- Created by: Gene Roddenberry, filtered through FASA and adapted by Garry Stahl
- Appearance: Vista City Game and many others.
- Number of Members: Billions all told.
- Nature of Members: A humanoid, copper blooded, mammalian race common in the greater galaxy. Orions are typical humanoids with the expected parts in the expected places. They are similar enough that cross species sex is possible. Major organs are not the same as in humans and located in different areas of the torso. Orions come in two major types, almost two different species,. but they do share a common genome.
Gold Orion: The "Gold" race of Orions is anything form a bright yellow color to a dark red. This for Orions is the exact equivalent of light to dark Humans. Yellow is the more fashionable skin tone. Ruddies as the redder people are called. are considered crude and inferior. There is no difference between them other than color.
Gold Orions are 1.78 meters on average slender of build and have little body hair. Hair color is from black to white. The middle range being gray tones. Hair in general is unfashionable and it is common for both men and women to depilate their entire bodies wearing wigs when it public. Elaborate wigs being a sign of wealth. Realistic colors not required. Bulging muscles or pendulous breasts are also not fashionable. When necessary medical science is called on to correct what nature did not provide.
Green Orions: The Green Orions are green. From a light olive to a deep forest green. They are generally shorter and have heavier builds than Gold Orions. Hair is black often with a green tinge. Greens are an oily people. Their skin has a shine to it not present in the Golds and they have a definite odor again unlike the Golds. Said odor is somewhat pleasant and you tend to quickly forget it. This odor is not innocuous. It contains pheromones that have effects on most humanoid species, usually sexual arousal.
Bulging muscles and larger breasts are the rule among the Green Orions as is body hair. They are hirsute people and proud of this. They are less modest among their own kind and freely go nude in their own homes.
The other thing notable about Green Orions is they hijack the reproduction of other humanoids. It is not that they cannot reproduce among themselves, they can and do. However pathogenesis is common among females, sufficient sexual activity is all it requires. Pathogenesis is also the reason that there are usually four to five Green females for every male. Males will hijack the egg of a female who is not Green and the resulting child will be a Green Orion. This works much better with copper blooded species. Iron blooded females tend to reject the pregnancy. Only one in five such conceptions results in a live birth.
Bureau 13 Note: The Ane have indicated that Green Orions are an ancient genetic engineering project. By whom or for what reason has never been discovered.
Those Green Orions that have been recovered alive have all asked for political asylum. Two have turned out to arcane magicians and are currently studying with Dr. James Smythe.
- Organization: Hierarchical. The Orion society is divided into families. The Head is a patriarch who has the kind of power seen among Roman Senators. Everyone else is either family or client. Being family is not an assurance of better treatment.
Green Orions are slaves. This us universal among the Orion planets. It also led to the concept of the Natural Order. This described as somewhere between a religion and a political philosophy of the Orions. In human terms Social Darwinism by any other name.
Orion Slavery is not the type seen on Earth. If you do not know what you are looking at you might say there are no slaves at all. Rather than being hemmed in by chains and walls Greens and other slaves are hemmed in by culture. The patron-client relationship taken to the extreme. A Green is the client of their master, a client that cannot chose to find another patron. A client whose client-hood can be sold. Without the mark of a Patron a Green cannot do business, get housing or food. The patron provides all of this. there for no Green need be sold it. This is not to say that chains are not used. For making an impression, for newly enslaved peoples, yes. But once the chains are in the mind, they are not needed on the hands. Therefor Orion slaves look like an underclass, not the true case of an underclass with no freedom to choose.
- Culture: There are two distinct cultures within Orion society, they are intertwined to a point of being inseparable, but they do not practice the same values.
Gold Culture: Gold Orions are Social Darwinist. This is called "The Natural Order". The essential dogma being that those in power are in power because the are meant to be in power by virtue of being more fit to be in power. That is the natural order of precedence will prevail in any society leaving the most fit to rule in the position of ruling.
There is no obligation towards "lessor creatures" attached to this fitness. Since you are fit to rule, you are fit to do as you see fit. This can and does lead to excesses of behavior (from the Human viewpoint) that make the worst Emperors of Rome look like bad understudies. Sexual excess, even by Orion standards, slaves forced into gladiatorial contests. Extreme, excessive melodrama and backstabbing within the most powerful families is common. The Palace Melodrama as the recovered video is know as is a fictionalized but not untrue example of this.
The lower echelons of Gold Society are no better. Competition is dog eat dog. The best of the underdogs are often pitted against each other by the top dogs to thin out their number weakening the survivors and "preserve the natural order".
There are virtues within Gold society. They have the bond of commerce that is more biding than law. An exchange of goods or money places a bond of trust between two people. Want to cement an Orion's friendship? Deal with them frequently and fairly. One does not go back on their word. Ones word is never casually given. The most powerful Orion Lord will die rather than break his word. If there is conflict among obligations it is considered that family comes first, Old Friends (long business associates) second and a descending order within Orion society. Then come non Orions.
