Characters / Imperium Nova

Being a game in which the plot is entirely based on RP interactions, Imperium Nova tends to have quite the colourful cast.

Galaxy Baade

House de Erwyne

House Tropes

• Conlang: Vránsé, a language exclusive to the de Erwynes
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Besides being activity involved in their business practices, the de Erwyne's will often lead their forces into battle personally.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Refers to themselves as "The House de Erwyne"

Aimée de Erwyne

• The Corrupter: Manipulated her father into giving her complete power by convincing him that their family was in danger from the waves of assassinations happening at the time, and that only she could protect them.
• The Fundamentalist: Attempts to stamp out chaos and disloyalty within her House in accordance to her extreme Imperialism views.
• Warrior Princess: Personally led her forces into battle against her uncle Leon and cousin Ambrosius.

Count Leon de Erwyne

• Good Is Not Nice: Threatened to end his tyrannical, usurping, niece's life, if necessary.

Ambrosius de Erwyne

• Good Is Not Nice: Gave his cousin Aimée quite a beating during the Battle of the De Erwyne Manor.
• Warrior Prince: Ambrosius led Leon's forces in the Battle of the De Erwyne Manor personally, being responsible for the capture of his cousin Aimée.

The House of the Ascendant

House Tropes

• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: To ancient Mesopotamia. Their HQ is named the "The Ziggurat" and their A.I.s are named after Sumerian and Akkadian gods and heroes.
• Mecha-Mooks: Utilize robotic drones in the place of traditional soldiers.
• Proud Scholar Race: Science, technology and cybernetics are their Hat, though they are actually not especially technologically advanced.
• Spell My Name with a "The": They're the House of the Ascendant, not House of the Ascendant or House Ascendant.
• Transhumanism: They're extremely fond of cybernetics, which puts them at odds with some of the other Houses.
• Unknown Rival: They have a "collective chip on their shoulder" towards House Djala, but are really nowhere near them in influence, prestige or power.

Minister Adonijah of the Ascendant

• Naïve Newcomer: Not especially knowledgeable about the intricacies of Imperial politics.

Charlotte of the Ascendant

• The Smart Guy: The House of the Ascendant's head of technology

Levi of the Ascendant

• We ARE Struggling Together: Seems to have the same goals as Adonijah, but often makes decisions without the Minister's approval, much to his chagrin.

House Qwib-Qwib

House Tropes

• Bubble Boy: Qwib-Qwibs have incredibly weak immune systems from the generations of inbreeding, though that practice has stopped.
• Latex Space Suit: They almost always wear form-fitting spacesuits to prevent bacterial contamination.
• Shout-Out: The house name is a reference to Mass Effect.
• Space Pirates: Accused of funding pirates. Who kidnapped Ezra and Simon Qwib-Qwib. And had robots. That were stealthy.

Vice-Chairman Lorenzo Qwib-Qwib

• Evil Genius: Not quite a genius, but he's certainly intelligent, and oversees a lot of immoral research.

Cariad Qwib-Qwib

• Action Girl: The most skilled duellist in the galaxy, although not the most experienced.
• Battle Couple: She happens to be married to the most experienced duellist in the galaxy.

House Suzumiya

House Tropes

• Beware the Nice Ones: Prefer to use diplomacy first, second, and third, but if that fails, a Wave-Motion Gun blast or two will do in an emergency.
• Powers That Be: Refers to House Alhazred, Levantes, and their dependents as such to an occasionally superstitious degree.
• Silk Hiding Steel: An ideal for House Suzumiya albeit with a female supremacy twist and a touch of Pragmatic Villainy on the side.

House Delandi

• From Nobody to Nightmare: In the span of five months, they went from small landowners to the Imperial Family of Baade.

Emperor Ehno Delandi

Ehno Delandi, Emperor of Baade, Savior of Baade, Speechmaster.

• Glorious Leader: self-proclaimed "Savior of Baade".
• Historical Villain Upgrade: After his fall, the new emperor Dominic Constantine made sure to destroy his reputation, removing him from the list of legitimate emperors and giving him the nickname "the Disgraced Tyrant".
• Large Ham: Has a tendency to do big and ponctuated speeches, which can be found. here.
• Meet the New Boss: The first thing he did after taking the throne was creating a new legal code making the crown hereditary, something the previous Imperial Family, House Ingram, tried to do (and somewhat succeeded to).
• New Era Speech: His self-coronation speech, a non villainous example, as it marked the end of the Second Interregnum.

Rosetta Delandi

• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: She is far more competent than her husband and is in charge of both the Psionic business and the House's finance.
• May–December Romance: Rosetta is 18 years younger than her husband. By the time Ehno became Emperor, she was 35 while he was 53.

