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Current Remnant Lore
Although they are unusually tall and dark-skinned, the people here appear to be human. You wouldn't know it from the architecture, however: the buildings with their curved, twisted surfaces and ramifying arches look more alien than any human dwelling you have seen before. Stranger still, no one is speaking: the usual background murmur of voices that you would associate with a spaceport is absent here. Instead, the locals are communicating in a rapid and graceful sign language, their hands tracing arcs through the air almost faster than your eyes can follow. A few of them approach your ship and one of them greets you out loud, but instead of speaking he sings the words in a high, monotone chant: "Do you comprehend the ancestral tongue?"
You sing, "Yes, I do," trying to match the leader's pitch. As you do so, several of them hum notes that harmonize with you.
Two of them walk up to you. One is carrying a small device that looks like a handheld scanner. The other unwraps a small foil package, pulls out a lancet, and jabs his finger with it. A dark, red drop of blood wells up. He presses his finger onto a port on the scanner, then hands you another one of the packets. "We kindly request that you identify yourself," he chants. Several of the others hum along with him.
Give them a blood sample.
Several of them gather around the one with the scanner as if waiting to see what the results will be. As you watch them you notice that all of them, even the women, have their hair cropped short. Also, their clothing looks like nothing that has ever been in fashion at any point in human history that you know of. Finally the scanner beeps, and a yellow light flashes. You can almost feel the tension leaving the air as the crowd relaxes. "So you are pure. You are human," chants one of the women. "You are one of us."
"Of course I'm human. But what are human beings doing out here?"
Several of them burst into song, singing together in harmony, "We are the hidden ones. We are the Remnant. In time of great chaos to this place we came, lest all true-born humans be killed or enslaved, by those who evolved not, but unwisely were made." As they continue to sing, you begin to piece together their story. They are the descendants of people who fled to this region of space through an unstable wormhole at the peak of the first Alpha War, which means they have been here for more than half a millennium. That doesn't explain why their culture is so radically different, though. Eventually they invite you to a dinner. Their food has strange and complex flavors, not all of them pleasant, but you do your best to be polite and pretend to enjoy it all. The meal itself is generous and stretches out as your hosts consume considerably more food than you would expect for such a trim group. After the meal, they entertain you by singing songs, some of which you recognize as classical Earth music. It appears that people in this culture use sign language for day to day communication, and use their voices only for making music. When you return to your ship, you do a search on videos of historical dialects of human sign language. None of them bear even a passing resemblance to the language of these people who call themselves the Remnant.
"This cold and dreary world would certainly not be attractive to any modern settlers, but to those who were fleeing the chaos of the Alpha Wars it had the undeniable advantage of being isolated and undiscovered. Today the main reason for the continuing Remnant presence here is that this is the only world they have found where the "key stones" that enable ships to travel through certain wormholes in the Ember Waste can be found."
spaceport "The spaceport is an enormous dome, built of the same resilient and semi-organic material as the hulls of Remnant ships. An opening at one end of the dome allows ships to fly in and out. Inside, the air is still cold, but at least you are sheltered from the violent winds that sweep across the rest of the planet's surface. Some of the locals, accustomed to the cold, walk about in their shirtsleeves as if this were a balmy summer day."
"When the first members of the Remnant discovered this region of space, Caelian was the only habitable world they found with enough insolation to be able to operate solar-powered factories and bioreactors. The first settlements were scattered widely, with the houses hidden underground in order to be less visible from space, because they feared that the Alphas would overrun human space and eventually find their way into the Waste. Centuries later, when they learned that the Alpha Wars had ended, they began to expand the factories and settlements more openly."
spaceport "Nearly all members of the Remnant are dark-skinned, either from exposure to high levels of ultraviolet radiation or because that is what their first ancestors who came here looked like. So, they walk around this spaceport village without much fear of the scorching desert sun, bringing supplies back and forth to the houses and to the flat clay pavement of the landing zone. Aside from some camels that the settlers brought with them, there are very few animals here."
"This is not a particularly warm world, but it is the best that the first Remnant refugees were able to find when they explored the Ember Waste. It is here that they built their capital, in a deep valley that is almost always shrouded in clouds. In meadows farther up the mountain slopes, a few particularly hardy food crops are grown, but for the most part the Remnant relies on artificial greenhouses or cultured yeast for protein supplements. Remnant cuisine is unlikely to ever become a draw for tourists, even if their isolation here is broken."
spaceport "The oldest buildings in the Remnant capital city harken back to classic human architecture, with stone facades and columns reminiscent of ancient Rome. But as you walk outward toward the more recent additions, the buildings become less and less recognizably human, with curved organic shapes and hundreds of overhanging walkways and balconies. It is as if the layers left behind by centuries of habitation are a frozen record of the slow transition of Remnant culture into something bizarre and almost alien."
"Nearly a century ago, a Remnant scout exploring space north of the Ember Waste came under fire from an alien fleet armed with weapons that interfered with the scout's engines. The story says that the Remnant captain calmly told her crew, "We aren't going home until we steal that weapon." That alien technology became the basis of the Inhibitor Cannon."
