Behind the Dark Fist - Vergons

I really, really like the Vergons. Warrior cultures are always a lot  
of fun -- though, if done wrong, they can end up being just  
collection of bad recycled Klingon aphorisms. Like World of  
Warcraft's orcs.

Since very little information is given about the Vergon and why,  
exactly, their six worlds are constantly fighting each other, I once  
again made stuff up to explain it. My vision of Vergonspace was a  
sphere where six different war gods held sway, and each had a very  
different philosophy of how to conduct warfare. The six war gods  
couldn't persuade each other by debate, not even after millennia of  
trying, so they agreed instead to settle their argument by setting up  
an elaborate test. That test, according to Vergon philosophy, is life  
itself, and each Vergon believes that his role in life is to help his  
deity prove to the other deities that his way is best. The Vergon  
does this by defeating enemies in battle using his god's philosophy  
of war.

Rather than make up my own six war gods, I wanted to use some of the  
already established Earth gods from sources like Legends and Lore.  
This was done (partially) in the Astromundi cluster, as well, so I  
followed Astromundi's example (only, unlike Astromundi, I chose not  
to give the deities Vergon-specific names).

Choosing vastly different war gods like Huitzilpochtli, Kuan-Ti and  
Indra gave me the opportunity to incorporate obscure non-standard  
classes as well, like the Samurai, the Kshatriya and the Maztican  
Eagle and Jaguar Knights. With the elite unit classes, I also live up  
to my contention that pre-d20 editions of the game are all at least  
90% compatible with each other: Samurai, Kensai and Sohei I import  
regularly from 1st edition to do my bidding, and the Hollow World  
conversion of a Nithian warrior specialty is no trouble at all. (a  
more detailed writeup of Vergons would display this in clearer terms)

I was especially jazzed to include Kuan-Ti into the mix -- being that  
he is the deified Guan-Yu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms and  
Dynasty Warriors fame.

The six war gods of Vergon also represent a fairly good mixture of  
alignments. Three are evil (Huitzilpochtli, Indra and Ares), three  
are good (Kuan-Ti, Hachiman and Anhur), and in addition to the  
cultural differences that each god represents (being that each god is  
from a different real Earth culture), this helps to underscore the  
main idea that the Vergons are fighting over the nature and conduct  
of war.

While that does make for nice context (if I do say so myself), this  
does sort of hit the wall when set against the UTDF reasoning that  
Vulkaran kept the Vergon fighting so that they wouldn't unite against  
him. Does that justification make any sense in the context of the  
religious culture of endless war I write about below? It seems like  
the Vergon might have been fighting anyway, whether Vulkaran was  
there or not. Maybe more work needs to be done here.

Anyway, here are Vergons.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Vergons - Vergonspace is a sphere comprising six inhabited  
worlds, all equidistantly spaced along the same orbit, revolving  
around a pair of spinning binary suns. The Vergons worship six gods,  
one on each planet, and each god gives its name to the world he or  
she is worshipped on. The gods (and worlds) are: Huitzilpochtli,  
Ares, Kuan-Ti, Anhur, Indra and Hachiman. Anyone in the home audience  
paying attention to that list will note that all six gods are war  
gods. Knowing that should tell you all you need to know about Vergon  
culture.
All of the Vergons -- all of them -- are either Fighters, specialized  
warrior classes (see below), Clerics or specialty priests. Vergon has  
been in a state of near constant war (over, oddly enough, which  
world's definition and practice of war was most correct) since the  
initial discovery of spelljamming. If the Vergons ever allied, they  
would have had the power (both in terms of warships and in terms of  
the numbers of hardened combat veterans among the regular forces of  
each of the six worlds) to win back their independence from the  
Vodoni, and then possibly go off on a spate of conquesting of their own.
When he initially took control of Vergonspace, he believed that the  
Vergons would make an excellent soldier-stock for his Empire. Well,  
he was right on one count anyway: the Vergons do make excellent  
soldiers. The only trouble was, a Vergon's loyalty is hard-won, for  
as a race they respect only strength. And Vulkaran (who had strength  
oozing out of every single pore of his hairless body) failed to  
impress anybody in Vergonspace. So Vulkaran did something then that,  
for a change, the rest of the Known Spheres may one day live to thank  
him for: he kept the Vergons fighting with each other, selling all  
sides information and weapons to keep any one faction from gaining  
too much strength (and, certainly, keeping all sides from allying  
with each other).
Of course now that Vulkaran is dead, there is nobody to fan the  
fires. The leaders of the six worlds are talking, with least boastful  
threats than usual. Nobody yet is aware of the potential danger that  
lies in store for all of creation among the six spinning worlds of  
Vergonspace...
The Vergons are mostly the same as other humans, though their culture  
of endless war has shaped them into perfect warriors. Vergons may  
take a +1 bonus to any one physical attribute (Strength, Constitution  
or Dexterity) for a -1 penalty to any other attribute (Intelligence,  
Wisdom, Charisma). In addition to Fighters, Clerics and Specialty  
Priests, each of the six worlds has one or more specialty warrior  
classes available only to members of that world's elite fighting  
units. These elite warrior classes are listed below:
	•Huitzilpochtli: Eagle and Jaguar Knights (from the MAZTICA campaign  
setting)
	•Ares: Greek Hero (kit from THE AGE OF HEROES historical reference  
book)
	•Kuan-Ti: Kensai (from 1st edition Oriental Adventures);  
additionally, Fighters are replaced by Bushi on this world, and  
Clerics are replaced by Sohei
	•Anhur: Khopesh Runner (class that combines the two Fighter  
specializations "Khopesh" and "Runner" from the HOLLOW WORLD  
accessory "Kingdom of Nithia")
	•Indra: Kshatriya (Paladin kit from DRAGON #225, "Caste of  
Characters"); additionally, Fighters have the Singh kit, and Clerics  
are Brahmin.
	•Hachiman: Samurai (from 1st edition Oriental Adventures);  
additionally, Fighters are replaced by Bushi on this world, and  
Clerics are replaced by Sohei
Since nearly all of the Vergons' fighting is done in space, the elite  
warriors (Huitzilpochtli's Knights, Ares' Heroes, Kuan-Ti's Kensai,  
Anhur's Khopesh Runners, Indra's Kshatriya and Hachiman's Kensai)  
from each world receive Zero-Gravity Fighting as a bonus proficiency,  
normal Fighters (and Bushi and Singh) are considered Crack crewmen on  
the riggings and sails, and all Vergon priests are so highly trained  
in ship warfare that vessels piloted by them receive a +1 bonus to SR  
and a 1-category upgrade to manueverability during combat.
It should be noted that despite the ongoing war, and the fact that  
Vergons hail from six radically different planets all bent at  
destroying each others' populations, the Vergons do not use  
adjectival labels based upon their homeworld to describe themselves.  
Instead they all proudly bear the name Vergon, and regard other  
Vergons as closer kin than outsiders regardless of what homeworld  
they are from.