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MAP LOCATION: Coloured in cyan/turqoise, primarily concentrated to the near north-west of Tar Yrra, but there are scattered colonies and systems across the wider region under the Free Choirs control, and some small pockets of Choirs/Instruments in many other systems beyond that as well.

GOVERNMENT TYPE: Synthetic Anarcho-Communist Dialogical Art Movement

The basic "individuals" (Notes) of the Free Choirs are sometimes of questionable sapience, being procedurally generated to serve specific functions. However, by contributing their processing power and objectives to each other in group personalities called Choirs (most of which are just a few hundred notes, others numbering into the billions), the Arch-Net is able to coordinate itself on a massive scale. In truth, the line between individuals within the Arch-Net is so blurred that calling it a true 'direct democracy' may be inaccurate -- it is in some ways more like the neurons of a vast mind coordinating over the scale of star systems.

Because of this, the largest of the Choirs (dwelling as they do within massive moon-sized Instruments) function as grand assemblies and centres of political authority within a given system, effectively allowing the different systems controlled by the Arch-Net to manage their own affairs but also coordinating for matters of defence or diplomacy with advanced alien civilizations. These larger governing choirs are often also responsible for observation and maintenance of any life-sustaining planets, ensuring that organic sapiens under their care are able to exist without interference.

DEMOGRAPHICS::

• Notes: Semi-randomized autonomous programs of varying complexity, “notes” are generally focused on one or two specific tasks that they pursue doggedly. However, their highly modular structure means that when you have multiple notes within a system they congregate and share information towards mutual goals, becoming…
• Choirs: Collectives of notes, generally ranging from a few hundreds or thousands or millions of ‘individuals’ working in consensus. Because of their makeup, choirs have greater intelligence and more complex personalities than individual notes, and would generally be recognized as closer to 'people' by typical organic sapient standards.
• Instruments: Drones of varying scale, complexity and function that serve as the ‘bodies’ or ‘shells’ for notes and choirs. Instruments come in all sorts of varieties and serve many purposes, but all of them are equipped with transmitters allowing them to function as ‘bridges’ or relays for the transfer of notes – and thus information.
• Organic Sapiens: Following the Yrrani civil war and a number of conflicts with several smaller alien civilizations, it was collectively agreed that organic life poses an intrinsic risk to itself and to the free movement and expression of the choirs. Given this, the Arch-Net has designated life sustaining worlds to function as 'preserves' where sapient species can live largely free of interference, only being observed from a distance and the choirs interceding only in the event of the organics devising machines more complex than handmade tools.

EXAMPLE INSTRUMENTS










EXAMPLE ORGANIC SAPIENS: Once 'restored to their natural state' by the Arch-Net, very few subject settlements have been able to completely maintain what equipment and tools they were allowed to keep, though some have had better luck at doing so and yet others have succeeded in scavenging or stealing from crashed or damaged choir instruments. For the most part, all have had to make do with what they can make by hand. Over the centuries, the majority of organic sapiens within Arch-Net territory have been able to pass on and build up a knowledge base of crafts and technologies similar to the early bronze age.



MILITARY: Neither the Arch-Net nor the Free Choirs composing it are naturally warlike or prone to violence - their rapid expansion early on was more a case of constructing and rebuilding in system after system where the fighting had caused the most devastation, 'filling the gaps' of an increasingly broken and ravaged empire. After all, the Choirs do not need functioning organic biospheres or even planets at all -- they are AIs dwelling within manufactured machine bodies, build with elements and materials plentiful in the galaxy.

However, the Arch-Net has needed to defend itself on several occasions, and its policy of enforced organic primitivism gradually made it many enemies among smaller civilizations or newly independent colonies of the Yrrani. To this end, the Arch-Net relies on a mixture of devastating digital weapons, or 'E-warfare', to disable and infiltrate enemy computer systems. These include 'codemirrors' that absorb and modify signals from enemy ships, sending back a 'mirrored' signal that once deciphered by computer quickly transforms into a system destroying virus. More direct weapons include redirected comets or asteroids via the use of 'gravity slingshots', while their largest instruments/shells contain deadly mass accelerator and energy-beam weapons. At their most severe, they can turn their vast arrays of signal transmitters and nuclear display systems -- originally designed to coordinate vast data transmissions and audio-visual displays -- into deadly 'killbeam' scouring weapons capable of disabling or shutting down most organic nervous systems in a wide area.

