TW: Dark Millennium Fiction Concepts

From TradeWars Museum

Very little remains of the fiction that was developed for TW:DM by David Adams. Here is a description of his early concepts for the four races that were to be in the game. This demonstrates the strong Warhammer: 40K influence in Adams' original concepts.

1. Imperial Corporations - The social order of this culture is roughly designed around the imperialistic Japanese culture, in that they started out as an empire composed of individual houses, with one house being the "imperial" house. The houses evolved into corporations, with the imperial house only serving as a figure head for the "imperialists." Their units are the ones depicted in the screenshot I sent you (their ground units anyway). Their units are the most weapon laden in the game, with brute-force and overwhelming arms being their central advantage.

"Be kind and you will be loved, be cruel and you will remembered."

2. Cultists(Name Still Pending) - This is a culture of religous fanatics. They worship "Those who are beyond time," or the Ja'Kaal. This entire culture is an advent of a secretive order in the universe known as the Melah'Teh. The cultists worshiping the Ja'Kaal (a group of 10 entomed prophets, who dwell within a Melah'Teh temple that is outside the flow of time) create a great deal of psychic energy that the Melah'Teh are able to use to communicate with the Ja'Kaal. The only people the cultists hate more than eachother, are outsiders. Many of the leaders of this culture, over the centuries, have been fallen Melah'Teh. With them, these fallen Melah'Teh have brought forbidden technology, and for that reason the cultists are endowed with certain technologies that no one else in the game is. Their primary mode of attack is stealth and suprise. They can cloak, move fast, have strong shields that can regenerate quickly (this is a stereotype, there will be other types of units).

"I hear the cries of the chosen.  A shrill chorus of prophesies that tear at my mind, and makes of my
faith a distant memory.  I see faces of men who have lived… died… only to live again, serving
endlessly in a cosmic dance of fate.  And I weep…  I weep for a billion souls, trapped for all time, doomed to
the cruel certainty of fate.  I weep such that my tears might fill the heavens, and wash away the sight
of it all."

3. Clans(Name still pending) - The clans are a mysterous group of humans that were discovered living on the borderworlds thousands of years ago by the empire. The empire launched a campaign to conquer the borderworlds, but the Melah'Teh interfered with the invasion for their own mysterious reasons. In the end, the Melah'Teh were able to negotiate a treaty between the Clans and the empire. Clansmen are marked by the fact that almost all members of their society are infected with a symbiotic host. This host, among other things, allows them to communicate with animals/creatures. They are going to be sort of like beastmasters, calling in creatures from the map to fight on their side (yes, even space creatures).

"A fist full of sand is better than a fist full of stars"

4. Neophytes - Neophytes are a bizarre mix of man/machine/death. They were started by an insane empress who ruled the imperial throne thousands of years ago. She was obsessed with the notionn of immortality, and was convinced that through a merging of man and machine it could be accomplished. In time, she was able to develop the Anathasia device... A device that could be implanted into the human body and allow them to live an extended life. After ordering all citizens of the empire to be implanted with an Anathasia device, which her brother later discovered allowed the individuals mind to be controlled, her brother overthrew here from the imperial throne and banished her. A strange side effect of the Anathasia device was that it allowed recently deceased human beings to be re-animated. Neophytes are like the borg meets undead. They are a matriarchical society in that women are more responsive to the anathasia device, and live longer than men do. Their special is in their versitility... The ability to combine certain types of unit to form other types of units. The ability to transfer "abilites" from one unit to another... and the ability to get killed, and then be regenerated by the anathasia device.

"Mankind is flawed in it's creation... it is our duty to unmake our own imperfect creation."