Galaxy Capricorn

House Cotillion

House Tropes

• Murder, Inc.: An ancient house specializing in assassination

House Daimyo

• The Empire: Their supermajority in the senate was widely blamed for Capricorn's stagnation and inability for lesser houses to advance.

House Zealot

• Knight Templar: Currently one of the more aggressive houses in Capricorn, tends to jump on any house that violates the constitution within hours (real-world time).

Galaxy Draco

House Mckenna

House Tropes

• Glorious Mother Russia: The Mckennas are Galactic Communists and never lose an opportunity to decry the bourgeois exploitation of the Emperor.
• Waif-Fu: Every female Mckenna is pretty short and rather delicate, therefore being easy to underestimate. Some of them though are downright dangerous, especially when allowed near anything sharp.

Gwendolin Mckenna

• Never Mess with Granny: She's getting on in years, but maintains a vindictive streak a mile long.

House Savoie

House Tropes

• All There in the Manual: Much of the backstory can only be found in supplementary materials... like this page.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Virtually every Savoie up to Clement was morally ambiguous at best, and a monster at worst. Every reform-minded Savoie starts with quite the chip on their shoulder because of this.
• The Extremist Was Right: Valerian Savoie appeared - literally - out of nowhere in the Nokh Revolts and used brutal and morally questionable tactics to defeat a far more monstrous foe, and then leveraged his achievements to force governmental reform upon the devastated Empire, along with recognition as a noble and head of the newly-created House Savoie. Vices aside, he built his institutions to last.
• Flaunting Your Fleets: House Savoie used the size and pedigree of the Alderamini navy as a deterrent against other Houses. Now, if only they had the crews to operate them all at once...
• Great Offscreen War:
  • The civil war between Philippe and Joseph was overshadowed by the Valerian conflict.
  • Past Great Offscreen Wars include, from most to least recent:
    • The War of Sheliak Independence Between House Savoie and the combined forces of House Inviquantus and the Wazn Houses.
    • The Rexist Revival A religious crusade preceded by decades of buildup.
    • The Solidor-Neco War A war that split the Alderamini electorate into two factions.
    • The Nokh Revolt The sudden and violent uprising of the native Alani and the "native" C'alani.
• In the Original Klingon: Alderamin views itself as the last bastion of Golden Age culture. This is barely true, but defensible.
• The Remnant: In the centuries preceding the New Empire, Alderamin was a major regional power. Now, most Alderamini are among the most conservative people in the galaxy. The New Empire often faces a 0% Approval Rating.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: The House was severely hampered by restrictions placed upon it by the treaty that allowed it to operate both on Alderamin and in the "New Empire". That treaty was largely self-imposed. However, Daniel would turn the situation on its head by forcing a new, largely favorable agreement in exchange for not stealing the local throne entirely.
• Suspiciously Small Army: House Savoie kept most of its troops on Alderamin. Because of this, their military became something of a paper tiger when dealing with offworld threats.

Clement Savoie

• Historical Hero Upgrade: By the time Joseph assassinated the electorate, Clement had gone from being seen as a traitor to Alderamin to being the planet's greatest gift the humankind.
• In Harm's Way: Yes, let's piss off every powerful noble on Alderamin, in addition to the other nobles around the galaxy that already hate my House based on ancient history! Splendid idea!
• White Sheep: Ascended to the throne by exposing his older brother's hypocrisy.

Joseph Savoie

• The Chains of Commanding: One guess as to which job Joseph absolutely does not want to have right now.
• Character Development: The Joseph of today is nothing like the Joseph of 25 years ago.
• Cutting the Knot: How do you deal with that pesky electorate? You KILL them.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Joseph pulls a form of this on the electorate. Since the members of the electorate also had the most to gain from assassinating Clement, they might have even had it coming.
• Deceptive Disciple: His interest in his faith has always been slim at best. The Head of Faith, his insane uncle, may be partly to blame.
• Easily Forgiven: Subverted. He hasn't actually been forgiven for his abandonment by anyone; most others are either preoccupied or too pragmatic to force the issue. The exceptions are in no position to do anything, though.
• Failure Knight: He abandoned his House and his home after making a mockery of himself. He hasn't forgotten.)
• More than Mind Control: It's clear that he's under the absolute will of something, but he isn't brainwashed.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: He stole the Alderamini throne by setting up the entire electorate, and then using their families as bargaining chips before coldly disposing of them. The electorate, that is, not the families. Many other key figures seem to be brainwashed.
• The Usual Adversaries: Joseph was tired of the centuries-old antagonism between Alderamin and Mirfak, and made it a priority to end it. If only the desire had been mutual.
• While Rome Burns: He abandoned his House after making a very public, very reputation-ruining, mistake. House Savoie was lucky enough to see the return of Philippe soon afterwards, but it's not something that anyone will be forgetting soon. His brothers especially have it in for him.