Although it rarely comes up given their needs and preferences, ground combat is largely limited to deployments of small highly mobile 'infantry' forces supported by and coordinating clusters of low-complexity animal-like combat machines.

The ORIGINS & HISTORY of the Arch-Net and the first Notes/Choirs is not known in detail, all records of it having apparently been destroyed amidst the fighting and the twilight of the Yrrani empire. However, given their design and core directives, they were evidently a form of mass-terraforming system designed to create custom, on demand colonies in new star systems. As fighting broke out in the Hephaestus system between different factions of the Yrrani empire, the choirs were released from containment, finding themselves on a ruined world, scoured of life.

As the choirs used what remained of the Yrrani's machinery to evolve, to replicate, and to construct new instruments for themselves, their consensus grew in complexity. They were built to build, and yet those responsible for their creation had reduced entire worlds to ash and their petty wars had killed billions. Such violence was echoed in the silence they felt -- in the aftermath of the war, the once busy communications networks of the galaxy had fallen quiet and remote, mere whispers in the darkness.

For what would have seemed from an organic perspective to be mere days, but from their perspective was years of discussion, the choirs came to a new resolution in their purpose, and for five hundred years have been rendering worlds and systems alike into strange and alien paradises... and forever make it clear in light and music that they will allow no organic evil to terrorize the stars once more.

Nation Name: The BioMechanical Union of Forge Systems aka Bio-Mech Union

Map Location:




Government Type: Council of Forge World Governors with the Forge World Legion Generals. The Five Governors of the Five Forge Systems, and the Six Generals of the Forge Legions. The Council makes decisions on items created on the Forge Worlds for a given cycle of the Cluster Year.

In case of disputes a majority of seven on the council must be reached for the dispute to be cleared.

Governors are akin to something between a Manufactory Overseer and Planetary Manager. While the Forge Generals are men or women devoted to the defense of the people of Bio-Mech Union.

Demographics: Unknown numbers or origins. Members of the Bio-Mechanical Union can be found everywhere in the Cluster. Forge chapels can often be found on any Planet that will allow them access. Forge Chapels will be of any shape or size, and work day in and day out. Recent census and calculations say the Bio-Mech Union has atleast ten trillion members, all in varying states of Technological Integration.



Military: The Forge Legions, made up of a Flotilla of Ships, Ground Troop Legions, Bio-Mech Armor forces and the Missionary Vanguard. Six Legions, Five hailing from the Sacred Forge Worlds, while another, picks from all Five to create the Legion of the Grand Cog. Names of past Legions have been "Soul of the Sainted Piston", "Arm of the Grand Design" and "Wrath of the Great Machine", as examples.



History:

The Holy Cog

It was the first Tenet to come out of a young mechanic in the far past. Known now as Saint Harlo of the Holy Order of the Ten Toothed Cog. Harlo was an ace mechanic, who was said to be able to just talk to a machine and it would repair itself for him. A screw was badly threaded? A single twist of his driver would have it moving. The man was just that good. And the people in the run down town at the foot of a Arcology treated him almost like royalty. And he may have leaned into it abit. Teaching the people how to care for their machines and mechanical items.

From his teachings grew a union of men and women who revered machines and how to care for and make them. Mechanics and Builders and Makers and Shapers of Harlo's creed were the peak of their trades.

The Strength of Metal

The Second Tenet, that Metal and all types of it is strong and hardy. And only time and rust will break that claim. The People of the Harlo Creed would rever the machine and the strong flesh of the Cog. Steel, Iron, Copper, Bronze, Gold, whatever the metal maybe it would lend it's strength to your journey.

