Prophet

>Father John
Old Man Prophet IIRC

Good work OP, Graham is god tier comics.

Even Captain Kirk wouldn't touch that with a ten-pole laser-pole.

first mention of the God Relay, important communications network for the Earth Empire
thank you user, Old Man Prophet

Examples of suits worn by bipeds

Taxa Caravan. Presumably there are many of these crisscrossing the wastelands of earth. Fascinating way to live and survive as a merchant convoy. More info for these types of groups incoming

More on caravan life. The shields are important, otherwise the large bugs will murderfuck you. This implies an oxygen rich atmosphere during the period of earth's future

>Faction alert
One of the many groups hitching a ride on the Taxa caravan

Faction will be the term I use for different alien groups. Fair warning, their are thousands. Which makes for a good RPG

>Faction alert
>OU monks
These guys pop up anywhere there's psychic crystals. They don't really fight, but you see them often helping to generate force fields and shields. Maybe they're mercenaries?

>Faction alert
>Xuix-Gun Blade
These guys are badass. Think Kraven the Hunter or Boba Fett. If your party encounters one, do your best to avoid conflict. Maybe try a drinking game instead

>Faction alert
>Caravan King
Hey, it's the guys who own the caravan! they're like a village, or a tribe. Anyways, they've got soldiers too. But it's not like anyone's going to attack besides bandits. The taxa caravan fufills an important trade function, otherwise how else are you going to brave the wastelands?

more glimpse into caravan life. Those who ride the Taxa caravan come from all walks of life, united in their desire to cross the wasteland safely. You can imagine merchants, monks and warriors gathered one night to witness a once in a hundred year ceremony, a rare event indeed! Certainly something you could tell the grandkids about. This one didn't quite go as planned

More examples of alien life and the trouble you can get into

More on the Blind UO monks. See, what'd I tell you, there they go generating force fields' n shit. The Taxa Caravan must employ them

Actually that one's Newfather John Prophet. Pic related's the actual Great Grey Grandfather, Old Man John Prophet, the Hero of the Wolf-Rayet Star.
Also, OP, if you pull it off, you'll make me a very happy Prophet fan.

Enough on the Taxa Caravan, let's check out some Earth Empire stuff! The Earth Empire is my favorite faction, they're HFY done right, if you can believe it. Mostly because they have nothing to do with humanity.
Here's a p-970 MARX 12 Vron Lord, a war-mech used by the Earth Empire in the past. you don't see them much anymore, so maybe they're obsolete
Newfather! that's the word I was looking for, thank you. feel free to chime in anons if you have some input or just want to talk about the universe and lore of this fantastic space opera setting

The Vron Lord from another angle

quick action shot of the Xuin Gun Blade

All hail the Earth Empire! we'll get into them more later on. Suffice to say they use the Johns as footsoldiers. The empire is run by powerful psychics named Sisters, which we'll see soon enough. There are warlord johns (like newfather, they lead the johns) and then the sisters who are also a ruling class. We'll try and decipher the hierarchy soon enough

Sorry, the Johns actually call them Mothers. They call each other Sisters. Anyways, powerful psychics.

And here we see the Tower where the God satellite rests on top of! this tower is fought over like three times in the comics series, and countless times off panel. It is a very important location on earth in case your game takes place on this planet

an example of one of the many types of soldiers found on future earth. Notice the use of organic ammo

some sort of primitive war elephant. May be hot shit on earth, but most armor units elsewhere could curb stomp this fucker

Quick thing about Johns. They're like space marines, in that they're genetically engineered to be really good at something. They can also take wounds that would slay a lesser man. Also note the voice in his head. That would be the Mothers, who guide all Johns. It's a big point actually in the series, because the Johns are basically slaves to the Mothers.

