The Overseers Guild
The Overseers Guild is a cold, methodical organization dedicated to one purpose: ensuring that interstellar voyages remain orderly and secure. In a galaxy where faster-than-light travel on a singular ship level is currently impossible, the vast distances between stars require journeys that can span decades. Most of a ship’s crew enters stasis pods, preserved in cryogenic sleep until they reach their destination. However, the ship still requires a minimal crew to oversee its core functions—this duty falls to convicts, prisoners of war, and the forsaken, who are given the dubious honor of working in exchange for a chance at life. But left unchecked, such individuals would quickly turn to mutiny, sabotage, or insanity in the cold emptiness of space. This is where the Overseers come in.
Supernaturally long lifespans (up to 400 years), allowing them to endure the long voyages across the void.
Greatly enhanced strength and endurance, enabling them to subdue multiple prisoners with ease.
Emotion suppression, rendering them immune to bribery, guilt, or mercy.
A pure white complexion, a side effect of their genetic modifications that marks them as inhuman.
Indoctrination from birth, instilling absolute obedience to command structure and a total absence of personal ambition.
From the moment they are grown, their education is singular: control, subjugation, and enforcement. By the time an Overseer is ready for service, they are an unrelenting force of discipline, programmed to follow orders with machine-like precision.
Suppressing mutinies and insubordination—any sign of disorder is met with brutal efficiency.
Overseeing ship maintenance—directing prisoners to perform tasks necessary for survival.
Ensuring the cryogenic sleepers remain undisturbed—waking the wrong people at the wrong time is a death sentence.
Performing routine executions—prisoners deemed too unstable, rebellious, or incompetent are immediately disposed of.
Upholding the ship’s operational directives—regardless of circumstances, an Overseer’s duty is the only law that matters. There are no second chances on an Overseer-run vessel. A whispered conspiracy, a broken tool, an attempt to hide rations—anything that hints at disobedience is answered with swift and brutal violence.
The Guild accepts only one currency: absolute obedience. Once an Overseer is purchased, they are bound to the faction that owns them until the end of their service—or until they die in duty. They do not age as humans do, instead enduring the centuries with their bodies barely deteriorating. However, those who survive too long eventually break down, their programming and genetic augmentations leading to a slow descent into uncontrollable violence—at which point, they are recalled and euthanized by the Guild.
The Creation of the Overseers
Overseers are not born. They are grown. The Guild breeds them in vast laboratory-vaults, manipulating their genetic structure from inception to create the perfect enforcers—human in form, but devoid of human weakness. Through rigorous conditioning, genetic alterations, and chemical enhancements, they emerge as tireless, merciless guardians of the sleeping crew. Their modifications include:Supernaturally long lifespans (up to 400 years), allowing them to endure the long voyages across the void.
Greatly enhanced strength and endurance, enabling them to subdue multiple prisoners with ease.
Emotion suppression, rendering them immune to bribery, guilt, or mercy.
A pure white complexion, a side effect of their genetic modifications that marks them as inhuman.
Indoctrination from birth, instilling absolute obedience to command structure and a total absence of personal ambition.
From the moment they are grown, their education is singular: control, subjugation, and enforcement. By the time an Overseer is ready for service, they are an unrelenting force of discipline, programmed to follow orders with machine-like precision.
The Role of the Overseers
Each ship requiring long-duration travel purchases Overseers from the Guild. These individuals serve as the sole authority over the awake skeleton crew, ensuring that all prisoners or crew on duty perform their functions without rebellion or failure. Overseers have full permission to kill, maim, or execute on the spot, with no need for justification beyond their own judgment. Their main duties include:Suppressing mutinies and insubordination—any sign of disorder is met with brutal efficiency.
Overseeing ship maintenance—directing prisoners to perform tasks necessary for survival.
Ensuring the cryogenic sleepers remain undisturbed—waking the wrong people at the wrong time is a death sentence.
Performing routine executions—prisoners deemed too unstable, rebellious, or incompetent are immediately disposed of.
