The Azure Sept

“The Brotherhood is the steel tip, the Proletarans are the curving, strong wood holding everything in place; the Pyathenians are the keen eyes that track the hare…but the Azure Sept decides when to let the arrow fly!” – excerpt from “When Men Need Kings”, biography of Lee Garnet, former Chair of the Executive Tribunal.

In many ways, the Azure Sept has declared itself the nobility of the Protectorate. Of course, their hold on that claim is rather tenuous, as the Protectorate is, by and large, a democracy with no history of monarchy whatsoever. The ARCHIE supercomputer had access to detailed family history files on all the fetuses in storage for the original journey, or most of them anyway. The progenitors of the Azure Sept were chosen by ARCHIE for their families' histories of leadership ability, and overall social success. The embryos of the rich, powerful and influential were culled from all the rest and herded into one crèche. As a result, they are the leaders of colonies, the admirals of fleets, the representatives from dozens of worlds, the heads of guilds, etc. What’s more, the original officers who led the expedition made their headquarters in the clan’s hereditary crèche building, and the line of the ship’s officers can be directly traced to members of the Azure Sept. The head of the order has been, for 200 years, a direct descendent of the captain of the Hawking. The Azure Sept controls the Protectorate. Plain and simple. They are the politicians, the bureaucrats, and the corporate CEOs that keep the Protectorate going. They have an almost iron lock on the reins of power and carefully play most of the Clans like a well-tuned harp to do their bidding, although they have had problems with the more extroverted of the clans, like the Hannu and the Davinchians. Lately, particularly in the last 10 years, a combined effort by the Scions of Tellus Mater and the Yoarashi has eroded much of the Sept’s influence, particularly in the outer worlds. But their lock on the core worlds, particularly on Terra, remains very secure for the time being. The course of the war, and their leadership or lack thereof, will probably have a large effect on the future of the Azure Sept.

Traits: Decisive, charismatic, sometimes a bit arrogant. Refined tastes.

Bonuses: +1D6 to M.A. and +10% to all communication skills. Quadruple the starting money. For some reason, descendants of the original crewmembers, whose bloodline runs strong in the Azure Sept, have a higher incidence of psychic abilities…particularly physical psychic powers. There is a 20% chance of being a major physical psychic (same rules as Rifts Ultimate Edition) OR having one physically-based super psychic ability, such as super-telekinesis, telekinetic force field, biomanipulation, etc. Same ISP and saves as a major psionic. Any member that has this type of psychic ability is obviously a Hawkings Officer descendent and has increased stature (and expectations) in the clan.

Penalties: The Azure Sept hurries for no one. All members lose 1/4 their total speed (after ALL starting bonuses and skills, such as running, have been added). Status is also incredibly important, and members of the Azure Sept must make a save vs insanity of 14 or better to take any action they know will make them lose status (becoming an outlaw, crawling around in the garbage, begging, associating with “undesirables” etc.). GM’s, make sure common sense applies here. They will, like most, take any actions that are in the realm of common sense (such as saving their own life) without need of a roll.

Affectations: Fine clothes, jewelry and fine living. Clan colors: Royal blue, red and gray. Clan symbol: A blue, inverted triangle. They also make extensive use of bodyguards.