”From Stardust we rise, to stardust we fall. However our people shall preserve, our culture, our religion, our achievements, our history. For we are the Eternal Union, and we shall live on”
Species:
Due to their size, culture, and religion, the Eternal Union has grown to include multiple species.
The
Iscandarians are one of the two original and most prominent of all the Eternals Union’s species. They come from their homeworld of Alas Prime, in the system of Iscandar. Iscandarians are humanoid, however unlike humans their ears are pointed, as well as their skin being near white, and rarely for a few Iscandarians, a strange silver color. Another unique physical feature is their veins, which glow underneath their skin to indicate their magical ability. Iscandarians also have a far better memory and rate of knowledge absorption than humans, however they still have a similar level of comprehension compared to humans, so the Iscandarians are technically at the same level of intelligence as humans . While any Iscandarian can have any different color, some are more common depending on their sub-type. Iscandarians are also very long-lived, with most living around a thousand years. Those bound by a gedwëy as dragon-riders are biologically immortal, as well as the immortals themselves. There are four Iscandarian sub-types, these being Earthen, Sentinel, Caster, and Immortal. Earthens cannot cast magic directly, unless they have a gedwëy, rather their magical abilities help make them excellent farmers, engineers, and other more physical tasks, however Earthens have existed within other roles. Sentinels much like Earthens cannot cast magic directly without a gedwëy, with their natural magic abilities instead be granted as the gift of flight, with them having the unique feature of angelic like wings. They also tend to be the warriors of the Iscandarians. Casters can cast magic directly with or without a gedwëy, but their magic is much stronger with a gedwëy. They are the ones who drive forward the Magitech, magical sciences, and other sciences of the Eternal Union. The final type are the Immortals, of which only four exist. They are in Iscandarian religion blessed by Faust for committing great acts that serve everyone and advance the Union forward, they can be said to be a combination of all the other subtypes, with non-Sentinel Iscandarians who are ascended into Immortals gaining the Angelic Wings. They are almost demi-gods, with a level of magic that is unrivaled. They are biologically immortal. Only two are bound to a dragon through a gedwëy, with their dragons also receiving powerful boosts to their abilities.
Dragons are equal in prominence to the Iscandarians and the other original species that was apart of the Eternal Union. The Dragons of the Eternal Union are most like those that are often depicted in Earth medieval settings. They vary from the size of a small house to a very few reaching the size of mountains, however due to their large size they spending most of their time slumbering. Dragons can be any color within the spectrum. They have fire which is magical, although it can have different effects depending on what the Dragon trys to do with it. It is to be noted that dragons also do not have a language, when communicating to other sentients they use the language of the Iscandarians. Rather they communicate through thoughts and ideas, with younger dragons doing this quite frequently. It was actually this that led to the only but one of the most violent wars to ever exist within a species pre-space history. This war was between the Iscandarians and Dragons. This war came to an end when the Iscandarians that developed a mind communication spell used it on the dragons. The Dragon Leader, realizing that a treaty would not suffice for dragons to keep the peace, said that a new method would be needed to keep peace. The First Dragon-Rider and later the second Immortal created what he called the Blood Pact. In it certain eggs would be marked by the Dragons to become bound to riders. The Rider of the Dragon would become immortal, as well as forging a unique emotional and magical bond between Dragon and Rider. Any pain the rider or dragon felt would be felt by the other. The Rider and Dragon were bound by the gedwëy, a spiral symbol on the palm of the Rider and on the paw of a dragon. Iscandarian subtypes that could not cast magic also received the ability to cast it as well as vastly boosted magic. It is also to be noted that since the conception of the Blood Pact and Eternal Union that other Eternal Union species have been bound into the Blood Pact. It is to be noted that Dragons are small in number compared to other species, with their being very few Dragon Riders. Most Dragons still rest in their homeland on Iscandar, with a few non-Rider Dragons leaving to act as defense for other worlds. Dragons are also biologically immortal.
