Most questions about Fading Suns can be answered either by reference to Holistic Design's website, or by subscription to the YahooGroups FSList wherein can be found the semi-official Fading Suns FAQ. This, the Empire of the Phoenix Throne FAQ, is designed to answer questions about the EPT website and the content presented herein. All answers are strictly unofficial, and in many cases badly thought-out and contentious in the extreme. :-)

Q: What is Fading Suns?

A: Are you sure you're in the right place? OK (deep breath). Fading Suns is a role-playing game written by Holistic Design of the USA. It has two incarnations, a proprietary game system and a line of OGL licensed products using the popular d20 system. The game is described as a futuristic passion play and is set in a quasi-medieval 5000AD where the suns have begun to die.

As well as the two role-playing games there have been Fading Suns PC games (the turn-based "Emperor of the Fading Suns" strategy game and the lamentably never-commercially-released "Noble Armada" starship combat game), a tabletop version of Noble Armada, Fading Suns miniatures, Tshirts, collectibles, and a volume of Fading Suns fiction under the title "The Sinful Stars".
Want to know more? Visit Holistic's own Fading Suns site or have a neb at the FSList FAQ.

Q: What are EPT's citation and abbreviation conventions?

A: As many game references as possible are cited with book reference and page number given. These ~largely~ follow the conventions of the semi-official Fading Suns FAQ compiled by the FSList.

• The two game systems which published Fading Suns material uses are Holistic Design's proprietary Victory Point System (hereafter 'VPS' or 'VP system') and the d20 system pioneered by Wizards of the Coast. When used in the context of Fading Suns the latter is usually abbreviated as 'FSd20'.

• Non-Holistic Design gaming materials references in EPT are usually to the three D&D Version3.5 core rulebooks (Dungeon Masters Guide - DMG, Players Handbook - PH and Monster Manual - MM) or to the Revised Star Wars d20 RPG (SWd20). All four of these are published by Wizards of the Coast.

• The terms FSList and FSList FAQ refer to the Fading Suns Games Yahoogroup and its attendant Frequently Asked Questions file.

• Holistic (when capitalized) and the acronyms HD or HDI refer to Holistic Design Ltd, the creators of Fading Suns except where otherwise noted.

• In the context of this website EPT is the three letter acronym for Empire of the Phoenix Throne. Any references to the entirely distinct Empire of the Petal Throne game setting and its fictional world of Tekumel will be flagged as such to prevent confusion.

• References to magazines will cite title, issue number or date of issue (to week, month, quarter - as appropriate) and page number of the article cited.

• References to other materials will provide book (or other) title, reference to author, director, what-have-you (where known) and, wherever possible, a pertinent hypertext link. ISBN numbers and other information are generally available from Amazon, Google, IMDB, etc.

Q: Is any of this stuff on your site official then?

A: Afraid not. Holistic Design are the sole producers of 'official', canonical Fading Suns material. They make a living out of it after all. All original EPT content and anything I've copied from other sources for presentation here is strictly unofficial and homebrew in nature. As with any such substance EPT homebrew can cause dizziness, hallucinations, blindness, pregnancy, religious mania and death. We do not recommend operating heavy machinery under the influence of EPT material and suggest it be kept confined behind six inches of lead and only viewed through a telepresence system (that's CCTV to you).
EPT accepts no responsibility for any damage caused to your game, employment status or intimate personal relations by use of the material presented herein. You're on your own mate. :-)

Q: What's this canon and non-canon stuff I keep reading about?

A: The terms canon and non-canon are used as a shorthand in the FS online community to differentiate the officialness or otherwise of various FS gaming materials.
Things move catagory as Holistic Design publish new Fading Suns material. For example, until "Star Crusade" was published the Vuldrok and Kurgan worlds were extended canon, they are now canon.

• Canon means that something is explicitly stated in a book or other material published by HDI.
  The world of Byzantium Secundus is canon. It is referenced in numerous Fading Suns books, even having one of its own.
• Extended canon is a coinage of Luxifer of FS Renaissance fame. It indicates that something is named or referenced in HDI published material, but has been expanded upon in fan-published materials.
  The world of Dashwood is extended canon. It is mentioned by name in several Fading Suns books, but the only information on it is fan-created.
• Non-canon is something made up out of whole cloth with little if any reference to official published sources.
  The world of New Amhara is non-canonical. The name and all material about this world was created by a fan.

Q: What are you still using frames for lamer? Don't you know they were deprecated in the last version of HTML?