Green Culture: Green Orions hold different values. As the Greens in any circumstances are slaves and the bottom of the heap they have rejected the excess of Gold Society. Keep in mind that Green culture is restricted and circumscribed at every turn. The more fearful the ruling class, the more they step on the Greens. Greens are very good at hiding their true intentions and meanings.
The linchpin of Green society is music and dance. This cannot be over stated. A Green dances for every occasion or no occasion at all. Joy sorrow, grief, glee, rage, frustration, a Green will dance, to the beat of their own heart if they must.
Green society is family centered. Because of the disparity in the number of males to females that family is not the shape usually seen on Earth. A green family will consist of the Green females plus what males live with them. Children are usually raised in a group. The family is headed by an Alpha, an older female wise in the ways of the world.
This pattern of a healthy Green family is disrupted by Golds at every turn. They inject their own values. They will connive to see that Green females fight each other for the position of Alpha. They twist Green values even mentally destroying Greens and seeding them among the healthy population. The big lie is that Greens are passion driven animals that cannot control themselves and they need Gold intervention to even survive. Gold intervention is what is breaking their way of life.
In addition to the big lie Golds enforce sumptuary laws that further restrict what Greens can do or own. They are forbidden the truly lucrative professions, forbidden to be educated beyond the most basic skills. Again the big lie that they cannot learn these things.
One profession that will get you killed in a slower and nastier fashion than any other is magic. Any Green suspected of knowing magic is put to death in a needlessly torturous fashion that has nothing to do with punishment and everything to do with "you could be next". Periodic pogrom style witch hunts are conducted if any hint of magic is suspected.
Greens being the resilient and creativity ingenious people that they are circumvent all these restrictions.
Vegaris Culture: Vegaris itself is reported to be wrapped in small rules. It is nearly impossible to keep the law by rising and yawning in the morning. The effect is to give enforcement cause to arrest anyone at any time. Enforcement is of course highly dependent on the color of your skin and the color of your money. Gold is preferred in both cases. BWG (Breathing while Green) is a common crime and sweeps of the cities for those committing it frequent. While the reason given is always different the true purpose is to disrupt the Greens and locate any dissent that might be lying loose. The dissent and the dissenters are then "taken care of".
Likewise the law is not respected by any level of society. The rich buy their way passed it the poor scheme and connive. Police are the most reviled of professions. Corruption is a way of life. A cop not on the take is examined for mental competence. The squeeze is the only reason to be a cop.
- Game Role: Guys, bad or good.
- World Role: Another expression of life. A people that once had a greater role.
- Relative Influence: Varies wildly. Everything from barbarian stone age planet to the people with the cutting edge technology. For the area around Earth it is the dead Empire with part of the body still twitching.
- Public or Secret?: Public.
- Publicly Stated Goal: Have the best of everything.
- Relative Wealth: The world Earth is in contact with is Vegaris They are reasonably wealthy as worlds go with a good space infrastructure.
- Group advantages: Possess warp drive. Vegaris is long experienced with warp drive and space technology.
- Special Abilities: Mature culture -- Orions have been Orions for a very long time. They stick together and know the lay of the land.
- Group disadvantages: They don't try much that is new unless forced to.
- Special disadvantages: Failing Empire -- Vegaris is on the tail end of a crumbling empire, this could bite their asses at any time.
- Those who favor them: Themselves, you should too.
- Those opposed to them: Anyone that does not want to be slaves.
- Area of Operation: Vegaris has an effective fifty light year operational range.
- Headquarters Location: 'Botchok' -- The Legendary Orion "Home" world, recently contacted El Nanth in the "person" of House Auric.
Vegaris -- A backwater Podunk world of the late Vegan Tyranny. Recently exploded in Revolution. The outcome is not known yet.
- Public Face: I rule because the Natural Order says I should.
- Notable Members: House Auric: The leading house of Botchok. In contact and trade with El Nanth and they have sent a mission to Earth. They are showing the Vegarians the two bit kids they are.
House Sofuk: (Vegaris) Noted as the house that fomented the failed raid. If the carcase isn't being picked over by now they are kissing ass and kissing it hard.
House Sogui: (Vegaris) Dancing the trade dance with Earth. A bit put out by the Ane knowing the steps. This house has been feeling out the market. T^hey have moved lock stock and barrel to Earth since the balloon when up on Vegaris.
- History of the Organization: The Vegan Tyranny is a spin off from the crumbling and long gone Great Orion Empire. Vegaris is a spin off of the crumbling and effectively dead Vegan Tyranny. That said they are one of the most powerful worlds in the region with 3 day a light year ships and barely the infrastructure to build and maintain them.
Vegaris has already tried to raid Earth, and run into the ADF in the process. The survivors ran home licking their wounds. This time someone is sending a deniable trade mission to find a few things out. Like where did the new planet on the block get such devastating ships?
Meanwhile Botchok has rediscovered El Nanth and is aggressively moving out into the Galaxy again. They are cooperating with the Corps of Discovery to get access to the various Orion worlds they have found.
Speaking of various Orion worlds the Corps of Discovery has located a number, anywhere from post apocalyptic hell to bare lost space fight.