More background lore on the all-important tower. Or at least, is this the tower they're always fighting over? There's a big battle later on over one of the spires protruding from this future earth. Let's just go with all ominous, looming spires on earth are important

Bump

Some aliens, the four eyes seem to be a dominant species on earth. I think they have a name, if anybody knows it or wants to make one up I'm all ears

>Faction alert
>Crystal Blessed
Ho boy, these guys are something else. They're crystal-based religious fanatics, and you bet your ass they're militarized. But what you see in the picture are just grunts, aliens who have some sort of symbiotic relationship with the crystals. The Crystal Lords are a whole nother story

More crystal blessed

one more picture of a grunt, for your game

Enough of the damn grunts! The Crystal Lords demand tribute!
And they get it, entire tribes are enslaved and taken to the crystal-blessed controlled tower. The young are sacrificed to the Crystal Lords for reasons. Maybe religious symbolism

an example of why the dolmantle is so valuable. The lil guy fashions a new arm for the John out of a discarded alien limb. Mind you, the dolmantle has to exert energy to operate this new limb, so its not as effective while doing so, but it can multitask as well

>Faction alert
>Krun
It's just a raiding party, but still, more fodder for your party to interact with

another action shot of the Xuin Blade
>he's gonna get you!

more ways in which the dolmantle rocks. Why are these not more widespread?

The god satellite again

This is like Han vs. Boba on the sand yacht. Just more examples of ways your party can get into scraps with aliens

Once Johns start getting together pretty much everybody in the galaxys fucked

Ahhh Yeahhh Earth Empire! This is inside the God Satellite btw

Very important scene for those unfamiliar with the setting. See the crown the dead guy is wearing? Only Boss Johns get to wear that. It's a psychic shield, and in universe full of psychic powered monsters and mind control freaks, that's gonna save your ass more often then not. it also means that the John who wears it isn't under direct control of the Mothers. How this plays into their power hierarchy we'll have to discuss further.
And, two extra Johns to aid the newfather! Presumably they're warrior caste

One of the single best pages in the whole damn series, and a perfect illustration of the Earth Empire's slumbering power. Awaken my masters!

I've got to sleep here pretty soon, I'll resume in the morning, but bumps, discussion and input is always appreciated from interested parties

Another type of John Clone, probably a variation on the warrior caste. Note the use of stimulants, something we can assume is widespread in this day and age

Ohhh shitttt it's a mother! my favorite characters in this series, Mothers are the psychic upper castes of the Empire. The serve many functions, from....well....I know they have a whole hierarchy of their own, but I guess I'll have to keep reading and cropping images to find out
btw, they appear as children to the Johns and I guess everyone else, but their actual form is quite, quite different

A top tier Mother could probably kick the ass of psychers, librarians, Jean Grey from the xmen, and any of those protoss fuckers

more inventory porn

balldogs, for GM's to throw at their party

An example of a station you can use for your game (this will all be pooled together into a pdf homebrew file eventually, but like I said any input would be appreciated)

more about this particular station.

a page to give you an example of the relationships between Johns and Mothers. All Johns serve the Mothers. This is the way of things.

another page to show you the technology behind star skins (the pink liquid) Also, I believe the color of the mother is important. So far I remember there being white (basic mother) blue (???) and pink, which are the super badass ones

star skin bitches! it's like an exo suit that can take loads of damage and help you survive in a vacuum. If your characters are very lucky, maybe one will find one

Ah, the true form of the Mothers. I like the psychic form better
recap page:
Tail Johns: Warrior caste?
Dolmantle: Versatile AI companion
Starskin: Protective living exosuit
Let's conquer the galaxy

Also important, the mother is wearing the command crown that protects you from psychic intrusions. I'm pretty sure all the mothers have them

a page highlighting a couple things:
-more communications technology
-the technology exists to move planets (and presumably terraform)
-this robot can eat things to repair itself, more on the robot in the following posts

more on the robot, he eats enough organic life and he can grow wings or jetpacks. Is he an enemy? a faction? A player character choice?

