In ages past the world of Isori stood at the forefront of human civilisation, renowned throughout all of Antarean space for its pioneering dimensional research, its vast fleets and its unrivalled prosperity. According to Isorian legend, the planet was amongst the first of Earth’s settlements, the first to be fully terraformed, and the first to establish its own colonies independently of Earth itself. Today the worlds of the Isorian Shard are second only in number to those of the Concord. Both civilisations emerged from the ashes of the Sixth Age. Both are integrated machine societies ruled by cerebral NuHu elites. Yet the two cultures are irreconcilably opposed due to a strange quirk of fate that created a root incompatibility in their respective machine based IMTel.
With the temporary collapse of the Antarean gate network at the end of the Sixth Age, the world of Isori endured a long period of isolation. Over the following centuries the Isorians explored local space using advanced near-light speed spacecraft. They discovered and then fought an inter-stellar war against an alien race called the Tsan Kiri. The Isori eventually triumphed, but during the long war the Isorian IMTel absorbed a portion of the alien race’s silicon-based organic technology. When the Isorians re-established contact with the rest of Anatean space, their IMTel had become so distinct the two forms – or shards as individual iterations of the IMTel are called – failed to recognise each other. They had become incompatible.
The Shard’s most important NuHu rulers comprise what is called the Isorian Senatex, and its NuHu officials are the Senatexis. The Isorians share a great deal of the technology of the Concord, but some of their Tsan Kiri derived weaponry is unique to them. Like Concord Strike Units, Isorian Phase Troopers are armed with plasma weapons, but instead of hyper-light shields they employ space warping phase armour. Their ability to merge biological with technical equipment gives Isorian troops a distinct and immediately recognisable appearance.
Language
Isorians refer to their squads in their own, Tsan-influenced language. Tsan communication has far more nuances and complexity than panhuman language through contextual pheromone undertones and limb positioning – which makes translations to or from their language somewhat vague and imprecise.
The core to the evolved Senatex language is seen in the unit names, though the language components are necessarily limited and IMTel assistance needed for a better translation. For simplicity, we refer to units by both their Isorian and
English names/descriptions.
| Isorian Tsan | Approximate English |
|---|---|
| Nar / Nra/ N’ra | panhuman (an extension of ‘ra’ referring to the human species re-creation of itself). |
| Vanra | enhanced panhuman |
| Ra | reborn (Tsan Ra = reborn/humanised Tsan) |
| Vesh | intense heat/ roaring flame (intense plasma) |
| Var / Va | command / superior |
| Mahr / Mahra / Mahran | impact/impacting (Mahran = surprising or sudden impact: see ‘an, below) |
| Dash | supporting/assisting |
| Hasa | whispering, quiet; use of subterfuge |
| Han / ‘an | mounted or upon; sudden or surprising |
| Tak | fast |
| Takhanra | fast-mounted-panhuman |
Military – on the table
The links below are to aticles that give the roles and equipment of the various components of an Isorian force. Some link to articles that describe very similar components in the forces of the IMTels or the more advanced nations.
Free Online Army Lists complete with all stats and weapons for each faction are available from the A2 PDF Army List page.
Senatex units are grouped together as follows:
- PanHuman Phase Squads and Command
- Tsan Ra Command, Phase and Torus squads
- Pulse Bikes
- NuHu Senatexis
- Nhamak SC Light Support and Andhak SC2 Medium Weapon Drones
- Support and Heavy Weapon Teams
- Phase Sniper
- Tograh MV2 Transport
- Mahran Vesh MV5 Combat Drone
- Targeter Probes
- Scout Probes
- Hound Probes
- Isorians do not have medi-probes, preferring to use their Monitor shard ability
Key Characters
How do the Isorians play?
The Isorians have weapons as powerful as the Concord, so can stand back and shoot, but their play style is very different because of two main factors. The first is their phase armour, which means that squads can go Down in response to enemy shooting, even if they have acted or reacted earlier in the turn. This makes infantry and other light squads very difficult to hit and tends to bias the Isorians towards subterfuge and finesse tactics.
The other factor is the presence of the Tsan Ra, the eight-limbed aliens now absorbed into the Isorian shard. The Tsan Ra are tough and strong, able to carry heavier weapons and act as both fast-moving support troops and as assault troops.
The War against the Tsan Kiri
During the long period of isolation that followed the collapse of the Sixth Age many human settlements failed altogether. Advanced civilisations declined to barbarism. Only in a very few places was the light of knowledge carried onwards. One such place was Isori, with its long history of technical expertise and the unique resources of the Isorian system behind it.
Applying their vast technical skills the Isorians began to improve space drives and discovered ways to increase the endurance of spacecraft and their crews. The flexible nature of space-fabric had long been understood, and the Isorians used this knowledge to build ships capable of reaching near-light speeds previously thought impossible.
The Isorians sent out explorer probes to the surrounding solar systems – and in doing so, they stirred an enemy – triggering the outbreak of the centuries long struggle between the Isori Senatex and the strange alien race of Tsan Kiri – a silicon-based life form, in appearance almost spider-like, though possessed of uncompromising ferocity and great intelligence – at least as technically advanced as the PanHuman Concord and in many ways more so.
Interstellar War raged for centuries – fighting across the depths of space, contesting asteroids and the very stars themselves. The advantage swung many times – however the Isorians seemed to take the upper-hand and pushed the Tsan Kiri back toward their homeworld…
The Tsan Kiri had devised a silicon-carbon interface spore as a means of attacking the Isorian IMTel at source. At first this was successful and the machine intelligence of the Tsatean Shard was corrupted giving the Tsan Kiri access to all the knowledge of the IMTel. What the Tsan Kiri hadn’t appreciated was that IMTel, deprived of its layers of defence by the interface spore, rather than rejecting the influence of the Tsan Kiri technology very quickly merged with it.
Unaware of what had happened, Isorian spacecraft carried the modified IMTel from Tsate to Isori. Soon the new hybrid IMTel had spread into Antarean space itself and to the worlds of the PanHuman Concord. This half-human half-alien IMTel brought many new wonders to the worlds it reached. It brought many other strange things beside…
Antares Nexus 
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