Philippe Savoie

• Put on a Bus: When House Nagendra collapsed, Philippe panicked and ran to House Valeria, hoping to join another power bloc before the Dominion set their sights on Alderamin. He was held captive for more than a galactic year before he escaped.

David Savoie

• Grand Theft Prototype: David managed to steal some of the advanced technology being developed on Agena.

Cadno Kujawski

• The Only One: As the eldest male heir, his choices are more limited than it may seem.
• Passed-Over Inheritance: Due to the circumstances of his birth, he only got the raw end of the deal.

Munisa Lanning

• Field Promotion: When Joseph, Philippe, and David were all absent and/or missing, she took the reigns and tried to calm the chaos.

Bernadina Peppers

• Girl Friday: Doing the odd jobs since 5 AR

Controller Superior

• Hidden Agenda Villain: What does he want? Nobody knows.

Sirius/Luther Blisset

• Going Native: Orders stopped coming in, he decided to reveal himself to the current head of House Savoie - who had previously worked for his former masters.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: His identity never really changed, only his employer.
• Mole in Charge: Became a very high-level employee before he defected.

Galaxy Eridanus

House Glenn

Ifor Glenn (second-oldest of the Primary Study Group; current Administrator of the Glenn Institute for Psionics Research)

• Conveniently an Orphan: Like all of the PSG, he's actually an adopted orphan psi-talent.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: While not technically the oldest of the Glenn siblings, he's the most level-headed, responsible, and devoted to his family. And he's absolutely furious about Constantine's latest stunt.

Constantine Glenn (youngest of the Primary Study Group)

• The Empath: Including projective empathy, although he swears he'd never use it.

House Houraisan

House Tropes

• Badass in a Nice Suit: Both the men and women of the House. House Houraisan's secondary motto? "There's never an excuse to not dress one's best".
• Beast Man: They resemble rabbits.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Fluorescent irises; aging that keeps a Lunarian at around their 30-40's until around age 70, after which they rapidly age to "make up the difference", and the obvious.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Manchurian/Mongolian/Uighur/Vietnamese People IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
  • Void Mages are Zen Buddhists with Shaolin Kung Fu Powers IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
  • Lunarian Animism is Shintoism IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Their species natural threat response, and both a voluntary and involuntary action.
• Unusual Ears: Rabbit ears and tails. They also happen to be the royal family of an entire race of similar people called the Lunarians.

Lady Misako Houraisan, Queen of the Lunarians

• Brilliant, but Lazy: She's absolutely dedicated to her House and all, but the problem is that she has zero motivation for the dirty/boring paperwork associated with running a House.
• The Faceless: Her upper face, with curtains, veils, and fans, to be exact. How this would work in a non-visual medium like that of Imperium Nova, the author of House Houraisan has no idea.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Mechanistically, she's a solartologist. This is explained as her mostly paying lip service to the religion.
• Squishy Wizard: She might be able to mess your head up really badly, but she's not much in an actual fight.
• Stripperific: Tends to show her assets off with low-cut dresses and kimonos that stay up by virtue of miracle or tape.
• The Trickster: Likes to mess with people's head - to detrimental or beneficial effect.

Chika Houraisan

• Altar the Speed and Shotgun Wedding: She and her husband Tatsuaki had to get married a bit faster than usual for certain reasons.
• The Spymaster: Runs House Houraisan's intelligence operations.

Mayako Houraisan

• Brilliant, but Lazy: Easily the most intelligent person in her House; let's see her actually do anything.
• The Faceless: A full face veil.
• Greed: Want to motivate her to do something? Offer her money.

Tatsuaki Houraisan

• Chivalrous Pervert: He still has an eye for the ladies. In the end, it might have been Chika that seduced him, rather than the other way around.
• Ladykiller in Love and I Love You Because I Can't Control You: The only woman in his life that he had to work to get in bed with - and exactly the reason why he fell in love with her.

Saeko Houraisan

• Book Dumb: She's intelligent, but just not in an academic sense.

Nagachika Houraisan

• Serious Business: Obsessed with certain things, like a certain expy of a certain Children's Card Game, and bizarre little projects, but otherwise kind of apathetic.

House Quest

House Tropes

• The Dragon: Anyone wanting to take on Goratrix would have to roll over Quest first. Also, Quest tends to be the one who squashes routine threats not worth Roma's time. (It's a living.)
• Humongous Mecha: Another battalion in each regiment is composed of Somatic Assault Vehicles (known to the troops as SAVIORS) because too much firepower is never enough.
• Powered Armor: One battalion in each Quest Regiment is composed of Air Cavalry. Basically hundreds of Iron Men.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Joined Roma's Domain pretty much at gunpoint; does everything the position of Seneschal demands, but has only recently been doing really evil things.

