Posted by Fleet Captain James Sinclair (Junior Gamemaster) in Vren Power Submission

Posted by Fleet Captain Sage Pennington (Gamemaster Director/ Full Gamemaster) in Vren Power Submission
Vren Power Submission

DATE: 9/30/2022
AUTHOR: James Sinclair / Lindsay Bayes
TYPE: Power
GOVERNMENT: Democratic Republic
CAPITAL: G’Holoregren
AGE: 1500 - 2000 standard years
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL: Warp Capable
DOMINANT SPECIES: Vren
DIPLOMATIC STATUS: Neutral, Antagonistic
CLASSIFICATION: Non-Canon

 OVERVIEW
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The Vren are a warp-capable, bipedal amphibian species from a star system approximately eighty light years from the colony of Oed V.

While a younger civilization, the Vren have made great leaps and bounds in technological advancement. In the realm of space travel, the Vren have been warp capable for approximately a hundred years. Their ships currently have a maximum speed of warp factor 7. The ships themselves have a strongly organic look to them, despite being made with some of the more common materials found in star ship construction, with few being identical.

The Vren utilize directed energy weapons which deliver a line of directed energy most similar to disruptor-style weaponry. They have projectile weapons in the form of both torpedoes and a kind of harpoon system that has been shown capable of puncturing the hull of light to medium- armored vessels. The projectile of this weapon, once it has penetrated a hull, then expands and allows for the target to be grappled. This, combined with tractor-beam technology, makes a Vren vessel tenacious in close quarters, ship-to-ship conflict.

The Vren are ambush predators by nature. They have incorporated this trait into their starship design and tactics. The Vren possess a system that is similar to a cloaking system, but doesn’t make the vessel ‘invisible’. Instead, the system scours and analyzes the immediate surrounding space for background radiation and sensor signals. Those signals are then laid across the hull of the Vren ship via a network of small nodes all across the exterior of the vessel. The effect is to make the ship almost undetectable to sensors and scanners… even though it would be visible to the naked eye looking through a viewer or out a window.

Hand-to-hand weapons consist of bladed weapons and oddly-shaped hand-held beam weapons. The Vren have four appendages on each hand, each capable of acting like a thumb, so the grip of these weapons is unlike any other species.

Vren society is both tribal and caste based, but with a single planetary government. All tribes send delegates to the General Assembly, the governing body of the Vren. The Assembly is headed up by the Vren Council, a group of nine Vren elected from and by the Assembly to lead the government for a period of seven years. No Vren may serve concurrent terms, and only become eligible for reelection after two terms have passed since their last election. Castes exist within the tribes, but the system is uniform between tribes. (See Species Submission).

The Vren have no real standing military. As a communal and representative culture, and not having had contact with other species prior to some few decades past, there had never been a need for a military force. Their ‘fleets’ are instead made up of individual ships who swear an oath to follow a specific Fleet Commander… usually a Vren who has proven themselves a capable leader.

The Vren have no transporter or replicator technology, so they are limited in their range of operation outside of their home system by the need to carry food and water. Currently, the Vren claim their home system of Alpha Oradiz (known to the Vren as Tutsikara) and the adjacent Alpha Bettina systems as sovereign territory. They have made excursions into Federation space as well, namely at the colony of Oed V.

 HISTORY
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The Vren are a relatively young civilization, approximately 1500 standard years, although the species has archaeological evidence of being many thousands of years older than that. Much of the pre-history of the Vren is nonexistent as they did not develop the necessary cultural basics for a recorded history until approximately 3000 standard years ago. Prior to that, the Vren existed in a state of tribal groups with no common language and interactions between tribes relegated to raids and wars of expansion.

About 3000 years ago, a common language and cultural identity took root. The specifics of how this occurred have been lost to time and debated at length by Vren historians, archaeologists, and scientists. But whatever occurred allowed the Vren to move past their primitive tribal state and begin the formation of a fully-functional society. One of the great advancements at this time was that knowledge between groups was now shared instead of hoarded, and those new lines of communication allowed for gigantic leaps in technological advancement in a relatively short period of time.

It was at this time, perhaps as a reaction to the influx of new knowledge and technologies, that a religion began to form around the idea of a singular evil deity bent on the destruction of the Vren society: Imog, the Bringer of Thirst. The cult preached that unless the Vren praised Imog and sacrificed to him, then an age of drought and darkness would befall the Vren. The cult was very powerful at its peak some 2000 years ago, controlling most of Vren society. But over the following centuries, as more scientific finds were made (despite the best efforts of the cult), the belief in Imog waned. In current modern Vren society, followers of the Cult of Imog are very few and stay hidden from view. Most insults in Vren language are some form of dispersion about the recipient following the cult.

As the influence of the cult waned, a new tide of scientific and social advancement began that led to many discoveries that allowed for the Vren to accomplish space travel some 250 years ago. Warp travel was developed just over a hundred years ago, and the Vren began to stake claim to territory outside of their homeworld for the first time. This is what brought the Vren into conflict with the Federation near a small colonial planet called Oed V.

First Contact with the Vren was by an independent trader some 25 years ago. While en route to the burgeoning colonial outpost, a plasma storm threw the ship off course and, unknown to the ship’s crew, into Vren-held space. While adrift and in the midst of repairs, the trader was attacked by a vessel of unknown civilization. The trader managed to send out a distress call with vid of the attack, but the trader was destroyed. Star Fleet sent a vessel, the USS Pericles, to investigate. While scanning the wreckage, the alien ship appeared and attacked without warning. Fortunately, the Pericles was more than a match for the ship and soon routed the vessel. It fled towards a nearby star system, and the Pericles followed, but kept a distance. Soon, they discovered the Vren. They watched via long-range scanners and relayed the information back to Star Fleet. It was determined that a message would be sent to the Vren explaining the trader was lost and that there was no hostility intended. The message was sent via transmission buoy, along with instructions on how to make contact in the future. The Vren did make contact almost a year later, and since then there has existed a state of moderate animosity on the part of the Vren (although this could be interpreted as a reaction due to their aggressive and territorial nature), but no outright hostilities. Some small incidents have occurred from time to time, however, including a few attempted raids on the colony of Oed V; so the area around Vren space is designated as an area of caution.

Recently, and much to the surprise of Federation diplomats, the Vren have reached out and requested peaceful contact and negotiations. There has been some kind of natural disaster on the Vren homeworld, and they have sent numerous requests for meetings for discussing the matter with the Federation. The event will cause an occlusion of the sun’s energy and a significant drop in temperature on Alpha Oradiz IV, resulting in a lowering of humidity levels (necessary for Vren survival) and widespread die-off of flora and fauna.

A troubling side note. As the event draws near, the small remnants of the Cult of Imog are becoming more bold; claiming this is the prophecy fulfilled.

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Submitted on October 3. Open for review and comment until October 17. Please keep any and all feedback constructive.

-Sage Pennington, GM Director

Bump to keep current

The Vren power submission, having received no criticisms or requests for changes, is approved for entry into the RM.

-Sage Pennington, Gamemaster Director