Amalgaverse Profile: The Gorushan Empire

Sphere of Influence: The “far” side of the Hyades Cluster

Government: Unknown

Homeworld: Pzanyalarr

Located in a binary star system called the Haftos Yigan system, the true location of this world is unknown. It is believed to be in the heart of the Gorushan Empire, a fluctuating region just beyond the Hyades Cluster. There is little known about this world or the Gorushan for that matter. What little contact and interaction there is comes from the crews of Gorushan Marauders and their accompanying buzzships. Interrogating Gorushan is virtually impossible, since they seem to have the ability to stop living at will. They are often present on neutral worlds, such as those controlled by the Shigat (an insectile race in the Hyades Cluster, see Rifts Manhunter for this and other races), and some of the more lawless Decahedron Compact outposts, but otherwise remain reclusive.

Previously, the Gorushan ran a sort of protection racket on weak colonies, forcing those colonies to pay them to keep from being attacked (allegedly from “other” Marauder fleets). Recently, they have begun razing whole colonies and stealing everything they can. It is also believed that some of them have worked with Manhunters and they may have some Manhunter manufacturing facilities in their territory.

The ATPDS and others believe the heart of the Gorushan Empire to be based around nomadic fleets. Each fleet, it is believed, may be ruled by one or more Gorushan Dreadnaught commanders. The fleets, known as pods, often cluster together, literally attaching to one another to form impromptu space stations. Gorushan seem to place a high importance on the number four. They travel in Quartets, and Gorushan Marauders travel in small raider fleets of four vessels. Each Marauder carries four buzzships, and so on. For all other information, please see the Rifts Manhunter sourcebook.

Notes on Ships and Mecha

There were no stats given for Marauders or buzzships in the sourcebook, nor were their pictures and designs. I do not have the original Myrmidon Press Manhunter books, so I cannot speak for those. To fill the gap I designed several classes of Manhunter vessel which I think fits their nature and technology as presented in the Rifts Manhunter sourcebook. The only unit they have that could be considered mecha is the Mus-Tak Ballam (Gorushan for “Warrior Shell”) on p. 162 of the Rifts Manhunter sourcebook.

Relations with other governments

To the Gorushan, you are either a dangerous enemy or a harmless enemy. The ATPDS and Decahedron Compact are currently listed as dangerous. The REF and U.N. Spacy and other organizations are not, although for the U.N. Space and R.E.F. that may have been determined solely due to distance. For some reason, the Gorushan bear a lot of hostility to the Zentraedi. It could be that there were some hostile encounters with Zentraedi fleets in the past, but if so the Gorushan aren’t talking and the Zentraedi don’t remember.