Premier Joseph Quest

• Casual Kink: Oh, you know it. Revealed to be into S&M in his very first appearance, is inordinately fond of Lunarian women and commits adultery at the drop of a ... hat.
• Crazy-Prepared: When the forces of another House attempted to kidnap him, he had the foresight to have an undetectable android duplicate ready. This could have been considered an Ass Pull, except that it was foreshadowed in a previous RP thread.

Natasha

• Chessmaster Sidekick: (Usually long, black, leather boots.) Insanely competent in her role of spymistress and head of internal security.
• The Mistress: Openly Joseph's mistress; goes to social events with him in place of his comatose wife.

Agnes Quest, Wife of the Premier (snicker)

• Fate Worse than Death: Rendered braindead by a serial killer. Amazingly, Joseph had nothing to do with it.

Zephaniah Quest (Agnes' brother)

• Small Name, Big Ego: Considered himself a master swordsman and a genius statesman. In actuality, he was pretty much an oxygen thief.

Lochlannach Quest (Aimee's elder son)

• Inadequate Inheritor: Lochie will take over the House when Joe kicks the bucket. He's not nearly ready. He makes hasty decisions, he's not cunning like Joe and most of all, his evil psionic genius daughter will ride him like a monkey rides a greyhound.

Oscar Quest (Aimee's younger son)

• Four-Star Badass: Oscar is Marshal of the Quest armed forces, an honorary position. He was formerly CO of a regiment, but was kicked upstairs after being wounded in action one too many times. He's an incredibly skilled soldier and hand-to-hand fighter and inspiring to the men, but a little too fearless and reckless.
• Shout-Out: He's Richard Sharpe of Sharpe, in SPAAAAAAACE, even to the extent of looking like him.

Iowerth Quest (Lochlannach's eldest son)

• Future Me Scares Me: An alternate future version of Iowerth was responsible for worldwide - maybe galaxywide - death and destruction. He went back to kill himself as a teenager so it wouldn't happen.
• Jumped at the Call: Oh boy, did he ever. "You have the chance to fight monsters in Dreamspace with your friends, but if you screw up once, you're braindead. Also, you're thirteen." (Merest of pauses) "Where do I sign?"
• Scars Are Forever: Has a vertical scar over his breastbone from when he was initiated into the Void Engineers. Also has white hair on the sides of his head from the trauma it inflicted.

Saeko Quest (Lochlannach's second wife)

• Dark Secret: Something out of the ordinary happened during her Void Engineer training, but nobody is talking about it.
• Took a Level in Badass: Selected as Lochie's second wife because she was meek and submissive and unlikely to take off and leave the galaxy like his first wife. But then she joined the Void Engineers. So much for that idea.

Gethsemane Quest (Lochlannach's daughter)

• The Chosen One: Selected by Constantine Roma to be his successor and future Empress of the galaxy. Over the entire Goratrix family.
• Person of Mass Destruction: You don't want to get her angry, and everything makes her angry.

House Von Carstein

House Tropes

• Fan Disservice: After much pressure to reveal what Lunarian Vampires would look like, the Author decided that he would shrink the ears (and the curves), give them the standard hair and skin coloration, give them the fangs and red eyes... and thin wing membranes under each arm.
• Shout-Out: The most obvious being to Warhammer. There's also the group of mercenaries with widely varying equipment, and a variety of mental health issues. And Agent Findlay

Count Sergio Von Carstein

• Affably Evil Well, he was a laugh to have around. And he did generally try to keep it polite, dressed nice, honored his friends birthday with a crate of wines, and try to make amends with the woman he tried to brutally murder by giving her his knife with a nice little hand written note. Not that she ever got said package.
• Killed Off for Real Luckily he had managed to bind his soul into a ring, with the souls of the denizens possessing him.

Commander Lothar Du Bek

• Artificial Limbs He lost he arm fighting against a power armored Godwinson commander. It was, naturally, replaced.
• Bad Ass Normal Yes, he is a vampire, but he can't do most of the magic stuff that the Counts can do. Yet he's managed to survive longer than both of them.

Agent Mannfred

• Badass in a Nice Suit: Was the first character to be actually described dressing in the coat and hat.
• Bad Ass Normal: Jumps his way through a construction site sustaining any injuries, took on around fifty psychic power armored troopers, and may have even killed some.
• Smoking Is Cool: While preparing to escape from the compound, he lights up while grabbing his weapon. See's his evac get blown up? Time for a smoke. Surrounded on all sides, with heavy weapons chipping away at your cover? Give him a sec, he's getting his lighter.

Galaxy Gemini

The United Federation of People's Republics

House Tropes

• Theme Naming: House Gagarin fits its creator's trifecta of criteria for a good Imperium Nova house name - cool-sounding, historically relevant to the concept, and somehow space-related. Bonus points for starting with a G.

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