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God bless the Good People of Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, El Paso, Lincoln, Rockville, Ekron and Fort Knox (you know who you are). For epiphanies come from the touching ofsouls. Also to Dreadnought (who is agood boy ifonly in the Nietzschean sense), and as always,

To my wife, for all of the other, right, reasons.

Thanks also to Pamela laye Smith, Art, Chris, Bert, Greg, Kevin, Lee, Tom, Bill, John, Bob, and all partickants in the first A WWG Seminar. Forge the Thingamajig!

Soli Deo Gloria

Design: ”B.” David Nilsen and Loren K. Wiseman Based on Earlier Material By: J. Andrew Keith, Marc W. Miller, John H. Harshman, John M. Astell and Loren K. Wiseman, and

Proofreading and Typesetting: Michelle L. Sturgeon Art Director: Julie F. Callahan Interior Art: Bradley K. McDevitt Cover Art: Christina Wald Cover Design: Bradley K. McDevitt The Hivers are in Charge Because: They say they are Credits Are: For people to say what they feel like saying And Also to: Get away with anything they possibly can If You Like This Book Blame God If You Don’t Like This Book Blame Cod for creating Dave Long Live: Lister, Rimmer, Kryten, Cat and Holly We Remember, with Joy and Thanksgiving, Kendra’s Mother We Miss You, Joel

the Federation Bureau of Tourism and Public Disinformation

Believe. Always Believe.

Aliens of the RimTM, Volume I: Hivers and lthklur Copyright@ 1995, CDW, Inc. Aliens of the RimTM is CDWs trademark for its alien races sourcebook set in the Traveller@ universe. Aliens of the RimTM,HiversTM, and lthklurTM are CDW trademarks for its alien races in the Traveller@ universe. Traveller@ is CDWs registered trademark for its science-fiction roleplaying game. Made in USA. Printed in USA. Thought up and written in USA by proud Americans. All rights reserved. ISBN 1-55878-1 73-0

P.O. Box 1646 Bloomington, IL 61 702-1 646

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Aliens of the Rim Volume 1: Hivers & lthklur is separated into three main chapters: "Hivers. " "lthklur" and a general reference "Appendix."

The "Hiver" and "lthklur" chapters are each separated into three sections . The first of these is the Open Source section . This section is presented in the style of a report which could be read by a character living in the Traveller universe's Reformation Coalition . In general. referees should allow their players to freely refer to this material. based on the assumption that the player characters are a group expected to interactwith Hivers and lthklur under official RC auspices . However. if the PC group consists solely of characters from the Wilds or another origin that would logically not give them access to any data on the Hivers and Ithklur. referees have the prerogative to deny them access to this material .

The second section is the Players' Section. which includes information for generating characters of these races . Note. however. that full use of these sections does require ownership of the Traveller: The New Era basic rulebook .

The third section is the Referees' Section . This section contains material of use to the referee. such as NPCs and referees' notes . These sections may also contain material which would not be generally known by Traveller player characters . We therefore suggest that use of this section be limited to referees only .

The Appendix contains new rules used when playing lthklur and Hiver characters . These rules are modifications to the TNE Planetary Combat rules . The appendix also contains new equipment. notes for use of alien equipment. new character sheets and a glossary .

Note: All TNE references are to the Mark I. Mod 1 printing (December 1993)' also known as the "second printing." See bottom of credits page (page 3) for this indication .

THE HIVERS .................................................................. 5 APPENDIX .................................................................. 81 Open Source ............................................................. 6

SIB Introduction ..................................................... 6 Hiver Physiology ..................................................... 7 Hiver Mechnod Photo Hello ....................................... 11

Hiver Origins and Prehistory ............................. 11 History of the Hivers ......................................... 12 The Hive Federation ......................................... 16 Hiver Society .................................................... 17 Institutions ....................................................... 18

Hiver Psychology .................................................. 24 The Lament of M . Devela ................................. 25

Players' Section ...................................................... 27 Hiver Character Generation .................................. 27 Hiver Careers ....................................................... 30 Hiver Skills ........................................................... 35