>I am Jaxson, one of old man Prophet's unhatched eggs, brought to life to fight along in his fight. I came here when the war looked won, to dig in and wait, and listen. Listen for it to start up again

another alien settlement, just to get a feel of the varied lifeforms that inhabit the universe

I like me some gross, alien-looking aliens. But I also like that Tau women are basically just blue humans. Depends which head I'm thinking with

Bamp

Bump

another angle of Jaxson with a jetpack. If these robots are widespread they'd be pretty handy in combat

Jaxson finding one of his brothers. What they mean by the term will be determined

>Faction alert
>Jung brother
Not much given on them, but there you go more fodder for a campaign. We can guess the Jung Brotherhood is some kind of tech priest enclave

Jaxson and Xefferson, brothers reunited. Xefferson, the newly freed one, had been forced to pilot a giant tower that consumed the surrounding land and terraformed it into a fortress. Not very fun, but an interesting way for the Jung brotherhood to utilize his organic converting tech

>Tech reference
>cyclops rail
I think the cyclops rail is an FTL relay if I remember correctly. Just a series of rings or planets that you shoot through, like the boost triangle in mario cart

more on the cyclops rail

Quick action shot of a brother and a mother. What are you grabbing at dumbass, that's just a psychic projection!

Another one of my favorite pages. This is what I want games to look like, this is my ideal player party. Many important things to note
>Womb ship
That's the ball, and how mothers have their weird bodies transport around the empire. Johns ride in them too sometimes for protection
>Mother
She's white, so she's the bottom of the totem poll, but still pretty fucking powerful
>Johns
haha! lookit all those warrior Johns. or maybe scout Johns? It just now occurs to me that there are much larger clones that I assume are made for combat. So maybe these guys are scouts or recon
>Canucus wolf
of course your party will be able to recruit just about anything to their cause, whatever that might be

oh, and as the page mentions
>Arch
A John family, or unit, it's hard to tell

Players can be Johns, Mothers, Xuix-Gun Blades, Organic Converting Robots, and so much, much more as you'll see. We haven't even touched on a quarter of the playable races

Action shot of a scaling action

>Faction alert
>Pinwheel hunters
They use some sort of acidic missiles in a previous panel. More enemies are player character choices

Quick example of a Wombship in action. They can't really go toe to toe with other ships, but as for providing aerial support they're pretty OP

OP, have you got links to the scanned volumes?

Anyway, some thoughts that occur to me reading the thread. This is from what I remember of the series, not really checking anything.

Equipment is very richly detailed in the comics, but rarely shown being useful on panel. We don't see Newfather use half of the stuff depicted in ; same thing with the tailed John and . Of course Graham is ahead and knows what these Johns are gonna need; but for a game, I'd use a point/limited uses system where the player can determine what one piece of equipment is when they need it. I think that's a better way to handle it because, considering the weird shit Prophets get up to, it's very difficult to even conceive what items they are gonna need ahead of time.
Or you could go the opposite way, have players choose equipment ahead of time and see as they McGyver with what they have. I don't think I would do that, though.

While Johns have a caste system, they're so varied I wouldn't make that part of the game system, just of the lore. We would be busting our asses for years to codify all the John castes shown in the comic, so a point buy system is preferred, with freedom for the players to make up what their John's purpose and characteristics are.

Would that be the same with alien factions? You make some up before each session for the characters to e counter, or on the fly if you need to; but if a player wants to play a non-human character, they have freedom to invent their race.

These lil' fuckers are one of my favorite things in this comic. They can do anything. Anything, no questions asked, no fine print. How, then, to stat a creature like that?
And they're cute too.
(cont.)

A john gets buried. Notice the casual mention of cannibalism. Interesting lore, as well as another glimpse into the relationship between Johns and Mothers

>white
>bottom of the totem pole

At least you nailed the fantasy aspect

>Tail Johns: Warrior caste?
Johns don't really have a warrior caste; rather, aside from the pleasure caste, they're all built for war one way or another. Newfather is commander caste, John Ka is a scout; tailed Johns are designed for stealth missions in a swamp world and so on. But they're all warriors.

