The New Alleghian RepublicSpeciesIt is important to note that due to its size, the Republic encompasses a large variety of races within its boundaries, and since listing each race would make a very long list, I've decided instead to focus on the most common races one might find in the Republic.
AlleghiansThe Alleghians can be described as a "near-Human" species, distinguished by their blue skin and glowing red eyes, which grow darker depending on the oxygen content of their surroundings. The more oxygen present, the more intense the color of both their eyes and skin tone. While their hair is typically jet black, it does, on rare occasions, go gray with age (many Alleghians believe that the development of gray hair is an indication of the siring of exceptional children). Their physical form has led to some speculation on whether they are an offshoot of some near-human species' ancient expansions into the galaxy or whether their physical form coincidentally matches that of humans. However, recent genetic analysis indicates that they are an offshoot of near-humanity, and it was believed that moving underground led to a divergence between them and baseline near-humans. Furthermore, this analysis indicates that their unique skin tone is the result of exposure to glacial minerals. Their blue skin, jet black hair and red eyes generally command attention once they are in a crowd of regular humanoids, and these features make them physically striking and instantly recognizable. Male and female Alleghians tend to be more powerfully built when compared to humans but exhibit the same variances as humanoid sexes. An Alleghian stands between either 1.6 to 2.1 meters in height, though an average height of an adult is closer to 1.7 meters.
Studies have concluded that the fact that all Alleghians often appear in very good physical shape is an indication that the species possesses an active metabolism which is responsible for their trim figure. Thus, this is believed to be responsible for preventing obesity that is commonly found within more sedentary humanoids. While the report concludes that they are indeed "near-humans," they have not determined a specific point of evolutionary divergence. There was, in fact, a number of near-human colonies established throughout many of the Traders' Federation's member worlds, though records of this are virtually nonexistent and it remains unknown how a remote area of the galaxy could have been trailblazed so far back. They do display, physiologically, very few signs of evolutionary adaptations to their original icy environment with even their skin pigmentation not providing any apparent benefit. Beyond the obvious physical features, physiologically, Alleghians are similar to humans to the point that they possess a comparable circulatory, neurological, digestive and reproductive systems. The Alleghian vocal mechanism is noted for being similar to those of humans but there are apparent differences which is evident in their capacity to speak their native language.
In addition, Alleghians experience a greatly accelerated growth rate compared to humans, which contributes to their reaching maturity faster than humans. Thus an Alleghian at the age of ten-years holds the physical maturity of a twenty-year old human. This in turn results in a culturally-imprinted emotional maturity that is many times above that of their human counterparts. They are capable of living up to eighty years old, at which point an Alleghian was considered venerable; children are between the ages one to ten, and they experience a rapid adolescence from eleven to twelve and are considered full adults by thirteen or fourteen. Middle-age follows between the ages of fifty-one to sixty-two, and those aged sixty-three to seventy-nine are considered old.
HistoryThe origins of the Alleghians are largely unknown, even to the Alleghians themselves, though some scientists believe that they are the result of a long-forgotten near-human colony that has been lost to time. This is the leading theory held by not only Alleghian historians but scientists within the New Alleghian Republic who hold the view that this colony predated the formation of the Traders' Federation. A recent report suggests that very little is known of Alleghian history due to their own records being carefully guarded on their original home-world. However, scattered claims from many intrepid scholars suggest they were originally a forgotten colonization attempt; this theory is mostly based on their resemblance to humanity. Genetic analysis has confirmed that the Alleghians are indeed an offshoot of a near-human species' earliest attempts at colonization. It was believed that thousands upon thousands of years ago, a lost colony of near-humans settled on a desolate exoplanet that'd later become a part of the Traders' Federation.
According to Alleghian legend, their homeworld was once a warm and tropical planet. However, the planet was later locked in an ice age with profound glaciation encompassing the terrestrial world. This forced the Alleghian ancestors to travel along the ice front's leading edge in order to survive at the temperate front as glaciers began spreading across the planet. Though it is believed that the glaciation process occurred over an extended period of time, it was also at an age when the Alleghian were already technologically advanced which allowed them to overcome these challenges to their survival by way of technological adaptations. This has led many to conclude that the early Alleghians existed a tropical exoplanet prior to it succumbing to an ice age. Thus, the planet nearly became inhospitable by the time the Federation was founded, and it was only by living underground that this divergent species survived. These events have furthered the genetic changes notably seen in their skin tone and eyes. Thus it is believed that by going underground, the race had gradually began to diverge from the baseline near-human species, the glacial mineral content beginning to alter their physiology into its more modern form.