Referees' Section .................................................... 36 Hiver NPCs .......................................................... 36 Dreamers ............................................................. 39 Playing and Refereeing the Hivers .......................... 44

THE ITHKLUR .............................................................. 46 Open Source ........................................................... 47

SIB Introduction ................................................... 47 lthklur Physiology ................................................. 48 lthklur History ...................................................... 50 lthklur Psychology & Society ................................. 51

The Ancients Hypothesis ................................... 56 Players' Section ...................................................... 65

lthklur Character Generation ................................. 65 lthklur Careers ...................................................... 70 lthklur Skills .......................................................... 78

Referees' Section .................................................... 79 lthklur NPCs ......................................................... 79 lthklur and Psionics .............................................. 80

Psychology of the Hivers ................................... 21

New Rules ............................................................... 81 Actions ................................................................ 81 Combat Resolution .............................................. 81

Planetary Combat ................................................ 81

Wounds and Damage .......................................... 82 Wound Effects and Healing ................................... 82

Equipment .............................................................. 83 Weapons ................................................................ 85 Designer's Afterword ............................................. 88 Glossary .................................................................. 89 lnterspecies Equipment Use ................................... 86

Hiver/lthklur Character Generation Worksheet ...... 93 Hiver/lthklur Character Sheet ................................ 94

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If we accept the proposition that the human Imperium will someday destroy itselfin afrenzysopowerfulthat it willdrag us down as well, are we not better off to encourage this collapse earlyso that it may spend itself with less force? In such a way, controlled brushfires are set to forestall future uncontrollable conflagrations, and fault lines are stimulated to cause them to expend their seismic stresses in frequent, small quantities, rather than storing it up for a cataclysm.

Would it beenough to kill their Emperor? Would one have to start a civil war? Cer- tainly we could kill one now to test the concept and generate data. And if this were to trigger an event, this would tap off the building pressure on its own. Such an experiment is farenough from our frontiers that safety considerations are not a prob- lem and collateral damage not an issue.

M. lndovina Project 1420 Feasibility Study

Humans seem to feel that we Hivers have lost our hold on the truth because of millenia ofmanipulations, but this is only a belief of the timid in spirit.

I can place a drop of insoluble ink in this beaker of glycerine and then stir it slowly with this mechanical device so that there is no diffusion. Eventually the drop is drawn into a fine thread that is distributed so thoroughly into the glycerine that is no longer visible to the eye. You say I have destroyed the truth of that drop of ink?

But w a t c h i f I reverse the mechanical device, theprocess will be reversed, and the thread of ink will coalesce back into its original drop. See? Nothing has changed. The truth is always still there-it simply does not take the form that you expect. But I can always bring it back if I know the speed and number of revolutions to decode it again.

Life is unfolding-and will continue to unfold-ds it ought. Do you blame a mol- ecule of oxygen for bouncing off of and changing the path of another? Do you blame a particular electron for being in a particularspot at aparticularinstant when it is clear that some electron or another would have been there anyway?

Nature abhors a vacuum. Saying that we should all take a deep breath and try not to breathe fora whileisno waytoallow us to live in the vacuum you would propose. Life lives. Populations expand. Beings move. Truth changes. All is as it should be.

M. Taylor

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Years ago, one of my nestmates was about to embark on a mission to human space and wanted my opinion on the name it had chosen, the name of an eminent manipulator in pre-Imperial Terran literature. Fortunately, Anglic literature was an interest of mine (I admit that I do not understand much of the plot of the novelTrilby, but subtexts based on human sexuality have always escaped me), and I was able to explain why such a name would be detrimental in dealings with humans-Svengali has bad connotations in Anglic, especially as a name for a Hiver. It is difficult too formany of us understand why so many humans distrust us, even fear us. I have been introduced to humans who fled the room with their hands over their ears, presumably in order to avoid being manipulated by the mechanically produced sounds from my translator. But this same human undoubtedly has no qualms about listening to a political speech, or viewing commercial holovision entertainments. There is an entire subscience of human economics known as advertising, which we Hivers find to be manipulation of a particularly repulsive sort: It is ageneralized manipulation carried out for the sole purpose of economicgain by persuading humans that a given product is superior to another (often virtually identical) product, and therefore should be purchased. Nothing is learned; nothing is gained except economically. Humans tolerate social and political manipulations on gigantic scale, provided they are perpetrated by humans. Why they tolerate these manipulations and are repulsed at the thought of one of ours is one of the greatest enigmas of humanity, in my opinion.

