

No, I haven't forgotten this. I just didn't take a copy for me to play mid-week. LOL, eh?

Results of the poll so far show an overwhelmingly negative reception to using the human portrait for dwarves. This is despite the relative non-diversity of dwarves in the pack. At least two people have been !!TRIGGERED!!.

I've got a few suggested fixes, all of them are a bit risky:

1) I'm contemplating fixing the "portrait issue" by save game editing. This is literally the only way I can fix it now.
2) I'm considering upping the crisis difficulty to 5x by the same means.
3) I'm considering upping the game difficulty by the same means.

The date in game is 2nd Felsite 2206. Will the Dwarven Star Imperium expand southward, or will it look to the north? Will the tensions between the Dwarven Star Imperium and the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai explode into open rivalry? A vote might be called for!

Still looking for people to fill in roles, simulated and unsimulated. A new poll will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Edit: As promised, the update is being done to the post reserved as "2206-2210". Therefore, you might not see as much activity as being expected - of course. It's not being added as new post spam.

Realistic impression of what's going to happen to the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy soon:

Disclaimer: Not my GIF, just a representative one of the situation.

[CaptainArchmage]

Right, a new poll is up. Here's the old poll results - I can try to implement this, but it requires some save game editing and potential !!bugs!! or !!corruption!!.



The new poll concerns external policy on setting the Delta Quadrant on fire. Vote wisely. Note this is just an "advisory".



Not pictured: budget losses due to operational status of fleets. Stuff blowing up in space.

[CaptainArchmage]

It's the weekend again, and progress is rolling. Slowly. We have a new "simulated character", Admiral Rumred Conflicthops in command of Strike Force StarkRavingMad!

Just a reminder the records up to 2210 are going in a single post close to the top, and you don't get notified about the ongoing edits. We have a new poll on "spacecraft seating" up too and this won't get messed up by game mechanics. I've written up the below from the perspective of Admiral Rumred Conflicthops so you can get an idea of what the engagement was like (and how it goes in Stellaris). Also, story advancement.

The Engagement - 9th Felsite 2209 - 14th Hematite 2209

Spoiler: Strike Force StarkRavingMad moves to engage (click to show/hide)

The probe was on the other side of the system, orbiting the world of Kodracca IV. Nonetheless, many disturbing things lay on Admiral Rumred Conflicthops' mind when ordering the engagement. He knew that Dr. Gomath was in the trailing science vessel, the DIS Buttonjail. He had detected a strange alien craft, of similar design to dwarven vessels, in the nearby system, and had alerted the Governor of the Core Sector Ral Undertrumpets to this fact. He wasn't concerned about the aliens that lived in the sector so much, though they did pose a threat.

Something had altered the probe, and it wasn't clear what. It had asked dwarfkind whether they were it's creators, and the reply was "yes". But there was something distinctly undwarven about the modifications. The system of Kodracca was also strange. At the edge, there was another gateway, a derelict structure perhaps millions of years old, that may have been used by an ancient race to teleport ships across the galaxy. There was also a tomb world present, which had been reduced to a state of nuclear winter in the past. Maybe beings from one of the worlds had altered the probe?

Dwarfkind had advanced its way to the stars. However, now among the stars, they had begun to realise they were simply the latest race to reach the stars. The nearby systems were littered with the remains of long-gone races, and those of the arthropoidal, collossal Yuht. Some of the equipment left behind was still use-able. The entirety of Strike Force StarkRavingMad was made up of ships produced by an abandoned, automated shipyard in Wir Thosk. The three ships in the battlegroup exceeded the power of the three nuclear-armed corvettes, and were much faster. The bulk of dwarven might was supported by a salvaged cruiser, which took up many mega-urists of minerals to maintain. Dwarfkind was becoming more susceptible to the ancient forces that had once occupied the Delta Quadrant, or at least "utterly dependent on the junk they left behind". The Dwarven Star Imperium's might was now supported by wearing the mismatched +Titanium Right High Boots+ of a long gone society.

History was litered with dwarves locating ancient ruins that had existed in the Time Before Time, as well as dwarves breaching open veins of adamantine only for their fortresses to be overrun by the forces unleashed. There were the tales of old Boatmurdered and "Sankis the Emperor" and of horrors that had been unleashed and swarmed old fortresses. Many fortresses had been revived, and while the old forts made up a small portion of the vast new cities of the dwarves, the history contained within was preserved. Rumred recalled the trip organised to Spearbreakers and had looked over the old battle plans. Not all of them were applicable in the interstellar age, and the stories of forgotten beast attacks, dragons being contained within wooden cages, and bronze collosi decapitated by fluffy wamblers were becoming somewhat unbelievable. But they couldn't all be wrong, could they? Could some of these ancient forces, perhaps, rise up on Nir Kodor again, and threaten dwarfkind? At least among the stars, dwarves had a single colony to retreat to if that event were ever to happen.

"ADMIRAL!" - Rumred was jerked back to reality by the captain of the DIS Spectre.

"Advance the fleet and engage the probe!"

Spoiler: UV Lasers (click to show/hide)

Note: Extracted from save file since I forgot to take screenshots. Might have looked differently.

The advance took many days. "22nd Felsite - Probe is opening fire" read the log. The probe, however, was armed for long-range combat and the fleet soon faced the impact of energy lances on the shields. By the end of the month, however, the ships were in UV laser range (25th Felsite - "We have opened Laser fire. ARMOK VULT!"), and were pounding the construction with constant coilgun fire.

Spoiler: The probe is destroyed (click to show/hide)

The probe's resiliance impressed Admiral Rumred - for a slower than light probe, decades old, it could withstand as much fire as a small space station ("2nd Hematite - Fleet shields holding, probe still running at full power"). However, at last the structural integrity began to fail, and the device powered down ("14th Hematite - Probe shut down after power core destroyed. No damage to any ships. Shields recharging. Informing the Emperor. ARMOK VULT!").

A small spacewalk mission recovered the probe's data core, and the remains were directed over to the DIS Buttonjail and the hands of Dr. Gomath Chancetome. Perhaps the scientists back home on Nir Kodor could piece together a picture of what had happened.

[scourge728]

This is pretty cool

[CaptainArchmage]

This is pretty cool

I thought it would be getting warm in here.


Realistic impression of the Delta Quadrant right now.

Progress for 2200-2210 is now complete, so I'll create a new post for the upcoming years. Some screenshots are still to be added though.

Announcement: Update Scheduling and Stellaris Distant Stars Pack/2.1

As of weekdays, expect less updates. Potentially no updates. Updates may be more of in-game narration of events from character perspectives. Expect the in-game dates of updates to become more few and far between except for anomalies and shit. There will still be end-of-year reports.

Mass colonisation is going to pick up if the war leads to a lot of occupied Elder Thing systems, because those now provide their resources to the occupying power. Colony ship cost has been reduced in the updates (I think?) to 300 minerals (270 due to ruler traits) from 500 and I can actually launch a colony ship from Ir Kodor as well (because the planets get a civilian star port included with the colonisation package as of 2.0). This means we can probably build up to 2 ships/yr given what's produced in the Ooth-Nargai systems, if we only spend minerals on colony ships. We'll probably see write-ups on these new worlds (Ijaagin may be the target) but the reports will be less dense.

If you vote "other" for seat leather, please mention it in the thread.

I will probably not restart this for Distant Stars, but we'll update to 2.1 anyway when it hits. We won't change any existing hyperlanes, but I might be able to edit in the L-cluster and some more leviathans. To do this, I will probably generate a new game, take note of where the L-cluster is, and where the gate is. The L-cluster is outside of the galaxy so doesn't interfere with the existing hyper lane setup and I can just put in the coordinates as long as they don't fuck with anything else. Names of the systems and planets will be changed as is necessary to prevent clash. The L-cluster gates, which are in black hole systems, will be placed in the same-name black hole systems. If I can locate the systems for the new leviathans I will hack them in too.

This is kind of necessary because one of the systems has been generated in-game with blank name boxes for all the system objects (this was one of my custom empires added in). This results when some special characters like the ï in Nïr Kodor are used for naming planets and stellar objects, but it is strange since the system used one of the built-in naming conventions except for the star and the planet. I will also take the opportunity to fix the dwarf portrait since people actually like it. Difficulty will go up since normally other empires try to get new colonies up and running by ten years in and I haven't seen any efforts made despite being ample room. That, or it is a general shortfall in AI.

[CaptainArchmage]

The good news:

It's the weekend, which means this is ON again. We're now going to see which fucking goblins towed our probe, and see how the "Dwarven - Ooth-Nargai(an) Border Conflict War" plays out. There's going to be a lot of gratuitous space combat, though the war might be mostly over when the partial occupation of Celephais happens.

The bad you-have-to-wait news:

Complexity overload with upgrading to 2.1. I'm not hooking steam on that computer to the internet (so no updates), so until the war with the Ooth-Nargai is over I will stick with the current 2.0 version. There's probably a lot of flags and so on I have to carry over. There's one new resource type too, and I'd have to hack everything over.

Updates continue below, and probably will fill this space until either the war ends, or enough time passes. If the war ends I will attempt to implement the version upgrade.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2211 (click to show/hide)

Political Report by Ral Undertrumpets, 1st Opal 2211

I didn't put it on the end-of-year report, but Gomath Chancetome today filed for the creation of a political faction. They call themselves the Drumbeat of Victory Party, and are pushing a highly militaristic agenda. Gomath is running all of this from his cabin aboard the DIS Buttonjail as he seeks out whoever towed our probe, but it's still just as effective as any other faction. Maybe I should consider founding one too.

I mean, if you look at this, the Drumbeat of Victory faction membership is now like 6/10 dwarves on Nir Kodor, with the remainder being scientifically or materialistically oriented. The remainder of the citizens on Nir Kodor are oriented towards "materialistic" as in pro-science, pro-engineering ethics, which is nice. Strongholds of this faction include Boatmurdered (the capital), Lanternwebs, Gemclod, Breadbowl, the Severedcoils region, and Deathgate. The growing population of Towersoared is also holding onto this ethic. Literally at least 60% of the population, and likely approaching 7/11ths of the population of Nir Kodor, are supporters or card carrying members. That's no small feat even for Gomath, since he's actually out of Dwarven space right now.

The situation on Ir Kodor is somewhat different. We have one group of dwarven spiritualists, working the mines on an island chain, who are heavily oriented towards the polytheistic pantheon of dwarven Gods from the past, and of course, ARMOK. I don't see anything wrong with this but there is a risk of a schism due to some fanatical beliefs in this group. The second stable population, who are dealing with the plague memorial in honor of our victory over the vile prokaryotic menace, have adopted a "pacifistic" approach. This is at odds with the current agenda, but they do seem to promote prosperity and Uncle Nil says they're bringing in big business. The final group on Nir Kodor is repopulating the city built out of the Musty Armory of Torretdoge, but isn't in sufficient number to work the area yet. Those migrating there have a particularly monarchistic agenda.

Scientific Report, 3rd Opal 2011

Research on "Adaptive Bureaucracy" is completed, and there's now been a bit of an, um, "rukus" over what to research lately. There was some advocacy from Ir Kodor on "Ocean Ecology Management", which would help us deal with poisonous xenokelp varieties that are endemic to the planet. However, this was rejected as the planet isn't significantly populated yet. A second proposal was to improve heritage sites, but lost out to Uncle Nil's proposal for researching "space trading". For fuck's sake, we don't have enough population spread out to run heritage sites yet, but we'll consider it in the future.

Oh yeah, when I told Uncle Nil we already did space trading, he said it's about better space trading. We'd be able to build an "Offworld Trading Company". ETR on space trading is 28 months, but that might increase due to stockpiled research running out.

11th Opal 2211

The physics research station over Howoz II just came online. We're now going to build an energy station around the star to bring up income, since there isn't a magic money tree to provide for all the ships and buildings we might be building. Yet.

3rd Obsidian 2211

We've just claimed the Unur system. We'll have to wait on more minerals to mine the star for energy though... or set up an extreme biology research base in orbit around Unur II.

6th Obsidian 2211

Gomath says the survey of Thirimora is done. Time to check Stratal (in the space of the Autocracy of Avadon) and if the probe isn't there, he'll check the Meissa system.

