An explination…

Legends of the Void started as a 6 episode podcast with myself and several friends in 2017. It wasn’t a massive hit, and it wasn’t something to write home about, either. But this story struck a chord in my own life and I continued to build on the story line more and more. And even with the eventual disbanding of our podcast group, the story continued building in my spare time. In small chunks here and there, I began building a space Sci-Fi world within my own universe. I made this a small section of my ever expanding story based on the intertwining of everything through a specific slipspace energy and a sect of Imperialistic assholes hell bent on harnessing its energy. However, I wanted to make a twist off of it in a few way. While everything remained connected, I wanted to create a story line that was still loosely a part of my world, but, so far removed from it, that the events of my own timeline rendered little to no effect on this world. So, I got to work on creating a main reasoning for the baddies to come in and stomp everything and I put in place a sandbox for my friends to play in. Needless to say, I think I was the one who played in the sandbox more than they did.

I’ve done my best to reconnect and re-tether some of the dots in the original 6 episodes. While I have a lot of the story information in my head and saved in a few places, a few of the harddrives I had used for this project were… lost, so I lost some of the character notes and some of the story notes. But, I think I can fill in the blanks with what I have. If you knew LOTV, and you’re reading this thinking “Wait, this isn’t right…” consider this the new canon, either because I don’t have any way to retrieve the old canon, or I wanted to just have something in place of what I forgot.

And with that, lets dive into this…

The Arkellian Quadrant (pre-podcast)

Legends of the Void takes place in a quadrant of space known as the Arkellian Quadrant. 15 years prior to the events of the podcast, the quadrant was governed and ruled by an Oligarchy. The kingdom was deemed somewhat prosperous and was a large exporter of goods and services to other sectors of their little pocket of the universe. However, things would change with the coming of the United Coalition of Planets, or, as they are known as in the podcast, the UCOP. More on them in a moment.

What made this quadrant stand out so much was the anomaly that was centered within the literal center of their ruled territory: a paradoxical black hole that seemed to destroy anything that went close to it. What made this black hole more troubling and confusing, was that it didn’t swallow anything around it. It merely sat there and provided a crushing energy that would literally stop anyone from coming close to it. The even more confusing part of all of this is, earlier records don’t even show the black hole. It just appeared one day. However, it emits a special signal that was later discovered, and this brings in the main bad guy for the story.

With almost crusader like force, the UCOP invades the quadrant. And, almost overnight, completely dismantles the army, navy and all ruling and governing states throughout the kingdom’s many planets. The king and his family are then killed in public execution style, and the UCOP announce themselves as the new dominance of the Arkellian quadrant. For the next 15 years, the UCOP would begin draining the former kingdom’s resources and exploit its people as a labor force, all for the sake of this anomaly.

Our Heroes (Ep 1-3)

Our story begins on a space barge, transporting our soon-to-be heroes to a military detainment camp awaiting assignment. Each one of the three characters, Byt, Crumbs, and Throth, were accused of some sort of crime prior to meeting. More on the three of these characters in the “Characters” tab, however, within a brief explanation for the sake of story telling: Crumbs was a master pilot and a thief, Byt was a converted porn projector who was shown the light of Hylax, an ancient god within the lore, and Throth, a very angry country music singer. These three would be met by an NPC character named Morhan, a young man accused of thievery and working with “The Crown Keepers”, a rogue organization forged in the shadow of the UCOP hellbent on restoring the order of the Arkellian kingdom prior to its rule.

Through sheer luck, the trio would be on a barge that was targeted by the Crown Keepers, to try and be rescued or freed. Its not known if they were attempting to rescue Morhan, however, once the barge docked, the station, Detaining Outpost 86, was attacked, eluding to the perfect chance for their escape to begin. During their escape, the party learns more of Morhan and his search for his family. However, not much else is given besides these details and his aptitude in combat. Then, they came across a folk hero by the name of Terrence Thunderbeacon, a personal muse of Crumbs, and a legend within the olden times of Arkellian lore. Though, Terrence isn’t what he once was, he was captured, along with his ship, the Thundertooth. Together, all 5 attempt an escape, however, Terrence is killed at the hands of a very astute Lieutenant in the docking bay of the outpost. This Lieutenant would prove to be an adversary in many adventures to come.

Hot Hot Heat (Ep 4-5)

After commandeering the Thundertooth, the party is left to figure out where to go next. Without any knowledge of the ship and its past adventures, a sudden hologram plays, requesting help to another station called the Far-Reach Vectoring Facility. However, with very low resources and the UCOP somewhat on their tail, the party then decides on heading to Tepin Prime, a near by arid world based on the outskirts of the Arkellian Quadrant. With very low UCOP patrols in the area and very little fuel, the option was very simple. Upon landing, the party then parts ways with the mysterious Morhan, who travels elsewhere.