Humans are the third of the Eternals Union’s species. Despite the fact that the United Federation of Sol, the former human government which encompassed Earth and a few surrounding systems, being the newest to join the Eternal Union, they have risen in prominence over the other species. This is often thought to be due to the higher population and greater territory of the UFS upon joining the Eternal Union. Since they have joined the Eternal Union they have been granted magic and added to the Blood Pact.
The Rakloid are a humanoid race with pure red skin, and unique bendable horns coming off the bottoms of their face. Their hair and eye color tends to be similar . Having nearly been destroyed by a disaster on their homeworld, they were only saved by the Iscandarians finding the remaining fleeing ships and giving them a place to settle down. Since then they have used Iscandarian technology to terraform and fix their homeworld, returning and joining the Eternal Union. They are the least prominent, mainly due to having a low population after the disaster on their homeworld. They usually stick to their homeworld of Rakta and the nearby System of Trylon with two Rakloid colonies.
Description of government:
The Iscandarian government can be best described as a Benevolent Theocratic Dictatorship. The Immortals rule with absolute authority over everyone else within the Union, however rights and such do exist, giving the people a great amount of freedom. Beyond that various parliaments, structures of the former governments that joined the Eternal Union, and Ministries help govern the Union.
The Union’s economic policies and welfare policies tend to be socialist in nature, however the Eternal Union still has quite a few capitalistic policies. For one, while the government controls all major corporations and raw/natural resources, small businesses and small companies still exist, as well as the idea of private property. Wealth inequality is still in effect, although to a much lesser degree than in other societies, leaving the lower and middle classes in control of the majority of the wealth. The fact that wealth inequality exists is mainly due to the fact that small companies and businesses are still allowed, as well as the fact that payscale is determined by the labour, skill, and precision that the task needs..
Description of military:
The Iscandarian military is divided into three branches.
EU Space NavyIncorporating all spaces forces of the Iscandarians, their duties are to explore, defend, attack when necessary, and help transport the ground army.
EU Armed ForcesOperating all Ground forces, including water navy and non-space based flying craft, they help defend and attack planets.
EU Special ForcesIncluding several elite units for ground or space operation, they take on special tasks to assist the rest of the Eternal Union military.
Technological Overview:
The Iscandarians are a very advanced society, mainly due to the longevity of their species as well as being amongst the oldest living species within the galaxy. They make heavy use of magic, as well as magitech, the combination of magic and technology, within their society. They still however use many forms of technology that do not use magitech, although most of their technology does.
For FTL, the Iscandarians primarily rely on both gates between their major worlds as well drives for exploration. Both use a system of magical dimensions that was discovered shortly after the Iscandarians entered into the space era. The system is known to allow for fast, efficient, and safe FTL travel between various worlds. The FTL system is also used to allow for instant-communication between all Iscandarian vessels. When not using FTL propulsion, Iscandarians either use efficient but slow and cheaper ion drives for civilian ships, as well as small craft where the loss of speed does not effect them much, and then fast and powerful antimatter drives for most military ships, as well as a few larger civilian craft. Anti-gravity based propulsion powered by magic is also frequently used, mainly for maintaining space stations in orbit, floating cities in the skies of their worlds, as well as for propelling non-space flying craft, ground vehicles, and allowing water naval vessels to transform into aircraft when needed.
The Iscandarians used many forms of power to help keep the Eternal Union up and running. Their primary source is in antimatter based reactors which used magically enhanced antimatter to produce both mana and regular power for the various components of their magitech devices. Another common source of power is manafusion reactors, which operate using various magically enhanced materials to produce both mana and regular power. While not quite powerful as their antimatter brothers, they are more easy to setup and easier to downscale and port around. As such they are mainly used by first in-colonists as well as to power ground craft and aircraft, although large water naval vessels and all space-based craft that are not small use antimatter reactors as they can support them.
