The Wardens of the Endless Tower

And here is our sixth and final proposal for our Big Next Game. This one comes courtesy of Joe N., our newest player. It has a distinct Encounter Critical vibe...

The Third Human Galactic Empire chose the planet Aussie as their prison planet due to the violent electromagnetic storms that prevents any direct landing of starships. They instead dropped a space elevator to the surface and used it to populate the planet with the Empire ‘s prisoners for centuries. Each term was for life, and eventually specialized camps were set up at various locations by type of prisoner (POW, political prisoners, organized crime, drug offenses, violent crime, confidence games and fraud, the criminally insane, etc.).

The Empire fell into anarchy and eventually shipments of supply and personel to the prison ceased. The staff abandoned the satellite at the top of the space elevator and retreated to the surface. Centuries passed and memories of the Empire and its technology faded. Eventualy each camp formed its own nation reflecting the personality of the original prisoners. Loose planet-wide control is enforced by a mystical sect called the Wardens who operate from their headquarters, the Endless Tower. One of the goals of the Wardens is to encourage the technological devolution of the nation-camps in order to maintain control.

The players characters are members of a competing secret organization, known as the Trustees, who have tried through myth and legend to keep the memory of the Empire by encouraging the spread of outlaw technology. Recently they believe that they have discovered signs in the stars and from the holy records that a great burning is coming (i.e. the star going super nova at some point soon, say 10 years). The characters have been recruited into the Trustees (from the different nation-camps? fallen wardens? alien natives?) to find away to seize the Endless Tower from the Wardens and lead an exodus from the planet before it is destroyed. Possible missions include reclaiming ancient technology or forming alliances against the Wardens. The tech level starts out low and then increases slowly as the characters re-discover more of the original tech. Home base could be the monestary of the Trustees hidden deep in one of the mountain ranges on the planet. Kind of like Thundarr the Barbarian meets Chronicles of Riddick via David Weber.