[ Mad Yuri's War ] Premise

[barrayarmods]

artwork by runawayballista

it is the thirty-first century.
Humankind began colonizing other planets a millennium ago, and the advent of wormhole jump technology has allowed them to spread across the galaxy to terraform and settle new worlds. Human technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, creating a galactic Nexus networking dozens of autonomous colonies.

Except for one.

The initial settling population on the new colony of Barrayar was stranded when its only known wormhole route collapsed, dousing the planet in a blast of radiation. Their technology all but decimated and their new home half-irradiated, the settlers' society waxed feudal. Six hundred years later a new wormhole route to the planet was discovered, and Barrayar rejoined the Nexus.

When the Cetagandan Empire invaded without mercy and demanded unconditional surrender, the Barrayarans refused, taking to the hills and ran a vicious guerrilla campaign against their invaders. Halfway into the war, the collapsed wormhole, long thought to have been completely inaccessible, pulled in people from all different worlds and times, and their appearance shocked both sides of the war. These outsiders, at first viewed with wary mistrust by the Barrayarans, ultimately aided the war effort, and the Barrayarans in turn helped them return to their worlds. Several of the outsiders stayed behind, however -- some by choice, some by misfortune -- and their continued presence in Barrayaran society after the end of the Occupation has been a quietly divisive issue. Five years ago, after a twenty-year grueling siege, Cetagandans pulled out, leaving much of the planet in ruins. Not long after, Emperor Dorca Vorbarra, who had led Barrayar throughout the Occupation, passed away and was succeeded by his oldest son Yuri Vorbarra.

Yuri's succession as Emperor in recent years has only increased the tension, as his political views on the outsiders are less generous than his father's. He inherited the throne wifeless and heirless, with no one to continue his legacy as Emperor. Paranoia over his succession overtook him, so Emperor Yuri decided to secure his own legacy in the most permanent way: he ordered the assassination of his entire extended family.

The Massacre of Yuri Vorbarra was almost a success, but there was enough of his family left standing to want revenge -- and to take the power-clutching despot out of power for the good of the Imperium. Led by famed military strategist General Count Piotr Vorkosigan, they launched a coup, and the planet is locked in a new struggle: this time a civil war threatens the balance of civilization, while strange phenomena -- navigation equipment failure, mirages, spontaneous irradiation, and more -- reported all over the planet seem to be linked to the outsiders' disappearance.

One year into the civil war, and Yuri has the advantage over Piotr's forces, but they refuse to give in. As long as Yuri holds the capital, as long as he stays in power, Piotr and his allies will fight to take him down. They clash and clash again, because both sides will do whatever it takes to win the war…

…for barrayar.

You came to in a strange place in the night with no memory of how you came to be there, but you feel oddly jetlagged, maybe a little queasy. And you're not the only one. It's not until the soldiers arrive to steal you away to their camp that you realize you've just landed in a war zone.

When they bring you back to their base, you learn that you're now under the protection of Piotr Vorkosigan. They tell you that this isn't the first time this has happened, that nowhere else is safe for you -- and if you stick with them, you'll have a home here on Barrayar when this is all over.

Because this is your home now, and the situation becomes clear: if you want to survive, you'll have to do your part to help the war effort. It's the only way you'll make it out of this alive -- and the only way you'll unravel the mysteries shrouding the collapsed wormhole that brought you here.

For Barrayar: Mad Yuri's War is a panfandom game based on Lois McMaster Bujold's The Vorkosigan Saga. It is a sequel to forbarrayar, taking place 15 years after the events of that game.