It is a virtualcertainty that some ofyou will believe my lectures to be a subtle manipulation, using codedpatterns in thegrammar andphrasing to subliminally influence you away from mistrust of my kind and render you susceptible to some mysterious and occult plan by an alien Svengali. I hope that by the end of the course you will come to a less simplistic view of me and my kind.

M. Delafemina, opening lecture An Introduction to Hiver Society and Culture

Hiver Technical Institute, Aubaine

To the bestof ourabilitytodiscern, thereexistsa rootdocument, circa -1 750 Imperial, entitled Hiver Mechnod Photo Hello. Its origin is unknown, but its many descriptionsof Hiverculture, psychology, motivations, etc., have passed almost unchanged into all subse- quent Hiver literature. How can this be?

Certainly this would happen if it were incontrovertible truth, such as the value of A or e (both of which, by the way, round to 3 for you trinitarians in the audience), but the document consists a t best of platitudes, tautologies and unsupported assertions.

In this project, we received assistance from an unanticipated source: a group we can only surmise is some form of Federation underground. Details on the seminal Hiver manuscript (Hiver Mechnod Photo Hello, hereafter HMPH) with annotations by "The Blissful Warrior" and material from M. Devela all arrived through these channels. Beyond the nature of the assistance that arrived, we have no details on this underground. Certainly lthklur and Hivers appear to be involved, but we have no real information on the nature of their leadership. The only firm common denominator is that all their interactions with us have included the phrase "hands across the truth." As to the nature of the assistance, taken a t face value it appears

to indicate that there is a current of discontent (of unknown size) with the Hive Federation status quo. Certainly the corroboration of our HMPH theories is an unprecedented admission from a group which seems to prize secrecy, but does this mean it is truth or merely bait to set the hook?

Is the information true? Are we being contacted by an under- ground seeking assistance?

Or is the information true, but are we being contacted by their opponents attempting to flush them out?

Or is this information purposely falsified? Is this to prepare our minds to accept future information which will guide our thinking in a current way? Or is this to convince us to disregard some information we already have? And, the ultimate question:

What if this information is false, but even i ts authors don't realize

it? Perhaps they too are the victims of a manipulation, or the end result of millennia of cross-cutting manipulations meaning that the truth, as such, no longer exists for the Hivers.

What if we are being manipulated, but to an end which is genuinelyfor our own good? Should we keep our best interests a t heart and allow this?

Or should we allow our human pride to resent this? More to the point, even if this manipulation is for our own good,

what if it represents the thin edge of the wedge which makes us more vulnerable to future manipulations which may or may not have our best interests a t heart?

The consensus of this group is that it is impossible to make this judgementatthis point, butthatwhatwe needasgovernmentand as humans is a means to determine what is our own internal incontrovertible truth so that we can find our own way regardless of the conflicting external "facts"that come in. Facts, after all, are only objects which are subservient to the truth. Facts are insuffi- cient to determine the truth, but when one has truth, separate individual facts are irrelevant.

One final observation is necessary. Every member of this study group concurs that any study of the Hivers results in a measurable increase in personal paranoia and in the ability to perceive (or imagine) any number of conspiracies a t any time and for any imaginable reason. Several members of the team are regularly seeing psychological counselors to deal with these symptoms, although many of us believe psionic counseling is the best route, as the Hivers have absolutely no psionic abilities and cannot have corrupted that methodology.

Or is that perhaps only what they want us to believe? I would recommend that this document receive the highest

possible level of classification. Note that this might be sufficient proof that it should instead receive the widest possible dissemina- tion as an open-source document.

Lt. Alexandria Kendra Special Intelligence Branch

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