Burning Empires

Luke Crane schrieb:

All preorders are limited edition/time offers. All preorders will be signed and numbered by ME.

Basic deal: Book + PDF priced cheaper than what the book will retail for.

Illustrated Book (+PDF): Moeller draws a character sketch in your book. There's only going to be 40 of these. They will be numbers 001-040 of the preorders. Expensive, but probably worth it.

Book+PDF+Limited Edition T-Shirt: full color Cotar Fomas logo on the front, river of fire quote on the back. I'm only making enough of these to fill the preorders. After that, no more!

Book+PDF+Signed Art Print of the Cover: Chris has agreed to sign a bunch of the covers/posters. We'll have prints on nice paper.

Book+PDF+Comics: This one is iffy, but I'm going to try to arrange to get a hoard of the graphic novels and sell them along with the game. This offer may extend until after the book is officially released.


Also, given how much time we have to wait (grumble), I think I'm going to push back the preorder go date to June 1st. It'll give me more time to get everything set up. And it'll be less waiting for you! (sort of)

All preorders will get a complete pdf copy of the game AFTER the preorder period has ended. We love pdf pirates, we just want them to wait. Currently, the pdf is 60 mb, so make room!

Also, the prints, comics and tshirts will probably ship BEFORE the books. So you can look cool while you digest your pdf.

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Lechloan schrieb:

Brauch ich das Burning Wheels Grundbuch, oder funktioniert es auch alleine?

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The Empire and the Theocracy

SHADOW EMPIRES takes place ten thousand years in our Earth's
future. Mankind sprung from the Earth, which became the center of a
sprawling interstellar civilization. This ancient republic was called
the Federation. Eventually, internal pressures wrecked its republican
nature, and it became the Imperial Federation.

The Imperial Federation lasted until forces both internal and
external caused it to collapse. Feudal barons then grabbed up its
fragments and formed eight different states, called the Inner Empires
(see map in SE:Faith Conquers #1 or 2), all of which together were only
a fraction of the former Federation. These states share the curse of
medieval Europe: there is no central rule among them.

The Darikahn Empire is one of these states. Its emperor is
actually the most powerful of many barons, and he can be overthrown by
the combined strength of the others. Earth and Hotok are two chief
planets in Darikahn. Hotok (the setting of SE:FC) is a stark
fortress-world on the edge of the Void, which is now an unruled no-mans
land; whole societies are broken off from and lost to the main of human
civilization.

A ninth state, the Theocracy, exists within the Darikahn empire;
like the papal state of the Catholic church, it is autonomous. Also, it
carries significant temporal power, both political and military,
thoughout the Empire. The Theocracy has two arms: the ecclesiastical
(i.e., the priesthood) and the military. The Theocracy hires
mercenaries to enforce its power in the realm, and though those troops
are in a sense warrior-priests, they are not under the constraints of
the clergy; for example, they don't have to remain celibate. Trevor
Faith and his Grey Rats are soldiers in the Theocracy's army.

The Mundus Humanitas is the orthodox church of the Theocracy.
However, a heretical sect known as the Church of the Transition ("CHoT")
has gained in prominence and popularity among many religious people as
well the the Imperial govenments.

One of the Darikahn Empire's greatest emperors was Baron
Hanrilke, after whom the present age is named (SE:FC begins in year 597
H.E.--the Hanrilke Era). He made the Mundus Humanitas the official
state religion, which helped to cement his rule. The church in return
received special treatment--exemption from taxes, for example. But when
Hanrilke died, the Darikahn Empire grew hostile toward the Mundus
Humanitas. The church retained its power and position, making the
relationship between church and state tense. The Empire has begun to
support the Church of the Transition so that it may be used as a weapon
against the Mundus Humanitas.
On Hotok, the highest imperial official is the Lord Steward.
The highest church official is the Archotare. The leader of the
church's army is the Cotar-Fomas (Trevor Faith's title).


The Vaylen (plus the Kerrns and the Trolls)

The greatest threat to the Inner Empires is the Vaylen, a race
of worms that possesses other creatures' bodies by burrowing into the
victim's brain. Before taking a host, the worm is called a Naiven, and
is a mere animal with survival instincts like other animals. But when
it bores into an intelligent brain, it can think with that host's
intelligence; it is then called a Vaylen. Vaylen are capable of
thinking, plotting, and forming an army. The Vaylen can invade a planet
or society, defeat its military, and insert Naiven into the populace,
thus expanding their empire and army.

The Vaylen have come from across the Void and are now
threatening border worlds like Hotok. They wanted to set up an enclave
on Hotok, and their first target was the Mundus Humanitas temple. But
on learning that the Empire wants to push the church off the planet,
they realized this would be unsafe. So instead, they proceeded to build
a secret enclave in the temple of the Church of the Transition, which
has better relations with the government. (Cotar-Fomas Kesling got
caught in the middle of the Vaylen's scheme and that is why he was
murdered.) Though the Vaylen threat seems to have arisen only a few
generations before Trevor Faith's time, Moeller says "They have always
been around."

The Vaylen genetically engineered a race called the Kerrns to
provide them with slave labor. The Kerrns are seven- to eight-foot tall
bipedal lizards. They are intelligent (i.e., they possess higher brain
functions), and are as strong as a man in iron. They are also
strong-willed and resilient, making them too rebellious to be slaves.
They mutinied against the Vaylen in what Faith calls "the Kerrn
Disaster." Now the Kerrns are homeless, wandering space in arks. They
are capable of adapting to human society and language, as we see with
Gopher, a member of the Grey Rats. (Incidentally, read Gopher's
dailogue with Arnold Schwartzeneggar's accent and you'll see where
Moeller got it.)

After the Kerrns rebelled, the Vaylen created a race called the
Mukhadish, or "Trolls" as they're commonly known. They are huge,
hulking brutes, strong like the Kerrns, but slower and more stupid.
Kerrns and Trolls are natural enemies, and apparently will attack each
other on sight. Faith says that if Gopher and the Troll in SE:FC #2
were to meet, they'd level half a city block. (Moeller notes that this
should not be taken literally.)

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Luke Crane schrieb:

BURNING EMPIRES is a complete roleplaying game in a single book.
The book itself is hardcover, 656-pages, full color interior, digest-sized (5.5"x 8.5").
The book contains 400 pieces of artwork -- approximately 200 color and 200 sketches/illustrations. The color pieces are from Chris Moeller's various comics. The sketches and illustrations are either from his sketch books, from out-of-print comics or done specifically for the game. Yup, that's hundreds of pieces of never-before-seen artwork.

Basic Preorder, $40:
BURNING EMPIRES book and pdf
» All preordered books are signed and numbered by the author

Illustrated Book, $80:
BURNING EMPIRES book with illustration and pdf
» The illustrated books have a character sketch drawn by Chris Moeller on the inside front cover. There are only 40 of these available. They will be numbers 1-40 of the preorders. One per customer!

Limited Edition T-Shirt, $25:
» These t-shirts will only be available to preorder customers.
» Full color wheel on the front, quote on the back. All sizes available.

Signed Print, $20:
» 9" x 14" Prints of the full cover wrap signed by Chris Moeller.

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