The following material is an adaptation of mecha from MACROSS 7, a
sequel to the original Japanese MACROSS TV series (which became
Robotech here in the U.S.). Please feel free to use, copy, and distribute it
as you see fit. All I ask is that you give proper credit to me and do not
claim that it is your own work. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
RPG Stats by DAVE DEITRICH (deitrich@mediaone.net)
Background info provided by the MACROSS ONLINE COMPENDIUM
NOTE: These rules are FAR from finished, but I've been getting so many questions asking "what are Protodeviln" that I decided to go ahead and post the intro to hopefully answer some of your questions. I'm currently working on NPC stats for Sivil and Gepernich, to be followed soon after by the rest of the Protodeviln. Thank you for your patience.
The history of the beings known as the Protodeviln began eons ago during the height of the Stellar Republic of the protoculture (roughly around 370,000 BC). The advent of the zentraedi had greatly facilitated the Protoculture's expansion and colonization of space, and by this time the Stellar Republic controlled 70% of the galaxy. However, the rapid expansion led to internal rifts and rebellion within the Republic, threatening to plunge the empire into galactic civil war. In an attempt to preserve the Republic via force the protocultures began to develop the Advanced Zentraedi All-Enivronment Biological Weapon Project, also known as the Evil (pronounced "Eh-vil") Series Project. The purpose of this project was to develop a race of super-zentraedi who were so powerful that they did not need ships, weapons, or mecha to enforce the will of the Stellar Republic. Work on the Evil Project was headquartered in an advanced scientific colony on an ice world in a remote protoculture-controlled star system (which would later be discovered and named Varuta by the Megaroad-13 colony mission).
Initial prototypes of Evil-Series zentraedi did not meet with much success.
Difficulties with storing and controlling the power specified by the Evil
Project led to many early Evil zentraedi burning themselves out or
self-destructing. The project was eventually cancelled due to these
unresolvable problems. However, a few years later protoculture scientists
discovered a sub-universe existing in parallel with our universe that
contained incredibly high levels of extra-dimensional energy which could
potentially be harnassed as a power source in this universe. Research into
collecting the energy of the sub-universe led to the development of extremely
compact organic-based super-dimensional generators that could supply enormous
amounts of energy. At the same time increasing internal conflicts within the
Stellar Republic led to the re-activation of the Evil Project, and
protoculture scientists determined that they could use these new
super-dimensional generator organs to overcome the power problems of the
previous Evil prototypes. Initial simulations showed no problems in the new
series of Evil zentraedi, and growth of initial prototypes was begun.
However, during the final tests of the Evil prototypes on the ice world something went terribly wrong. The super-dimensional organs overloaded and allowed a previously-unknown life force from the sub-universe to cross over into the bodies of the Evil zentraedi and combine with their consciousness, forming a completely new life form. These beings dubbed themselves the "Protodeviln" and immediately destroyed all protocultures and zentraedi in the star system. The beings that had invaded the Evil zentraedi required a type of spirital energy (Spritia) to exist for long periods of time in this dimension, and once the spiritia in their host bodies began to run out they learned how to drain the energy from other life forms in order to maintain themselves. They also discovered how to brainwash protocultures and zentraedi through spritia draining, and immediately invaded and enslaved the populations of several surrounding star systems in order to form their own empire (which later became known as the Inspection Army).
The Stellar Republic learned about the protodeviln three months after their
creation and immediately called for a cease fire in their internal conflicts
in order to concentrate their forces in repelling this new menace. However,
by that time it was already too late. The protodeviln controlled over 30% of
the Stellar Republic, and the Inspection Army had become a military force
almost as powerful as the Republic's zentraedi forces. Furthermore, the
zentraedi were at an extreme disadvantage when fighting Inspection Army
forces. In order to prevent a zentraedi rebellion the protocultures had
programmed the zentraedi with orders to "avoid interference with
protocultures", and since the Inspection Army was mostly made up of
brainwashed protocultures the zentraedi could not fight them effectively. The
war betwen the Stellar Republic and the Inspection Army lasted for 9 months,
and in that time over 85% of all protocultures in the galaxy were killed.
Finally, a group of protocultures known as Anima Spiritia learned how
to use spiritia energy to combat the protodeviln, and with the remaining
forces of the Stellar Republic they began beating back the Inspection Army.
Eventually the Anima Spiritia defeated the protodeviln and sealed them away in
remote prisons around the galaxy, hopefully for all eternity. 8 protodeviln,
including their supreme leader known as Gepernich, were sealed in caves on the
icy world where they were first created.
Despite the victory of the Anima Spiritia the Stellar Republic collapsed shortly afterwards. The Republic's forces were so depleted that they could no longer exert control over the surviving protoculture colonies. Furthermore due to lack of supervision the Zentraedi order to avoid interference with protocultures became uneffective, and the Zentraedi fleets began to rebel against their protoculture masters. 25 years after the war against the protodeviln the Stellar Republic was officially dissolved, and over the next 20,000 years continued fighting between remnants of the Zentraedi and the Inspection Army led to the (presumed) extinction of the protoculture species.
Many centuries later in the year 2025 AD, the Megaroad-13 colony
mission discovered habitable worlds in star system 3198XE and decided to
settle in the system. They named the star system "Varuta" and set up their
main colony on the 3rd planet of the system. This was the same system where
the protodeviln had been created and imprisoned eons ago, although no one in
the colony mission was aware of this. 18 years later a research team led by
Ivane Gyuntar began exploring ruins discovered in the caves of the icy 4th
planet of the system. The team discovered strange energy fields among the
ruins and inadverntantly shut one down, allowing the protodeviln Gepernich to
regain consciousness. Although still imprisoned, Gepernich enslaved Ivane
Gyuntar and his team, and later almost the entire population of the Varuta
star system. This led to the creation of the Varuta empire. Gepernich
dreamed of creating a "spritia farm", a slave camp where humanoids were
imprisoned and continually drained of spiritia in order to supply continuous
nourishment for him and his protodeviln minions. During his quest Gepernich
came into contact with the Macross
07 colony fleet, and the conflict that followed became known as the
Macross 7/Varuta War of 2045-2046. Although Gepernich and his minions
were eventually defeated by Basara Nekki and the Macross 07 military
forces, it is unknown how many other protodeviln may still be imprisoned
around the galaxy, waiting to be accidentally awakened by other UN Spacy
colony missions.
Protodeviln were created in three different sizes. Minor Protodeviln are 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) tall and are "designed" more for infiltration and reconaissance than raw combat, though they are still immensely powerful beings and should be treated with extreme caution. Major Protodeviln range in size from 300 to 600 feet (94 to 188 meters) tall and are designed for heavy combat against fleets of warships. Interestingly enough, many of these protodeviln are not highly intelligent and tend not to act without orders from Gepernich. Master Protodeviln, such as Gepernich, are "superweapons" that can be miles long in size. These creatures are frightfully powerful and are said to be able to destroy multiple star systems. Furthermore, they are immensely intelligent which makes them even more dangerous opponents. Fortunately records seem to indicate that Gepernich was the only master protodeviln ever created (although one can never be sure).
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