"The ancient and proud culture of the Forge Fathers has managed to retain its independence from the Corporation while others have fallen. Masters of science, artisans beyond compare, the Forge Fathers are the only aliens to trade with the Corporation on anything approaching even terms. While they are far fewer in numbers than humans, the Forge Fathers are renowned across the galaxy for their grasp of advanced technology. They are one of the only species in known space whose weaponry and spacecraft are more powerful than those of the Corporation. Their battle-suits are nigh-on impregnable, the destructive capability of their thermal guns is of tremendous magnitude, not to mention the incredible rate of fire and penetrative power of their solid-shot weaponry. In the field of space warfare, they are unsurpassed. Their ships are much like they are: slow, massive, resilient to damage, and armed to the teeth.
Forge Fathers are a cautious people in most matters, their technical secrets cannot be bought, and they take great pains to conceal the workings of the machinery that they sell to others. The structure, workings and habits of their civilization have only been won by the Corporation at great cost and effort, as the torture, psychological conditioning and mental engineering employed by the Corporation on war captives work rarely on the robust psyches of the Forge Fathers. Were it not for the few disaffected members of this honourable people willing to sell their secrets, the Corporation would know very little about them at all beyond that which the Forge Fathers wish them to know. Human spymasters can never be sure what they have gleaned is disinformation and which is truth. It is also a sad fact that there are far more corruptible individuals in the Co-Prosperity Sphere than in the Forge Fathers’ Star Realm. Corporation Central is well aware that the Forge Fathers have a great deal more information about mankind than mankind has about the Forge Fathers.
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| Forge Fathers and Picture (c) Mantic Games. |
Although the core of the Forge Fathers’ realm lies coreward to Corporation space, they can be found throughout the galaxy. The great fleets of the Forge Fathers have been plying the heavens for millennia, travelling from system to system, selling their services. Although dubbed “Trading fleets” by the Corporation, this is something of a misnomer; each great Forge Father star-caravan centres on one or more Ward Ships, a mountain of metal and stone bristling with weapons. Smaller craft cluster about it, and these are multifarious in purpose. Besides smaller warships, many are tailored to constructive purpose: geoengineering, large-scale construction, fabrication, asteroid mining or whatever else the clan they belong to happens to specialise in. Depending on what they are engaged to do, a Forge Father fleet can remain in orbit around a planet for anything up to a century before moving on. This is but a short time for Forge Fathers; the longest lived in Corporation custody survived one hundred and fifty years before contriving to take his own life. It is suspected their natural lifespan is at least seventy years longer than this, and has been greatly extended by medical means.
Relations between the Corporation and the Forge Father Star Realm are tense. Military confrontation between the two almost always go in favour of the Forge Fathers. The Forge Fathers might lack the numbers or territorial ambition to exploit such victories, but any trespass into their space by Corporation Fleets has been ruthlessly dealt with, while every attempt to incorporate Forge Father worlds or clans into the Co-Prosperity Sphere have been foiled, no matter the means employed. The two powers will trade, but these transactions are always done on the Forge Fathers’ terms.
The activities of the Forge Fathers are of great interest to the Corporation, not least because they are capable of planetary engineering feats that make the Corporation’s own efforts appear feeble. In particular the Forge Fathers possess the ability to shift a world’s orbit; needless to say this is of great interest to Corporation peace contractors. There appears to be a new pattern emerging in the activities of the Forge Father trade fleets, with civilisations earmarked for incorporation into the Co-Prosperity Sphere suddenly gaining a much higher level of technology. Several cultures near the borders of the Star Realm have signed mutual protection pacts with the Forge Fathers, or even allowing themselves to by subsumed into the Star Realm entirely.
All this is exceedingly irksome to Corporation Central, but while the Forge Fathers remain preeminent in the field of space warfare, there is little prospect that the situation will change."
One of the most amazing races we have seen so far in Sci-Fi is the emergence of the Forge Fathers. Nothing screams Sci-Fi more than Dwarves with the capability of space flight. Purchase the Forge Father vrs Orx boxset and you've instantly got a way to demo the game for friends. There will be more to come and Mantic Games is releasing new kits and concepts all the time!
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