Researchers believe that this period had a profound mental impact on the developing Alleghians and led to the evolution to their current mindset. However, little is known of these early ancestors as certain legends indicate that a decadent culture had formed in the tropics that was unprepared for this ice age. Related parables even state that northern-dwelling Alleghians slaughtered their decadent southern cousins when resources became sparse and chilling temperatures befell the planet. Regardless, it is known that the Alleghians adapted well to their planet during its climatic change and began tapping into geothermal energy as a power source. This led to the building of several populous cities amongst the glaciers and were the abrupt development of a global government. Thus, they avoided the adolescence period common to developing worlds that saw nations compete with one another, along with adopting a planet-wide tongue. Eventually, their species mastered star travel independently with some speculation that they tapped into the ancient memories of the colonization effort that first brought them to their home-world.
TerrivonsA tall humanoid species, the Terrvions' craniums are studded with several small twisting horns, all of which surround a central spiraling one. Consisting of many shades of color, the spiraling horn is a mark of status in Terrvion culture; those with with a genetic disposition to growing larger horns dominate the upper class of society. The horn itself develops in adolescence during puberty, and continues to grow taller and thicker until reaching adulthood. In addition to their cranial horn, Terrvions are marked by banded ridges that stud their brows and nose. Appearing in a riot of colors, they speak in a soft whispering language which focuses on body language. This aids them in the business world when communicating, as they can pick up on others gestures more acutely.
HistoryNative to a lost world, the the earliest Terrvions were forced to abandon their home when its life-giving star became unstable. Travelling the galaxy, they settled on the large tropical planet Terrvia, formally leasing it from the Traders' Federation. After centuries of living on the world, they took adopted the name Terrvions and petitioned the Federation's government to allow them to purchase the world. Upon being turned down, the Terrvions were ousted by Terrvia's indigenous people and were forced to wander the galaxy. Instead of being defeated, however, they strove to gain sway over politicians of the Federation through bargaining and corporate trickery.
For over half a millennium the Terrvions traveled from planet to planet scheming and working to gain enough votes to overturn the decision that lost them their home. They were ultimately successful in their endeavors and were able to return to Terrvia, gaining membership into the Federation's government and later becoming closely tied with the leaders of the Alleghian Republic. To keep Terrvia's market high, the species seeded the galaxy with agents, trading stocks and selling shares to increase their profit. Despite such successful strides, however, when the Terrvions attempted to sell war machines to battling peoples on both sides of planetary conflicts, their reputation was ruined and their market crashed following a governmental investigation, blockade and sanctions. To get the Republic to back off, the Terrvions took great strides to comply with all of the Republic's demands and hide any illegal deals more thoroughly. However, as the original Alleghian Republic began to decline, the Terrvions disregarded any and all previous restrictions on their commercial empire, choosing instead to both engage in more illicit trade than ever before and raise an army of their people to aid the Loyalist cause, who they hoped would turn a blind eye to illegal trading in exchange for wartime support.
During the Alleghian Civil War, Terrvions were deported in droves from Confederate planets because of the species' affiliation with the Coalition. Despite the illegality of their presence, many Terrvionss refused to leave their home planets and were forced to stroll the streets with caution and fear. At the war's height, which saw both the destruction of the second iteration of the Loyalist headquarters, the first of which had also been destroyed by the Confederates, and the spelling of the demise of the Coalition, the majority of the Loyalist Thervions fled Republic space and eventually faded away from public interest. Meanwhile, on Terrvia, Republic soldiers, under the banner of the Alleghian Confederacy, persecuted the remaining members of the species for their involvement in the war and sent their economy into a downwards spiral. However, despite the biases towards non-Humans prevalent during the reign of the original Republic, the Terrvions were swift in taking up leading roles in the corporate world of the New Alleghian Republic and, despite the setbacks during the second return of the Exiles, the species continues to thrive as economic experts.
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Form of GovernmentIn the early years of the New Alleghian Republic, when it was under the control of the Confederates, power was distributed equally between the emperor and the Alleghian Senate. However, within a decade of the Republic's founding, it was decided by the senate that the emperor's power was to be considerably limited. As a result, powers were shared between the Great Council, composed of nearly 500 members taken from patrician families, the Alleghian Senate, which was dissolved within a month of the Great Council's founding, and the emperor. Several years later, aristocratic families further diminished the emperor's powers by establishing the Minor Council, composed of dozens of advisors, and the Great Court as a supreme tribunal. Within a year, these institutions were combined into the Promethean, which consisted of the emperor, the Minor Council, and the three leaders of the Great Court. The Promethean acted as the central body of the Republic's government.