17th Obsidian 2211

Admiral Rumred is preparing Strike Force StarkRavingMad for a jump to Celephais. There he will engage the main forces of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai, and if victory is had, it will eliminate all their ready naval facilities from the war.

29th Obsidian 2211

So today, the shit hit the fan. Strike Force StarkRavingMad has entered the Celephais and is ready to engage The Tidal, the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai fleet, which has FIVE corvettes under their command. They will also engage the Celephais Starbase, which means Admiral Rumred has a lot on his hands. This could be very risky. Of course at the same time, Gomath aboard the DIS Buttonjail arrived back in the Zathmak system to find these scumbag horse-like aliens had towed the probe. They said they wanted 100 Gigasankis worth of energy, and of course they were told to go fuck themselves.

AT THE SAME TIME we got word that there's a birth of space piracy is on. Some thugs from Nir Kodor known as the Immortal Cabal got together an asteroid base in the un-claimed Kodracca system. Taking advantage of the naval absence from Dwarven space, they have put together a fleet and are prepared to attack our unattended starbases. Hopefully we can hold them off.

I think the space between Avadon and the Dwarven Star Imperium needs to get cleaned up, but only after we've dealt with the Ooth-Nargai. I might have to put together a second fleet.

1st Granite 2211: The State of the Imperium

In his State of the Imperium address, Urist III has sworn stern action against piracy in the Dwarven Star Imperium. We also believe that other space governments might be having the same issue. He has also addressed Strike Force StarkRavingMad as they enter into combat against the forces of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai in their capital system of Celephais.



Things are so messed up right now we can't even decide on what kind of seating to use on our ships. It looks like the top two choices are "Honey Badger Leather" and "Elephant Leather". A third choice was tied with Elephant Leather, but we never got what this "other choice" was.

Polling strongly favouring honey badger leather at the moment, hopefully these things weren't wiped out in the gigantic lava flood of 1423, which reduced The Prim Jungle to The Plain of Ash and totally incinerated the fortress of Largebusts. The Plain of Ash is also known as the Largebusts wasteland, and modern archeological expeditions have managed to excavate the fortress mostly intact.

Oh, and that last part about "Strongly Favouring" is if you disregard the "other" choice. If I ever hear about it I'm putting in a note to the Leatherworker's Guild of Breadbowl and see whether they can do it.

2nd Granite 2211

Ugh, what a day. So between the mess with piracy on the rise, and the scumbag salvager parking goons, and the leather procurement issue, it feels like I'm back in class at the University of Boatmurdered.

7th Granite 2211

Admiral Rumred reports that battle is begun in Celephais. ARMOK VULT!

13th Slate 2211

A pirate fleet from The Immortal Cabal has just entered the Howoz system! We are retreating our construction ships and preparing the outpost to fire its nuclear missiles upon these scurvy knaves.

Unfortunately, the DIS Gonggashkinem was lost in the opening of the battle of Celephais.

24th Slate 2211

The battle of Celephais continues with major damage done to all vessels save for the DIS Salvage. The DIS Ullungvetek and the DIS Spectre have withdrawn from the battle. However, The Tidal has been reduced in strength to one corvette and the Celephais Station has taken damage from the nuclear missiles.

23rd Felsite 2211

The battle for Celephais continues to rage, with the DIS Korthingin and DIS Wraith retreating from the battle. I have asked Gomath to avoid the Salvagers and continue exploration to the galactic "west", in the direction of the Gamma Quadrant. That is an unknown system. Meanwhile, Dustik will explore the Guram system and maybe help with research on the Ooth-Nargai ship debris once the battle is over.

With 233 Mega-Urists of minerals in the stockpile, I've decided it's time to invest that in another colony ship rather than more space stations or battleships. Forward to Ijaagin!

6th Hematite 2211



Admiral Rumred announced that the starbase in Celephais has broken, and the reactor cores were ejected to save the station from destruction. This means we have a starbase that could be restored to functionality, and it is under our control. There is minor cleanup left.

The fleet of pirates from Kodracca is pounding our outpost in the Howoz system, and they are under the command of the pirate-admiral Lilar Detgashoshot. However, the outpost is holding for now. They have four ships.

Finally, I have ordered the starport at Ir Kodor to start building a new colony ship. While it might surprise some, Ir Kodor is closer to Ijaagin and this will get the job done faster.

16th Hematite 2211



VICTORY! Admiral Rumred informed his majesty today that the Celephais starbase is now ours! Casualties of the conflict from Strike Force StarkRavingMad were only the DIS Gonggashkinem, though all ships save for the DIS Salvage have taken heavy damage. The Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai, however, lost all five Corvettes from The Tidal, wiping out the fleet. They also lost two science vessels and their scientists, and the ONV Bafgha, a construction vessel. It seems that we may have also taken out the majority of their space-born leadership, leaving the survivors on the planet of Ooth-Nargai, which may soon come under our siege. But first, we must repair our ships. Admiral Rumred is now a two-star admiral, having defeated the three-star Scientist Bakuggeth of the Elder Things.

The good news from Howoz is that the pirate fleet is down to three ships.

2nd Malachite 2211

Gomath entered the Ferragon system today, and reports a natural wormhole is present! We could, if we had the technology, stabilize the wormhole, but we don't unfortunately have that. Until we do, it is too dangerous to enter the system.

We have now secured the space resources in Celephais, and our income is up to the highest it has ever been. The Celephais starbase is also undergoing repairs, but it will be a while, about 100 days worth of works to be done!

The battle at Celephais has left the remains of some Ooth-Nargai fusion reactors in the system. We can salvage those to speed our research.

11th Galena 2211

Admiral Rumred just reported that the Celephais starbase is operational, though it must still be repaired further. I have ordered the repairs of Strike Force StarkRavingMad, and afterwards we will conquer the remaining systems of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai.

Meanwhile, the extreme biology research outpost over Unur II is under construction, and the pirate fleet assailing Howoz is down to two ships.

4th Limestone 2211

News from the observation post at Jurg-Falligh in the Baltris system is both encouraging and disturbing at the same time. Firstly, the fungus creatures have developed radio technology and primitive aircraft, which is good. Now we all have to listen to their opera in space. I'm wondering when we can start "enlightening them", it would maybe do the abduction crews a favor.

The sole surviving raider in Howoz is the Raider "Not Guilty". Really, commander?

30th Limestone 2211

The Howoz Starbase reports that the Raider Not Guilty has been destroyed by a nuclear missile. The pirate admiral Lilar Detgashoshot, or "Lilar Vulgarvanish" in the human language of which translation we are obligated to provide, is dead. His Majesty Urist III has received the news well, and welcomes the eradication of this criminal mastermind from the galaxy. The siege of Howoz, which began on 4.20 (20th Slate of this year) is over, and I will ensure the crew of the starbase receive a full commendation.

3rd Sandstone 2211

With Strike Force StarkRavingMad repaired, I am ordering a strike upon Immuthin. The remaining outposts of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai shall fall to us, and we shall be victorious! ARMOK VULT!

22nd Timber 2211

The biological outpost over Unur II is complete, and I will have an energy outpost built over the star next to provide energy... once the next load of minerals comes in.

29th Timber 2211

Admiral Rumred reports engagement in Immuthin. This system's full occupation will strike another blow at the Ooth-Nargai government, which must be heavily beseiged now.

3rd Moonstone 2211

With the last month of the year arrived, I have ordered Dustik to recover the fusion reactor components and he is on his way, with the DIS Joke Column attempting circumvent the surviving Ooth-Nargai starbase in Tue.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2212 (click to show/hide)

Special Report by Ral Undertrumpets, 1st Opal 2212



It's new year's day and I get to work about 2-3 hours to prepare this report before I go off to get drunk on dwarven wine and dwarven beer. The war against the Ooth-Nargai has been a success, and we have taken over their starbase in Celephais, at the cost of one ship ourselves. That engagement has cost the Ooth-Nargai all their admiralty and science ships too, leaving one surviving construction vessel in the Unaria system. Here, I have outlined the budget over the political state of the Dwarven Star Imperium.

Minerals and Energy production are up due to occupation of Celephais, and that will continue to skyrocket into the new year. Unfortunately, after the end of the war, we will see a drop as several systems will probably lose their starbases altogether. Food supplies continue to drop, but I am assured that Towersoared's farms will be ready to feed our population in about 4 months from now. Meanwhile, we will have a new colony ship built at Ir Kodor for colonizing the Ijaagin system about half way through the year. We could even begin producing a colony ship at Nir Kodor in about four months, though we have to prepare to grab Xu Nur and that starbase is of strategic importance. Once an observation post is set up around Xu Nur's world of Bhafsch, we will increase society research output by about 50% based on current figures.

Unfortunately, we ran into the salvage scum who towed our probe, and we're going to have to fight them off someday to get that probe back. This diverted Gomath's attention to the system known as Ferragon. Here he found a wormhole, which could potentially be stabilized to send our fleets across the galaxy. However, he also found a size 25 Tundra world in the system, known as Ferragon III, which could provide us with vast amounts of resources sometime in the future.

Population is now sufficient to cover 12 planet sectors, of which 10 are on Nir Kodor and 2 are on Ir Kodor. Population growth will continue to increase as we take Ijaagin's worlds.

Politically, the Drumbeat of Victory Party has about half our pops, but 100% of faction dominance. As new factions develop, we will see this change. The Drumbeat of Victory Party will likely not be very happy until we take traditions of supremacy, and conquer the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai outright.

Research-wise, we will finalize plans for robots in about three months. Then we can start building robotic workers.

Militarily, we will attempt to take the remaining Ooth-Nargai systems, and build up a second fleet. However, the colonization and outposting efforts may impede this. Overall, we are the strongest force in the known galaxy.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2212 (click to show/hide)

Combat Report by Ral Undertrumpets, 2nd Opal 2212

We have now taken Immuthin, and the resources within belong to us. We didn't lose any ships, but the DIS Korthining was heavily damaged and the DIS Spectre needs an armor repair. They will return to Celephais. Meanwhile, the Star Unur will have an energy station built around it.

5th Opal 2212

Gomath has discovered signs of precursor activity on Ferragon IVa. It is a barren moon orbiting a barren planet, wonder what the Yuht (or whatever other civilization might have been around then) were doing there.

1st Granite 2212: The State of the Imperium

Urist III has announced the development of robotics, which we can now use to boost productivity. We can give them vocal commands, but they can't climb stairs yet. They could be very useful for colonizing inhospitable planets like Ferragon III though we'd have to send in dwarves first.

Under direction of the Miner's Guild of Kinmelbil, we will now research geothermal fracking to improve mining yields.

The plan is for now to continue conquering the Ooth-Nargai systems. We will then lay siege to their homeworld.

Precursor Report by Ral Undertrumpets: 12th Granite 2212

It seems Gomath found a derelict Yuht colony ship at Ferragon IVa. The Yuht were gigantic, and only a few of them were onboard a ship at a time. Wonder whether they just moved their eggs around?

6th Slate 2212

The DIS Joke Column under Dustik is now in Celephais, ready to recover the fusion reactor cores of the destroyed Elder Thing vessels.

Oh, also Towersoared is producing food, and our shortage issue is solved for now.

17th Slate 2212

With the Unur energy station complete, we're now going to claim Xu Nur.

2nd Felsite 2212

We have now adopted the tradition "A New Life". This means we'll be able to attract more colonists out of ghettos such as the sprawl around Flarechannel and to our colonies, where they can be useful.

7th Hematite 2212

Strike Force StarkRavingMad is being dispatched to the Tue system to take it for our own. Meanwhile, Ir Kodor has launched our second colony ship, the DIS Zansongthokit, or "The Massive Afflication". Um, what.

I rename it the DIS Zansongthikén Tosid, or "The Massive Confidence of Tosid", after Tosid Vodsazir, or "Tosid Soundbridge" the founder of Lanternwebs. I mean, there must have been either a spelling mistake on the ship naming form, or someone's suffering flashbacks to the plague...

I order it to head to Ijaagin II ASAP.

