The God Empress Making a Necro-Cavalier

 Name your necro-cavalier. Your formal name must be

Requests Your Assistance florid and ostentatious to do full honor to the baroque
majesty of your noble house, but you also likely have a
The Astral Galaxy has been ruled by the God Empress, She Who
shorter and easier to remember name by which your
Sits Resplendent on the Opalescent Throne, for longer than
intimates and equals might address you.
recorded history remembers—great fat spans of millennia, at least.
 Choose one of the seven noble houses as your character’s
familial origin. The noble houses and their specialties are
You were born into one of the seven hereditary noble houses that described on the pages that follow.
form the God Empress’s court. As a member of the galactic
aristocracy, yours has been a life of leisure and privilege. You are a
 Choose your number, from 2 to 5. A high number means
you are better at being a NECROMANCER (careful
fop, a dandy, a rake, a swell, and a toff. You are accustomed to
action, subterfuge, magic, cunning, subtle manipulation). A
being garbed in the height of fashion, drinking the rarest of
low number means you’re better at being a CAVALIER
libations, attending the most lavish soirees, and experiencing
(brash action, athletics, combat, bold and flamboyant acts
pleasures of dubious morality, virtue, and legality. You are a
of persuasion or seduction).
pampered, preening child born of wealth and luxury.
 You dress to impress. Describe your stylish, outlandish,
and expensive attire.
However, you were trained to be useful—should the need arise.
You were not allowed to grow fallow. You were made to practice  You carry a sword; write down what it looks like and any
the arts of war and the arts of black magic. You were educated, noteworthy elements it may have. You also carry a
tutored, and made skillful. You were honed, sharpened. You are a secondary weapon or your choice.
tool. You are a weapon.  You are entrusted with a necromantic catalyst; what is
its form and what about it is eerie and disquieting?

You were raised as a necro-cavalier of your noble house. You

reluctantly or begrudgingly underwent training as both
necromancer and cavalier because your elite status comes with an
Her adept said: “I'll keep it off you. Nav,
obligation—a duty so sacred your family dare not shrink from it.
show them what the Ninth House does.”
The God Empress reserves the right to request that the noble
houses of her court furnish her with their sons and daughters to
serve whatever aims she sees fit. No one can deny the whims of the Gideon lifted her sword. The construct worked
God Empress. itself free of its last confines of masonry and rotten
wood and heaved before them, flexing itself like a
butterfly.
You have been called upon by the God Empress for a task that will,
no doubt, put your life in jeopardy and test your fealty to your
noble family and your beloved-slash-feared God Empress. As a “We do bones, motherfucker," she said.
necro-cavalier of the Astral Galaxy, you are honor bound to sally
forth as the God Empress wills it. – Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth
The Noble Houses House Kala The God Empress’s Soul
The following seven noble houses constitute the imperial court of House Kala are the famed performers and artistes of the Empire.
the God Empress. There was once an eighth noble house, House Kalans are tasked with bringing beauty into existence to alleviate
Erebus, but that family has been outlawed as déclassé traitors. the God Empress’s boredom and enlivening her eternal reign.
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when acting, evaluating art or the value of
lavish objects, drawing attention and creating distractions, and
House Alvar The God Empress’s Fist using necromancy to craft and command shadows.

House Alvar leads the God Empress’s military legions. It produces

the finest soldiers in the Astral Galaxy. Alvarans are known for
their discipline, loyalty, and unbreakable courage. House Satomi The God Empress’s Memory
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when engaged in combat, enduring House Satomi maintains the Empire’s vast orbital libraries and
physical or mental hardship, carousing with mercenaries, preserves the written history of the Astral Galaxy. The scholars of
exhibiting bravery, and using necromancy to cause pain. House Satomi are unrivaled in their fields.
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when researching, delivering stentorian
oratory, ingratiating yourself with academicians, and using
House Arabella The God Empress’s Prayers necromancy to consult the specters of the ancestral genetic record.

House Arabella directs the populace of the Empire in their

worship of the God Empress. Arabellans are the priests, hunters of
heretics, and missionaries of the Astral Galaxy. House Shiva The God Empress’s Eyes and Ears
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when reading the emotional states of House Shiva are the greatest diplomats within the Empire.
others, recalling facts related to religious history or theology, and Shivans are known for their impeccable sense of fashion, as well as
using necromancy to manipulate the bones of the dead. their ability to wield gossip like a precision laser.
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when reading the motives of others,
sneaking and hiding, spreading rumors and otherwise planting
House Hanan The God Empress’s Mercy information, and using necromancy to alter flesh into new forms.