"This weapon was originally developed in an attempt to reverse engineer a long-range energy projectile favored by an alien species that the Remnant encountered nearby. In the process they discovered that by adding more energy to the projectiles they could do a lot more damage in exchange for shorter range, and the Thrasher Cannon was born."
"This turret mounts four Thrasher Cannons on a single rotating base. The resulting weapon deals a very satisfying amount of damage when fired from close range, especially against a slow-moving target."
"Not long after the Remnant settled on Aventine, they began to discover caches of alien technology in vaults deep under the mountains, guarded by ancient but still-functioning point-defense systems. The Remnant learned how to duplicate those defense systems, and they are now considered to be much more useful than most of the items that they were guarding."
"These crystals, mined on the Remnant planet Viminal, can store a surprising amount of power in a compact form. Crystals pure enough to be used in such a manner are hard to find, however." "Also, the capacitors tend to leak small amounts of energy, in the form of excess heat."
"This quite compact radiothermal generator uses isotopes so radioactive, and so tightly packed together, that it could almost be classified as a nuclear reactor."
"Efficient Remnant technology ensures that nearly all the heat produced by this generator's radioisotopes is converted into electricity instead of becoming waste heat."
"The early Remnant engineers did not trust the finicky and unpredictable nuclear reactors that were then in use in human space, so they instead focused on perfecting the art of radioisotope thermoelectric power."
"This cooler is actually just one of the power-generating elements of a Millennium Cell, but wired so it can run in reverse: consuming electricity in order to transfer heat from a ship's systems to its exterior."
"The Ember Waste is the sort of place where only a very foolish captain would travel without some sort of device for replenishing hyperspace fuel. This ramscoop is not particularly powerful, but it allows a ship to explore without fear of getting stranded."
"This precious artifact attunes a ship's quantum oscillations in a way that allows it to travel through certain otherwise impassible wormholes in the Ember Waste. The stones are rare and valuable, because they can only be mined from one location in the Waste."
"From the very beginning, the Remnant have relied on their ability to study everything they encounter. This knowledge has enabled them to survive and even prosper in the harsh environment of the Ember Waste. To enable this pursuit of knowledge, the Remnant designed this compact laboratory that is built onto the side of a cargo bay, mess hall, or other larger room. When the room isn't otherwise occupied, this module expands out to convert it into a fully fledged laboratory." "While planetbound scientists might consider it little more than a closet packed with scanners and equipment, to the Remnant it is a base of operations used to investigate alien and stellar phenomena on-site. For captains, having advanced equipment to support their sensor suites as well as a trained scientist to serve in their crew amount to a strong benefit."
"When the Remnant unraveled the alien point defense turrets guarding the vaults on Aventine, they also deciphered the mechanisms that guided the ancient weapons. After significant investments in research and development, they have transformed those guidance systems into sophisticated scanning technology." "While all Remnant ships are equipped with internal scanners, some captains still prefer to boost their range and power to more effectively select enemy ships worth targeting."
"These small but powerful engines are driven by ionized gas propelled at a sizable fraction of the speed of light."
"The Remnant has taken the basic ion thruster design that has been used by humanity since the dawn of spaceflight and made it significantly more powerful... but also more power-hungry."
"It is not unheard of for a Remnant ship's engines to draw even more power than its weapon systems: an indication, perhaps, of their preference for avoiding battle when possible."
"This steering system is tiny enough to fit in even an interceptor, but the Remnant mostly use them to provide an extra bit of maneuverability for their larger ships."
"This unusually power-hungry steering system packs a lot of power into a relatively small space. It seems that engine technology has progressed more rapidly for the Remnant than it has for the rest of humanity."
"It's unclear whether the Remnant's powerful engine systems are purely their own invention, or whether they are partly inspired by alien technology."
"The Remnant live in an environment where the raw materials for fuel are relatively common on the winds of the nebula. As such, their ships incorporate significant built-in ramscoop technology, and while they are reluctant to waste fuel, they aren't afraid of using it when needed. Far more important is the ability for their ships to quickly and efficiently enter or exit combat as needed. At the end of the day, it is continued life that is paramount." "The Bellows-class afterburner embodies this philosophy by providing captains with a tool that allows them to make great leaps of acceleration, typically during evasive maneuvers or to catch up with a fleeing target. Due to their enormous fuel usage, only the most specialized of ships have enough fuel to use these for more than a few seconds at a time before completely running out of fuel."
"The Tuning Rifle uses sound waves to destabilize the weaker internal tissue of many races and liquefies them."
"The Remnant made a significant number of these weapons during the early years of their research on the void sprites, but have not been able to make any new ones since the Archon stopped their harvests. Without a supply of new tentacles to use, the Remnant have been unable to manufacture more. While durable, they rarely last more than a decade, so even the best cared for of the old void rifles degraded into uselessness centuries ago. These highly effective weapons are credited with helping the Remnant safeguard their refuges from ground-based threats during their early years." "When fired, the void rifle emits a beam that has a strong paralyzing effect on the nervous system. With an area of effect that penetrates walls and other solid objects, it is an incredibly effective weapon."
"The prefects have reached a consensus that you should be considered a valuable friend of the Remnant, and shall be given permission to purchase their ships and technology."
"The prefects have decided that you should be trusted with their largest ships, and the valuable resources that go into making them."