In the main hub of Bolken City, the remaining 3 party members go and use what little money they have scrounged for supplies and possible work. After a decent amount of searching, the party finally hears of need for someone to fetch a highly renown mechanic and weaponsmith by the name of Ketten-6 to find his master, Marren Tol. This old tinkerer lives within the Lost Forges well beyond a dangerous area known as Peninsula of Koli. While the trek to go there isn’t terribly far, only a day or so, the road to travel is known to have many obsticals, including rampant sandstorms, marauders, and creatures. While this has dissuaded every other person who has attempted this journey, the trio realize this job is the only job they can really take that may make them a fair amount of money.

The party is then left to figure out a path to take to find the Lost Forges. They can either choose the Rock Forest, a dense path of quagmires and jagged rock formations that are as thick as a forest, or the Olafer Canyon, a more southern route that may be less dangerous, but will take much longer. However, while they’re deciding, the party comes across a very unexpected sight: Bishops of the Hylaxian church. Unexpected, because Hylax is what is considered a “forgotten god” of the old Arkellian age. To find bishop’s from the church was a strange occurrence, however, Byt takes the time to speak with the bishops who offer him a token of Hylax. But, the meeting is cut short by an ambush in which both bishops are killed. As their final act, they give Byt a key they describe as the heart to Hylax. After they’re buried, the party continues on into the desert, where they find the entrance to the Forges.

Finally, after several hours of searching, Ketten-6 is found. Adamant on not giving the location of his master, he fights the trio, and loses. Even as he lay dying, Ketten-6 didn’t give up his masters location, but he did give the party the item they required to fix the generator issue the town had. The trio returns to Bolken City, and their untimely end.

DEATH OF THE PARTY (ep 6)

At first, upon entering the city, the party met no resistance. There were no signs of any issues, nor was there cause to panic. Once they’ve returned, the party collected their reward, and immediately went to the bar to celebrate their first victory as a team. However, what the team doesn’t know, is that their escape from Detaining Outpost 86 caused a bigger ripple than they realized. Deep within the UCOP fleet, a task was set out for the Lieutenant they escaped from to re-capture the escapees, especially the young man known as Morhan. With a small armada of ships, they combed through each of the surrounding planets, until they finally hit Tepin Prime.

The shadow of the UCOP fleet covered the city from an orbit, ready to fire. The consequences of damage to the area or death meant nothing to the UCOP. This was just another planet to them. Upon exiting the bar, the trio is immediately swarmed by UCOP foot soldiers. Once they disband these lowly attackers, they attempt to make their way to the Thundertooth, currently docked on the other side of town. With the shadow of the low-orbiting ship now directly overhead, this was the very last thing that was described as the episode ended in explosions, and the fate of our party was left in the wind.

Disbandoning the party (post-podcast)

Anyone who plays TTRPG’s, can tell you that one of the biggest killers of a campaign is time. Schedules will always conflict with what you want to do in your story, Someone is going to always have something else they can’t reschedule. This was sadly what caused the death of LOTV’s main campaign. Its nobody’s fault, but in the end, its a sad death knowing your story won’t get any additional play time.

I have notes written for what I would have wanted to have happen all the way up to Episode 10. However, I never actually posted anything or built anything from those notes because it felt… unfair in a way. LOTV was a story built off my friends, and without them I really didn’t know if I could make anything new beyond that. However, where one story ends, another takes shape.

DOUble Down

Legends of the Void: Double Down takes place 10 years after the last episode of the initial LOTV series. With the death of Crumbs, Byt and Throth, the system continues to fall into chaos. With the UCOP efforts more and more focused on their attempted entry of the anomaly (now known as The Black Library), their own ranks have fallen into disarray and lawlessness. Subsections of the UCOP military hierarchy have taken swatches of the quadrant for themselves and have begun ruling over them like warlords. Some, using local thugs to carry out their tasks. The Crown Keepers have been killed, and any small spark of rebellion died with Crumbs, Byt and Throth. But… a spark has emerged. A small, tiny light in a sea of hope coming in the form of a recording…

Note: This is where the beginning of what would have been the next campaign would have started. However, due to not finding players for the story and the death of Taylor, the voice of Crumbs, I wasn’t able to begin this next portion of the story. So, I built upon the world, and its here we begin speculation.