[GZG] New Bavaria--Very Long

Having had too much time on my hands at work this week, I have turned my

mind to the idea of creating my own power within the "Official" GZG 
background.  Being, however, very weird, I decided to do it my way.  The

result follows.  This started as a joke, but the more I consider the New

Bavarians, the more I like them.

They have been known by many names, but the most famous (paradoxically 
enough, considering their true nature) was The Illuminati.  For 
centuries, the Ancient and Illuminated Seers of Bavaria had ruled 
humanity with a grip, not of iron, but of glass--cold, hard, and, unless

you knew exactly where to look, very difficult to see.	But like glass, 
the Illuminati's hold was far more fragile than it appeared.  Since the 
beginning of civilization itself, the Illuminati had worked tirelessly 
to retard the progress of humanity's social and technological 
development, but as the 21st century surged on, it became increasingly 
clear that they were losing the struggle.  Humanity was growing in 
directions that were impossible to predict, let alone control.	Some 
believed that the Internet had been their downfall; others blamed the 
printing press, or writing itself.  But, whatever the cause, there was 
one fact that they could agree upon: the end was, at long last, at hand.
 
For the ruling cabal, this was simply intolerable.  Power was their meat

and drink--their very lives!--and they would not surrender it willingly.
 
For the better part of a decade, the cabal argued and debated their 
fate...but the answer, when it came, was astonishingly simple.

	"We can no longer rule the world?  Very well.  Let us then find
a world 
that we CAN rule."  And thus, the exodus was born.  Thirteen ships were 
constructed from hollowed-out asteroids, built quickly, quietly, and 
precisely by men and women that the world thought long dead.  And, at 
5:23 PM, GMT, on May 23, 2138, thirteen asteroids vanished without a 
fuss, taking the most powerful men alive to the stars, along with their 
servants, slaves, and sycophants.

	Only one man, an astronomer named Nicholas Celine, noticed the 
disappearance.	Celine launched a frantic search for the missing 
asteroids, desperate to discover exactly what had happened to the 
subject of his graduate thesis.  Tragically, Nicholas Celine died of a 
massive heart attack thirty-five minutes after starting his search, 
before he could inform anyone of what he had witnessed.  Celine had no 
previous history of heart trouble, but he had, after all, been under 
intense pressure.  His family misses him very much.

	The star was named Weishaupt, and the world was named,
whimsically, New 
Bavaria.  The colony that developed over the next fifty years was the 
very model of efficiency.  Everyone, man woman, and child, had an 
assigned place in this new society, and none of them dared protest this 
place.	The price of disobedience was high indeed: dissidents were 
stripped of their will, their individuality…and, according to rumor, 
their souls.  There are those who would liken New Bavaria to an ant 
colony.  And there are many on the planet that would envy the ants their

freedom.

	The people of New Bavaria can be divided into two types:
citizens and
thralls.  Thralls are conditioned, using an esoteric combination of
drugs,
subliminal induction, and direct neural manipulation, to obey any and
all
commands given by a citizen, no matter what the cost.  Even normal
humans
would be hard pressed to disregard a direct order from a Bavarian
citizen-voice, posture, and expression all combine in subtle ways to
make
them appear commanding and trustworthy.

	Three years later, in 2141, a settlement was established on New
Bavaria's
sister planet, Lemuria.  Lemuria's environment was far less pleasant
than
that of New Bavaria's, being only slightly better than that of Mars, but
it
has allowed the Bavarian's to locate much of their heavy industry on the
planet.

	The Illuminati still plays some role in the affairs of Earth. 
All
thirteen members of the current cabal are, officially at least, citizens
of
various Earthly nations, and between them these thirteen men and women
control about 6% of the planet's total wealth.	This is much reduced
from
the days of their former glory, but what remains is more than sufficient
for their needs.  New Bavaria still imports a great deal of equipment
and
material from Earth; but these imports have been shrinking as their
industrial installations have grown larger.

The New Bavarians regard the rest of the human "powers" with the same 
sort of amused contempt that a man wearing infrared goggles might feel 
when watching someone stumble their way through a darkened room full of 
furniture and angry cats.  They regard the bulk of humanity as blind, 
deluded fools, unworthy of any serious consideration.  Historically, 
their science has been at least several decades more advanced than that 
of the rest of the human race, but recent years have seen a severe 
narrowing of this gap.	However, the Bavarian's mastery of Psychetronics

(and through this, the human mind) remains far beyond anything that 
orthodox science currently considers possible.

	New Bavaria's overt contacts with their former subjects have
been few and
far 
between, and only the Bavarians themselves know the truth of those
encounters.  In 
March of 2171, two NAC ships were destroyed shortly after entering the 
Weishaupt system.  The hulks of the ships were later found, gutted of 
all usable systems, drifting through a system on the fringes of NAC
space..
 According to their 
logs, neither ship had ever been anywhere near Weishaput.  No member of 
either crew has ever been found.

	The Xeno war has brought changes to New Bavaria, despite the
wishes of 
its masters.  Twice, Kra'vak ships have entered the system, and twice 
the Bavarians have fought them off.  The cabal is starting to grow 
concerned, though.  The Kra'vak are inhuman, unknown, and are thus far 
more dangerous than humanity could ever be.  As for the Sa'vasku...the 
Illuminati has had dealings with their kind before, and they are not to 
be trusted.  Something is going to have to be done.  And soon.

Forces: The New Bavarian Stellar Navy is a study in contrasts.	The 
majority of the ships are decommissioned (or "lost") ships that 
previously belonged to one of a dozen different navies.  The ships have 
been refitted with state of the art weapons and defensive systems, and 
painted a uniform matte black.	The resulting ships would not be 
entirely unfamiliar to any modern navy, with the possible exception of 
the cloaking system that is installed as standard equipment on all 
Bavarian ships.  The past few years have seen a change, however, as the 
New Bavarian shipyards have finally become fully operational.  These new

ships, built and designed entirely by the Bavarians, are built for speed

and power.  Bavarian ships are armed almost entirely with standard beam 
batteries, although the Bavarians tend to make more use of needle beams 
than most navies do.  There are persistent rumors that the Bavarians 
have mounted the famed (and feared) Mind Control Lasers on some of these

ships.	These rumors, thankfully, remain unconfirmed.
     (For miniatures, I have a flock of Silent Death and some 
miscellaneous FT ships painted up as "Pirates"-those will do for now.  
For the new ships, I would love something pyramidal in shape...but I 
will probably use the NAC ships.  Deception is one of the Illuminati's 
strengths, after all.)
     The Bavarian ground forces make extensive use of Grav vehicles.  
Stealth takes priority over armor; the result is expensive, but they can

afford it.
     (Probably some of my copious Renegade Legion figures, with some 
turret swaps here and there.  Along with, of course, some helicopters.	
Infantry will be GW Space Marines in DSII scale, and Metal Magic 
"Sardukyn" in SGII scale.  Black paint schemes will be the order of the 
day.  Especially for the helicopters.)

John X Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com
  "...is one of the secret masters of the world: a librarian.
They control information.  Don't ever piss one off."
  --Spider Robinson, The Callahan Touch.