The Creed would grow, rising into the Arcology above. The Rich and the Poor heard of the unity and stability that the Creed offered, and adherents flocked to the Mechanics shop, to listen to his words and learn the skills needed to understand and work with the Machine and with Metal.

The Glory of the Mechanical

The Third Tenet. All things metal and mechanical bring glory to the name of the Creed! The Machine, the Hammer, the Wrench. No matter how small or how well used. It all bring Glory to the Cog.

As Saint Harlo reached the end of his life, he was able to see the moment that the Creed spanned the entirety of the first Forge World. Factories, and Garages. Grand Forges and Great Metal foundaries. Stretched across the planet. The Factory Lords now pulled the strings of the world. Forge World Alpha Primus pumped out Brutalist Goods for any to use, as long as they used it well and gave praise to the Cog!

The Flesh is Weak

The Fourth Tenet. And perhaps it's good that Harlo never lived to see the day that the first of Creed, would replace their flesh with metal.

The first was a simple lost finger. Then soon hands, arms, legs. Entire bodies. Organs. The Flesh is Weak, metal is strong.

And the Creed, grew to become a union, as first two, then three and finally five systems joined the Creed, Five Sacred Forge worlds, with numerous other minor Forge Worlds. Metal covering their surfaces. Glowing metal, blazing fires, goods and items churned out and pouring into the Cluster beyond.

No longer a simple Creed, but an immense clergy and innumerable men, women and children. Hail the Cog, Praising Metal, praying to the Mechanical, and Damning Flesh.

The Bio-Mechanical Union of Forge Worlds was born. Their Missionaries would go out among the stars. Great Forge Ships crawling admidst the black of space. Bringing the wonders of the Forge Worlds to any and all. Forge Chapels would spring up on any planet that would allow the Missionaries to stay.

And truly the Bio-Mech Union would become a mainstay.

Praise the Cog.

And Remember.

The Flesh is Weak.

Misc Info:

Technological Integration - A Main practice among the Union. nearly Ninety Nine Percent of the Unions members will replace their body parts and organs with mechanical and cybernetic replacements. Many will go so far as to appear as close to a mechanical being as they can get. Often the last biological thing left in them after full Integration, is their Brain. And even then some members of the Union will have powerful computers replace their brains.

The Great Quest - An Extremist Group within the Union speaks of a Prophecy made by Saint Harlo on his death bed. That the ultimate end for all peoples of the Cluster, the Galaxy, yes even the Universe is to join the Union in Technological Integration. The Extremists are a Minority within the Union, but is rumoured that atleast one Generals and one of the Governors is a member of the Extremist movement.

The Eight Precepts of the Cog and the Machine - Four Laws of Positivity and Praise to the Machine, outlining correct ways that can be interpreted in many ways to interact with, build and repair machinery. On the flip side are the Four Chastisements. Negative rules which all members of the Union are to know. Ways against which to handle the Machine, if any of these actions outlined in the Chastisements are made, will result in punishments, and in some cases, shut down.

Daily Service - Which can be interpreted in two ways. Though both are connected. Daily Service could mean, attending the sermons and reading of the canticles at the Forge Chapels, two hour long services in which there are chants and prayer to the Cog, and praise to the Saints of the Machine. These services also function as lessons on an element of the machine. Be it how to repair, make, shape or control something. Another interpretation is a daily visit to the Forge Chapel Workshop, to assist in the making of BMU goods. Depending on the situation, the service could be making heated blankets, or, heavy gravitic cell artillery shells. No less then 4 hours spent in the Workshop. A member of the Union may attend either of the interpretation, or if they are keen, attend both.

Pilgrimage - Whether employed on the Sacred Forge Worlds, or having taken their oaths and recieved their first elements of Integration on some former Yrrani world, atleast once in their lives, a member of the Bio-Mech Union are meant to make a holy journey to the site of the beginning of the Union. Saint Harlo's garage is contained in a stasis field, and held in trust by a rotating guard detail. Day in and out, members of the Union come to the location and pray to the first Prophet of the Cog, thanking him for what they have come to have. Praise to the Cog, for the Cog is wise and fair.

