The Ardent Initiative
A scientific mission to expand the horizons of the Alliance of Mutual Species by encountering the new and exploring the unknown.
RELATIVE TIME: ARDENT +/-0
Four hundred billion flames form a thin, pale swirl in the darkness. Our galaxy, our home: the Milky Way.
It is large. It contains multitudes. The play of heat and light has brought life forth in staggering and varied form, again and again – and with it, conflict. But we are not alone in our struggles; those few of us that were wise, and fortunate, to have survived our infancy have reached out across the stars and found each other.
Vari. Tever. Skala. Omdua. Human. Anthroid. These species stand alongside each other in a pact of cooperation and collective aid: the Alliance. This alliance is guided by firm principles and procedures, striving to be a beacon of process and improvement, however gradual, over the unheeding void – and those who would stand against them.
The Alliance has resolved to cast its light into the darkness. Enter the Ardent Initiative – an expedition led by the Alliance’s best and brightest into the uncharted realms of the Milky Way, where many fear to tread. Aboard a state-of-the-art spacecraft, the AES-Ardent, this crew will push at the boundaries of Alliance knowledge and illuminate the unknown for future generations.
New species, and potential allies for the Alliance. Strange phenomena – which might turn all we thought we knew on its head. Worlds and resources beyond our wildest dreams. Everything is out there, waiting to be discovered.
It is time to reach out into the dark once more.
The Ardent Initiative needs you. Will you heed her call?
What is the Ardent Initiative?
The Ardent Initiative is an autonomous body overseen by the Alliance as a whole, which functions like a government department. The headquarters of the Initiative are located at Mount Tenzing on the planet Earth.
The Initiative was responsible for organising the construction and launch of the AES Ardent, and it remains in charge of overseeing the ships mission, providing mission support, and handling general correspondences between the ship and the Alliance so those on board can focus on their work. A-COM derives their authority from the Initiative.
The Initiative was founded to explore the galaxy and study the unknown. Recent breakthroughs with FTL travel have for the first time enabled the Alliance to travel far outside of the Orion arm on this first-of-its-kind spacecraft, marking the start of a new age of space exploration.
Ultimately, the goals of the Initiative are the goals of the Ardent and her crew. These include documenting new planets, making contact with new species, finding and harvesting rare resources, and establishing a trail that others may follow.
Measuring Time
There is no single set time in The Alliance; each planet uses its own timekeeping due to time dilation, and the Ardent is the same, using its own timekeeping system starting from its launch date. Because it is a primarily human mission, each Ardent year is 365 days just like an Earth year. BA refers to “Before Ardent”, and A is “Ardent Time”. The first of the Ardent’s missions will be during the year A0 (OC date 2025).
On Earth, the current date is 2525 at the start of the game, exactly 500 years in our future. The game will progress in real time to make timekeeping simpler.