Also created were the Elders, two bodies that combined with other groups to form the Board, which formed an executive branch. Over the course of the next two decades, the Board of Intellectuals, a senate, was formed, being 100 members elected by the Major Council. These developments left the emperor with little personal power and saw actual authority in the hands of the Major Council. A year after that, the Council of Ten was established, becoming the central political body whose members operated in secret. Within a matter of months, its dominance over the Major Council was considered a threat and efforts were made in the Council and elsewhere to reduce its powers, which were met with limited success. Then, the Supreme Court of three planetary inquisitors was established to guard the security of the Republic. By means of espionage, counterespionage, internal surveillance and a network of informers, they ensured that the Republic did not come under the rule of a single leader, which many Loyalist politicians had hoped for. Soon enough, the Great Court gradually assumed some of the powers of the Council of Ten.
Following the dismantling of the Confederacy, the Promethean, Board of Intellectuals, Supreme Court, and the Council of Ten were all completely dissolved, with power instead resting solely with the emperor, the Major Council, and the Great Court.
Military DoctrineThe original Alleghian Republic was created from a prosperous trading society's need for a quickly-developed and powerful military force in the face of an emergency, so their military doctrine is different from the offensive-minded philosophies used by their technologically superior enemies, and the New Alleghian Republic is no different. Before its dismantling, the Federation and its many worlds were very industrious. When the Exiles first invaded, these worlds were already an economic machine that merely needed to marshal their vast resources for a massive military buildup. Rapid urban development was pushed amongst all planet types with strong preference for temperate planets, but the Republic's development policies made sure that all habitable territories, such as colonies on desert and tundra-covered planets, contributed their fullest to the war effort. With the need to continue their trade routes, the Republic eventually found ways to put trade ports even on remote, seemingly useless locations, including asteroids, making them able to develop trade routes without the need for expensive orbital structures.
Nowadays, the Republic is an "awakening giant", an economic juggernaut mobilizing for war. It possesses massive resource-gathering, trade and construction capabilities, and can cripple other empires' means of production through the use of propaganda. Thanks to its many years of rebellion and war, the Republic is able to call upon local insurgents to incite uprisings on enemy planets. The Alleghian fleet is primarily an assemblage of refitted civilian vessels, with few purpose-built military ships and average strike craft capabilities. However, as war draws nearer, they are now heavily armed and armored, enabling Republican fleets to win wars of attrition with ease.
TechnologyCompared to their more advanced enemies, the Republic has primitive and makeshift technologies. This is made up for by their means of mass production and heavy firepower. The Republican Armed Forces specializes in the use of mixed alloys and polymers to strengthen their armor, a strong economy, and mass production and efficiency. Their workers are masters of industry and efficiency, being able to start trade routes in multiple systems, as well as having very cost effective methods of building their orbital structures. They can inhabit most worlds effectively aside from volcanic worlds. They also have their hands in almost every single economic power and their suppliers regardless of race.
When it comes to mass production the Republic is unmatched. In a time of dire need they will divert a large portion of their factories to military subcontracting. They may also build factories that can hyper-produce ships within their massive planetary fortresses. Where the other races rely on their offensive capabilities, the Republic's workers are masters at fortifying their territories. Strong alloys and polymers ensure a thick defensive hull is within all orbital structures and ships, making them very resistant to enemy firepower. With these powerful defenses they have mastered the art of having very powerful static defenses as well. Their ships' hanger bays can be refitted to have anti-strike craft autocannons. Their already potent gauss turrets can be upgraded to sport missile packs and a long range meson-bolt. And their repair technology is unmatched even by robotic nano-bots.
And where their defense may fail, this is made up for by their weaponry. While the Republic makes use of very low grade version laser and beam technologies, but their true strength comes from the chemical/nuclear weaponry equipped on many of their standard frigates and bombers. They also make use of auto-cannon payloads to rip through the hull of enemy ships.
CultureWork in progress.
HistoryThe history of the Alleghian Republic dates back thousands of years, when economically driven settlers founded the fateful Traders' Federation in the wake of the Great Cataclysm. Established on strict principles of economics and codes of behavior, the Federation's boundaries quickly began to expand – making it into an industrial and commercial juggernaut. However, outside of the Federation's core principles, each member world maintained its own interests, form of government, economic systems and culture, which often lead to strained relations with their oppressive rulers.
It was during this early period of the Federation that something unique took place which would later reshape not only its government but the entirety of the galaxy. During a routine exploratory expedition to recruit new trading partners, emissaries discovered a dry, desert world orbiting a red giant, whereupon further scans discovered a thriving civilization. Eager to integrate this prosperous civilization into the Federation, the diplomats established communication with the civilization's leaders from orbit. However, the membership offer was quickly turned down. Not to be dissuaded, the Federation sent several market research teams to the desert planet in order to gather data that could be used to formulate a more enticing strategy for this civilization.