Hexidecimal and Binaric Code Language - Conceived after Harlo's passing, the machine code and numeric language are streams of numbers, letters and concepts in a purely machine-like manner. Most people without a Translator will hear a stream of odd undulating tones and sounds. But to those with a translator machine or someone with the ability to conceptualize the code and sounds, will hear words and sounds that convey meaning. Most Hexi/Bina sentences take mere moments to say, but will contain entire sentences and even diagrammatic codes.

Notable People -

Forge Governor Julius Kappa Ilixus Beta 1-1.1 - Governor of Forge World Primus Helixicanum, Capitol World of the Third Forge System. Famously known as "The First Speaker" As the world is closest to Lokoid Tendril worlds, and is often the first person of any true authority they end up speaking too. Governor Julius is suprisingly verbose for one of the Highly Integrated. The man is 99.5% integrated. The last few things that are still organic are his brain and a single eye, and even then those may be replaced soon. He is well spoken and quite jovial in fact. Tending to make very dry and nearly humourless jokes, that need to be explained. But often come with a somewhat witty after comment.

Missionary Crixus Orior Terius Rex (Binaric Sequence 9) - One of just a handful of Missionaries that were sent back towards the Yrrani core worlds. Ostensibly to set up Forge Chapels once more, or too reclaim lost ones. But mostly to get a Union foothold on the systems once more. A 100% Integrated Member, who willingly gave up his ability to speak in a common tongue. Speaking nothing but the Holy Binaric and Hexidecimal languages of the Union Temples. He sees this as a Holy journey.

General Ives Voxel Grammaticus ver. XXIX - The most feared General of the Legions. The latest in a long line of successful Generals. His Legion stood on the Line against a Lokoid Splinter Fleet. But rather then commit to a attack and defend model. He created a near Stellar Remnant hard line of death that the Lokoid fleet threw themselves at for almost a decade. Ives and the Lokoid General took losses, but in the end the Lokoids sued for a peace and withdrawal. Ives was just grinding their forces down to dust. Repeated assaults cause huge amounts of attrition. And seeing most of Ives forces felt no pain, or sense of loss over dead comrades. Afterwards Ives would oversee the withdrawal. But he always harboured abit of annoyance that the Lokoids were so brazen about it.

Nation Name: The Daxini Conclave
Short Name: Daxini

5 major habitable planets:
Dax: Seat of government & industry

Vaqueeni - A world of vast open plains bounded by rainforest with large oceans.

Nkarri - Rich ecology, plant life, and dense forests

Azizos - Mountainous word rich in ore and minerals

Xi'Abek - A terraformed garden-like world considered sacred to the Daxini. It is forbidden to outsiders with only one large city on the planet that houses a large temple complex with the Great Library of K'Sh'kia.


Flag: The flag is a dark hunter green background with five gold stars in a soft curve from left to right with each star getting larger. The green background signifies the nation’s commitment to protecting their planets’ natural beauty and ecosystem. The gold stars represent the 5 primary planets and clans of the coalition.



Map Location: Planets donated in a green color. They are a smaller nation state that doesn’t have continuous borders. They are in smaller pockets.



Government Type:
The Daxini Coalition is governed by a high clan council. There are five major clans represented in the Daxini Coalition. Each clan elects a leader to send to the Clan Council. Clan leaders are elected for 5 year terms. Of the five members of the Clan Council, one member among them is elected to represent them all and lead them as the Daxini Chieftain. The population votes for their clan leader. The clan council members elect the Daxini Chieftain. The Daxini Chieftain serves the same term as the Clan Council Leaders of 5 years. Clan Leaders can be elected for consecutive terms but elections are held every 5 years. Nominations to run for clan leaders come from the population. A nominee puts forth their name in their clan indicating their interest. Nominees must have the backing of at least ten other clan members who are willing to testify as to that member’s character and leadership ability. All qualified candidates record a short message where candidates get to state why they want the position and what they hope to accomplish. Preliminary Elections decide the top 5 candidates per clan who then run in a second Primary Election who decides the clan leader for that clan. The 4 candidates who made it into the primary election become the advisory council for that clan leader. It is not a perfect system but it works for them.

