Often reffered to by the IAN as simply "The Enemy", the Baoth Regime is composed of 2 races, the Baoth (descended from bipedal dinosaurs
on their homeworld) and their servitors, the Debbon (descended from rodents on the same world).
Thousands of years ago on the world known as Tomos, there existed a race of dinosaur-like creatures who knew of, and controlled, magic.
At the height of their power the Baoth oversaw the rise of a race of rodent-like mammals, which they had artificially evolved to serve them.
Over time, some of the Debbon learned to use magic themselves and some turned on their Baoth masters. After 2 uprisings lead by Debbon mages,
the Baoth gathered together to find a solution to the dilemma, how to separate the Debbon from the magic. After decades of study and
theorizing (and 2 more annoying rebellions) the Baoth discovered a method to absorb ambient magic into themselves, thus increasing their
own power and eliminating the power of the Debbon mages at the same time. Over several years the Baoth performed rituals akin to the
infamous "World Mage" spell and absorbed more and more of their world's magic into themselves, weakening the Debbon leaders (and eating
them whenever they found them) until finally a decade after it had begun, all the ambient magic of the world had been absorbed into the
bodies of the Baoth. At this time the ancient Baoth numbered just over one million, theirs being a long-lived race who could reach 250
years unless they died by violence or disease. Until the time of the "Absorbing" Baoth females usually laid one egg once every 20-30 years,
the egg taking approximately 5 years to hatch. Suddenly, females were laying clutches of eggs numbering up to one dozen, every 5 years,
and the eggs matured in only 12 months. Within 10 years after the end of the "Absorbing" the Baoth females had hatched over 4,500,000
offspring, at which time the "egg boom" ended. These "boom" offspring were somewhat smaller than normal but had voracious appetites.
As the offspring began to grow, the Baoth noticed that when their children were present the elder Baoth began to feel tired and... old.
Conversely the Baoth offspring noticed that when the elders were present they themselves felt stronger and heartier. It dawned upon
both sides that the elders were being drained of their power by the offspring, just as the elders had drained their world.
War between the elders and the offspring broke out within a few years of the new generation reaching adulthood and lasted for nearly a decade.
In the end most of the elders perished at the hands of their far more numerous children, taking the magic of their world with them. Over the
centuries the new Baoth continued to thrive, although they were not as long-lived as their forbearers (maximum age was only 150), children
were rare again, one or two per female every 10-20 years. Now nearly two thousand years later, the Baoth number over 250 million (with the
Debbon population at roughly 3 billion), and they resemble reptilian humanoids standing an average of 12 feet in height with 5 large claws
on hand, slitted eyes, and rough crocodilian skin.
Baoth Society
The Baoth maintain a feudal style society with layers of upper and lower classes:
The highest ranked Baoth are known as the Gamat (royal family), followed by the Liyat (nobles), the Orkii (upper class), the Rasque (middle class) and Erpens (lower class).
The Debbon, being a breed servitor race, have no rank although they are intelligent and make up 90% of the work force.
The Baoth of today have learned to the secrets of space flight and have taken to the stars, discovering that they are not alone
in the universe. The Baoth first landed on Penel-V where they began mining ores and gemstones. One of the crystalline ores mined
on Penel-V had an unusual side effect on the Baoth overseers who controlled the Debbon miners; the overseers became faster,
stronger and more resilient than the Baoth who stayed out of the mining areas. Research led to a startling discovery, a
certain type of crystalline mineral possessed a previously unknown energy that was somehow being absorbed by the bodies
of the Baoth. The energy in the crystal acted as a fountain of youth and strength to the Baoth who remained in close
proximity to the crystals. The crystals became one of the most profitable products of the Baoth mining companies and
they sent out vast ships filled with tens of thousands of Debbon slaves to mine the ore on the few planets where it could
be found.
The Baoth encountered the IAN race during what on Earth would have been the year 1863, when the Baoth arrived to begin mining the planet Shorus where they discovered that between the time of discovering the planet and arriving with a mining fleet (15 years of standard time) the IAN had established their own mining colony.
The IAN refused to accept the Baoth's claim on the planet's resources and the IAN military was called in to rid the colony of the Baoth. Badly outgunned, the Baoth ships were forced to return home empty handed and humiliated at the hands of a "lesser species". Later, the Baoth were turned away again at Cynel and again at Lugoria. One final attempt was made to reach an agreement with the IAN race, but the leaders of the IAN saw no threat in the technologically inferior Baoth. The Baoth were forced to retreat back into their own space for over a decade, only to erupt back into IAN-claimed space in the Earth year 1879, with a modernized battle fleet of their own (having captured and copied much of the IAN technology). The Baoth fleet viciously attacked and obliterated the IAN mining colonies on Shorus and Cynel, and within a year had decimated Lugoria.
War had blossomed fully between the IAN and the Baoth.
Since the war erupted there have been hundreds of engagements and raids between the sides. The IAN never discovered the secret of the mineral the Baoth seek (it has no effect on the Ian). Few Boath have ever been taken alive and none have been held for long (the Baoth die trying to escape). No IAN telepath has been able to penetrate the mind of a captive Baoth (the Baoth's reptilian nature seems to make them immune to mental influence).
The mineral, known to the Baoth as "brustine" is believed by them to be the "missing matter" that science cannot account for.
It is also a natural emitter of magical energies. The crystals can appear to be made of a variety of materials such as quartz,
amethyst, diamond, ect. Since the crystals are emitting mystical energy, proximity to them can accelerate magical recovery
rates. A mage who is in the presence of a raw Brustine crystal will find his regen rate is doubled for his magical items and
tripled for the mage himself. Since the crystal is a raw source of magic, it does not show up on Kirlian scans as anything
out of the ordinary. On Earth these crystals are often overlooked, the only known conversion of the crystals into magical
items are the artifacts known as "Sorcerer's Stones".
The reason the crystals have the enhancement/rejuvenation effect on the Baoth is that the Baoth's own bodies still carry the
alterations made millennia ago during the draining. Wearing brustine gems allows the Baoth's body to draw on the crystal's energy and thus boost the Baoth's own metabolism. The Baoth don't realize it, but they are semi-magical beings, descended from the original Baoth mages and thus affected by the magic of the world around them, magic that was drained long ago by their ancestors.
Although the crystals exist on Earth as well as other worlds they occur only deep within the crust of a world miles under
the surface. As such operations to recover the gems result is massive digs and mining operations usually do irreparable
damage to local environment.
GM NOTES - If you are a Bureau 13 GM, follow this link.