5th Malachite 2212

I've been having a few flashbacks. Unfortunately. Mostly to points of my youth, according to my psychoanalyst it's probably due to the mass orders of honey badger leather I placed to outfit the DIS Zansongthiken Tosid.

The Xu Nur starbase is under construction, and I have negotiated a once-off shipment of minerals from the Autocracy of Avadon in exchange for some energy credits. This will help kickstart construction of a new colony ship.

27th Malachite 2212

Dustik finished his analysis of the fusion cores. We'll have a breakthrough announced in a few days!

2nd Galena 2212

Fusion power is now available, which means we can replace all the fission reactors with fusion reactors. I have redirected new research efforts by Professor Alnis Crewblench to designing better blue lasers.

A new colony ship is now under construction, again at Ir Kodor.

20th Galena 2212

Strike Force StarkRavingMad has engaged the Tue Starbase. Once Admiral Rumred brings this system under our control, we'll have a clear run from Istam Anriz to the rest of Ooth-Nargai territory and have at least partially taken all claims.

11th Limestone 2212

Another request for minerals has been sent to the Autocracy of Avadon.

13th Limestone 2212

Our mineral stockpiles are up again 25 mega-urists, while we're down 69 gigasankis worth of energy.

26th Limestone 2212

Today, Gomath reported finishing the Yuht colony ship project. The Yuht apparently never developed hyperspace technology or any other faster than light machinery, instead using slower-than-light travel. The colony ship transported the Yuht using a combination of their thousand-year-long lifespans and cryogenic technology. We have recovered the sublight engines of the ship, which may help us with sublight travel within systems.

We also took over Tue with minimal damage to our vessels.

15th Sandstone 2212

Xu Nur is ours! An observation post around Bhafsch will be built immediately.

26th Timber 2212

The Nunki system is shaping up to be interesting, with a gigantic super-Nir Kodor tundra planet available at "size 25" and a smaller Savannah world.

3rd Moonstone 2212

I have ordered the construction of a gene clinic on Ir Kodor to boost population growth there. Another is planned for Nir Kodor in the Flamebanner region, but won't be started until later.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2213 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Annual Report, 2nd Opal, 2213



The year has ended and a new one begun on a good note for the Dwarven Star Imperium. We have taken over the starbases at Immuthin and Tue, while a new colony ship has been constructed. The DIS Zansongthiken Tosid will be making a landing on Ijaagin II in the next month or two, and will be followed up by another probably next year. Budgets continue to improve, and we have no issues with food for now. Trade is up with Avadon. The colony ship shelter on Ir Kodor is also repopulated. The dwarven population covers 14 planetary sectors as of today.

We recovered a Yuht colony ship, making the surprising discovery that there were no FTL drives used. That, or they used wormholes or gateways. This is the first Yuht artifact we have recovered out of six we need to locate their homeworld.

We have also claimed Xu Nur, and are completing an observation outpost to learn about the mechenical-age Hann'Felir molloscoid inhabitants of Bhafsch. Hopefully we can reach the Demon's Eye Nebula, this time with our political reach, though we will soon invoke the direct ire of the Turian Hierarchy in doing so.

Two problems remain. Firstly, there is the pirate base in Kodracca, which must be dealt with in the near future.

The second is the lack of a rimworld fleet and mobile army. Both should be addressed quickly.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2213 (click to show/hide)

4th Opal 2213

Literally, nobody cuts better trade deals than I do. Down 87 mega-sankis worth of energy, up 49 mega-urists of minerals. Maybe the Miner's Guild is getting annoyed, but something's got to continue our expansion, right?

We're also now hiring assault armies on Ir Kodor.

12th Obsidian 2213

Aggressive observation of the Hann'Felir is now starting. We should have space trading researched in only 14 months now!

1st Granite 2213: The State of the Imperium

Today, Urist III gave his State of the Imperium address. It was mostly focused on the rise of The Feral Companions, a group of criminal Elder Things lead by the pirate Malungord, who have established a vast gang network thanks to the breakdown of order in their space. We will have to deal with these scum soon. There's literally not much left to add, save for the shortage of honey badger leather.

6th Granite 2213

You have arrived. After a journey from Ir Kodor into the depths of space, your harsh trek has finally ended. Your colony ship is about to settle a new world for the glory of all the Dwarven Star Imperium. There are few supplies left, but with stout labor comes sustainable. Whether by coilgun, hydroponic farming, or space bulldozer, provide for your dwarves. You are expecting a trade vessel and follow-up transport before the dry season hits, but it is the wet season now. Enough time to establish prefabricated shelters and fusion reactors, ere the space trees get hungry. A new chapter of dwarven history begins at this place, Zansong Egath, "The Massive Jungle". Strike the Planet!

Nothing like bringing up spirits on a new embark. Normally it involves setting up a dark elf-themed bar and ensuring if one Dwarfbucks is out of avocado beer, there's another one across the street with suitable wifi. Planetary embarks are harder but I'm a firm believer in that we should aim just as high, if not higher.

19th Slate 2213

Dustik apparently has become a bit of an archaeologist in space. Also, Strike Force StarkRavingMad is now moving on Uwheron.

29th Felsite 2213

Strike Force StarRavingMad has taken over Uwheron, and will immediately move on Lehmsa. I'm also saving up minerals for a new colony ship.

5th Malachite 2213

I decided to trade away even more energy for some more minerals. We still need to wait until next month before our next colony ship can be commissioned, as they cost a full 270 mega-urists of minerals.

The Feral Companions under Malungord are assaulting the Ooth-Nargai starbase in Unaria, which incidentally would be the only one surviving after we take over Lehmsa. The war is going in a good direction.

1st Galena 2213

The new colony ship is under construction on Nir Kodor, and will be targeted at Impan II. Also, Dustik aboard the DIS Joke Column has finished his survey of Guram, and I'm sending him north to the planet where the ship can research the "in Limbo" project. I will have him swap with Gomath before starting the project.

5th Galena 2213

The DIS Ebsasshoner, or DIS "Candypocket" has been launched from Ir Kodor. Damn. Our budget is in the red again, but that name. That name.

I rename it the DIS Midorshoner Markus_cz, or DIS "Powerpocket of Markus_cz", with "Powerpocket" referencing how Uncle Nil helped close the deal with Avadon. Markus_cz was the honored founder of Gemclod.

17th Galena 2213

Victory is ours in Lehmsa! We shall now return Strike Force StarkRavingMad to Celephais to begin the final repairs.

Meanwhile, the DIS Midorshoner Markus_cz is under way to Ijaagin IIa.

19th Sandstone 2213

Another army is being recruited on Ir Kodor. The buildup is currently taking place in the Ijaagin system.

20th Timber 2213

The Ir Kodor gene clinic has come online, and I have transferred population there. Unfortunately, this has increased our shortfall in energy.

12th Moonstone 2213

As the year draws to a close, I have ordered a starbase built in Teae, so we will have access to that hyperspace route. However, it borders on Turian space, which means there will sooner or later be rising tensions with them.

Spoiler: Annual Report, Nicol Ashok 2214 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Annual Report, 1st Opal 2214



This is the political state of the galaxy today. We have taken all but one of the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai's starbases, and we are raising an army for the invasion of Ooth-Nargai itself, which might be completed by the end of the year. We still haven't commissioned any new military ships, but have begun a heavy colonization process. This is energy-intensive, and means that we'll probably  have to cease colonization after we begin the colonization of Impan II. The Turian hierarchy has expanded to Molsir, which means that hyperspace route is now cutoff. However, we are building a starbase at Teae, so might be able to salvage the situation partially.

Budget-wise, our food supplies are increasing but could be squeezed again soon by increasing population. Our energy deficit may be solved by constructing additional energy stations, including one I am commissioning right now. Mineral income, however, has never been higher.

Exploration-wise, we will continue towards the Gamma Quadrant and attempt the "In Limbo" project.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2214 (click to show/hide)

20th Opal 2214

Our second assault army launched from Ir Kodor today. A quick scan of Ooth-Nargai says we can have up to 8 armies in combat at once on that world.

15th Obsidian 2214

The Provalguvor smellovision show "smell my conspiracy" has just reported the rise of a new religion among their vulgar people, centered around the crop circles left as a prank by our shuttle pilots. Apparently some of them have become more spiritual. Well, that's OK right? As long as I don't have to ozone out my room or cabin, I don't give a shit. Just get us that god damn research.

1st Granite 2214: The State of the Imperium

In today's State of the Imperium address, his majesty addressed the Turian threat. He also started a recruitment drive to get a Grand Army of the Dwarven Star Imperium churned out on our planets.

3rd Granite 2214

A strange energy glitch has been detected by Gomath orbiting Wiertham IV, a ringed barren planet. He is now investigating.

23rd Granite 2214

With the Teae starbase built, we will quickly build an energy station around the star. Got to plug that deficit.

26th Granite 2214

Battle is joined! The last starbase of the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai is about to fall.

29th Slate 2214

With Unaria captured, the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai only maintains control over the homeworld. Soon, a dwarven army will arrive to conquer the planet altogether. They shall now proceed to Keid and deal with the Elder Thing pirate base once and for all.

2nd Felsite 2214

Uncle Nil just phoned me up to say Mad Lolok is done with his research and we can build an offworld trading company at the Unatra starbase when we have the minerals. Excellent news. I've in the meantime asked Professor Lolok to focus new research efforts on building better biolabs.

5th Felsite 2214

You have arrived. After a journey from Ir Kodor into the depths of space, your harsh trek has finally ended. Your colony ship is about to settle a new world for the glory of all the Dwarven Star Imperium. There are few supplies left, but with stout labor comes sustainable. Whether by laser pistol, vat grown meat, or space tractor, provide for your dwarves. You are expecting a trade vessel and follow-up transport before the dry season hits, but it is the wet season now. Enough time to establish prefabricated shelters and fusion reactors, ere the space leopards get hungry. A new chapter of dwarven history begins at this place, Îcum ïlon, "The Virtuous Moon". Strike the Moon!

We have another colony under construction in Ijaagin. Next up, to recruit more armies and build a Uncle Nil's Offworld Trading Company!

12th Felsite 2214

Gomath reports that a microsingularity recently interacted with the planet Wietham IV, which interacted with its core. Apparently the thing passed right through and changed the energy signature of the core, and we can get some physics research out of the place. Still, that's scary shit right there man.

30th Hematite 2214

The air conditioning's out as there's a move on to try to save energy throughout the planet of Nir Kodor. Fuck.

Meanwhile, Strike Force StarkRavingMad is about to engage the pirate base in Keid.

19th Malachite 2214

A small object has been detected in orbit around Weitham, and Gomath is checking it out. It is orbiting very fast, so it must be orbiting very close to the star.

26th Malachite 2214

The asteroid base run by The Feral Companions has been destroyed. We recovered their saferoom, and found access to about 50 Gigasankis of energy. We also obtained 80 Mega-urists worth of minerals from the wreck. Strike Force StarkRavingMad will now return to Celephais for repairs, and then begin the inevitable bombardment of Ooth-Nargai itself.

1st Galena 2214

Nir Kodor has now launched the DIS Ingtaksubol Quasar, or "The Twilight Leech of Quasar", Quasar being the founder of Breadbowl. The ship will head to Impan II and establish a colony there. The ship's construction has unfortunately set back our finances again, and we'll run out of energy in about 18 months.

28th Galena 2214

According to Gomath, the object orbiting the small star was a small ceramic container. I have issued a research project, but will leave it uninitiated for now. Now Gomath will trade places with Dustik and take rightful command over his older vessel, the DIS Joke Column.

4th Sandstone 2214

Looks like the salvage thugs who towed our probe were destroyed by some force. The probe was maybe destroyed with them unfortunately, but no sensitive data will be captured. I'll ask Uncle Nil if Avadon had anything to do with it, and if so whether he can get any debris recovered. I think we got the message across though. We don't negotiate with the parking goons!

11th Timber 2214

Recruitment of armies for the invasion of Ooth-Nargai is now complete. Now I just have to wait for them to reach Celephais.

