Stars Without Number: Tribunals

Tribunals

Lenses: Subtlety, Sagacity
Government: Inapplicable
Technology Level: None
Motivation: Enigmatic

     The Tribunals are believed to be powerful alien beings composed of sentient energy. They can take on the outer shape and physical form of those they interact with, i.e. when they appear to humans, they take on a human-like appearance, although it will be mystical and somewhat nebulous seeming in form, for other species they have been reported to do the same.
     Many races believe the Tribunals to be nothing more than a wild space myth, a fanciful tale concocted by bored space travellers and scoff at talk of powerful psychic energy beings that occasionally meddle in the affairs of "lesser mortals". The Deonists apparently aren't willing to miss out on the chance to "worship" such a powerful psychic creature and have put an enormous bounty on the capture and delivery of a live Tribunal specimen to their world. There are others that seek out the Tribunals as well, for it is said they possess psionic talents and abilities that have long been lost and forgotten by the rest of the galaxy. It is said that those rare few whom the Tribunals deem worthy are gifted with a brief taste of this forgotten knowledge and power, although there is always a cost. Some come away with powerful new abilities, others come away powerful but maddened by the experience, while others are never seen again.

     SWN Default Campaign Setting Notes: If the Tribunals existed prior to The Scream there are no reports of it, but so much data is lost from the previous era, nothing is conclusive in that regard. Some races claim the Tribunals somehow caused The Scream, but there is no proof of this.

     The Tribunals are obviously not appropriate for player characters. They can be used in various ways in your Campaign, some examples are; as a GM Plot Device, perhaps they could be meddling do gooders or villains or somewhere in between….Maybe a PC Psychic is on a quest to learn some new Psionic ability that can only be obtained from The Tribunals.

I very loosely based these on the alien race featured in Defenders #124, no copyright infringement is intended.