The Merely Players (MRP)

[Gaius Hermicus]

The Merely Players (MRP)

Region 74 - the Globe

 

Geography

The Globe is one of the smaller asteroids in the Mekhala Belt and of relatively little interest to most researchers. Due to significant collision and structural damage over many aeons, the interior is mostly composed of loose rubble, with the largest veins of ore drained long ago by itinerant miners. For this reason, it was effectively worthless and available for purchase by Croesian eccentrics. The buyer, a harmless madman with a preternatural ability to predict stock market values, built artificial gravity stabilizers and filled the asteroid with narrow tunnels and chambers, too small for a human to navigate but perfectly sized for monkeys. Having imported his research subjects, he implanted an inexplicable magical machine in the center, which produces typewriters and ink from thin air. Food was supplied by the introduction of insects, mice, and other small vermin which feed on the native bioluminescent moss. Monitoring stations were originally set up to follow the monkeys’ progress, but over the centuries they have fallen into disrepair and are no longer operational.

 

People

An ancient Imperial proverb, the original meaning obscure, invokes the labor of ten thousand monkeys at as many typewriters, with the inevitable result that eventually one will produce the complete works of “the Bard”. This Bard was presumably a mythical demigod or culture hero in the distant past of the Empire, though his or her true identity is not entirely clear to the Merely Players. Nevertheless, some or other misguided nobleman with too much time and money on his hands set out long ago to put this theory to the test, importing ten thousand capuchin monkeys from a distant planet, supplying them with near-unlimited quantities of typewriters, paper, and ink, and training them to type incessantly. Millennia passed, and the population grew, until a sudden and surprising event occurred. Typing purely at random, guided by some unseen and unknown force, coherent sentences began to flow from one typewriter. Nearby writers turned and gathered around in wonder at the words that had appeared on the page:

    “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”

The monkeys’ demonym and purpose in life were now clear. More and more works of the Bard began to be reproduced, and the formerly bestial monkeys began to evolve sapience, adopting the customs and names detailed in the plays and poems.

The Merely Players resemble capuchin monkeys, typically between one and two feet in height, and covered with brown, white, black, or grey fur everywhere except their face. Both their fingers and toes are dextrous, allowing for faster typing, and their tails are prehensile, enabling them to sleep hanging from suspended rafters. They have adopted customs and mores similar to those of Elizabethan England, as portrayed in the plays of the Bard, and dress accordingly: ruffs, feathered hats, and puffy-sleeved shirts are widely popular among men, while women prefer voluminous dresses and petticoats. Naturally curious and social, their intense study of the Bard’s plays has instilled in them a prodigious memory. They speak, at least in formal settings, in blank verse, which they regard as the purest and most sacred form of speech.

 

Resources

Resource: Typewriters (Art and Cultural Products)

Desired Import: Cloth

The Merely Players desire better material with which to craft their elaborate costumes than the coarse fabric they spin from moss fiber. Silks, satins, and velvets would be particularly in demand, as would other sumptuary products or tailors of commensurate skill.

 

Faith

Bardolatry

While the Bard’s true nature is unknown, the power of his sacred plays and poems are undeniable. Furthermore, the consciousness of the Merely Players developed on the basis of their exposure to the texts. Bardolators revere this hidden god through his works, performing his plays, memorizing his monologues, theorizing about the meaning of the arcane phrasings, and attempting to imitate his diction in the composition of their own oratory and lyric. The most devoted Bardolators throw themselves upon the typewriter, following the original practice of random typing at breakneck pace, praying that the spirit of the Bard will inspire them to reveal more of his work, as it is believed that more plays have existed and have not yet been discovered. The faith further involves a trust in providence and miracle: mathematically, it should have taken quadrillions of years for monkeys to type out the Bard’s works, yet somehow, miraculously, it happened nonetheless. Hence they trust in chance, believing the Bard works in mysterious ways and accepting even disastrous turns of fate as essential to his will. Perhaps, they reason, the Bard is composing a new play even now, with them as the principal characters. All the world’s a stage, after all, and all the men and women merely players.

 

Factions

Government: The Thanes (Glamis, Cawdor, Ross, Fife, Caithness)

Mercantile: The Merchants of Venice

Media: The Tragedians of the City

 

Starting Technologies
Pseudogravity Engineering
Vacuum Adaptation