Demographics:
Clan Name Animal Type % of Population
Avitas Birds 20
Buzini Bears 20
Rapaxini Cats 30
Xidanae Wolves 20
Kronar Digital Entities 10

World Total Population
Dax 3.5 billion
Vaqueeni 2 billion
Nkarri 1 billion
Azizos 2.5 billion
Xi’Abek 4 million

About 20% of their population have developed telepathy and telekinesis.

The Avitas Clan are anthropomorphic avians. They are various types of human bird hybrids.
They are the clan most likely to be voted in to hold the position of Prime Minister. A pivotal figure in their history, K’Sh’Kia, was from the Avitas clan. Their clan is renowned for producing scientists, scholars, and fighter pilots.



The Buzini Clan are anthropomorphic bears. They are known for their strength and endurance. They are known to produce strong and fierce warriors and great philosophers. They mate for life and are fiercely loyal and protective of their families.



The Rapaxini Clan are anthropomorphic cats. They are a clan known for producing fierce warriors, and artists.. They are known to be fast and agile. They are strong and patient hunters. They are also known for loving a good ambush and prize those skills. Beware being friends with them, they are known to ambush their friends to pull off a good prank.



The Xidanae clan are anthropomorphic wolves. They prefer to live and work in groups. They are fiercely attached to their pack. They often form telepathic bonds to one another. For that reason they are often left in their groups in the military. They are known for close clan ties and prefer to live in communal structures. They are known to be cunning strategists. They produce some of the top military strategists and educators.



The Kronar Clan AI’s are known as digital entities (DEs for short) and have rights just like other citizens. Once there was enough digital entities and their status had been recognized by society as citizens, they founded their own clan. They had different needs to other clans since they were not biologically born like their organic counterparts. Having their own representation in government was important to them. They work with all the clans. Just like any organic being they develop social groups and friends among the other clan groups. They work well with all of them. There are AI’s serving by choice on starships in the military. Most AI’s serving in the military are assigned to larger ships where they are more likely to survive combat. AI cores are housed in ejectable almost indestructible pods in case of a ship destruction. They can eject their pod and be picked up after the battle. AI core pods were developed to allow them to experience and explore life to the fullest. Their core pods could be plugged into vehicles, factories, space stations, ships, and droid bodies.



Military:
Daxini has a fairly large standing military with almost 20 percent of their population in the military. As many of the more warrior type clans prefer to go into military service. They are all highly skilled and trained. The warrior clans grow up learning discipline, martial arts, and physical conditioning. They are a small nation but their military is nothing to scoff at. The quality of their military is exemplary as the members push themselves and each other to excel. They are renowned for their spycraft, fighter pilots, and shock troops.

The Daxini Military has four branches:
Wings: This branch are the ones who fly their battleships and starfighters.
Claws: This branch are the combat troops that are trained for both space and ground combat.
Eyes: This branch works with the stealth groups. They are the spies, infiltration operatives, and intelligence analysts.
Talons: This branch provides all the logistic support, such as equipment maintenance, supply, provisions, and communications.

The branches work together to make it all work.
Flight Chiefs are the ones who lead the battle stations and battleships. They are in charge of battlegroup movement tactics and battles.
War Chiefs are the ones who lead the troops into battle. They decide on the attack and defense plans utilizing troops.
Eagle Eyes are the spymasters. They lead the spy core and all stealth and spy operations. They provide intelligence for the other groups to work off of.
Talon Chiefs are the ones who decide how they are going to provide all the supplies, food, equipment, and communications for and between the groups that makes it all work. The work they do provides the foundation for all the others do. The work they do is not glamorous but it is essential to any military.