The Offworld Trading Company at Unatra Starbase is also now under construction.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2215 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Annual Report, 11th Opal 2215



Somewhat late compared to usual, I present the current situation of the galaxy. All Ooth-Nargai systems have been occupied with the sole exception of Celephais, where the capital world of Ooth-Nargai still holds out. That will likely change this year as we launch a full scale invasion of the planet. Meanwhile, the Angaran Citizen Commonwealth has colonized a second planet in their space, which is interesting. No other species save for ours has attempted to colonize other planets yet.

While food supplies are about to top out, and mineral income remains high (mining guild reports show our production is stable, and consumer outlook and naval demands have also remained the same), our energy deficit brought on by colonization efforts has become rather severe. We will try to mitigate this by finishing the offworld trading company at Unatra Starbase later this year. If necessary I can reassign dwarves to energy extraction too. Representatives for House Ber suggest reducing mining output in favor of energy, while House Lam's representation backs this backs selling some of our minerals to Avadon in exchange for energy.

I aim to also take over the Regganus system, which is energy rich, by mid-year.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2215 (click to show/hide)

20th Opal 2215

I have upgraded the corvettes of Strike Force StarkRavingMad to use fusion reactors. At least, those we could upgrade.

3rd Obsidian 2215

You have arrived. After a journey from Ir Kodor into the depths of space, your harsh trek has finally ended. Your colony ship is about to settle a new world for the glory of all the Dwarven Star Imperium. There are few supplies left, but with stout labor comes prosperity. Whether by railgun, biolab, or laser drill, provide for your dwarves. You are expecting a trade vessel and follow-up transport before the dry season hits, but it is the wet season now. Enough time to establish prefabricated shelters and fusion reactors, ere the space leopards get hungry. A new chapter of dwarven history begins at this place, Nitom Arkoth, "The Planet of Prophecy". Strike the Planet!

We have colonized Nitom Arkoth, "The Planet of Prophecy", formerly known as Impan II. There were some who said we should have colonized this world first, but it is no matter. Soon enough we will have access to this world's massive resources.

9th Obsidian 2215

I have ordered Dustik to investigate the ceramic object, as Wiertham has been explored completely. Meanwhile, Gomath is heading towards the Nicor system, where he will complete research on the "In Limbo" project. I have high expectations of this project.

1st Granite 2215: The State of the Imperium

His Majesty Urist III focused his speech today on the ongoing colonization efforts. Our colony on Zansong Egath will come operational as of 1st Opal 2216, which is good news, and for the most part end the dearth of energy. However, he has also raised the question of pushing a new rivalry with the Turian Hierarchy. This is problematic in that it will force us to re-assign Strike Force StarkRavingMad back to Istam Anriz, and eliminate a support line for our military landings on Ooth-Nargai. However, it will earn us more influence, and make The Drumbeat of Victory Party happier.

In other news, I've pushed for eliminating the "land appropriation" policies of the Dwarven Star Imperium. Not sure who pushed for those, but it isn't something I'm in favor of. We need all the backing we can get.

4th Granite 2215

This interesting research proposal arrived at my desk just today. Apparently the scientists from the new observation post at Bhafsch wish to have a science ship put in orbit and abduct some species. Good it's Bhafsch because I would not be doing this on Jurg-Faliigh. I will have the Joke Column sent to Bhafsch once Gomath is finished with the "In Limbo" project in Nicor. The ship is currently passing through the Ascension's End black hole system, and I'm going to be going down there to oversee the project with him.

I've changed the policy on land appropriation. When Ooth-Nargai finally falls to our control, we shall not appropriate land from the inhabitants.

In other news related to the invasion of Ooth-Nargai, I have ordered Strike Force StarkRavingMad back to the Celephais starbase to conserve power. It turned out we are one corvette short of having a sufficient fleet to bombard the planet. I will thus order a new one from the local shipyards.

8th Granite 2215

Urist III has officially declared the Turian Hierarchy our rivals. We have increased influence gain as a result.

Did I also mention the Turians are trying to settle the Medgar system?

11th Granite 2215

The Autocracy of Avadon has just signed a non-aggression pact with the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai. It's not like the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai will exist after a year or two from now.

20th Granite 2215

The Turians, of course, have declared us their rival now.

[CaptainArchmage]

One hellishly hot day is winding down and as of yesterday, I ran into a bit of a problem - I can't edit or post from the computer I am using for Stellaris (like, the one with the old version on it and all my screenshots). It's not an IP issue and I can't do it on any browser, but am troubleshooting. Maybe it's the old "log back out and log back in again" issue.

I'm going to take some time to touch up the news logs. Also, have a flashback with a bit of dwarven history.

Spoiler: Disclaimer (click to show/hide)

Historical periodicization is subject to change.

Flashback to 2nd Granite, 2184. The Place: University of Boatmurdered, Middle History 201

I've been in Boatmurdered before. The strain of managing war among the stars unfortunately got me a little triggered lately, and this took me way back when. It's about 26 years ago, going 27. I am about 20 years old, and am entering my second year of the Big Ten. Dwarves are pretty fucking long loved (whoops long lived), so this period of life is like where you learn a good part of all the shit you learn as a dwarf. We study. We also learn how to make the finest pieces of conceptual art and gold-plated marble tables this side of the galaxy, so we're also productive for this whole time.

I'm in Middle History 201. Dwarven History is divided into several eras. The first era after the Time Before Time is Old History. Old History is the study of all the dwarfy shit that happened up to about the years 1050-1075, which is when the fortress of Boatmurdered and many others were originally founded, and also fell. The last periods, sometimes known as the "transition periods" are labelled 17a-23a, about the time Bronzemurder fell. Old Middle History corresponds to the era of Headshoots, everything up to about the year 1350. Some of the greatest forts were founded in this time, and after the period labelled 40d the fortresses of Gemclod came into play. Middle History comes with the development of the library system and increased participation in expeditions and administrative reach, and Late Middle History comes with the consolidation of the formal magical system and really complex governmental systems, lasting until the age where forts start to get electrified. So Middle History 201 is like the middle of the line.

Professor Likot Drinkpot drones onward and upward about the final fate of the fortress of Largebusts, which experienced two collapses. "As some of you may recall from Introductory Early Middle History, the fortress of Largebusts was built bordering on the Prim Jungle in the 1130s, engaged in trade with the distant fort of Sacksizzled, and struck a series of disastrous defeats upon an elven nation. The leadership, however, eventually abandoned the fort to ruin. In terms of the socioeconomic context, major consensus today is that the social structure imposed a heavy series of resource demands while shortages of fuel created by the shallow depth of non-mountain outpost excavations lead to a dearth of materials and energy. Few if any such fortresses ever had access to lava. Thus fortresses were short lived, although layouts over multiple levels were more efficient."

He shoves the mobile blackboard upward and starts to write on a new pane. Of course there's digital technology to do this shit and has been for like two hundred years now, but Professor Drinkpot is a firm believer in having us copy all this stuff down.

"The revival of Largebusts occurred when an unnamed maddwarf emigrant from the fortress of Mebzuthtakùth came upon the site in 1415, and returned with an embark in the autumn of 1417. The fortress drew many immigrants and due to its proximity to The Prim Jungle, the careful management of wildlife began. The Largebusts Trappers Guild was able to move wildlife into secure areas, where they could breed. The war with the elves re-started, and the elven capital was sacked."

"The second fall of large busts occurred when a new high-power magma drill was tested, with the intention of bringing useful lava to the surface. The overpowered construction caused a devastating flood of lava which utterly incinerated the fortress and surrounding landscape. The Prim Jungle was reduced to The Plane of Ash. Archeological work was carried out in the 21st century to recover the library, which was sealed off during the disaster."

"Following the disaster, the fortress of Deadbeard, which was devoted to hunting down the wildlife of The Prim Jungle, suffered a major economic collapse and was abandoned to ruin. These events happened close to the end of the beginning of Middle History."

[CaptainArchmage]

Got a moment (and have a traveling copy of the save for once). The post got so huge I have to start a new one right now.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2215 (from 1st Slate onwards) (click to show/hide)

1st Slate 2215

Damn storage limits. I thought this was the fucking future, Armokdamnit!

Crown Prince Berthais Berathtishis Angkosh has been trying his hand at industrial development recently. Should he rise to the position of Emperor, he can increase mineral production further by 10%. All good news.

I'd ordered a corvette built with like 37 days to spare on it. Then I realized there was some unacceptable inefficiency due to the Elder things not being as good as us. Thus, today, I had the parts reprocessed for what will be the Ijaagin starbase. In any case we can afford to wait another year before the invasion, and that will be better due to the colonization efforts sucking energy. Unfortunately, the energy suck for the coming 9 months is about 7 Gigasankis higher than we can afford, so I'll need to find another way to cut corners and balance the books.

4th Felsite 2215

The dwarf scumbag criminal Ozleb Ushangur, or "Ozleb Monsterhearth" has dared to raise another fleet against us, and is laying siege to Howoz again. I will order Strike Force StarkRavingMad to disengage from Celephais and deal with the pirate scum of the Immortal Cabal once and for all.

My shuttle is en route to the DIS Joke Column, which has entered the Nicor system and is approaching Nicor I. Hopefully we will make good progress here.

15th Felsite 2215: The Ides of Felsite

The shuttle is in decent over the barren world of Nicor I. Gomath hasn't aged a bit even though he's doing two full time jobs running a science ship and leading a political party at the same time. 'tis also the Ides of Felsite, and superstitious dwarves have a sense of destiny about our work here.

2nd Hematite 2215

While me and Gomath search through the dust of Nicor I, Professor Muddlecharm has completed her research on geothermal fracking, so we can now expand our mining bases. I have commissioned further research efforts on "Mineral Processing", so we can build minerals processing planets on our worlds and nebula refineries on our starbases.

6th Malachite 2215

From our firebase on Nicor I, I've ordered the DIS Prime Tattoo to build an outpost in the Regganus system.

Meanwhile, in Howoz it seems the outpost might not survive this time. We need to emphasize being able to mobilize a rapid response fleet in the future.

15th Malachite 2215: The Ides of Malachite

Today Gomath put together his findings on the alien database on Nicor I. It appears that the aliens who once inhabited this planet tried to survive their impending doom by scanning their neural patterns and uploading them to this database. I mean come on, an alien race without hyperspace technology can manage to do that, and I have a ridiculous word count cap on my e-journal?

Since we might be able to rescue the aliens by uploading their neural patterns to our robots, I've decided to order that project carried out. They might be a little stunted until we build better robots though, but it is worth it. I have asked His Majesty to order Professor Muddlecharm to fulfil our duty to the galaxy, and finish this job. A large fleet of freighters is currently removing the data storage media from Nicor I and bringing it back to Nir Kodor. We will give these aliens a second chance in mechanical bodies. We will also give Professor Muddlecharm a chance to spend eight months from the height of the summer working in an air-conditioned data centre.

The DIS Joke Column will now return to Bhafsch and carry out the abductions. I will remain aboard until summer is over in Boatmurdered.

18th Galena 2215

The troop transports are now all in Celephais. They will assemble and await further orders.

1st Limestone 2215

In order to address energy issues in the future, I have set aside 150 Mega-Urists of minerals to build an energy grid at Blockedlance. Unfortunately, we only have less than two months of energy left.

13th Limestone 2215

To reduce the energy drain, I have re-assigned the workforce from Towersoared to the area surrounding Nist Akath. I have also assigned mining personnel on Ir Kodor back to the re-assembled shelter made out of the DIS Musty Armory of Torretdoge. This will cut energy losses and give us enough power with minimal mining losses and food deficit. We can manage this from existing supplies.

3rd Sandstone 2215

Not one, but two breakthroughs were made today. Firstly, Dr. Crewblench made a breakthrough on "Blue Lasers", so we can now upgrade our ships again. Incidentally, some experimentation with this technology also caused an energy spike on the Howoz system outpost, which has been restored to full shields and armor, which is a good thing.

Secondly, Mad Lolok has finalized designs for the Mk I Biolab.

I ordered a new project for Dr. Crewblench, which is "Field Modulation", which will allow us to upgrade existing power stations to produce more energy. This will be very important for ensuring the future energy sufficiency of our empire. Meanwhile, Mad Lolok will focus on "Colonial Bureaucracy", so I can run more systems from the core sector.