The Iscandarians weapon technology has been advanced a great deal, mainly out of a fear of various forces from the mythos of their religion as well as a need to defend their various allies. The Iscandarians use a mix of kinetic, energy, and explosive weaponry. Kinetic weapons are various rail-guns, using either highly-dense and enchanted metals for their shells, or antimatter tipped shells for extra effect. Ground forces primarily use railguns, with some smaller scaled-down autoguns which are essentially weaker, but automatic railguns. Energy weapons in space primarily consist of balefire, a highly destructive magical substance equal in power to most plasma weaponry, thus eliminating the need for Iscandarians to develop plasma weapons. Antiproton streamers are also a sight to be seen, although there are only a few per a smaller vessel, banks of these destructive weapons can be found on capital ships. Ground forces use exclusively balefire-based energy weapons. For explosives weapons space-forces use primarily balefire missiles launched by rail-guns, as well as some antimatter missiles. Ground Forces use balefire explosives, and in cases were they are severely outmatched, each army carries a small amount of low-yield antimatter missiles.
Iscandarian defense technology is very odd. While all units, even common infantry with their power armor, use shields, and the Iscandarians have highly advanced and powerful shields, there armor is usually only average. The high-tiered armoring alloys that the Iscandarians would like to use for most units are vastly expensive to make, and thus they have reserved the alloys for capital ships, elite units, and highly elite vehicles and fighters. As such the Iscandarians primarily depend upon their shields in a fight, although they can still fair well if they lose them. It is also to be noted that the Iscandarians incorporate faraday cages into all space-based craft and a majority of their ground forces, making them mostly immune to EMPs.
Ground Forces carry a lot of devices to use with them, such as radios, in-built displays providing battlefield information, and various others. They also have unique devices called spell matrixes. Embedded into armor, these can cast various spells and keep their own mana store, as such those who can’t tap mana directly or even this without magic entirely can use these, and the Iscandarians often use spell matrixes as a trade good.
The Eternal Union has heavily developed augmentation technology, of both genetic and cybernetic kinds. In addition to this AI, robotics, and nanotechnology are also heavily developed. AI can be implemented into a person’s mind through use of cybernetics. It is to be noted that one has to be very careful after receiving a AI implant, as destruction of the implant can cause severe mental instability, especially if the AI and the person’s mind end up merged into what is essentially a single consciousness. Nanobots can be used to augment systems that are normally un-augmentable due to their nature, such as the respiratory and circulatory systems.
Iscandarian manufacturing is highly efficient, using robots and AI to streamline the process. Iscandarian manufacturing is centered around Arcano-forges, powerful factories powered by many magical devices and other things. A few Arcano-Forges have even been turned into massive factories that spawn an entire planet, although only two of these exist due to the cost of building them. Synthesis has also been developed, which is a combination of both genetic and cybernetic engineering. Due to the extensiveness of Synthesis, one has to receive a mind-wipe to be eligible, as well as made biologically immortal due to the cost. Most soldiers choose to receive basic cybernetic implants and a series of chemical injections, a good amount go for either cybernetic or genetic engineering, but only a few choose synthesis.
Stealth technology only exists for vessels smaller than frigates, although it is highly efficient on the ground and provides many elite units.
Cultural Overview:
The culture of the Eternal Union is centered around their religion, the Church of Faust, also sometimes known as the Solar Church. It is where the Iscandarians and the rest of the Union derive most of their values and beliefs. It is also where the idea that all comes from Stardust and all falls to Stardust came from. The Church mainly stresses a focus on peace and diplomacy, and only to use violence when necessary. It also advocates for the idea of Harmony, where everyone works together towards a Utopia-like state where not only permanent, mutual peace exists, but no other problems. It also believes that sentients should be free, and vilifies the crimes of genocide and slavery above all others, believing them to call out to Faust for justice. They also believe that all knowledge should be explored to the furthest degree possible, so long as it is used in defense, necessary violence, and does not intentionally harm innocents or those involved.
Despite this some of the culture of the other species still exist, primarily in the Dragons who usually seclude themselves from the rest of the humans. They are ones who focus on freedom and enjoying life and the small pleasures of it.
Humans are extremely varied, and cannot be described at all, as the Iscandarians not only took on most of Earth’s cultures when they accepted the humans in, but a lot of new ones that had spawned from colonial ideas.
The Rakloid focus on figuring out the mysteries of life and simple exploration. Despite their reclusive nature, because of this they can often be finding in scout ships exploring and mapping much of the galaxy for the Iscandarians.
History:
TBD at a later date, I just need to get this up.