Gothica
For someone first arriving on Gothica, it looks like a Tao of History world, with people dressed in archaic costumes, old architecture and strangeness that looks historic. On a closer look, you realize that the fashions and architecture are a mix of disparate eras ranging over several hundred years. At that point, you begin to realize Gothica is something different…
Gothica is a civilization of contradictions. The citizens are fascinated with death, but live life with zest and enjoyment. They also are broadly tolerant, welcoming and inclusive to all, but they tend to have a uniform look to their bodies. The architecture looks old, but makes use of modern construction techniques and conveniences. And those are just the easily apparent ones.
Gothica has roots in a subculture dating back to the late 20th century Europe and America music scenes and survived beyond its narrow beginnings. When the Diaspora opened the possibility of colonizing other worlds, the Goths of the day eventually organized and paid for a colonization effort that created Gothica.
Over the centuries, the Goth culture changed and adapted, especially as new technologies came on the scene. They quickly adopted genetic alterations striving for the ideal look. While there is no civilization wide agreement or enforcement of what is pretty, it has resulted in an average though – tall, lean, somewhat androgynous, pretty, pale and dark haired. The reality is more complex, with most human phenotypes represented, but they all do tend to be at least striking, if not beautiful. The infosphere, the mesh and other technologies were also adopted and used to achieve their ideal. The result is a very high tech civilization that looks lower tech than it is. The result is what is now known as Gothican. Of special note are Gothican poison gardens. They take full advantage of the genetic engineering to create beautiful and deadly plants. Entering one without a guide of some sort is strongly advised against.
Gothican architecture can be described as heavily over built, and pre-ruined. The look is distinctly Victorian to Medieval, with a dark look to it. And ruins are added, as is ‘decay.’ Given the materials they build out of, is the best way to start. The end result are very comfortable, durable, if gloomy buildings that could survive Mechanican party.
Which leads to another element of their culture – Gothicans are fascinated by death and decay. As a result they are intimately familiar with it. While this occasionally results in a gloomy one, most of them are cheerful, upbeat, life loving people – especially with each other. They are convinced life should be lived and enjoyed to its fullest because death is at the end of it and it brooks no exceptions. One aspect of this is that they tend to be pacifists. Another aspect of this is that Gothicans do defect to the Replicants on a fairly regular basis. Despite this love of life, there are those that are truly morbid, fascinated with death and very ghoulish.
Gothican clothing can be described as dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. It has Victorian, Renaissance, Regency, Elizabethan elements. It has a profusion of black velvets, lace, fishnets and leather tinged with scarlet or purple, accessorized with tightly laced corsets, gloves, precarious stilettos and silver jewelry depicting religious, magical or occult themes (bone earrings, rosaries, pentacles, ankhs, skulls) typically made from silver. Both sexes are sexualized with their clothing, with very different looks from one sex to the other. High tech personal items tend to be implanted, or incorporated into jewelry and clothing. Their art is widespread throughout their world (some days it seems every other person is an amateur artist) and while technically able, much of it can make a viewer from another civilization uncomfortable.
Gothica makes extensive use of the technologies available in the modern age. Streetside replicators are common, and computers pervade every material. Most of the government and police have metatech training and implants, and children are often taught the benefits of cognitech methods from an early age. Over 80% of the population wear neural meshes, though not all take full advantage of them.
Gothica is a relatively free and tolerant civilization, with many modifications of the human genome and psyche available. Most of the modifications do tend to stick to the human form though. Using Nanotech to perform a scan of someone you meet is generally considered rude (in modern American society, it would be on par with staring at a woman’s breasts and crotch while you talk to her), so there’s no easy way to know whether someone’s enhanced. Gothicans tend to be polite and formal when first meeting someone.
For all their oddness, the Gothicans are good neighbors. They have a responsible government – an odd mix of meritocracy and elective nobility/monarchy. Gothicans have to sit for an exam to enter government, there the score on the exam determines the rank they enter at. After that they are elected to posts (maximum rank determined by exams) for periods of 10 years, with a maximum of 50 at a time. Anyone can sit for the exam, and all are encouraged to do it. Those that already have positions typically continue to study and sit for exams to increase their rank.