17th Limestone 2215

The Regganus outpost is complete, and we have control over the entire system! Next step will be to build an energy station over the star, which will help us get even with energy again.

14th Timber 2215

Uncle Nil just informed me the Off-World Trading Company is complete in Unatra Station! This has cut losses so we'll now definitely survive without running out of energy.

The Joke Column is now approaching Bhafsch, and we will begin abductions soon enough.

20th Timber 2215

Admiral Rumred has now entered the Howoz and is preparing to take on the pirate fleet. Ozleb Monsterhearth shall be brought to justice soon enough!

28th Timber 2215

Doop de doo, abducting space aliens.

1st Moonstone 2215

The last month of the year is underway. The latest news from Ir Kodor is that population growth has now allowed us to reactivate the mining base, so all buildings are at full capacity. The next time population increases on Ir Kodor, we'll be able to build a proper planetary administration. A power-generating mining station is also in construction over Regganus, so we can probably run some more ships and colonization missions.

Meanwhile, Strike Force StarkRavingMad is engaging the pirate fleet in Howoz, our armies are ready to invade Ooth-Nargai, and abductions are under way on Bhafsch.

8th Moonstone 2215

The battle of Howoz is over, as Strike Force StarkRavingMad shredded the surviving vessels. The pirate admiral Ozleb Ushangur is dead. We also have a research project, as some advanced technology was carried aboard the pirate vessels! We recover from the debris and generate some permanent research projects about Autocannons, Ceramo-metallic armour, Afterburners, Gravatic sensors, and Ion Thrusters. Gomath will be on the job as soon as is feasible... or we'll have to hire another scientist.

Admiral Rumred will now take the battle to Kodracca and finish of The Immortal Cabal once and for all.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2216 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Annual Report, 1st Opal 2216



Nothing like finishing your annual report on time before heading off to the Big Ass New Year Party in Ten-Backward. This is the current state of the Delta Quadrant, with Dwarven civilization having expanded to the energy-rich Regganus system. We narrowly staved off a major energy shortfall and have now brought all personnel out of Nist Akath and back to Towersoared. We need to bring up our energy reserves again, while food supplies are at a net +2 on whatever units are used. Like, I have to look up that one. We had population growth on Ir Kodor, and now that the colony of Zansong Egath is complete we have a total of 17 planetary sectors worth of population. However, Zansong Egath is a fertile world and even without infrastructure a decent crop of food can be grown locally. The first plump helmets from Zansong Egath are being loaded onto supply ships and we now have access to the local flora for gastronomical endeavors.

Mining yields bumped back up to their original peak, but thanks to additional consumer goods demands the net mineral intake is lower at +49 Mega-Urists per month. We can expand this further with more mining bases in Teae and Regganus. Energy yield is at +5 Gigasankis per month. With regards to political influence, in 10 months we will be able to claim a new system. This is partly thanks to the new rivalry with the Turian Hierarchy that started early last year, but was in the works since we bumped into the aliens.

Changes in alien holdings are minor. The Angaran Citizen Commonwealth claimed the Bion Dazat system and have a colony growing in Subtranus. The Turians have colony in Medgar. Neither will be operational before next year.

Our own influence will likely expand soon with the full conquest of Ooth-Nargai, which will end the Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai as an independent state. We also expect the Blockedlance Energy Grid to come online late next month, and on Granite 1st the Ijaagin starbase should also be fully operational.

In three months, the Second Chance project run by Professor Muddlecharm will be finished, and we will see whether we can bring these ancient aliens back to life using our robots. We also hope to obtain some good test subjects from Bhafsch, after which I will return home to Nir Kodor and Gomath will research the debris in Howoz from the pirate scum we destroyed.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2216 (click to show/hide)

11th Opal 2216

Strike Force StarkRavingMad has detected some unidentified vessels, flagged as the "Nun Aliens", in the nearby system of Piddahfir. They appear to be clustered around multiple locations in the system, and are quite powerful. This was detected due to the superior space radar systems of some of our vessels, like the DIS Salvage. Admiral Rumred will, as planned, engage the pirate scum outpost in orbit around the molten world of Kodracca I as planned, and this will be the end of The Immortal Cabal.

Mad Lolok will meanwhile look into whether we can make contact with these aliens.

20th Opal 2216

Battle is begun! Emperor Urist III urges the swift annihilation of this menace. ARMOK VULT!

1st Obsidian 2216

A minor revision of the Urist-class corvette sees the red lasers replaced with blue lasers. That said we have no urist-class corvettes in service.

8th Obsidian 2216

Our assault on the pirate station is at a close. Admiral Rumred reports the complete destruction of The Immortal Cabal. There were no survivors. We have recovered the safe room, retrieving over 100 Gigasankis worth of energy credits and 180 Mega-Urists of minerals. This has set our finances straight for now. The recovered resources will go into reinforcing Strike Force StarkRavingMad, and possibly into building new mining stations.

25th Obsidian 2216

The Energy Grid at Blockedlance is now operational. We won't be able to dwarf it for another six months though, but I've re-assigned the crew from Towersoared over there to get it running. The declining reserves of ours will pose no threat.

Work has also begun to increase the yields at Lanterwebs, as the upgrade of the mining network gets underway.

3rd Granite 2216: The State of the Imperium

Today, His Majesty Urist III went on air to inform the peoples of the Dwarven Star Imperium of the great development in the labs of the University of Sparkgear. We have succeeded in uploading the neural patterns of all the aliens into a vast number robots, and there seem to be signs of some kind of intelligence behind them. Unfortunately, the hardware has given limitations, and thus they are little more intelligent than normal robots - though they seem to be vastly better at research than other robots. Urist III has assured the Imperium that contrary to some claims, the robots are indeed intelligent. He has also elevated Professor Bushos Muddlecharm to Baron Bushos Von Muddlecharm for her efforts. We have chosen to give these robots, or "Awoken", a few island chains on Ir Kodor. While Professor Muddlecharm said there would be one population, we ended up with enough robots to cover three planetary sectors, doubling the planet's population.

An assessment shows these robots aren't as good at mining as dwarves despite their advantages, but they will do fine in farming food. We have thus settled them on three archipelagos that are particularly fertile. Plump helmet and sunshine production will begin as soon as possible. They don't demand food, but are taking in total about 2.7 Gigasankis of energy per month between the three of them, which is now alright. We will also be upgrading the DIS Musty Armory of Torretdoge to a full planetary administration when we get the resources.

ARMOK VULT!

7th Granite 2216

Mad Lolok says the Nun aliens are spaceborn crystalline entities. I have issued a physics project to Professor Crewblench to continue the analysis of these creatures.

20th Granite 2216

The DIS Romekkudar, or the DIS Long Immortal, has been completed at the Istam Anriz starbase. This will fully reinforce Strike Force StarkRavingMad.

1st Slate 2216

Ijaagin Starbase is now fully operational, and I will look into how to utilize this for the betterment of Dwarfkind. Uncle Nil suggests using the station as another trading outpost. I have also commissioned an assault army on Zansong Egath, so we can increase our army strength.

25th Felsite 2216

The abduction project is finally finished, and we've got a large amount of society research out of the endeavor. For now, the Joke Column will travel to Ussaldon and check out the giant alien skeleton.

1st Hematite 2216

Strike Force StarkRavingMad is returning to Istam Anriz, since they don't need to be around Celephais.

23rd Malachite 2216

Farms on Ir Kodor and Zansong Egath are now complete. Meanwhile, a sixth army is heading out to Ooth-Nargai. We may not be able to initiate and complete the final invasion this year, but we will try. Unfortunately, we may not be able to commence the capital upgrade yet.

2nd Galena 2216

The Crystal Sonar project by Professor Crewblench is complete. For a modest expenditure of 30 Gigasankis of energy, we can instantly survey all worlds in a system with crystalline entities present.

18th Galena 2216

Lanternwebs is now upgraded to use the latest mining gear, and we're moving on to Gemclod for the upgrades. With Strike Force StarkRavingMad docked at Istam Anriz, we're also using less power and minerals on upkeep.

3rd Limestone 2216

We're currently scanning the gigantic skeleton on Ussaldon I. After this, I'm heading back to Nir Kodor for the winter.

Wait what? The project days 180 days?! Make that spring.

11th Sandstone 2216

I am assigning the Prim Tattoo down to Guram to help with expansion of the Dwarven Star Imperium in that direction. Meanwhile, I will have an outpost built around the Ascension's End black hole.

1st Timber 2216

Actually, the Prim Tattoo will stay in Teae and develop the system. Until we increase our influence stockpiles further, we won't be able to do anything more down there. Ascension's End is now having an outpost installed around it. I think the expansion job core-ward may call for a new construction ship...

7th Moonstone 2216

Energy projections indicate we will be able to afford to hire a general for the invasion of Ooth-Nargai around Obsidian 2017. The Kinmelbil Miner's Guild is seeing to the establishing of asteroid facilities in Teae, which should draw us a net of 5 Mega-Urists of minerals per month.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2217 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpets' Annual Report 1st Opal 2217

So after new years' celebrations and the delivery of a new +honey badger leather couch+ imported from Nir Kodor, I am drafting this from my cabin aboard the DIS Joke Column, in low orbit around Ussaldon I outside of controlled space, and bordering on the edge of unknown space. Fortunately this is on the other side of the rimward hyperspace corridor, so I have no concerns about Turian vessels interrupting us. Despite the focus of our endeavors, I must draft this report for the Imperial Senate to better all the Dwarven Star Imperium.



A new year dawns. The political state of the galaxy has changed little, with Avadon taking the Zathmak system. I am hoping that we can expand down there soon, so I might commission a new construction vessel. We discovered the crystalline entities out in space, and while they are hostile we can make use of their presence to quickly explore star systems.

While we had a reprieve on energy income, that is being cut down again as more buildings come online and infrastructure gets upgraded. The Miner's Guilds are reporting increased mineral production all across the board, but the increase in population to 21 sector tiles from 17 has increased mineral consumption. I also want to upgrade the Ir Kodor primary settlement, still the ship shelter from the DIS Musty Armory of Torretdoge, to a planetary administration. Additionally, Strike Force StarkRavingMad is back home, which is helpful and saves minerals and energy.

As of Obsidian, we will have enough energy to hire our first general. This will lead to the invasion of Ooth-Nargai. Afterwards, His Majesty Urist III informs me he intends to move on the Turians. We will not take the Turians out at once, but rather aim for their colony in the Medgar system.

For some reason, the "Improbable Ceramics" mission has taken over a year or two so far! I asked Dustik what the fuck was going on and he said it was very difficult to figure out how a teapot ended up in a low orbit around a star. Really, really fucking difficult. Fortunately it will be done in 65 days. The Gigantic skeleton probe will be over in 40 days.

Overall, things are looking up for the Glorious Dwarven Imperium. This year, we may even conquer the Citizen-League of Ooth-Nargai once and for all rather than kicking the barrel down the hallway for the umpteenth time oh who am I fucking kidding.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2217 (click to show/hide)

Military Report by Ral Undertrumpets, 11th Opal 2217

Today, the 6th invasion army joined the dwarven forces in orbit around Ooth-Nargai. In 4-5 months from now the Elder Things will be greater in number, but those beings will be enslaved. Therefore, our liberation of them would be well-placed. As such, I would expect to launch an invasion around Slate to Felsite at the earliest. We won't be able to hire a general until next month. In the meantime, I have ordered another construction ship built at Ir Kodor, which will be done as of 1st Granite.

3rd Obsidian 2217

Today I received that hyperphone call that we have like the 200 Gigasankis in the bank in order to hire a General. Here's the outlook of top suitable characters:

1) Colonel Zafal Kuthdengamith, or "Zafal Accidentaldelights". She is quite restrained and thus will cut down on collateral damage, and will also be more likely to retreat our forces from the fronts while others take over. She is aged 56, and thus has about 46 years of guaranteed service in front of her.
2) Colonel Reg Isholsogdol, or "Reg Frigidfamine". She is physically fit and aged 39, she has about 86 guaranteed years of service ahead of her.
3) Colonel Gadan Edtulsharul, or "Gadan Groovedimpunity". She is a glory seeker and will inflict a significant amount of additional damage on her enemies. She is aged 37, having 63 years of service ahead of her.