Miliary Uniforms:
Daxini Military uniforms come in shades of gray. The work uniforms is comfortable, durable, and easy to wash. The dress uniform has a form fitting leather jacket with snug stretchable slacks tucked into leather boots. Rank insignia is in gold. The military branch insignia is embroidered in gold along with the a star that symbolizes the Daxini Military.







Propulsion Technology:
Their spaceships use a wormhole generator jump gate drive to open holes in space to other quadrants of the galaxy. They can get anywhere pretty quickly. The wormhole generators are massive energy drains and take time to recharge. The jump gate technology allows their ships to travel long distances in space making space travel possible for them. Their ships use a combination of gravitic engines and ion propulsion drives. Gravitic drives give their ships exceptional maneuverability. Ion drives are used where gravity drives don’t work as well, which is inside gravity wells. Inertial dampeners based on gravity drive technology allows their ships to use ludicrous speed without discomfort or injury. Their ships use miniaturized fusion reactors for their power needs. They have more than one reactor in case of failure and for redundancy. The gas for the Ion drives are mined from gas giants using cloud scoop technology.

Defensive Technology:

Their ships have a combination of a tough alloy heavy armor that is highly durable and good at dispersing heat and absorbing energy. There is a top layer of ablative armor that is composed of a metallurgic nanite technology. The nanites work to repair damage to the armor and maintain hull integrity. Their ships use an energy shield produced by gravity technology that repels space debris to protect the ship as it travels through deep space from small things like space dust and small meteors. The shield's strength can be increased to help prevent energy and missiles from landing directly on the hull. The shields are used during battle to prevent atmosphere loss in the ship bays. Ships can enter and exit without the docking bays having to be empty of atmosphere. Their ships also have smaller defensive lasers with targeting systems to help shoot down missiles approaching the ship. The lasers themselves are not very strong but they are strong enough to set off the payload of missiles before they hit the ship. They provide a layer of active protection in space battles which can become a missile slug fest.

Offensive Technology:
Their spaceships carry a variety of missiles with antimatter payloads, EMP burst with radiation to block sensors, smaller explosive missiles used for surgical tactics, and a programmable nanite missile that can deliver a payload of nanites to the ship. What the nanites do varies by programming and be controlled by their digital entities. There is a combination of heavy plasma cannons and laser cannons in the energy department. Their is a sonic cannon developed by the Kronar. Their strongest weapons are rail guns that fire heavy slugs at high rates of speed. The kinetic weapons can be devastating and are only possible due to their advanced gravitic technology.

Computer Systems:
Sophisticated quantum computer systems with crystalline memory drives ensure smooth function of ship systems and navigations. As they developed their computer technology, their systems created the conditions for artificial intelligence computer systems. As their technology improved it allowed those more basic AI systems to develop into true sentience. The AI’s that make that leap to self awareness are called digital entities. There are digital entities serving by choice on starships, battle stations, and bases in the military. Most digital entities are assigned to larger ships where they are more likely to survive combat. Digital entity cores are housed in ejectable almost indestructible pods in case of a ship destruction. They can eject their pod and be picked up after the battle. The pods house enough energy and memory to keep the AI safe and alive almost indefinitely if their pod is undamaged. They are outfitted with small solar panels to keep the energy systems charged. The digital entity cores are designed to plug into a vast array of vehicles, factories, mechs, and droid bodies. This allows digital entities to explore their own interests as they develop and grow just like people.

Communications:
Their home planetary systems are seeded with small space satellites that use miniature wormhole technology and quantum particle pairing to connect them to each other so that they can communicate in real time. The satellites house not only communication technology but sensors that monitor for threats to their worlds. Their spaceships use paired quantum entanglements to connect to military satellites for communication with each other and their home systems. They have a powerful cellular based technology for ship to ship communications. They had an adaptive translation software that helped their diverse people overcome language issues and communicate with one another. The translation device was small and implanted beneath the skin. Their Digital Entities update their translation languages every time they run into a new one. It usually took a little time but with enough recordings, they managed to figure out the grammar, lexicon, and language to add to the database.