House Hanan are the appointed forces of law and order

throughout the Empire. Hanans act as judge, jury, and executioner
when the occasion, or the God Empress’s honor, demands it. House Yeong The God Empress’s Reach
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when asserting the God Empress’s House Yeong are the great explorers of the universe. Yeongians are
authority, discerning falsehoods, performing acts of intimidation, renowned for their bravery in seeking out new frontiers to add to
and using necromancy to analyze and control spilled blood. the rich panoply of the God Empress’s dominion.
Expertise. Roll +1d6 when tracking and hunting, piloting
vessels, surviving in the wilderness, riding beasts, and using
necromancy to sense the presence of life and death.
Rolling the Dice Providing Aid
When you do something risky, roll 1d6 to find out what happens. If you want to help someone else who’s rolling, say how you try to
Roll +1d6 if you’re prepared and +1d6 if your action falls within aid them and make a roll. If you succeed, give them +1d6.
the expertise of your noble house. (The GM tells you how many
dice to roll, based on your character and the situation.) Roll your
dice and compare each die result to your number.
Running the Game
 Play to find out how the necro-cavaliers serve their God
If the action falls under the purview of being a
 NECROMANCER, you want to roll under your number.
Empress by furthering her will in the Astral Galaxy.
 Reinforce the themes of the game by describing opulence,
If the action falls under the purview of being a emphasizing hauteur, and raising operatic stakes.
 CAVALIER, you want to roll over your number.  Introduce threats by portraying them as swaggering,
menacing, Machiavellian, or world-endingly apocalyptic.
 Pose questions to the players about the current situation in
Results the game. Let the characters’ actions drive the situation.
 Only ask the players to roll the dice when the situation
0 Iftellnone of your dice succeed, you fail and the GM will
you how things get worse. involves risk, uncertainty, or the possibility of big drama.
 Don’t write plot lines; prepare situations and scenarios
1 Ifbutone of your dice succeed, you accomplish your goal
the GM inflicts a complication, harm, or cost.
instead. Give the players room to surprise you.
 Don’t let failures be dead ends. All failure means is that a
different approach is going to be the right one.
2 Ifgrace,
two of your dice succeed, you do it with elegant style,
and panache.  The situation in the game must always get worse or better
in response to the characters’ actions.
3 Ifextra
three of your dice succeed, the GM tells you some
effect you get while accomplishing your goal.

