How long was "The Swarm War?"

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm curious as to how long the war between the Swarm and the alliance of the Pact Worlds and Veskarium. I know it began in 291 AG and it's 318 AG now, for a total of about 27 years intervening time, but there's no indication of when it "ended," leading to the time of relative peace we see in 317-318 AG.

I'm mainly wondering if it's possible for a human's PC's parent to have been a veteran of the conflict.

EDIT: I just realized I posted this in the Advice forum instead of the General Discussion forum by mistake! Sorry! Flagging for move! :S

[Garretmander]

If the PC is 27 years old they could have easily been a celebration baby.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Garretmander wrote:

If the PC is 27 years old they could have easily been a celebration baby.

Why would they celebrate the BEGINNING of the conflict instead of the victory?

[TempusAvatar]

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Garretmander wrote:

If the PC is 27 years old they could have easily been a celebration baby.

Why would they celebrate the BEGINNING of the conflict instead of the victory?

Maybe you are playing a Vesk?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Touché, but there'd still be the issue of possibly fighting through the War while pregnant...

[Garretmander]

Whoops... still, 18-27 could have been born during while daddy/whatever the alien reproduction method implies, was away.

[Belafon]

I believe the “War” is technically still ongoing. The Swarm is not the kind of enemy to formally declare war or sign a peace treaty. The initial invasion was beaten back, but everyone expects another wave (and another, and another) will come at some point.

Having said that, I don’t believe the full timeframe of the “First Phase of the Swarm War” has been published yet.

[Ventnor]

You don’t really sign a peace treaty with a swarm of alien locusts.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

So...could I reasonably have a human PC whose backstory is that his mom is a Swarm War veteran, and she picked his middle name in honor of a vesk squadmate she respected, and he underwent military training of his own before joining the Starfinder Society, specifically gravitating towards the Exo-Guardian faction? Or would the "end" after the initial invasion was beaten back be too close to 317-318 AG for such a human to have reached maturity?

[MER-c]

Considering the Starfinder Society only recently was able to send out enough members to the Scoured Stars. I suspect the Swarm War lasted anywhere from one to Five years, one for a quick reaction and the swarm feat being small tendrils. Five for a more brutal conflict, in which more people were lost and had a much wider reaching effect on the Pact Worlds.

I went with the Five year long option and it was pretty awesome for my Android Medic character, she ended up having a whole slew of issues that arose from being a veteran of the conflict.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm inclined to agree with you. So would it make more sense for this character I'm designing to BE the Swarm War vet themselves, or have their mom be the vet? I just wonder how they'd survive that conflict and still only be a first level character...

[MER-c]

I think if it's an older character being a veteran is fine, especially if starting above level one. However if it's a level one then perhaps an older brother or father went off to war and never came back, or they were affected by the war when they were young, such as seeing the Swarm actually make planetfall on their homeworld and tear things up.

[Ventnor]

Or, if your character is a Swarm War Vet, maybe they’ve just finished years of physical therapy after recovering from a debilitating injury they got during the war.

[MER-c]

That would make sense as well. Or, if they are the less reputable sort(Or a politician) they could even have lied about their service or only have been deployed in backline or administrative roles, which don't grant much experience for combat stuff.

[Xeall]

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

I'm inclined to agree with you. So would it make more sense for this character I'm designing to BE the Swarm War vet themselves, or have their mom be the vet? I just wonder how they'd survive that conflict and still only be a first level character...

Level = background has always been an odd one. I’d roll with it and ignore the mechanical side of things. SF levels quickly and the character will fit before it becomes jarring.

Remember levelled characters are the extraordinary people, there are plenty of lvl 1-3 vets out there

[Pyrite Felsic]

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:

Touché, but there'd still be the issue of possibly fighting through the War while pregnant...

]

"here, take this and put it in the incubator "