One thing I find interesting about the Mothers is how we find out gradually that, while they're rulers of the Empire, they don't quite agree on everything. I think creating discordance among Mothers could be a powerful way to disrupt the Empire.

I have to say I lost my shit when these guys appeared. They were so different and had their own experiences and personalities. It was when I first realized how Johns, even imperial Johns, are not the machines and cannon fodder the Mothers try to make of them.

Thank you, trips user, that's actually a really good idea. Like a point build for specialization? I like it
As for the gear, yeah, that's also a good point. I like inventory porn, we'll have to work on it.
And as for the scanned volumes, I have 1-3, I just need a good suggestion on where to upload them

Thank you contributing anons, gotta run errands real quick but please continue development in my absence. When I return I'll see if I can upload the volumes and continue cropping pictures

This series has turned me into a fan of inventory porn as well. I guess we could make a large list of gear suggestions, but keep players free if they need a device we didn't come up with.

>a good suggestion on where to upload them
Mega, I guess? It seems to work fine.

I'm not sure OP's theories about Mother castes is canon. The colors of the projections struck me as simply a way of visually differentiating between characters who are otherwise nearly identical.

I think having a mechanic related to eating is important. Prophets are eating all the time. Eating anything meat based they can get their hands on. Presumably their enhanced metabolisms need a lot of stuff.

Rather than having it be a spreadsheet to track it could work as an abstracted resource point. Trade 1 food point for doing 1 combat task or otherwise Herculean feat. Trade 1 food for reshaping your dolamantle. Enemies killed can be converted into food points based on their stats?

For the dolamantle I'd give it X number of points representing its symbiosis, and each time you use it as a tool, limb or organ it takes 1 point. You have to feed it to get points back.

It would also look dope on a character sheet as a meat carcase of an alien thing with little pips under it.

Have Energy Points just like Hit Points.

Killing and eating things gives you energy points. Exerting yourself climbing mountains and fighting rounds of combat consumes your EPs.

that's true, but the most powerful mother we see has a pink projection, and her lover is blue, presumably weaker as well. The colors could just be for the artist to distinguish between different mothers

And we're back! Lotta good discussion, I love the idea of having to constantly eat, that fits right in with the comic. Working on a mega upload for those who want to sink their teeth into the comic with me and dissect lore. Bare with me, I've never uploaded files before

Pictured is a Mother directing her Johns to the mission, you know how much I like them psychic girls

Another example of one of the many creatures you and your party can encounter

>Tech Highlight
>Teuthidan Lance
A John with a Teuthidan Lance he grew himself. It spits an acidic vapor, much like the weapons used by the Pinwheel Hunters. Notice a lot of weapons in this series are organic based. Why might that be? Are they more efficient? Are EMP's too powerful in the future for widespread electronics usage? Remember even the robots at organic matter for conversion and enhancements

The Lance in action

Another action shot of the Johns and the Mother, you know by now I'm a sucker for these kind of scenes.
mega:///#fm/5NcgAZxI
I'm not sure if that worked, please let me know if it did

I don't think the mega link worked, I dont know shit about file sharing, any anons with insight would be greatly appreciated

And here we have an example of a Mother's psychic attack. Note that most people would have been killed very quickly

user I like these suggestions, do other lurkers like the idea of tracking both health and food? We're workshoping here

Pictured is a very sad, but very important scene.
>Tech Highlight
>Crown
As mentioned earlier in the thread, the crown protects your from psychic attacks. A mid-level to high-level item? Something every party member should have? It's up for discussion

Some nice maps, detailing a very small patch of land on earth. Note the meat farm where they harvest monkeys (our ancestors, how the tables have turned) and the Smell Based Caste Society City, Antz

Another picture of the Web Watcher from the Taxa Caravan. One of the many tribes and races that dot the earth