Challenge Clocks
Brilliant Insight  For obstacles that might require more than one roll to
overcome, you can create a “clock” to chart the players’
If you roll your number exactly, you succeed and gain a brilliant progress in achieving their goal.
insight into the current situation. You may ask the GM a
question, and they will answer you truthfully. Examples: “What is  Simply draw a circle and divide it into segments equal to
X feeling?” or “How can I get X to do what I want?” the number of success the players need to completely
accomplish their task.
 Each success fills in one segment of the clock. When the
clock is full, the players have succeeded at the task.
The Astral Galaxy Important Locations in the
Imagine Warhammer 40k, but significantly more stylish,
glamorous, and camp. Chainswords, yes, but we’re talking
Astral Galaxy
bejeweled chainswords here. Art Nouveau spacecraft dogfight A few locations that the characters may venture to on their
their way across the glistening expanse of the Astral Galaxy, while missions from the God Empress:
popinjay pirates board their prey looking like they were personally
 Chthonia Nine. The most harsh prison planet in the
dressed by Alexander McQueen. Missionaries bring the Word of
Empire. Convicts are allowed to roam freely on this
the God Empress to unexplored planets, but they also bring next
dangerous hellworld; no one has ever managed to escape
season’s lookbooks and fistfuls of designer drugs. The movie
from Chthonia Nine.
version of this game would be directed by Floria Sigismondi in her
most expensive, ennui-ridden mood. Aubrey Beardsley did the  Space Station Dionysus. A stately pleasure dome, but
storyboards for it and the soundtrack is composed by musicians in space. Dionysus is renowned for its high-stakes casinos,
who only deal in anthemic, symphonic bombast. top-shelf intoxicants, and cut-throat political intrigues.
 Fabulosa Prime. A planet that is home to the most
exclusive fashion design houses in the galaxy. It is also
Life in the Noble Houses inhabited by oppressed textile workers. An uprising of the
downtrodden is inevitable.
The noble houses are vast; their domains span the Astral Galaxy.
The families who comprise the noble houses of the God Empress’s
court are so extensive that no noble can ever know the full scope of
their relations or the total wealth of their house’s planetary Notable Personages in the
holdings. Aside from the noble houses, there are innumerable
minor houses and cadet branches throughout the Empire. Astral Galaxy
A few important luminaries of the Empire:
 The God Empress. The God Empress’s true name has
The Honorado been lost to the annals of history. Her mastery of the
necromantic arts has made her something more than
Although the necro-cavaliers of the noble houses number among
mortal. Certainly, someone as long-lived as the Empress
the idle rich, they are pledged to follow the Honorado—a code of
may not even be human anymore. No one living has ever
behavior that governs how they are expected to comport
seen her dressed as anything less than the absolute
themselves in the public eye, especially when pursuing an
pinnacle of style, and no one living has ever seen her sweat.
assignment handed down by the God Empress. The three tenets of
the Honorado are:  Carthageous Falke. The God Empress’s spymaster.
 Hauteur. As an extension of the God Empress’s will, you Falke undergoes periodic full-body plastic surgery to
maintain his or her anonymity.
must display her disdain for the mundane and the prosaic.
 Couture. The God Empress believes in the power of  Helixa Pompeii. The most popular pop musician in the
galaxy. The elusive Helixa Pompeii is suspected of sowing
beauty; as such, you are to be a beacon of fashion and style.
messages of dissidence against the God Empress’s regime
 Grandeur. The God Empress demands perfection. in her music.
Victory and glory is worth the sacrifice of your life.
The God Empress’s Enemies Scenario Generator
The enemies of the God Empress are legion. May they suffer Roll or choose from the tables below to construct a scenario:
humiliating defeats! Among their unclean cohort are:
 Primortals. Unrelenting, deathless robots possessed by
the vengeful spirits of the God Empress’s ancient foes.
A menace
1 A group of saboteurs 4 A pirate captain
 Gref. A tribe of devolved mutants who terrorize the Galaxy
as uncouth marauders and hooligans. They are violent, 2 An alien invader 5 A rogue necromancer
vulgar, and born without a sense of shame. 3 A traitorous noble 6 A gang of mutants
 Void Princes and Princesses. Inhuman, decadent
nobles from another galaxy who have a penchant for
machinations and bondage gear.
Located in
1 An abandoned space hulk 4 An orbital station
 Xenoskex. Monstrous, locust-like bio-mechanical aliens
that either devour the life of entire planets or assimilate 2 A scientific outpost 5 An underground bunker
sentient creatures to their hive-mind. 3 An imperial manse 6 An uncolonized planet
 House Erebus. Once the eighth noble house of the Astral
Galaxy, now fallen to the worship of demons and outlawed.
They are warped in body, mind, and soul.
Has weaponized
1 Forbidden magic 4 A virulent virus
2 An army of fanatics 5 Industrial robots
Sample Scenarios 3 A planet-killing laser 6 Ravenous monsters
Adventures in the Astral Galaxy might go something like this:
 A pacifistic heretic has convinced the workers at a
With the goal of
munitions factory to abandon their labor. The heretic has 1 Embarrassing one of the 4 Inciting a planetary revolt
an ulterior motive that the characters will need to uncover. noble houses among the downtrodden
 The necro-cavaliers are sent to a remote research outpost 2 Usurping the God 5 Gaining outrageous, ill-
to discover why the scientists assigned to the facility have Empress gotten wealth
cut off all contact with the Empire. 3 Seeking vengeance against 6 Destroying an imperial
 A planet-sized abomination is headed for a vulnerable someone of high status outpost
world with death and destruction on its mind. The necro-
cavaliers are summoned to intercept and neutralize the
monster—but how do you slay something of this colossal
magnitude?
Quicker Character Creation
 A noble is murdered amid a decadent masquerade ball. If you’re out of creative gas or don’t have time to invent a character
Among the attendees are several members of competing from scratch, you can use the character creation tables on the next
factions, as well as a bevy of jealous lovers. The characters page of this document to quickly generate a character. You’ll still
must detect the guilty party and bring them to justice. need to choose a noble house and choose your character’s number!
Character Creation Tables Inspirations
The following media inspired this game:
Name  Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series.
1 Rosamunda Byronika 4 Sarojini Symonia  Warhammer 40k.
2 Marriott Ernestino 5 Dowdson Beerbohm  The photography of Floria Sigismondi and John
3 Arthurius Cooper-Bradley 6 Lionella Galliena Santerineross.
 Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Technopriests, The Incal, and
Attire The Metabarons.
 Alexander McQueen’s fashion.
1 A feathered ensemble 4 A risque take on military
styled after a bird of dress with suggestive  Philippe Druillet’s Lone Sloane.
paradise medals of honor  Enki Bilal’s Nikopol Trilogy and Monster.
2 A high-fashion, but 5 Austere and severe  Nightwish’s “Noise,” Within Temptation’s “Supernova,”
sacrilegious, play on a evening wear in a black so and Epica’s “Universal Death Squad.”
priestly garments dark it hurts the eye
 John Meaney’s Tristopolis novels.
3 A riot of discordant 6 Scraps of leather and lace
patterns and colors— held together by gold and  The Gothic Tales of Haunted Futures comics anthology.
megawatt loudness silver chains  Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s Salome.

Sword
1 A wicked saber 4 A grim zweihander Credits
2 A baroque longsword 5 An insouciant rapier Credit where credit is due:
3 An unadorned gladius 6 An heirloom katana  Necro-Cavaliers of the Astral Galaxy was written by Jack
Shear after wondering “What would Warhammer 40k be
Secondary Weapon like if you replaced all the grimdark with haute couture?”
 The mechanics of the game are largely borrowed from
1 A gem-encrusted cestus 4 A mono-filament whip
John Harper’s Lasers & Feelings.
2 An ebony dueling dagger 5 An embellished pistol  The cover image is by Kenrick Mills at unsplash.com.
3 A bejeweled flail 6 An ostentatious hammer

Necromantic Catalyst Creative Commons License

1 A reanimated parakeet 4 A blood-filled glass skull This game is licensed under a CC BY-NCSA 3.0 license.
2 A breastplate made of ribs 5 A tooth-studded wand http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
3 A locket holding cremains 6 A gilded jaw bone