All of the societies in the core book can be found among the Gothicans, with a large number of Artisans, Group Minds and Hyperevolutes. From the fan material, there are Interstellar Association for Longevity Studies and the Technomagery, with an unusually large number of the latter found there.
Common Name: Goths
Emblem: Gold Ankh on a black background
Inspector Status: Local police
Benefit: +1 Twist per game that can be spent on the themes of Romance, Magnetism and Terror.
Core Values: Thanatopsis and Sensation
Thanatopsis is the contemplation of death. For the Gothicans, death is part of the process of life and should be contemplated, understood, accepted and even embraced. This CV can be used to resist death threats, or things that would normally terrify. It can also be used to help contemplate death more closely.
Sensation holds that the universe is a vast, fascinating place and there to be experienced. This CV means that the Gothicans will seek out enjoyable experiences and avoid boredom. It can be used to tolerate painful or unpleasant experiences. "To enjoy the flavor of life take big bites" sums up much of their belief on this.
Other common core values: Androgyny, Beauty, Carpe Diem (or Noctem), Community, Diversity, Elegance, Fashion, Ghoulishness, Grace, Hedonism, Rank Hath Its Priveleges, Spirituality, Tolerance, Thanatophilia and Worship.
| Civilization | Bio | Cog | Meta | Nano | String |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goths | 1-9 | 1-6 | 2-9 | 1-9 | 1-5 |
Gothican Societies
Gothica has three societies unique to its civilization: Nocturnals, Vampires and Resurrectionists.
The Nocturnals are a society that works and lives at night. They have made adaptations to themselves for this.
Core Value: Nocturnalism – to live at night. Can be used to advocate for it, and as a penalty for function during the day or in bright light.
Benefit: +1 to Nanotech which can raise them above the Gothican maximum if necessary. They do not suffer Import reduction for exceeding these maximums.
The Vampires are the descendants of those who took the possibilities of genetic engineering a little too far. Vampires feed on volunteers, replicated or vat grown blood. As a group, they’ve been in a slow, but steady, population decline as they lose members to genetic resynthesis and or the Hyperevolutes.
Core Value: Vampirism – the behavior of a vampire.
Benefit: Vampires have minimum Biotech and Nanotech scores of 4, which can raise them above their civilization’s maximum if necessary. Their Biotech is considered one point higher for the purpose of resisting disease and old age. They can exceed the Gothicans' maximum Nanotech and Biotech by one without suffering Import reduction.
The Resurrectionists are possibly the strangest of the Gothican societies. Some families and individuals opt to use neural meshes and nanotech in an odd way. They use them to embrace and survive death. Each Resurrectionist has a mesh and enough nanotech in their bodies to slowly, over their lives, adapt their minds to survive the death of their bodies. In the end, as they die, the brain is encoded into mesh, and rebuilt to survive the ordeal. The body, now dead, is preserved by the sheer quantity of nanotech, revived as a sort of remote or servitor. There is a several day period while the nanotech finishes the bodily reconstruction, rewiring the brain to control the re-built body through the nanotech. For those who die of extreme old age, the process could be gradual over years. For those who die suddenly and young, the process would be an emergency, and would leave the person incapacitated for some time as they get used to their new body. Even so, the process is imperfect. The resultant person is something of a shadow of their former selves, their personality subdued and their body, in some ways, weakened.
As time passes, even this form of immortality would fade. The body would grow ancient and even the nanotech decay. And so processes would be built into the infosphere to allow the not-quite-dead to sublime their consciousness. Unlike stored, who are still human, these data-ghosts are anything but. They are the reflection of their old selves, the idea of a person made real.
Resurrectionists have been with the Gothicans for some time and are accepted members of society. The raised Resurrectionists cannot hold political office, but have several special representatives and a minister for their affairs to look after them. They also loose 2/3 of their property and wealth on death and resurrection.
Core Value: Thanatopsis see above.
Benefit: Nanotech bodies. Resurrectionists do not have a Biotech score and instead use Nanotech for it. This applies to lifespan and contests as well. Unfortunately, they are not what they once were. As a result, their Metatech score can never exceed 6 (2/3 of the Gothican maximum) and lose all ties on Metatech rolls.
