The Chronologists Guild is the backbone of temporal stability in the Starfall Galaxy. This faction maintains, builds, and defends the galaxy’s Metronome network—colossal temporal engines that keep the Standard Cycle ticking. The Guild is politically neutral but fiercely protective, shaping play, resource management, and conflict for every region, faction, and campaign.
Chronologists Guild Faction
The Silent Guardians of Time
“Civilization hangs on a beat—our pulse, our purpose. So long as the Metronomes run, there is order. When they falter, only chaos reigns.”
Purpose and Neutrality
The Chronologists Guild exists to preserve stable time across all settled space. They maintain strict neutrality as their access to Metronomes—regardless of politics or war—is vital to galactic survival.
Goals: Maintain, tune, and repair ancient Metronomes; build new ones as settlements expand; and actively defend the temporal network against those who would unleash chaos.
Philosophy: Without the Guild’s work, resource crises, logistical collapse, and social chaos are inevitable; standardized time is civilization’s backbone.
Guild Favor
These actions may improve your standing with the Cronologists Guild.
Minor Favors: Deliver spare parts or supplies to a remote outpost; Turn in minor lost Guild property or a rescued initiate; Report suspicious activity around a chronal relay station.
Moderate Favors: Repair a damaged node or troubleshoot a sector’s time drift; Escort a Guild asset, elder, or courier through Rift-space or a contested sector; Resolve a temporal anomaly that threatens local standard time or public safety.
Major Favors: Prevent or expose sabotage/assassination attempts against prominent Chronologists; Restore an ancient or lost Metronome to operation; Negotiate or lead a major accord between the Guild and a hostile power, ending ongoing sabotage or theft.
Guild Disservices
These actions may harm your standing with the Cronologists Guild.
Minor Disservices: Fail to report anomalies; Disrupt Guild operations through reckless actions; Minor theft or disrespect toward Guild initiates or assets
Moderate Disservices: Interference with Metronome maintenance or unauthorized repairs; Allow pirates, anarchists, or rivals to tamper with Guild installations; Steal critical Guild tech, sabotage records, or leak temporal research.
Major Disservices: Collude in the destruction of a Metronome or publicly malign Guild neutrality; Assassinate or kidnap Guild agents, betray a major mission; Use or sell forbidden Guild knowledge for destabilizing temporal black market work
Guild Structure and Equipment
Chronologists operate in decentralized, specialized teams, dispatched to Metronomes across the galaxy. Their resources range from secret enclaves and mobile observatories to esoteric relics and ancient knowledge. Every member carries a Pulse Rule—a precision tool that marks the passage of each 16.6-minute Pulse, anchoring their work in ritual and science.
Initiation & Training: Prospective members begin as assistants, learning diagnostics, repairs, and minor temporal corrections alongside experienced Guild members. Even initiates may accidentally trigger harmless blips, from rapidly brewed coffee to momentarily reversed water flows—these quirks are the first steps to mastery.
Guild Traditions and Factions
Within the Guild, traditions foster rivalry and innovation:
Cycle-Breakers: Seek to purge “corrupt” timelines with surgical, sometimes controversial, interventions for the greater good—driven by devotion to justice and control. They operate with secrecy and wield potent disruptors and paradox-cleansing protocols.
Rift-Weavers: Harness and explore the chaos of the Rift, arguing for the controlled study and use of temporal anomalies as tools for discovery and resilience. Their outposts and research ships attempt dangerous but enlightening experiments.
Grave-Keepers: This faction views defunct timelines and "pruned" futures as spiritual graveyards. They maintain the Guild’s quarantine protocols around collapsed Rift zones and ensure that dangerous history isn’t dug up by scavengers. They blend White's strict law, Black's willingness to use forbidden necromantic-adjacent tech, and Green's respect for the natural cycle of death and decay.
Spark-Chasers: a perfectly stable timeline is a dead one. They believe the Rift's chaotic energy is the fuel that keeps the universe expanding. They actively hunt for "spark events"—moments of high volatility—and channel that energy into the Metronome network to overclock it. They combine White's organization, Blue's technical genius, and Red's reckless speed.
Void Navigators: These Chronologists operate in the deep "void" where time doesn't exist—the spaces between ticks of the Metronome. They are explorers of the un-time, mapping the raw potentiality of the Rift before it crystallizes into reality. They use Blue's analysis, Black's secrecy and adaptability, and Green's instinct for survival in hostile biomes.
Master Chronologists emerge as living legends, revered for syncing wayward Metronomes and guiding the Guild’s efforts through wisdom, not politics.
Guild Boons
Ignored
These boons are available to individuals of Ignored reputation or stronger, provided you spend the favor to acquire them.
Professional Consult (2 Favor): You can hire a Chronology team to investigate a minor temporal anomaly or tune a Metronome
Minor Temporal Clearance (2 Favor): You can request Temporal clearance for a minor timeline intervention; this manifests as a casting of up to a Level Two spell from a Chronologist Guild Spellcaster.
Liked
These boons are available to individuals of Liked reputation or stronger, provided you spend the favor to acquire them.
Chronologist Tools (4 Favor): You can purchase Uncommon Chronologist Equipment from guild vendors.
Guild Membership (5 Favor): You become a privileged member of the Chronologists Guild. Spending Favor does not cause your standing with the Chronologist Guild to drop below Liked.
Guild Training (10 Favor): The Chronologists see potential in you and train you in their dedication.