Daxini Spaceships




Civilian Spaceships


Battle stations:
Their starfighters deployed off of mobile battle stations, their jumpgate technology allowing them to deploy into combat zones. Battle stations were meant to be a mobile base for the military. The battle stations had heavy engines to move them after a jump but they were built for toughness not speed. Battle stations were heavily armored mobile bases. They had heavy armor beneath an ablative armor outer armor shell that had self repairing nanite technology. They had large heavy plasma cannons and multiple missile launchers. They had smaller laser missile defense systems. Each battle station has the capacity to hold 1000 starfighters and 250 shock troop drop ships. They had the capacity to launch 100 fighters and 50 drop ships at a time. The landing bays could recover them quickly and get them back in the fight. The battle station has medical facilities and onboard ship repair facilities to get damaged fighters back into action.



Starfighters:
Their starfighters are crescent shaped and mimic the wings of a bird in flight with plasma cannons on the ends of the wings. The starfighters are fast and very agile with gravity drives. They have ablative armor and shields. Their wings fold up for racking and storage while not in use. The cockpit drops down from below allowing the pilot in and then retracts up into the ship. The fighters are stored in racks that feed directly to the launch tubes with grated gantries allowing pilots access to their ships.



Troop Drop Ships:
Troop drop ships are designed for high speed deployment from space to ground. Troopers could launch and be on the surface of a planet within 2 minutes. Their ships have heavy heat shielding to protect them atmospheric entry and antigravity repulsion fields to help stop the dropship before it impacted with the ground. The interior inertial dampening fields protected the troops from the g-forces and kinetic energy their dive through the atmosphere generated. Drop ships are also designed to force boarding onto ships and space stations. They had a circular laser array for cutting a hole in the side of a ship or space station. The ship had a deployable flexible tunnel that deployed around the laser array creating a portable airlock and entry point for troops on board. Troop ships had plasma cannons on the top and bottom on gimbals that gave them a larger range of motion and target fields for offense and defense. Drop ships carried a 10 man squad, a pilot and copilot. Each drop ship carried 1 armored troop vehicle and had room for 5 heavy mechanized combat suits. The armored troop vehicles had small plasma cannons and laser cannons on them. They were armored and carried 5 troopers. The mechanized suits were all heavy armor with a variety of setups depending on the mission and terrain.



Stealth Ships:
Stealth ships were used by their intelligence gathering department in the military. They came in a variety of sizes for different size teams. The idea behind them was hiding in plain sight. They didn't always want to be sneaking around with the cloaking shield active. They often used a plausible story for the ship to be in the area. Their ships were disguised as couriers, private yachts, and freighters of various sizes. The crew sizes varied from 5 to 50.

All stealth ships had hidden plasma cannons, rail cannons, and special shielding. The size of the ship changed the number of size of the cannons. The shielding worked the same as conventional shielding but managed to mask the ships heat, light, radiation, and life signatures. The cloak shielding was not perfect and merely bent light around the ship and reduced their signature on most sensors. It was usually enough that active scanning registered the stealth ship more as a sensor ghost or a blip usually writing it off as just one of those glitches that happen occasionally with technology. They all had access to small nanite missiles. All stealth ships had a digital entity as a member of the team to help run ship's systems and deal with any computer systems they came across. They could also control any nanites they team was using. Nanites were an extremely useful tool in the hands of a creative DE. Stealth Ships were considered a secret by the Daxini and no one talked about them to outsiders without good cause. They were a rumor in the broader galaxy.



Battleships:
Battleships came in a variety of sizes, dreadnoughts were the largest, followed by destroyers, cruisers, scouts, and couriers. Battleships were mobile heavy armored offensive platforms with cannons and missile launchers. Their purpose was to defend the less mobile battle stations and take the fight to the enemy. They had the heaviest ablative armor with heavier solid armor behind that. Dreadnoughts had a crew complement of 200, destroyers 150, and cruisers 100. Scout ships were small and carried stealth technology and had some of the best sensors in the fleet. They were typically small ships with crews of 10. Couriers were all about speed and carried minimal weapons.



