No story here, just some numbers for the curious that I was working with.

Sama and Briggs both finish the novel as Expert/20, Melee/21, and Rantha/21. They both have multiple other Classes at 11, with Samantha having probably twice as many as Briggs, since he focused so much on getting to Twenty and maxing Make Fate.

If you’re a long-time gamer and even running the numbers a little bit... yeah, they should have hit 21 a LONG time ago, given who and what they have been fighting, and the scale and impact of what they have been doing. Sage Sama hit Twenty without having done nearly as much as them.

In real terms, the crawling speed is because the Warp Gods have been making it very difficult to gain Levels after Ten, part of the E10 nature of the setting. Sama and Briggs effectively bulled their way forward through the suppression, and have forged a road for the rest of the galaxy in doing so. There’s going to be a lot more high-Level people of all species popping up, and stepping into the Eternal.

The Emperor, naturally enough, didn’t mind not having any rivals to his power, and took no steps to stop it. It had a convenient side effect of hampering longer-lived races more than humanity. Still being able to get to Six readily meant humanity’s numbers would have a greater impact in the long run.

Both Sama and Briggs Nogged up to perfect Stats over the many decades, although it was done in the background. So, base 18 in all Stats.

Exemplar Lite is +4 to all Stats. Ditto Marks, with +4 Str for Briggs.

Sama’s Rantha Bloodline is +16 Strength, +20 Dex, +20 Con, +12 Int, +12 Wis, +20 Charisma. Briggs’ Hagspawn side is +20 Strength, +14 Dex, +20 Con, +10 Int, +14 Wis, +14 Cha. He’s also size L, so +8 Str, +4 Con, and -2 Dex, +1 Nat AC, +5 Reach, Use Bigger Weapon, Carry More.

They both have the Heavy Gravity Training for +5 Str, +7 Might, +5 Con, and +5 Dex.

Sama’s Null Forsaken Inherent bonuses work out to +5 Con and Wis, +5 Int, and +3 Str and +2 Cha. Briggs’ work out to +5 Str and Cha, and +5 Dex and Int.

Age Bonuses give +3 to all Stats.

Their Class Levels and Secondary Class Levels, combined with Sustained Effort, work out to about +10 to all Stats.

Ergo, Sama is about Str 63, Might 70, and can bench over 200 tons, making her stronger than the She-Hulk. Her Dex of 64 is higher than Spider-Man’s, her Con of 69 (800+ each Health and Soak) means she’s literally tireless. Her Intellect of 56 puts her way beyond any concept we have of intelligence, with at least 16 thoughtstreams, a +23 Bonus meaning she’s better at stuff she doesn’t know anything about than most people are after a lifetime. 56 Wisdom means she basically always makes the right decision, and a 61 Charisma gives her the willpower and force of personality to carry it through in the face of the destruction of multiple solar systems, the deaths of trillions, and the ire of divine entities and elder abominations without buckling from self-doubt, yet not being a fanatic.

Briggs is actually about Strength 75 (82 Might), meaning he can bench 2000 tons or so, and this number doubles when inside his power armor, which is psi-worked to give +6 exoskeleton boost to his Strength, instead of setting it to a specific level like most Power Armor is. So, yes, he CAN throw a tank around, and rend steel with his bare hands. If Beat wasn’t Indestructible, it would shatter when Briggs hit something with it!

Dex of 55 means he’s still impossibly precise and nimble for his size, and Con of 60 is still tireless even if he isn’t as purely durable as Sama. His Intellect is 50, his Wisdom is 49, and his Charisma is 54, making him the very definition of a beyond-Genius Bruiser.

They both have a Nat AC bonus of +17, base move of 60 (tripled with lightfoot, + other bonuses to be 250+, i.e. running at 180+ mph), Damage Reduction in the base 15/-, 25/Holy Silver range (and can get another +10 easily), which basically means like beating on something made of solid steel (Briggs is +15/- in his Power Armor, too). They are basically immune to most forms of energy, including all Elemental, Radiant, Necroic, Primal, and Divine.

Their Vajras are in the range of 75-80, with Briggs’ being slightly higher since it is based on his Strength.

In terms of Skill Points, Sama would have more, since she purchased more Classes at lower Karmic Levels than Briggs did, as he drove for Levels to get his Warlord and Make Fate abilities to their highest Levels before grabbing extra Classes. Nonetheless, having a +20 Intellect bonus +23 points per Expert+Melee+Rantha Level means 43 Points a Level, more than enough for him to get all the key core Skills, plus keep up on the engineering/science side of things without too much of a problem.