My current intentions lie with hiring Reg Frigidfamine as she has the longest expected service ahead of her.

11th Obsidian 2217: The Leviathan of Ussaldol

Today, we finally compiled the results of the gigantic skeleton project on Ussaldon I. The creature appears to have been a huge organic starship, which so far we cannot either replicate nor fathom the methods of construction of. The starship was from a significantly multicultural organization, as at least three different skeletons of smaller species were found within it as members of crew. For now we had rather claim the system and establish a research outpost around the planet to study the remains.

As of now I will head back to Nir Kodor for the State of the Imperium Address, but Gomath and the Joke Column will head up to the Demons Eye Nebula and carry out more exploration there.

In other news, we have claimed the Ascension's End system, and can build a physics base to probe the black hole.

12th Obsidian 2217

I have just been notified the upgrades at Gemclod are complete. We are now pulling in a net 56 Mega-urists of minerals, after all the maintenance and consumer goods demands are considered. I believe I shall also be able to use my skill in designating these buildings, a kind of architectural interest if you will, to both speed their construction and reduce their cost by about 10%.

14th Obsidian 2217

I have managed to get us a 30 year research agreement with the Autocracy of Avadon! Not much was exchanged other than that, save for alien contacts. I believe no one has found any other aliens.

1st Granite 2217: The State of the Imperium

Today, two glorious things happened. Firstly, the DIS Thosbutshedim, or DIS Drillshadow was launched from Ir Kodor! Secondly, our colony at Îcum ïlon is finished! This continental moon, known now as "The Virtuous Moon", is now one of the most habitable destinations for dwarfkind. It orbits Zansong Egath, "The Massive Jungle". Our population is now up to 21 planetary sectors worth of dwarves and 3 planetary sectors worth of the Awoken, while our food production is also up thanks to the harvests on the new colony.

Urist III's speech today focused on the ever-impending invasion of Ooth-Nargai, and our need to expand core-ward after cutting off the Turians to the north. If we hold off on using resources until Malachite, we can afford to begin the construction of the Planetary Administration, but I'd prefer to finish the physics outpost around Ascension's End first.

6th Granite 2217

In the end Dustik couldn't figure out how the teapot ended up in a low orbit around Wiertham, but nonetheless it was successful enough to yield us a huge amount of influence given the philosophical questions that may have been answered. It is sufficient to claim two more systems, with a third one in like 9 months.

1st Slate 2217

Doomforests is currently receiving the latest mining upgrades. Meanwhile, I am considering making Severedcoils the location for our new mineral processing plant, when Professor Muddlecharm is done with her research on it.

4th Felsite 2217

I've just ordered a farm built on the surface of The Virtuous Moon. House Ber will be pleased by this development. By the end of the year, we shall have plump helmets and cave wheat flowing out of it! Other than that I'm saving up minerals for the claim of Kodracca. Unfortunately, Avadon seems unwilling to send us any more.

Also, the Wezen system is under colonization by the Angaran Citizen Commonwealth. I sense a new potential rivalry.

11th Hematite 2217

The research station over the Ascension's End black hole is complete. I am now ordering the DIS Oilgear to Nicor just in case we want to claim that system next.

With the Elder Thing population grown, it is approaching time to invade Ooth-Nargai. However, we also want to be able to claim the system with the Gaia world in it, and quickly, and thus this is slowing progress down.

23rd Hematite 2217

Our sensors in Baltris have detected an asteroid on a collission course with Jurg-Faliigh! If it collides with the planet, it will almost certainly wipe out the native Provalguvor! Fortunately, Strike Force StarkRavingMad is on hand to commit to the attack, only one system away. We shall protect the planet from the impact.

1st Malachite 2217

The DIS Drillshadow has arriveed in Kodracca and is now going to begin constructing an outpost around the planet. Meanwhile, Dustik is in hyperspace to Howoz to research the wrecks of the Immortal Cabal's ships.

2nd Galena 2217

Admiral Rumred reports that they have reached Baltris and are engaging the asteroid. ARMOK VULT!

3rd Galena 2217

Scans of the Torell system reveals another uncontacted alien species, known as the Sin Aliens. They appear to be on a course for Piddahfir, which is full of the crystalline entities. Mad Lolok has now initiated a project to make contact with them, or at least tell us what the fuck they are.

26th Galena 2217

Strike Force StarkRavingMad has finally destroyed the asteroid approaching Jurg-Faliigh. They won't know how close they came to extinction... until we brag about it to them in the decades to come.

2nd Limestone 2217



Our sensors are so good they tell this was the reaction of the Sin Aliens to finding the Crystalline entities in Piddahfir.

After a meeting with the the Imperial Senate and the Miner's Guild of Kinemelbil, I have decided to use our unity to implement a courier network. This will help connect our many colonies together more easily, and reduce the social influence costs for new political traditions.

Finally, I have ordered a new mining base around Asteroid 234-3254.

7th Limestone 2217

The Doomforests mining facilities are now upgraded to our latest technology. Next up, we need to expand our Severedcoils facility, and all Nir Kodor's infrastructure will be top notch once more.

3rd Sandstone 2217

Today we made contact with the Mi-Go Conclave. Interestingly, they love us because they are xenophiles, but they hate us for being materialistic over spiritualistic. I never honestly got that one, but overall it cancels out at a big fat zero for opinion. They live in the Gamma Quadrant, and are as far as I am aware they are "Spiritual Seekers" who seek to cooperate with other life forms on a spiritual basis, rather than wiping out those who aren't faithful enough, like the Turians or Ooth-Nargai.

We have attained more political influence, about 40 points, with the Imperial Senate. Maybe we could colonize more systems now?

11th Sandstone 2217

I just traded 248 Gigasankis of energy for 168 Mega-Urists of minerals! As before, nobody makes trade deals better than I do. In a month we can finally commence upgrades on the Ir Kodor capital to make it a proper planetary administration.

2nd Timber 2217

Kodracca is ours! I have also ordered the upgrade of the Ir Kodor re-assembled ship shelter.

5th Timber 2217

I have traded the Mi-Go Conclave's last mineral reserves for most of our energy. Surplus energy will also shoot up soon due to the colonization of Nitom Arkoth, though we will need to establish a new sector for that to happen.

1st Moonstone 2217

The last month of the year is upon us once more. With it comes the colonization of Nitom Arkoth, which has been completed. We have our re-assembled ship shelter, as well as some expatriates who took advantage of our programs, known as the disadvantaged dwarves initiative. Those expatriates are mining a shitload of minerals from the planet already.

To cope with the administrative demands, I have now asked His Majesty Urist III to establish Sector Zansong Egath, based on the planet Zansong Egath in the Ijaagin system. From here, we will rule new claims in the Delta Quadrant. Unfortunately, we have no energy left to hire a governor yet.

13th Moonstone 2217

Professor Dustik Namemisery has just finished researching the debris left by the Immortal Cabal ships in the Howoz system. We have a foothold on research in Autocannons, Ceramo-Metallic Materials, Afterburners, Gravatic Sensors, and Ion Thrusters. We also have 25 points of physics research and 40 points of engineering research, though I have no fucking clue how that works. Are these like holoslides or something?

Dustik will now scan the Meissa system so we can put an outpost on it.

We finished the asteroid mining base, so the DIS Prim Tattoo will be sound Rimworld to aid with the process of outpost construction... and construction Kodracca's space infrastructure.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2218 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpets' Annual Report 1st Opal 2218



Another year dawns, approaching the 19th year of my tenure as core governor and executive overseer over the Dwarven Star Imperium. This is the current state of the Galaxy with an overlay of budget. The political situation in the Delta Quadrant is unchanging, though attrition on the Ooth-Nargai has risen again as expected. It was decided to focus on expansion elsewhere, and establish our first sector outside of the core one at Zansong Egath in the Ijaagin system. We have also claimed Kodracca so neither the Avadon humans, nor pirates will hold sway over the system any longer. Our new colony at Nitom Arkoth is also complete, and the administration population is part of the Drumbeat of Victory Party, while some more expatriates from the slums around Flarechannel have moved into the mineral rich areas nearby. Professor Gomath is happy about these developments.

The political situation in the Gamma Quadrant is now becoming apparent, however. We have discovered the Mi-Go Conclave, who are a race of "Spiritual Seekers". They aren't hostile but are at an absolute neutral attitude to us. They will, however, trade with us which is a good thing. Thanks to their trade, we are upgrading the capital shelter at Ir Kodor to a full planetary administration.



Before I cover our budget, we had this major discover this morning at Zansong Egath, our sector capital. Something about a major terraforming project having been abandoned by an alien race, no doubt to make the planet more habitable. If we execute the terraforming project in five months, we may be able to improve the planet's habitability, but it might cause a total fucking disaster. We could also dismantle the equipment and learn more about terraforming. Unfortunately, the effects of the machinery are making growing stuff difficult, and causing major unhappiness in the population. As a result, I believe it best to execute the project. I am handing this over to Mad Lolok for completion. ETA is 5 months.

The unhappiness has made for a slight drop in energy and a noticeable drop in food production from Zansong Egath. However, we might be rid of that in five months. Overall, mineral production is now at 60 Mega-Urists per month, energy is up to 18 Giga-Sankis per month, and food production is 10 Giga-Urists per month.

This year, I intend to establish our domain further over the Nunki, Ferragon, and if possible Meissa systems, which should be possible. This will cause our borders to reach those of the Autocracy of Avadon. Hopefully they will be OK with that.

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2218 (click to show/hide)

2nd Opal 2218

Mad Lolok has jump-started the terraforming project. We will be done with it on the 2nd of Felsite this year, which is a really specific date. The DIS Drillshadow has arrived and Nunki and will now build an outpost around the star.

We've also finished research on better power plants! We can now build Mark II power stations. Physics research by Professor Crewblench will now focus on administrative AI, to improve research speeds. Not sure how it's an AI when it just follows a bunch of algorithms...

1st Obsidian 2218

Upgrades at Severedcoils are now underway.

25th Obsidian 2218: Exploration Report

Professor Gomath has completed exploration of Anaxador. We shall now penetrate deeper into the Demon's Eye Nebula. I shall head back out there when the State of the Imperium Address is over.

1st Granite 2218: The State of the Imperium

Citizens of the Dwarven Imperium - I am proud to announce our new energy deal with the Mi-Go Conclave, exchanging 45 Giga-Sankis of energy for 31 Mega-Urists of Minerals. This has jump-started mining efforts on Nitom Arkoth, that world where many of the unemployed from Flarechannel have left for better fortunes. On behalf of House Lam, the Kinmelbil Miner's Guild, we are proud to present this new opportunity for our citizens to extract minerals and mine ore on an alien planet.

I'm informed the re-activation of terraforming equipment on Zansong Egath is still going as planned. Claiming of the core-ward reaches of the Delta Quadrant is now underway. This has further postponed the invasion of Ooth-Nargai as is appropriate. We are also NOW HIRING for a sector governor in the next two years. Apply within!

21st Granite 2218

Avadon has now signed a non-aggression pact with the Turian Hierarchy. I'm beginning to think we might want to move on the Turians sooner than later.

18th Slate 2218

Damnation, a human pirate fleet has entered the Meissa system! I've told Dr. Namemisery to STAND HIS GROUND. Not that this will work. Seems like the Autocracy of Avadon has serious problems with crime going on. The human pirate admiral is Luciana Moralez, and her group is known as the Dark Riders. They are most likely based on the Koria system, as otherwise they'd have to jump through a bunch of alien space amoeba and would probably have gotten their faces eaten off in the process.

2nd Felsite 2218

After reading the reports from Zansong Egath, the Imperial Senate broke into colossal applause. I immediately left the chamber to change my +cheetah leather pants+.

Afterward, I headed to the shuttle, ordering on the way a new Gene Clinic for Zansong Egath.

7th Felsite 2218

We now control the Nunki system. On to Ferragon!

17th Felsite 2218

It seems like the inhabitants of Bhafsch have noticed our activities on the planet, and several of their nations have put together an "anti-alien task force" to deal with the situation. I have passed the information onto the Imperial Senate, I don't think it's too serious.