Hired Help (6 Favor): You can hire an Initiate (CR-1 to CR3) Guild Member to join you for a mission.
Modest Temporal Clearance (4 Favor): You can request Temporal clearance for a moderate timeline intervention; this manifests as a casting of up to a Level Four spell from a Chronologist Guild Spellcaster.
Admired
These boons are available to individuals of Admired reputation or stronger, provided you spend the favor to acquire them.
Advanced Temporal Clearance (12 Favor): You can request Temporal clearance for a complex timeline intervention; this manifests as a casting of up to a Level Six spell from a Chronologist Guild Spellcaster.
Chronologist Craft (4 Favor): You can learn to Craft Uncommon Chronologist Equipment.
Expert Assistance (5 Favor): You can hire an Expert (CR5 to CR8) Chronologist to join you for a mission.
Guild Artifice (4 Favor): You can purchase Rare Chronologist Equipment from guild Masters.
Guild Legacy (18 Favor): You are granted a Guild Initiate (CR-1 to CR4) to Apprentice.
Guild Promotion (20 Favor): You are promoted to the title of Chronologist. Spending Favor does not cause your standing with the Chronologist Guild to drop below Admired.
Temporal Experimentation (14 Favor): You are granted clearance to tamper with temporal forces; this manifests as your ability to learn Uncommon spells of the Chronologists Guild.
Revered
These boons are available to individuals of Revered reputation, provided you spend the favor to acquire them.
Commissioning Authority (26 Favor): You are permitted to grant the title of Chronologist (CR5 to CR8) to an Apprentice.
Guild Accession (32 Favor): You are promoted to the title of Master Chronologist. Spending Favor does not cause your standing with the Chronologist Guild to drop below Revered.
Guild Artifacer (xx Favor): You can learn to Craft Rare Chronologist Equipment.
Masterful Retainer (32 Favor): You can hire a Master (CR9 to CR15) Chronologist to join you for a mission.
Severe Temporal Clearance (36 Favor): You can request Temporal clearance for a Severe timeline intervention; this manifests as a casting of up to a Level Eight spell from a Chronologist Guild Spellcaster.
Guild Enemity
Disliked
Disliked individual will be barred from Guild Facilities. They will also be refused for maintenance requests. The Guild does not openly conflict with disliked individuals; They tend to treat disliked entities with malignant neglect. Systems governed by disliked organizations are avoided by Chronologists and Metronomes; in such systems, they struggle to stay in good repair.
Hated
The Chronologists take measures to make environments hostile to Hated individuals. This is accomplished through political maneuvering because military aggression runs contrary to the guild's neutrality. There are contingents of Chronologists that take active measures to deny Hated individuals and organizations access to information on the Metronome network; to deceive Hated organizations and disrupt these groups’ ability to decide, react, or govern.
Hunted
The Chronologists commission bounty hunters and mercenaries to kill or capture Hunted individuals; These encounters can range from Trivial to Extreme Threats. The most despised threats to the Cronologists Guild are imprisoned within a moment, a looped time prison that effectively removes the prisoner from time
History
A Discovery of Metronomes 13 Stasis 7021
Shortly after escaping the bounds of their homestar, the Choran observed a powerful signal that would pulse every 16.6 minutes. Tracing that to its source, they found a broadcast tower that had been in constant operation for several thousand years. The local inhabitants called the tower a metronome and have been maintaining the structure. They offered to teach a few of the Choran how to keep the metronome in operation.
Pulse Reckoning Developed 45 Midnight 13992
While the study of chronology was mainly restricted to the Choran in Xaz Roq space, the Upstart Principalities had begun to study a metronome discovered in their own nook of the Inner Sphere. Through this independent line of inquiry, Principality-sponsored chronologists discovered that the metronome's pulse also served as a carrier wave, transmitting a unique identifier for the metronome emitting the pulse and the time it was emitted. This information allowed chronologist trained navigators to determine their location relative to a metronome.
Great Metronome Synchonization 17 Azimuth 31879
Metronome Caretakers across the galaxy coordinated their maintenance efforts. The resulting sector-wide “time reset” prevented a multi-system shipping collapse and proved that a centralized temporal standard was possible, cementing the modern Guild as a neutral arbiter of timekeeping.
Time Academy Schism 17 Azimuth 31999
Metronome Caretakers across the galaxy coordinated their maintenance efforts. The resulting sector-wide “time reset” prevented a multi-system shipping collapse and proved that a centralized temporal standard was possible, cementing the modern Guild as a neutral arbiter of timekeeping.
Metronome Blackout of Khelar Station 44 Decent 36590
On Khelar Station, a cascading Metronome failure desynced local time from the wider network by several minutes, causing ships to drop out of FTL in overlapping trajectories. A single Chronologists Guild task force, including early prototypes of Watchful Monitors, coordinated emergency recalibration, preventing a chain-reaction collision—at the cost of several Tuners’ lives. The event becomes a cautionary tale about overconfident “Progenitor purists” and reinforces the Guild’s doctrine: interpret, don’t imitate.
Chronodrone Standardization Accord 29 Variance 42830
After several independent tuners began fielding dangerously overclocked custom drones, a near-fatal feedback event forced the Guild to convene the Chronodrone Standardization Accord. This formalized the Watchful Monitor → Chronodrone progression, established safety baselines, and turned drones into semi-official Guild signatures—making it easy to spot “off-book” operators running rogue hardware.
Comments
Post a Comment