Both of them can be considered to be TL21 Qualified on all the relevant science, pscience, and spellcrafting lore and foundational knowledge, and what practical knowledge one doesn’t have, the other does, so they can effectively recreate all that technology between the two of them.

Ronnie Rantha’s focus on Intellect means she’s got around a 60-some Intellect, making her the smartest humanoid in the galaxy by a fair chunk. Her first job stepping into Eternal is getting Legendary Skill Focus in all her many tech skills, as well as Legendary Item Creation, Alchemy, and Weird Science, leaving her capable of creating divine-level projects like Dyson Spheres, Ringworlds, and the like. Of course, given the number of fields of study she indulges in, she’s grabbing for Skill points everywhere.

Anatolia Rantha’s Focus on Wisdom puts that around 60 for her, leaving her the most dangerous planner and strategist in the galaxy. While Briggs and Sensei Sama can dominate her at Warlord leadership, in terms of strategy, she stands at the top.

Chalice’s Special Purpose of Bring Down the Warp Gods has been fulfilled, leaving her looking for another one. She’ll definitely be a Legendary Weapon as soon as Briggs and Sama spend a couple months pounding in that +1 million gp of value.

Beat’s Special Purpose of Defend Briggs is still ongoing. His layout is similar to Chalice, and he’s looking forward to that next grade of improvement.

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I figured the Emperor to be about a level 30 Psion in 3e terms, with 16 Levels in Melee to reflect his legendary fighting skills. Every crystal bone of his body was a psychic reservoir, each holding another 20 PSP. As the Human Exemplar, he had +12 to all Stats, and while he lost a good chunk of his Exemplar status when becoming a lich, he got another boost to mental Stats, putting him at between 40 and 50 in all mental categories. Alas, he didn’t know how to Nog.

He didn’t have tons of Legendary Weapons and Armor laying about because his Legendary Weapon was his sword and phylactery, which was stolen by the Wyrm Prince, and the Emperor lost the ability to forge more while he bore it. At the same time, it left him immune to the influence of the Warp, so he considered it a trade-off, and wasn’t going to make Epic stuff for his underlings, anyways.

It did mean he couldn’t replicate the things like the Crystal Beacon or improve on them, and as a lich, he could only gain new Skills by losing old ones, swapping them in and out, and so was gradually losing knowledge of things he knew in the past... and the dreams and ambitions and understanding related to them.

Undead don’t grow, only decay, so it was just a long, slow spiral down for the Emperor. Happily, he’s dead now, and doesn’t have to worry about it anymore.

With him dead, his Exemplar energy is released, and another Human Exemplar can be born. The Ranthas will definitely be looking for him! (Which would be the Star Child legend from 40k).

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The Warp Gods have basically been transformed into Demon Princes, and must vie for dominance in the Abyss with the Demogorgon, Orcus, Pazuzu, Dagon, and the rest. They aren’t going to take the change in status well, as their ability to leech at the primal drives of everything living is now shared by countless other demonic entities all too willing to rip apart and feed on them, and having stronger ties to specific drives that stifle out and displace their own more general parasitic nature.

In short, they are going to be scrambling for power, influence, and territory in the Abyss, just like all the other demons who don’t want to see these new interlopers. Yay! It’s a new era for the Warp Gods, having to obey laws of reality passed down by greater entities far older and more powerful than they...

Ah, they’re ambitious. They’ll be fine. I’m sure all the minor demon lords won’t gang up and put them in their place when the Warp Gods try to eat them.

======================

In terms of other things...

There are many, many storylines I could have segued into the story, that I didn’t write, or which happened off screen.

Remember that group of Yith who mind-swapped an alien population to face the doom they were leaving behind? The Void Brothers were going to hunt them down, and forcibly swap them with a human population getting overrun by a xenoswarm, giving them their truly just deserts. The idea of the Yith mindswapping an entire species at once is utterly terrifying. Of the classic Lovecraft stories, that is the one that disturbed me the most.

The Ancients who rebelled against the Empire and went off into the stars. The kids actually found the system in The Map, out there in nowhere, but given it’s so distant, didn’t do the planetary survey to realize who is living there. A whole planet of Fuzzy Sources who don’t much like tech!

A system with a shattered Dyson Sphere, at least five Purges old, possibly from the first era of the Tekrons.

A broken Ringworld, the remnants home to dozens of Mythos Races shooting at one another.

Going up against the Mu-Spores.