I mean, last week we only extracted the recipe for Bhafschian Wine from one of the Hann'Felir. What could possibly go wrong with continuing this project?

1st Hematite 2218

Claiming of Ferragon is now go, we have the 100 Mega-Urists of minerals put down and the move has been approved politically by the Emperor himself. Meanwhile, I am with Gomath again, in the Tinab system, scanning a frozen world known as Tinab Ia. There are four potentially habitable planets, all of them arctic save for a "Tomb World". Some shit went down here some time ago.

Zansong Egath has grown in population to three planetary sectors, and our new population is extracting energy while a gene clinic is built on the world.

7th Malachite 2218

Upgrades at Severedcoils are complete! Nir Kodor is once again state of the art in minerals extraction.

17th Galena 2218

Ijaagin Starbase is now having trade modules added to it. This is a prime system for some mega-trading operations, as Uncle Nil so obviously pointed out.

2nd Limestone 2218

The Nitom Arkoth Robotics Initiative has begun, and we're going to construct one or two robots on the surface of the world to do some work for us and buff up the population.

15th Limestone 2218

The Planetary Administration on Ir Kodor, now known as Ineth TorretDoge, or "TorretDoge City" has been completed. I might run polls to name further cities as they get upgrades.

6th Timber 2218

We're not going to have Meissa claimed by the end of this year, but we will be able to begin building the outpost as Professor Dustik has finished his scans there. This is overall good news.

I will redirect Dustik to see what's going on next door in the Zathmak system where the pirates went. There might be some useful debris left from the combat there.

Finally, I have ordered robot construction on Zansong Egath, so we can populate the planet faster.

20th Timber 2218

We've finally expanded the borders of the Dwarven Star Imperium to Ferragon, which contains an unstable wormhole. The system is mineral-rich, so our construction ships will be very busy for a while now.

21st Moonstone 2218

Today Admiral Rumred informed us he's a lot better at maintaining ships now, and the costs of doing so have been majorly reduced by about 10%. We're also starting energy harvesting around Ferragon, and should be able to get a maximum of 11 Mega-Urists of minerals out of the system along with 3 Giga-Sankis of energy out of the star.

Spoiler: Beginning of Year Report, 2219 (click to show/hide)

Ral Undertrumpet's Annual Report, 1st Opal 2219



The Dwarven Star Imperium continues it's core-ward expansion, and our borders now stretch to those of Avadon. Soon enough Meissa should also be claimed, and after that, the system of Nicor.

The rise of House Stakud has promoted the construction of more robotic populations on two of our worlds, but we must balance these demands with energy and mining.

Minerals income net is at 64 Mega-Urists per month, and energy gain is at 20 Giga-Sankis per month, which is at an optimal peak. Food production is steady at 11 Giga-Urists of produce per month. The last year has seen us blessed with the discovery of terraforming equipment on Zansong Egath, which has turned the planet into a Gaia World. I would call this a fitting sector capital.

The political question of the Ooth-Nargai still hangs in the balance. We believe that by trading communications with the Mi-Go Conclave will deliver a large amount of political influence rapidly, and this will allow us to quickly claim the neighboring systems. However, we must first get a science vessel and construction ship into position.

Finally, New Year's Honors has lead to the rise of Ùst Íkthagassog, or "Ust Squeezedisloyal" to the position of Sector Governor of Zansong Egath. She is 50 years old, and has an agrarian upbringing from the Undergrotto. She will arrive there in ten days.

[CaptainArchmage]

Probably the first post in a while due to IRL commitments, the last post has incidentally hit the buffers in terms of size.


To be honest I was surprised wasn't surprised by this opinion. Are you?

About that 2.1 upgrade

I haven't done it yet. Again, requires learning how to hack stuff into the save without wrecking it. It will have to happen someday, but that day isn't today. Maybe when we finally assault Ooth-Nargai and win.

Zansong Egath, 7th Moonstone 2018

Spoiler: The Discovery (click to show/hide)

The hovercraft... hovered through the thick xenoswamp. Invisible gasses rose from damnable depths of stagnant water, making Expedition Leader Ùst Íkthagassog choke. Some photographs and video  of the swamps had shown sickly green gasses arising, as was standard from such noxious swamps. Ùst's upbringing, in the fortress Breadbowl, had been insufficient preparation for her to making well in such poisonous environments. It was one thing to plant in suboptimal environments, but another to build farms in such inhospitable environments. There were bigger things to be concerned about, however. The environment of Zansong Egath was somehow unstable. This had suddenly impacted the entire colony, as expected natural paradigms no longer held. Some fauna was massively abundant, whereas others were not. This lead to uncontrolled explosions of the flora, and sometimes of the fauna, overrunning settled areas and reducing morale among the colonists.

An investigation into the anomalies had been launched by the local government, which was (as far as Ùst knew) now made the first sector capital outside of the core of the Dwarven Star Imperium. This had stabilized issues with interstellar administration, which would otherwise have been losing about ten percent of energy income and a considerable amount of political influence in the bureaucratic chaos following the completion of the Nitom Arkoth colony. The chair, however, was empty. Nobody was actively running the sector and there were no prospective decisions to be made for a while. There was not the energy to hire a governor, of course. But one day, that chair would have to be filled, and Zansong Egath would be the capital world for a vast area in the Dwarven Star Imperium. Certainly covering most of Ooth-Nargai space one day, perhaps then the rest of the Delta Quadrant from core to rim. The government firstly, however, had to solve the issues at hand. Solve the problems at Zansong Egath, and one could solve the problems for the rest of the sector. This was the challenge for the colonists of this world. Perhaps, some scientists had found a solution

"Tôsed!"

The shout came from an area of swamp that had been... somewhat de-swamped. The technology didn't quite yet exist, and according to most scientists did not exist, to de-swamp the entire region. However, small outposts could be raised to enable settlement. Here, there was a large radio tower, and a few pre-fabricated buildings upon which the swamp "flora" were trying to climb. The hovercraft halted, wary of the coilguns perched atop one of the bigger concrete structures. A dwarf, wearing a full enviro-suit and carrying a megaphone system, waved Ust and the hovercraft in.

"Ùst Íkthagassog. Human translation is Ùst Squeezeddisloyal. Expedition Leader of the First Xenoswamp Exploration Corps."

"Oh shit. Another expedition trying to cut their way around this perpetually unstable biosphere. Most assuredly, thou art in luck. Me and my... Dwarven Scientific Corps... have probably come across a topping solution for this world. A most topping solution! You won't believe what we have uncovered here."

"Your name and designation?"

"Viscount Cim Umshadterstum. That's His Grace Viscount JUICE PONDEROUSDESTRUCTION" - the dwarf screamed so the phrase "Ponderousdestruction" echoed throughout the swamp. "That's designation DSC-420.69"

"I don't take kindly to-"

"I will have you know the Emperor HIMSELF has assured me of this designation!"

"Fine. I'm not going to challenge that. Just tell me what the fuck's going on."

.  .  .

The cave entrance was perfectly circular, and set within the swamp. Technicians wearing the insignia of House Lam and the Kinmelbil Mining Guild were present, drilling away the fetid deposits of centuries of xenoflora. Also present were other dwarves, tending the equipment. They bore a strange insignia, of a gear with circuitry embedded in it.

"Who are those?"

"Oh, don't tell me you don't know of House Stâkud?"

"House Stâkud? Never heard of it."

"But it's one of the most ancient houses of Dwarfkind! It's history goes back to the first golden age, the first age of heroes, even the first age of myth. Back when dwarves actually did the most dwarfy shit ever seen and this was like a metric fuckton of centuries before Boatmurdered! Back when dwarves were destined to make their own dwarves..."

"But we do, right? We-"

"Yeah I don't mean FUCKING reproduce. I mean we build dwarves. Like, we build... people."

"Like humans? Elves?"

"No. We build our own life form. A new kind of life. We become... creators of a new species."

"Like we genetically engineer?"

"Oh no. We can do that OK, I mean we build a new kind of life... out of machines!"

"So, like intelligent robots?"

"But of course! Don't forget the terminology though..."

The Viscount picked a stained notebook out of his enviro-suit. It was perhaps the most filthy item out here even considering the swamp itself.

"The correct terminology is... Synthetic."

"Synthetic? Like what?"

"Just synthetic. A synthetic person. Made by us, with a mind of its own."

"Oh, OK. So like a really smart robot."

"No, a synthetic. Don't call them robots, you'll hurt their feelings."

"Oh, OK. What about the robots?"

"We'll just upgrade their hardware and firmware at the right time. It should be easy, the hard part is getting the technology."

"So, how good are you at that?"

"I studied at the University of Sparkgear. Graduated first of my class in 2192."

"University of Breadbowl, Department of Agricultural Sciences."

"Oh, another Agrarian Graduate. I suppose there's a place for you, someone's got to get the plump helmets to the distillery in record time. I can't complain. Let's see the big deal at the centre of this magnificent excavation."

The pair finally reached the core of the excavation. Here, buried under piles of decomposing xenovegetation, were outcroppings of what looked like machinery.

"Behold, the cause of, and the solution to, all of our problems!"

"Um, this wasn't left here by dwarves, was it?"

"No! It was left here by... those who came before us!"

"Like the Yuht?"

"Radiocarbon dating calibrated for the parameters of this planet, considering of course the variation in Ijaagin's output, indicates that these facilities are approximately seventy-seven centuries old. The Yuht, in comparison, lived approximately six million years ago. I personally calculated the odds at only 1 in e raised to the 31st power that this operation was operated by the Yuht. And that is actually surprisingly, and inconceivably high, Professor Agriculture. Inconcievabl-"

"I never became a professor"

"Well whatever. I could be like ten times as right and still outrank you."

"..."

"Just get to the point."

"Our discoveries and analyses show that this was perhaps a terraforming experiment of sorts. This planet started out pretty barren, and then this alien race must have attempted to turn it into a better world. And not just a better world! A world close to perfection. And our colonists just struck the effort!"

"It certainly is a beautiful world. That must be why His Majesty chose it for colonisation. But it isn't perfect."

"Oh, I certainly agree it isn't perfect. What with the swamps. What with this most damnable arrangement of out of control xenoflora. What with the fauna eating up our sun berry harvests. But that's because the process was, well. Stopped."

"Stopped?"

"Whoever started this process did not finish it. Clearly they were lightyears ahead of us in technology."

"Lightyears ahead?"

"It's a figure of speech."

"..."

"Indeed, light years ahead. These beings must have been at the height of ascendency, or perhaps not. Perhaps they just wanted to make this world suitable for their own. But we can fix that, we can try to reactivate the damn process."

"Reactivate?"

"Indeed. I am compiling a proposal to the Imperial Senate this minute and it will reach Nir Kodor by the start of the new new year. Like the Opal new year, not good old granite. By the time summer has arrived at Sparkgear, we could have a whole new planet on our hands!"

"And if it fails?"

"Oh, then this planet will probably get turned into a poisonous world experiencing a horrific greenhouse effect. At least the swamps will be gone, but a crying shame about the rest of the planet."

"And if it works?"

"If it works this place could be the greatest world known to dwarfkind this century, if ever. I'm hoping and placing my money on better worlds being found though. Or made."

There was a mad twinkle in his eye.

"So, are you planning on something?"

"Just trying to settle down somewhere."

"I say, we could get ourselves a good deal out of this. I don't want to merely be a Vicecount scientist without a science ship. And you certainly need a place to set yourself up. This world needs you. And I need to get this project done. You help me get this project completed and I will write you a reference."

"What kind of reference?"

"A most topping one and I most assuredly hope the governor's seat isn't unoccupied for too long afterwards..."

"But I only graduated in agricultural technology!"

"Oh come on. I can run this all from a science ship. I could run this from my apartment if you need. Just get the information to Professor Lolok Rimsurprise as I tell you to."

"Professor Lolok? I thought everyone called him Mad Lolok."

"He's a professor, he deserves to be called a professor, he's just misunderstood. But he's also great. He's the reason why we're all great."

"Lolok wasn't first in his class-"

"He was too busy for that."