A: I am aware of that matter. The reason EPT still uses frames despite their deprecation is as a result of a design decision made a long time ago now. Back in 2000 or so I decided that the keynote of EPT would be ease of use in navigation. A substantial part of this lies is being able to find the information easily you want quickly and easily. Hence the frameset menu. With only two exceptions, both of which are images, all EPT-created information held in the website is accessible with two clicks from the menu: one to choose a section, the second an article. Try it!

Q: Why call your website Empire of the Phoenix Throne you obscure pseud?

A: Part homage, part in-game reference to put it simply.
The homage element of the name is reference to the old "Empire of the Petal Throne" game setting by Professor Barker. "Petal Throne" is something of a personal benchmark for depth and richness of detail in roleplaying for me. If I can make the world of Fading Suns half as rich, complex and exotic as Tekumel for my players then I consider my time well spent. See the Tekumel website for more on this fondly-remembered masterpiece.
Addendum, May 2005: It's just come to my notice that Guardians of Order have published a new edition of "Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne" for their Tri-Stat system. Go check it out!

As for the in-game reference: the dominant interstellar state of the Fading Suns universe, and home of most PCs, is the Phoenix Empire, a multi-system stellar feudalism centred on the planet of Byzantium Secundus. This state gained its name from its heraldic symbol, the phoenix ascendant. The Emperor's seat of state on Byzantium Secundus is known as the Phoenix Throne (just as the old Imperial Chinese throne was the Dragon Throne, the Persian the Peacock Throne, the Korean the Phoenix Throne, etc.). Hence Empire of the Phoenix Throne.

Q: Who are the creators of EPT, and what do they stand for?

A: Empire of the Phoenix Throne was created by, and largely for, a group of FS players in the UK. It began as a weblog of a campaign in October 1999. It has since grown beyond that into a pulpit for the grandiose FS-fixated rantings of the webmaster and major content author Chris Hogan, aka Boss Smiley.

In-game: Boss "Smiley" Hogan (personal motto: "Resurrecting the glorious past" or "Digging up the dead for fun and profit" - depending on the current social context) is a member in good standing of the Harrison family of the Scraver's Syndicate. Originally a native of the planet Bannockburn he is currently peripatetic archaeologist emeritus to the retinue of Boyar Lucifer Mikhael Decados. Boss Hogan is a specialist in archaeological reclaimations and the discrete acquisitions of antiques, displaying an apparently boundless knowledge of the art and history of the Phoenix Empire. He also plays a mean banjo.

Out of game: Mr Christopher Hogan is a fine, upstanding subject of her Britannic Majesty Elizabeth II. He is clean-limbed, well-travelled and sophisticated, with a background of dedicated study in the liberal arts. His clear, blue-grey eyes glow with serenity and wisdom, and the mellow tones of his sonorous voice bring calm and clarity to the minds of those around him, who love him dearly.

Q: Fading Suns is described as a futuristic passion-play, I don't see much evidence of that in EPT's content. What's going on?

A: "Velly easy glasshopper!" The fictional universe presented in Fading Suns is a cosmic vacuum-cleaner which has sucked up just about every sci-fi cliche going. With demons, lightsabers, alien Clarke's Law supertech, zombie plagues, psychic powers, duelling nobility, robots, peasant revolts, FTL travel, inquisitors and holy hermits, personal energy shields and the Interworld Wrestling Federation in one game universe Fading Suns is a glorious mish-mash of a game setting :-) Now this...let's call it eclecticism, allows people to pick and choose what they like from the mix while downplaying elements that might not be to their personal tastes.

Although some people love the idea of passion-play roleplaying with all the attached allegory and symbolism, I personally find that such psycho-drama tends to get in the way of whomping the bad guys, getting the girl and saving the universe. The campaign from which Empire of the Phoenix Throne derives so much of its inspiration and content was designed as a larger-than-life, 'pulp adventure' take on Fading Suns: people are usually shot in the shoulder, the swarming hordes of bad-guys can't shoot for toffee, the villains soliloquy and laugh dementedly at the least provocation, and the hero never, ever loses his hat! This doesn't mean it never gets dark and thoughtful in my FS campaign. It's just that I see role-playing as being about heroes and their breathless, roller-coaster ride through world-shattering events, not about the daily travails of Jo Schmoe from Hoboken. Think Errol Flynn over Woody Allen, or "Raiders of the Lost Ark" rather than "American Beauty".

So, in conclusion, and to finally answer the question posed in the first place, EPT presents one man's fluff-centric, pulpy take on Fading Suns. If you want the dark and heavy stuff there are places out there that cater to your...proclivities.