A true fight against the TL 20 robo-horde of the Gatherers, and a Planet-Killer coming to chew something important apart. Planet-Killers are inspired by an old original Star Trek episode about one, and them neutronium hulls can take pretty much ANYTHING.

Running up against the other alien empires in the galaxy humanity doesn’t know about, some of whom are quite aggressive, and would need to be taught a lesson. (wo’ batlhvaD!) Ranthas would probably find Klingons cute...

The origins of the Kundi. I’m thinking related to the Dyson Sphere above.

Documenting the infiltration of the zwilnik organizations throughout the galaxy... and finding they all led back to Tellus, naturally, and the Imperial Palace, at the end. This could have been an ongoing thread going through the entire story. Perfect storyline for a Coronal/Umbral Guard team... or a mob infiltration team.

Running into a civilization subsumed by Mythos elements, instead of the Warp, backed by the cephalids.

There were no dragons :P There is an entire fantasy universe out there with dragons ruling an empire in the stars...

They never ran into the Empire of the Orbus (beholders). That would have been lively, to say the least.

A true galactic-class nomadic species threat, coming in like locusts in their fleets, stripping everything clean, and off to another galaxy. Something big enough to take on full Xenoswarm Fleets and survive, and unlike them, not susceptible to a Warp Storm coming at them.

A rogue Titan of some sort, hiding somewhere from the Warp Gods: good, bad, or just uncaring...

The Sensei from 40k, the Eternal kids of the Emperor, who may or may not want his throne... except the Emperor also has daughters he doesn’t know about, who are endless reincarnators, and have a hidden realm of their own, shiny and bright in comparison to the grim of the Empire... with Halvyr! Running into one of the Mater Mundi could have been interesting...

A fight aboard an Elvar Starhome. Hags to the rescue, with style and song and dance competitions!

Something actually has the temerity to invade a Citadel. Displaying why you don’t fight the Ruk in close-quarters. Well, at all. Probably a Legion attacking them, and getting their asses handed to them.

Cat-and-mouse shipfighting in weird stellar phenomena. I could have done a lot more of this in the Abyssal systems, especially if she had brought a kitted-out Dojo.

Maybe there IS a world where the orcs are getting ready to climb out into the stars... nah. Maybe in another galaxy they are powers, and that 40k genetic savancy of theirs can go up against the Goblins...

I didn’t feature a lot of alien species, because it’s a lot to juggle, and the nature of the setting is to wipe out new species, not befriend them, which vastly reduces the number of them. A great deal could be done with them, going forwards, especially with using the Lens as the foundation for a new Federation or Alliance.

Never wrote any encounters with corrupted human AI anywhere, like some megacorp experimenting with them, just thinking it can get away with it... woop, lost another planet!

While the Anti-Life are based on Pa’nuri from Schlock Mercenary, they are also the exact inversion of the star-gods of the Necrons from 40k. Come to think of it, never wrote up a fight against mass Tekrons, either... not that Sama ever wanted that fight. TL20 Deathtech AI would be a pain to fight...

An encounter with a Predator species would have been fun, and a big surprise to them...

A peaceful world specializing in use of ki powers, and virtually free of the Warp.

Ranthas growing up on/taking over various worlds of the Empire, showcasing techworlds, pleasure worlds, savage worlds, exoworlds, deathworlds, primitive worlds, and the like.

Documenting the adventures of Blackbella Rantha, mercenary, smuggler, and bladebelle-for-hire, could have gone all sorts of ways, especially if it tied in with climbing up the zwilnik ladder. A truly rogue Rantha pursuing her own interests instead of the metafight would have been interesting. La la la la la la, live for todaaaay...

I went the whole book without a mecha fight, except where I showed them getting their asses kicked. Hmm...! Well, it probably would have been tank against mecha, and the tank would win... The valiant lads of the Kasr Divisions are berating me...

The Ultimate Mecha is probably debuting on Mars right now (remember Mars was left mostly intact?) The finest engineers of the Empire dropping undead brains into engines of war and unleashing them upon the Mechs and Tanks of the Corunsuns... and maybe in Gloom, too.

Enemy viewpoints of just how damn hard it is to kill a Rantha is also not something I dealt with. The Hagbloods truly are superhuman, after all, even if they aren’t arrogant about it.

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In short, just this story alone could probably have gone on for another three hundred chapters, with all the stuff I could put in the middle of it. That was a LOT of time to work with, and I still got over 1400 Word pages out of it without it all.

Thanks for tagging along with me!

Sincerely,

R E Druin