C.U.N.T. Wiki//Lancer Setting Overview

Lancer Setting Overview

The following is an overview of the lore of Lancer. More in-depth explanations for everything here can be found in the core book. Not everything here is considered common knowledge, and there are often conflicting versions of events among those that do know.  

In the future, Earth faced an irreversible ecological collapse, prompting humanity to launch 10 generation ships into deep space. A dark age followed, erasing most pre-collapse knowledge and reducing humanity to a medieval-like society. Thousands of years later, Earth’s climate recovered and humanity flourished into new civilisations. Giant underground vaults left by pre-collapse societies were discovered, revealing advanced technology and the fate of the generation ships. Humanity united into Union, vowing to protect the species and prevent another extinction. Earth was renamed Cradle, and a new era began.  

By 5016u (years after Union’s founding), humanity has spread across the Orion Arm of the galaxy. Society is divided into three groups: 

  • Metropolitans: Utopian worlds near Blink Gates, where resources are abundant, and life is post-scarcity.  
  • Cosmopolitans: Travelers who transport goods across the galaxy, often experiencing time dilation due to near-light-speed travel.  
  • Diasporans: Frontier colonists living far from blink gates, where resources are scarce, and piracy is common. This forms nearly 90% of societies.  

Blink Gates allow for almost instantaneous teleportation to any other blink gate throughout the galaxy. Through these gates, Union maintains a network called Omninet. Union uses Manna as a universal currency, though local currencies exist. Union’s control of blink gates, the omninet, and manna is how it maintains its control over societies and ensures the spread of Union’s three pillars: 

  1. All shall have their material needs fulfilled. 
  1. No walls shall stand between worlds. 
  1. No human shall be held in bondage through force, labor, or debt. 

For societies to have access to Union’s resources, they need to ensure they uphold these three pillars. Societies that do uphold these three pillars as well as having a nearby blink gate are considered to be Core Worlds of Union space. The majority of worlds in the diaspora of human space, however, are still in the process of implementing the three pillars.  

Beyond Union, other galactic societies and cultures include: 

  • Karrakin Trade Baronies: Feudal nobles reluctantly aligned with Union. Their society started with the landing of the first of the ten generation ships launched by pre-fall humanity, making them the oldest concurrent space-faring civilisation. 
  • Aun: A theocracy worshipping a mysterious alien known as Metat Aun. Little is known about Aun society, and their territory is unknown to Union. Union and Aun are technically at war, although very little combat takes place. 
  • Los Valdores: Nomadic travelers with mysterious FTL technology. Los Valdores traders operate throughout Union space, although little is known about their home or their culture due to their secrecy.  

Most conflict in Union space stems from the legacy of the Second Committee of Union (SecComm), Union’s former fascist government which enforced anthrochauvinism – a survivalist idiology that led to genocides, including the only known sapient aliens called the Egregorians. SecComm are also known for the wide-spread use of mechs and orbital bombardment, leaving behind a very wartorn legacy for Third Committee (ThirdComm) to unturn. 

The only other non-human intelligence is the Non-Human Persons (NHPs) – paracausal digital entities shackled into AI-like servitude. NHPs originated from the Deimos Incident, when Union’s predictive supercomputer accidentally created RA, a mysterious, god-like entity that stole the moon Deimos upon its immergance. When RA returned 2 years after Deimos’ disappearance, paracausal entities took control of Mars’ machines and caused havoc until the First Contact Accords (FCA) were signed. RA occasionally has Deimos appear above settlements and colonies in human space that are breaching the FCA, before killing those who are in breach.  

In the modern day, giant mechs called Lancers dominate warfare and other industries. Pilots license proprietary designs from megacorps: 

  • General Massive Systems (GMS), the Union-owned basic goods business that gives pilots their beginner license and lancer frame. 
  • Interplanetary Shipping-Northstar (IPS-N), who hold a monopoly on interstellar shipping and started the trend of using Lancers to combat piracy. 
  • Smith-Shimano Corp. (SSC), who make luxury goods and do a lot of questionable genetics research (they seem to want to find a way around the First Contact Accords). 
  • Harrison Armory (HA), who are a remnant of SecComm’s government that use the megacorp legal structures to get Union to tolerate them (in exchange for giving Union the results of their questionable NHP research).  
  • HORUS, a very bizarre bunch of hacker collectives and possible NHP cults whose only real unifying stances are wanting free Omninet access everywhere (which is already true in most of Union). HORUS licenses often seem more like viral printer malfunctions, rather than proper legal things.  
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