Matrix Games

What is a Pirate?

What is a Pirate?  In Distant Worlds 2, the term Pirate refers to a variety of space-based survivors of the cataclysm that ended the last Great War against the Shakturi, who are willing to do whatever it takes to survive.  Some are more focused on trade and espionage, others on raiding and fighting, some prefer a mix of everything.  Living in space across generations has been very difficult and very dangerous and their past experiences with planetary civilizations give them a distrust of what they call “dirtsiders”.

The Pirate Story - the Age of Shadows

Distant Worlds 2: Shadows Rising, take us to the Age of Shadows, to a time before the base Distant Worlds 2 game and the events told in that and the following storylines.  The Age of Shadows is the time period after the cataclysm that befell the galaxy at the end of the first Great War against the Shakturi but before the previous planetary empires recovered enough to return to space and rediscover their history.

After the first Great War between the Freedom Alliance and the Shaktur Axis, the remaining fragments of civilization in the galaxy collapsed and those who remained found themselves engaged in a desperate struggle for survival that at times looked certain to fail.  As they realized the terrible fate that had befallen them, the few surviving Shakturi went on a final rampage that was halted only as the last of them perished to the Xaraktor virus.  That virus and other bio-weapons unleashed in the final act of that terrible war were still actively spreading for many years after the Shakturi themselves were eradicated from the galaxy.

The Planets and the Plagues

The planets themselves were the worst affected. After the galaxy-wide seismic cataclysm caused by the interaction of the Haakonish Gravitic Doomsday weapon with the Shakturi Wormholes and the Freedom Alliance experimental wormhole blocking technology, most planets were already devastated.  Multiple waves of plagues then swept over them over decades and centuries and the survivors in space found that trying to trade with or help those who remained on the planets often exposed them and their dwindling populations to these risks.

The Merciless Hive

The survivors in space and on the planets also faced merciless slaughter at the hands of the Hive, who were composed of the insane remnants of the Gizureans.  The Gizureans had become psychotic after Shakturi control of their damaged Queen was abruptly severed, leaving vast numbers in a feral state that roamed the galaxy consuming all in their path.  The former Gizurean worlds were abandoned as the Hive took to the stars in whatever ships could be found or captured.  Largely due to the terrible casualties from all these calamities, most of what was previously known about technology, history, culture and space travel on the planets was lost.

Survival in Space

Only in space did some knowledge survive.  Here the few remnants of the fleets of the Freedom Alliance and the Shaktur Axis initially continued to fight each other as well as the Hive.  They recognized that the devastated planets, where the plagues were still active, held no future for them.   Attempts to recolonize or restore civilization during this time all failed.  They realized that to survive, they needed to remain in space, to remain mobile and evade the Hive until the planets themselves were either free of plague or devoid of population.

Over generations, these nomadic survivors scavenged, built and re-built their ships and bases many times.  They defeated what remained of the Shakturi, but their battle against the overwhelming numbers of the Hive lasted for centuries and still continues.  Many perished, but some survived and while they were unable to fully maintain their previous technology, they still knew how to travel faster than light, how to exist in space, to mine for the resources they needed and how to build fast and powerful ships that could protect them from the Hive and other menaces.

The Shadowports and a New Era

Over time they also lost their previous identities and separated into smaller factions, each with different goals.  The largest space settlements became “Shadowports”, neutral centers of trade, technology and information.  Some, following blindly in the footsteps of their Freedom Alliance ancestors, foresaw a future where they would be able to once again establish a more orderly galaxy, with colonized planets, trade and an organized military.  Others, either because of the trials they had been through or because of their origins with the Shaktur Axis, were more concerned with raiding, pillaging and destroying what was left, until they would sit alone as the final survivors of a dying galaxy.  These then, are the “Pirates” of the Age of Shadows.

On the planets, over many generations, the viruses evolved and finally became less severe, allowing civilization a chance to re-establish itself.  After many terrible battles, the Hive became less numerous, largely because of the actions of the survivors in space, but also due to a shortage of “food” to consume on the planets, which led to periods where the Hive was entirely dormant before waking and raiding again.  This was just enough respite for the planetary survivors to multiply and with the help of their remaining legends and the ruins of their ancestors, rebuild a basic level of technology and begin to repopulate their worlds.

A New Galaxy Rises

The space-based survivors were busy enough surviving and fighting each other that at first the recovery that was taking place on the few remaining inhabited worlds went unnoticed, but eventually the exploration ships of the pirates discovered that the worlds they previously thought to be tombs now had the beginnings of new civilizations, already with population in numbers that far exceeded the survivors in space, but with technology that was much more primitive.  The response of the pirates to these newly discovered planets varied, and in some cases, they simply ignored them while they dealt with their own problems.  For the most part though, they made contact, in some cases peaceful to trade for resources and food, in others hostile to pillage and take what they would in goods and slaves or to maintain their own dominance of the space lanes.

This is where the Age of Shadows in the game begins.  There are independent worlds with just enough technology to return to space, but only with a few ships and initially only within their own systems.  The pirates have better technology and knowledge of the galaxy.  The Hive is still a real threat and active from the start, though fewer in number and with some smaller ships.  New story events and artifacts related to Pirate history are scattered across the stars.  Lone Pirates and Pirate Factions and Independent Worlds compete to see which will achieve fortune, fame and power.

Your Story, Your Choices

Several futures are possible.  The first is one where the planetary civilizations are allowed to grow and expand into space and regain a measure of their former glory, following along towards the original Distant Worlds 2 story.  The second is where the pirate factions are able to manage the rise of the planetary civilizations, control them, exploit them and eventually conquer them to establish an entirely different kind of galactic order, depending on which type of “Pirate” emerges triumphant.  A third might be that what remains is destroyed and consumed by the Hive, if it is allowed to grow out of control.

The Age of Shadows, in short, is a struggle for survival and an ongoing battle to determine the future of the galaxy.   Will it be a strong, united and advanced galaxy that the Shakturi find on their eventual return, or simply smoldering ashes?

You can also choose to start play with the new Pirates (either playing as an Empire or a Pirate) in the classic era of the base Distant Worlds 2 game after the Age of Shadows has ended. For the greatest challenge and to extend the story as long as possible, start as a single ship Lone Pirate in the Age of Shadows, eventually become a Pirate Faction, then a Pirate Empire of Anarchy which attempts to conquer the stars.

The choice is yours, the Galaxy Lives On.

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