"..."

"Just let's get this damn operation on the hyperlane. The sunshine is on me when it all goes right."

2nd Felsite, 2218

Spoiler: Making Paradise (click to show/hide)

The nanoswarms flew out of the cave, and from thousands of other caves, and pits, and from the depths of the oceans, and the thick jungles. The skies over the landed colony ship, which served as the planetary capital. In some of the thick jungles, the swarms consumed the excess xenoflora, leaving behind shrubland, while in others it grew back, or grew differently. Ice and tundra grew atop some tall mountains. Lush grassland and deciduous forests replaced some of the most poisonous swamps A list of species altered scrolled at lightning speed over the monitor in front of Viscount Cim's face. The video feeds from satellites were displayed on his monitors, as were the views from Icum Ïlon.

"Wh- a---- you -- Icum Ïlon?"

The transmission from Expedition Leader Ùst was garbled by the swarms.

"Because of course, I would be here. I have to oversee the operation."

"Re----- it is t-- danger---"

"Oh no. I shall not retreat. I have to be here to oversee the completion of the process. Someone else would get it wrong."

The radio went dead as the swarms blotted out Ijaagin, and the Viscount continued to watch the monitors, issue orders through the telephone, and make adjustments to his equipment. The swarms then began to gradually clear from the sky, leaving the new shape of the planet before the window for Cim to survey his work.

"Ah, Zansong Egath. This is the new Zansong Egath. Here, we dwarves are making paradise. But we are not doing so alone... we need to master this technology for ourselves now."

=====================================================================

It's also time to re-do the dwarves list. Here you go:

List of Characters as of 12th Opal 2219

Convenient List of Simulated Characters (and anyone doing RP):
Ral Undertrumpets: The new Governor of the Core Sector. Age 56 years, born 2163. Graduated from University of Boatmurdered. RP yours truly.
His Majesty Urist III Angkosh: The current Emperor of the Dwarven Star Imperium. Age 47 years, born 2172.
His Dwarven Highness Tosid Creamloves Creamspiral Angkosh: The current Crown Prince. Age 41 years, born 2178.
Professor Gomath Chancetone: Scientist and Captain of the D.I.S. Joke Column. Age 59 years, born 2160. Graduated University of Boatmurdered.
Professor Bushos Muddlecharm: Scientist in charge of Engineering Research. Age 67 years, born 2152. University of Sparkgear
Professor Lolok Rimsurprise: Maniac Scientist in charge of Society Research. Age 52 years, born 2167. Graduated from University of Boatmurdered, top secret research ph.D at University of Sparkgear.
Professor Dustik Namemisery: Scientist, Former Head of Physics Research, now commanding the D.I.S. Buttonjail. Age 62 years, born 2157. Graduated University of Sparkgear.
Professor Alnis Crewblench: Scientist in charge of Physics Research, replaced Dr. Namemisery. Age 67, born 2152. Graduated University of Lanternwebs, ph.D in hypersonic minecartery.
Ùst Squeezedisloyal: Governor of Sector Zansong Egath. Age 50, born 2169.
Viscount Cim Ponderousdestruction: Scientist candidate. Age 49, born 2170. Graduated University of Sparkgear, first of class of 2192.
Admiral Rumred Conflicthops: Admiral commanding Strike Force StarkRavingMad. Age 48, born 2171. Graduate of Boatmurdered Naval Academy.

Unsimulated Characters (and RP Participants)
Chancellor Urnbreath: Member of Emperor Urist III's cabinet. Voiceover guy.
Uncle Nil: Uncle of Ral Undertrumpets. Deeply connected businessdwarf.

[CaptainArchmage]

Currently, the last set of logs reached the maximum limits on the post size. So we're continuing here.

Alert: As of the 10th Limestone 2219 report, I've realised that the namelist has become totally borked. New characters simply don't spawn with names. There's two things I can do to deal with this. One is to hack the namelist back to Dwarf Fortress by editing the game, or if that fails I will hack dwarves to use the human namelist. Hopefully no other civilizations are borked. I will probably also update this to 2.1.1. I have no idea what caused this.

« Last Edit: June 15, 2018, 08:36:24 pm by CaptainArchmage »
Update: I've managed to fix by editing the name list issue. It seems to have vanished from the file name. I can now work on fixing the blank system names too... then we'll see about updating to 2.1.1. If anybody knows how the namelist could have been "lost" from the save file, let me know so I can stop this ever happening again.

Update (1st July, 2018): A few more things got wrecked. So firstly, the namelist mod just keeps being removed from the Dwarven Star Imperium. A bunch of "Careful" traits got removed from scientists globally as the trait is no longer valid, the Awoken had some "unable to read key reference" problems, and 69 tile deposits were found invalid and removed. Using "observe" shows that the Zro deposits have all gone from the respective planets so the game may have been well and truly fucked. I don't think it's irreparable but there's a lack of update save game editing software for Stellaris, so I'll have to troll through the entire save file to fix shit. Fortunately, it's not too long. If I can't get the namelist working we'll just use "Commonwealth of Man" for the namelist and do our own naming like I did in the 1.9 test run. If it's too tedious to update the game we stick with 2.0.5. I'm not going to reboot if I can help it; adding new systems or planets can restore the resources.

Spoiler: ಠ_ಠ (click to show/hide)

[14:14:57][lexer.cpp:277]: File 'mod/ugc_1313999417.mod' should be in utf8-bom encoding (will try to use it anyways)
[14:14:57][lexer.cpp:277]: File 'mod/ugc_1354423301.mod' should be in utf8-bom encoding (will try to use it anyways)
[14:14:57][lexer.cpp:277]: File 'mod/ugc_1363317192.mod' should be in utf8-bom encoding (will try to use it anyways)
[14:14:57][lexer.cpp:277]: File 'mod/ugc_915432220.mod' should be in utf8-bom encoding (will try to use it anyways)
[14:14:58][texturehandler.cpp:171]: Texture Handler encountered missing texture file: pdx_launcher/game/gfx/interface/button_221x34.dds
[14:14:58][texturehandler.cpp:317]: Couldn't find texture file: pdx_launcher/game/gfx/interface/button_221x34.dds.
[14:14:58][spritetype.cpp:316]: Error initialising texture: pdx_launcher/game/gfx/interface/button_221x34.dds for spritetype GFX_clear_user_directory_button
[14:14:59][pdx_pops_login.cpp:329]: Unsupported platform
[14:14:59][pdx_pops_login.cpp:407]: Could not get session folder
[14:15:12][trigger.cpp:485]: Invalid Scope type for trigger count_pops in common/achievements.txt line : 967
[14:15:16][species.cpp:1178]: Failed to read key reference buildable_robot_pop_1_awoken from database  file: save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate line: 2415
[14:15:16][species.cpp:1178]: Failed to read key reference buildable_robot_pop_1_awoken from database  file: save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate line: 2442
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 166295
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 166295
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 177880
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 177880
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 257928
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 257928
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 290367
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 290367
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 353026
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 353026
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 395410
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 395410
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 491113
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 491113
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 737207
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 737207
[14:15:17][persistent.cpp:34]: Error: "Unexpected token: sr_yuranic, near line: 750813
" in file: "save games/dwarvenstarimperium_188866468/Fixed Game 10th Limestone 2219.sav/gamestate" near line: 750813
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:685]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:670]: Found invalid alternative tech `tech_lythuric_gas`! Old save game?
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:17][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_lythuric_gas`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_yuranic`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_pitharan_dust`
[14:15:18][technology_status.cpp:587]: Invalid tech `tech_mine_satramene`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][leader.cpp:645]: Invalid trait `leader_trait_careful`
[14:15:18][gamestate.cpp:1798]: Repaired savegame, cleared 69 invalid deposits!

Spoiler: Nicol Ashok, 2219 (click to show/hide)

12th Opal, 2219

I've noticed there's a scientist, Viscount Cim Ponderousdestruction, who has a pretty strong application. We kind of need a third science ship and I can recruit him by the end of the year if we save up enough energy to do so. I'll have the Zansong Egath manufacturing facilities standing by for when we're ready to go on that science vessel. Meanwhile, I will redirect Dustik's expedition towards the galactic core.

1st Obsidian 2219

The outpost at Meissa has now got the deposit of 100 Mega-Urists of minerals, and the approval of the Imperial Senate. I'm wondering whether we should expand next to Nicor, which can be ordered in 9 months, or wait longer.

1st Granite 2219: The State of the Imperium



Today's State of the Imperium focused on growth. Curiously absent was talk of invading Ooth-Nargai, while it is really all about House Stâkud ordering the new robot populations built. Our population today includes 23 planetary sectors worth of Dwarves and 3 planetary sectors Awoken, but in total we have 28 planetary sectors with grown or growing populations. 84% of the population consists of dwarves, 9% consists of Awoken, and 6% Robots.

Energy intake is up again thanks to the completion of the first Ijaagin Station Trading Hub, and will increase further once the Ferragon mining station is complete. To increase energy intake even further, I have ordered another trading hub built at Ijaagin. After this I think we'll be able to have more mining stations constructed around Ferragon to make use of the system's mineral worth.

With regards to expansion, I am eyeing Howoz III. Unfortunately, the planet's potential is grossly substandard, so claiming the Guram system and settling it's third planet might be more adviseable to head off the Turians. Even more advisable, however, would be to take control of Unaria after conquering the Ooth-Nargai, and settling the Gaia world there. I am calling an opinion poll on this.



No contest here, eh? Hopefully we can take those guys down Soon.

Soon should probably have a "trademark" there. We need to get our constructors and science ships in order first!

28th Granite 2219

The Prim Tattoo has arrived in Meissa. With any luck we can finish the outpost here before the pirates return!

2nd Slate 2219

We have the minerals to upgrade the power generation facilities at Archcrystal to state of the art, so I ordered the upgrades.

2nd Felsite 2219



House Stâkud has just made a move into the political arena. Professor Dustik Namemisery has just founded the Council of Robotic Science. They promote technology and robots in the Dwarven Star Imperium, which is one of our core value. I also thought I heard something about them lobbying to hire more "Robutticists" in the empire but I'm not sure I heard that correctly. A robutticist is the same as a roboticist, right?

They're a lot happier than the Drumbeat of Victory Party for now, though to produce influence we'll have to adopt traditions of discovery. Unfortunately, they only have one member population, which has just finished growing on Ir Kodor. Their planetary sector is an island chain with Betharian stone on it, which we can't make use of yet. Maybe with progress.

27th Felsite 2218

Tinab has just been surveyed, and the Joke Column shall now progress further into the Demon's Eye Nebula.

1st Hematite 2218

Firstly, Congratulations to His Majesty Urist III Angkosh for becoming a four star ruler! Six stars, here we come!

Secondly, I've now commissioned our third science ship, which is to be launched from Zansong Egath and will explore space around the soon-to-be former Citizen League of Ooth-Nargai space.

1st Malachite 2218

Ir Kodor's mining facilities are now being upgraded to the latest and greatest. Sorry, Ferragon.

1st Galena 2218

Today, the DIS Gudaslased, or DIS Insect Scoop, has been completed and launched from Zansong Egath. Um, what? It is no matter, they shall depart at once for the Keid system, awaiting Viscount Ponderousdestruction for when we hire him.

I've also ordered a new mining facility built around the molten world of Ferragon I, using some mining we set up for one month on Zansong Egath. Those dwarves are now back to farming, thanks to the fantastic efforts of Governor Squeezedisloyal.

12th Galena 2218

Meissa is ours! Now to order some research labs here... or send the Prim Tattoo over towards the Ooth-Nargai and await the claiming.

1st Limestone 2218

Viscount Cim Ponderousdestruction has finally been hired to our active scientist pool, and will be taking over command of the DIS Insect Scoop.

2nd Limestone 2218

Having researched Administrative AI, we're now moving onto AI-controlled colony ships. This will speed our expansion process instead of bogging us down with colony after colony under construction for years on end. ETR is 39 months.

10th Limestone 2218

Gomath has discovered an anomaly on Sidor Ia, a moon in the Sidor system! This looks like orbital bombardment or something to me. I have dispatched myself personally after carrying a minor overview of the political situation.