The Dark Necromarchy

Government Type: Darwinian Oligarchy

Lifeform Type: Undead

All the races had their dark legends. Sometimes the origins of these legends were so shrouded in antiquity that they had become mere stories used to frighten unruly children. Sometimes their immediacy was so real that garlic or religious symbols were hung above the door in order to protect the inhabitants. Those dark, evil beings, who stalked the nights to prey upon the living had entered the mythology of every race. All of the legends, however, had two things in common:

1 - The Dark Ones were always defeated by the forces of The Light.

2 - All of the stories took place "Long Ago"

What had happened to the Dark Ones? The leaders of the Dark Ones, the Vampires and Liches, finally decided to move their 'people' to a world of their own. Using their link to the Negative Energy Dimensions, they ripped open the fabric of space and time and transported themselves and their followers to an uninhabited, barren, desolate planet. A place hidden in clouds and fog, shunned by the light-loving races of the sector. Here they could exist in peace, without fear of wooden stakes or silver bullets or the dreaded Daylight. They were immortal, these undead beings, but without any source of food, their hunger grew. They spied upon the actions of their former prey and observed them advancing in technology and, finally, constructing space ships, and their hunger grew. At last, their prey was returning to them! The greatest of their geniuses, the Liches, designed ships to allow them to tread the stars, and their hunger grew. The other races had long forgotten the horror that the Dark Ones could bring. Finally the time was ripe for the Dark Ones to again spread terror. Only, this time, an entire Universe was theirs for the taking.

AND THEIR HUNGER GREW!

Special Notes:

The Dark Necromarchy train crew and troops the same as all other races, however, they gain High Guard only by converting Natives or from Death Knights (see Assault Vehicles). Each High Guard can convert one Native each turn from the same planet, or 2 Natives per turn from the same Base. Never more than 10 per turn per Planet or 20 per turn per Base can be converted. For each 10 Natives converted, their Happiness drops 1 point. The conversion process kills 100X the number converted(either 1000 or 2000). As a by-product of the conversion, the Natives' possesions become MCs, at a rate of .1 * number converted * 2) so either 202 or 404 MC can be gained each turn, each Base via this method. The MCs will appear in the Base, along with the new HG. Worms cannot eat the Dark Ones, but the Dark Ones cannot convert worms into High Guard. They cannot convert Chups, either. The only way to halt this process before all the Natives are converted is to remove all High Guards from the planet. Natives in Bases belonging to another Race on the same Planet are protected from this process.

Dark Necromarchy Colonists can convert enemy Colonists to Dark Ones on a 1000 to 1 basis. 1000 Dark Ones Colonists will convert 1 Enemy Colonist per turn. This works against ANY other Colonists on the planet, including Allies. Crusaders are NOT converted, but killed. The conversion will work on Prisoners as well. Crusader Prisoners can NOT be converted. Dark Ones can NEVER be captured as Prisoners. Any captured Dark Ones, simply "die".

Any planet with Natives (except Chups) will automatically produce Food, Med Units and Supplies for the Dark Ones. The amount produced is 1% of the total Colonists, Troops and Crew of each item with a minimum of 10 each and a maximun of 500 each produced per turn, per Base. The Natives do not have to be in the Base for this to work. Natives in Bases belonging to another Race on the same Planet are protected from this process.

All Dark Ones Bases have very low Sensor Images (50)

In ship combat the Kill factor of weapons used against the Dark Ones is ignored. The Blast factor of a weapon does 90% of its rating against the Hull and Parts and 10% against destroying Crew and Guests (fractions rounded up) Examples:

Any ship with a High Guard on board will automatically, after combat, convert Colonists to Crew to replace any losses from combat.

Any ship weapons on a Dark Ones ship has a 2X Kill Rating, but a 25% Blast Rating. This includes Super Weapons.

Their ships generally have very low Sensor Images and very high Shields with moderate Armor. About half of their ships Hyperjump. Several ships can Cloak. Most ships have decent Evasion, but low Attack Modifiers. Their ships have lots of Armaments. Every ship has at least 1 Device and none have more than 3 (not counting Minelayers).

Any captured Dark Ones ship has a 30% PER TURN of converting the captors into Dark Ones. If this happens the ship's ownership will revert back to its Dark Masters. Crystals, Cyborg, Solorians and Crusaders are immune to this conversion.

The Dark Ones CAN use Alien Hull Plans and Other Races CAN use their Hull Plans.

The Dark Ones are IMMUNE to Cyborg Assimilation and recover 50% of killed Borg in ground Combat as Colonists.