Upholding the ship’s operational directives—regardless of circumstances, an Overseer’s duty is the only law that matters. There are no second chances on an Overseer-run vessel. A whispered conspiracy, a broken tool, an attempt to hide rations—anything that hints at disobedience is answered with swift and brutal violence.
The Cold Silence of the Void
A ship under Overseer control is a place of whispered fear and silent compliance. Prisoners and workers speak in hushed tones, always aware of the pale sentinel lurking somewhere nearby. Overseers do not sleep, do not rest, and never leave their post. Their eerie, emotionless gazes seem to pierce through lies, their mere presence enough to prevent uprisings before they begin. Even if an Overseer is alone against a crew of a hundred prisoners, they do not panic, do not hesitate, and do not falter. Their genetic enhancements and sheer brutality allow them to tear through opposition like an unstoppable force, and their unshakable purpose ensures they will never surrender or flee. If a ship were to lose all its Overseers, it would quickly descend into chaos, bloodshed, and failure—a fate every faction dreads.The Overseers’ Lack of Humanity
Overseers are not truly human, and they are not truly animals either—they exist in a liminal state, stripped of all things that make a person whole. Their lack of emotion makes them inhumanly cold, unable to feel anger, joy, or remorse. They do not form relationships, do not dream, do not question orders. While they can speak, their words are devoid of inflection or warmth, their voices hollow, calculating, and harsh. While they are often mistaken for being some form of android, the effects of the Lambda Virus prevent any AI from operating reliably—making the Overseers a necessary evil for deep-space travel. Their sheer reliability ensures that every major power utilizes them, despite the unease they inspire.A Guild Above All Others
The Overseers Guild operates independently from all governments, megacorporations, or factions. They have no loyalty beyond their own trade, selling their services to the highest bidder while maintaining an impenetrable secrecy around their breeding and training methods. Their laboratories and genetic facilities are hidden deep in fortress-worlds, inaccessible and heavily defended.The Guild accepts only one currency: absolute obedience. Once an Overseer is purchased, they are bound to the faction that owns them until the end of their service—or until they die in duty. They do not age as humans do, instead enduring the centuries with their bodies barely deteriorating. However, those who survive too long eventually break down, their programming and genetic augmentations leading to a slow descent into uncontrollable violence—at which point, they are recalled and euthanized by the Guild.
The Dreaded Pale Wardens
Across the void, the sight of a pale-skinned Overseer striding silently through the corridors of a deep-space vessel is a terrifying reminder of what is required to travel the stars. There are no good men aboard these ships—only the criminals struggling to survive and the Overseers who will never die until their duty is done.
Common Sayings About the Overseers:
• “They are not men. They are ghosts in white.” • “An Overseer does not punish. It removes obstacles.” • “If you hear an Overseer behind you, it’s already too late.” • “They do not eat, they do not sleep, they do not fear. What kind of life is that?” • “The Guild does not make mistakes. If an Overseer kills you, it was because you deserved it.” The Overseers Guild is a necessary horror, a force as unfeeling as the void itself. They ensure the survival of interstellar travel—but at the cost of all that makes one human.
• “They are not men. They are ghosts in white.” • “An Overseer does not punish. It removes obstacles.” • “If you hear an Overseer behind you, it’s already too late.” • “They do not eat, they do not sleep, they do not fear. What kind of life is that?” • “The Guild does not make mistakes. If an Overseer kills you, it was because you deserved it.” The Overseers Guild is a necessary horror, a force as unfeeling as the void itself. They ensure the survival of interstellar travel—but at the cost of all that makes one human.
Strong Economic Partnership
The Caliphate is one of the largest exporters of slave labor to Overseer-controlled vessels, particularly for use as Thanapod Stasis Chamber crews or sacrificial maintenance teams. Overseers are always embedded within Caliphate vessels, serving as enforcers aboard long-haul convoys.
Tolerated Vendor
The Brotherhood tolerates the Overseers out of necessity, utilizing them in the vast majority of interstellar voyages, despite their moral hatred for everything the Overseers are and stand for. In an attempt to lighten the moral load of their services, the Brotherhood imposes rules for Overseen travel that other nations do not, though the Guild officially declined several more stringent proposed rules.
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