Unfortunately, dreams of integration quickly turned to horror upon landing on the planet. Here the teams discovered a colony of people practicing the most heinous forms of scientific and social deviancy. Invasive cerebral integration technologies, unrestricted biological experimentation, strange forms of collectivism, and wholesale usage of countless neurochemicals were but a few of the transgressions. All these deviancies and more violated the codes and principles of personal freedoms that made up the very foundation of the Traders' Federation. Having received only a single, incomplete report of this disturbing information, the emissaries returned to Federation space, where, upon their return, their news sent shockwaves throughout the Federation's worlds, who voted overwhelmingly to take control of this desert planet and exile their twisted cousins to the far reaches of space. In time, this exiled civilization was forgotten.
Over the next thousand years the Federation went on in relative peace and prosperity – a golden age for their kind. War became a thing read about only in history books and seen in holo-vids. The rare heated dispute was settled in Federation-sanctioned courts and merchant fleets filled the phase lanes with goods, while the worst thing one could worry about was the occasional raid by bands of marauding pirates in the trade lanes, which were easily dealt with by local defense fleets.
However, this golden age came to an abrupt end many centuries ago with the arrival of numerous conflicting empires into Federation territory. With no defenses and constant political infighting between the Federation's representatives and numerous politicians, these unprecedented enemies swept the Federation's ships aside with ease, resulting in what seemed to be imminent defeat. In a last ditch effort to turn the tide, the Federation abruptly dismantled and sanctioned the creation of the Alleghian Republic, named after one of the Federation's most populous races, to combat the alien threat. The Republic quickly learned to marshal the vast industrial resources of the Traders' Federation towards military production and used their new war engine to finally stall the incoming final blow.
It wasn't until ten years after the Republic's formation that a new enemy arrived into what was once the Federation's territory. The aptly-titled Exiles from the past one-thousand years had returned, and managed to gain a foothold on Alleghian territory before fleets could be redirected to halt the enemy's advance. Five years later, the war ground to a stalemate and Republican forces built immense structures in an attempt to better defend their fronts. However, faced with enemy fortifications as well, the Republic made little to no headway in reclaiming lost territory.
This series of events lasted another decade or so until the races came to a realization that war was taking its toll on lives and resources. Envoys were sent and diplomacy was given a chance. This was short lived as many within both the Republic and the ancient civilization felt as though the peace would not last or that it was a waste given the current situation. In the face of increasing internal tensions, two conflicting factions began to develop in the Republic: the Loyalists, who wished to retreat into isolation by further fortifying their defenses in hopes the war would finish itself, and the brash Confederates, who wanted vengeance for the atrocities inflicted upon the Alleghian kind by the Exiles through twenty-five years of brutal war, and were grimly willing to ensure that the Republic emerged victorious by being as ruthless to their alien enemies as the invaders were during the terrible early invasions.
The inevitable civil war did not begin in its real sense, that of the Confederates fighting against the Loyalists, with each faction's goals and ideals laid out for the Alleghian Republic, until nearly two decades after the founding of the Loyalist Coalition. Prompted by the Confederates' signing of the Declaration of Rebellion, which aimed to counteract the Loyalists' propaganda that labeled revolutionaries as terrorists, pirates, and thieves, and officials' recognition the establishment of the Alleghian Confederacy, the Coalition was quick to overtake much of the Republic's territory. Likewise, several Loyalist citizens, despite the its many atrocities, ended up siding with the Coalition as they were reluctant to join a group similar to the original leaders of the Federation, what with the whole exiling of the vengeful civilization. Initially, the Coalition did not consider the Confederacy a threat, but rather as a political tool to further consolidate power that would eventually lead to the dissolution of what remained of the original Republican senate and a massive, unprecedented ethnic cleansing of what the Loyalists viewed as threats to the integrity of their cause. It would not be until the fateful Battle of Consolidation, when Confederate forces destroyed the Loyalist headquarters, that the threat posed by the Confederacy became real to the Coalition and more serious measures were drafted to restore the Coalition's control over the Republic.
The war's decisive moment came at the Second Battle of Consolidation, when the Confederates, against overwhelming odds, defeated the Coalition's forces and destroyed the second iteration of Loyalist headquarters, killing many of best minds of the Coalition. From there, the Coalition began to gradually decay and fragment, until it was reduced to a mere remnant of its former-self, while the Confederacy evolved and grew into the New Alleghian Republic. Peace between the two warring factions was realized nearly a year later, with the signing of the Treaty of Capitulation, ending over two decades of constant struggle. The Coalition, however, continued to exist as an autonomous entity in the years succeeding the war's end, and eventually entered into an alliance with its former enemy during the second return of the Exiles, who had left Republic territory following the onset of the Alleghian Civil War. This war, which effectively demolished the Confederates' government, allowed the Coalition to emerge as the Republic's leading administration over one hundred years later, seemingly bringing history back full-circle; however, the exploits of the Alleghian Confederacy have not been forgotten, meaning that the Coalition is not nearly as militaristic and domineering as before, instead favoring a more liberal, democratic approach to dealing with the Republic's populace and governmental affairs.