The Dark Ones have two special abilities which come into play after a Ground Assault (they can be either the Attackers or the Defenders)

1. Necroscopic Ability

Any Planet which ever had a Dark Ones Base which was lost to Ground Assault will ALWAYS be visible to the Dark Ones. The ability will also detect any Bases on the Planet. If the Crusaders build a Base on this Planet, this ability is lost on that Planet. The Crusaders will recieve a 50 Point bonus to their Happiness on this Base and a Log message congratulating them for exorcising the Evil from the area.

This Ability is gained by a sceance-like state of communication between the Dark Ones HG and the Dark Ones victims of the Ground Assault.

2. Necromantic Ability

Any time an enemy is killed in Ground Assault against the Dark Ones, and the Dark Ones win, and there is a HG on the Winning Base there is a 50% chance that a complete scan of one of that enemy's Bases will become visible to the Dark Ones. This Ability becomes active ONCE per Ground Assault. The Crusaders are immune to this Ability.

This Ability comes from the HG exuming the corpses of their fallen enemies and reading the information from their entrails.

The Dark Ones ancestral enemies are the Crusaders. St. Pemoht's sect was instrumental in persecuting them in ages past. His descendants still have the knowledge needed to cleanse the universe of the Dark Ones. Over the years the Grand Lich and the Dark Overlords have devised techniques for detecting and defeating these acursed foes. The Dark Ones have not been the only ones working on these processes, however.

1. Dark Ones have increased odds of detecting Crusaders Ships and Bases, and their Bases are also more easily detected. The Sensor image of all Ships is doubled to reflect these increased odds. Note that doubling a sensor image of zero doesn't increase the sensor image. Any Base within 300 LYs of a Ship of the other Race is detected 100% of the time. Furthermore, if the Dark Ones detect a Crusader ship, they can also detect what weapons it has (like the EE, but just against the Crusaders).

2. When Crusaders and Dark Ones have Bases on the same planet, the opposing ethics of the two Races causes certain negative interactions:

a. Crusaders are not converted to Dark Ones

b. Dark Ones are not converted to Crusaders

c. In ground assaults between these two races, surrender never occurs

d. The mere presence of Crusaders is painful to the Dark Ones. For physical assaults (ground assaults and boarding), the Dark Ones' personnel stats (troop, crew, and high guard) are halved against Crusaders. The Dark Ones' ground units and fighters are unaffected by this adjustment.

e. If there are Crusader High Guard present in their Base, the Dark Ones Special Building will NOT function

f. If the Crusaders have a Broadcast Center on the planet, its range is cut in half.

g. Death Knights are UNABLE to produce High Guards.

3. Dark Ones are immune to Crusaders Broadcast Centers. They will not send in money and will not be converted. Natives from Dark Ones Planets/Bases can still convert.

4. The Crusader Good Samaritan Hospital Ship will not resuscitate Dark Ones.

If a Dark One ship ends movement within 20 LYs of the Good Samaritan, any resuscitation performed by the GSHS will succeed at 50% of the normal rate. The ship will get a log message about this, but it will not give the coordinates of the Dark One ship.

5. If a Crusader ship ends movement within 20 LYs of the Disaster Class Liburnian, the Cloaking Field on that ship will fail 50% of the time. A log file will be generated like the one for the GSHS.

When a Dark Ones Player is Allied with a Children of the Apocalyse Player, all other Players will experience a Happiness loss on EVERY Base! They will experience a loss based on their Light Powers and PSI Rating. The formula is:

1 + ((Light Powers + PSI) - Dark Powers) / 10

The maximum loss per Base, per Turn is 10 and the minimum is 1. Each Player will recieve a message similar to:

"The populace sense a great Darkness moving across the Galaxy! There is panic in the streets!"

The losses, by Race:

Minimum of 1 Happiness Point

Maximum of 10 Happiness Points

When a COTA and Dark One ally, they cannot ally with any other race, except other Dark Ones and/or Children Players. If they DO Ally with other Dark Ones and/or Children Players, the Happiness loss will increase for each additional Ally.

So long as a COTA and Dark One do NOT ally, normal alliance rules remain in place.

When a COTA and Dark One ally, they become more vunerable to spy attacks! (Call it the Zealot Effect!)

When a COTA and Dark One ally, they get a random chance to activate a propganda exotic:

There is a 10% chance per turn, cumulative, of activating one of the Propaganda Exotics. Once activated. there is a 75% chance of activating "Soft", 20% to activate "Vile", 5% to activate "Poison"

Race ID: 818