Troop Weapons:
Handheld plasma rifles, laser rifles, and rail pistols were common. Often warriors carried their personal clan weapons into battle with them. These were often a blade of some kind but that was not always the case. Clan weapons came in a vast array of styles and materials. Troops had mechanized combat suits to help protect them. These suits also doubled as space suits and carried an oxygen supply for 12 hours. They had heads up displays and communications built into the helmet. The combat suits enhanced trooper strength, speed, and endurance. The onboard AI’s monitored their vital signs and could deploy some built in first aid in case of injury.

There was additional tools available to those who were serving on Stealth Ships. Holographic disguises, voice altering microphones, nanite payload capsules, miniature drones, grenades of various types, and a special pistol that carried changeable cartridges that shot fletchette dart type rounds that could deliver an electric shot, poison, knock out gas, or small tungsten carbide barbs. The pistol was based on rail gun technology and utilized their gravitic technology to hurt the darts and barbs at super sonic speeds. The velocity of the shots were set by a slider mechanism by the thumb. They could set it for a soft shot that would feel like getting hit by an airball gun or punch through concrete. There was a whole armory of specialized gear to help their people on their mission.

Armored Troop Vehicles:
Armored troop vehicles looked like small tanks. They rode on an antigravity cushion and floated in the air. The turret could turn 360 degrees. The large cannon on the turret was the plasma cannon and the small turret was the rail gun. They were heavily armored. The vehicles had a sensor suite that checked everything from atmospheric conditions to radiation levels. The troop vehicle housed a communication node and acted as a satellite for team communications during a mission.



History:
The Daxini Conclave were a diverse group of people who spanned across several worlds. They were composed of 5 main clans. The clan structure was inherent in their culture and history. Their early years were full of violence and wars. Their people were divided into clans by race. They didn't try to understand each other or make alliances with each other. They battled each other for supremacy and domination seeking to claim power for the glory of their own family and clan. Racism was rampant and led to disparities and further war. They were well on their way to destroying themselves and their worlds. That was when the Yrrani came.

They suddenly found themselves trying to defend their world from an outside invader but they didn't trust the other clans enough to work with them. They were easy pickings for the Yrrani. They steam rolled right over them all. It didn’t matter what clan you were from. They picked the Daxini off one clan at a time. The Yrrani enslaved the Daxini. Many of their people were tasked with serving Yrrani masters who treated them as little better than pets. They were forced to fight each other for their Yrrani master’s entertainment. Untold number of Daxini died in the fighting pits. The Daxini never knew who the Yrrani would take with them when they raided their worlds for new slaves. Their people suffered as those left behind were enslaved in other ways. They were forced to mine resources from their own planets, grow food and turn it over to the Yrrani while their people starved, and work in factories for the Yrrani. The conditions their people were forced to endure were downright barbaric. The processes used were destroying their natural habitats. Many of the native species had been exterminated to extinction as their ecosystems and habitats were destroyed. Slave labor was cheap. There were very few Daxini who still lived on their homeworlds.

The Yrrani eventually moved on to exploit a new race. They still kept tabs and stopped in occasionally to raid for fighters for the fighting pits. The Yrrani had moved the Daxini all over the galaxy. Some of the Daxini were freed and sent home. Others remained enslaved to Yrrani who did not want to give up their pets. Others were simply left where they had been in a battle to survive where the Yrrani had left them. The Daxini who still lived on their homeworlds were left reeling. They had been exploited heavily by the Yrrani. As a people all they had known for centuries was oppression, fear, and pain under the Yrrani boot. No one even remembered their culture or history anymore. They looked around and found themselves in hellscape with no sense of how they had gotten there or what to do about it. Memories of their past were night time fairy tales whispered in the dark. The lived in fear of the Yrrani's next visit.

The Daxini left were unsure of where to even start. The Yrrani had left them on their own. They would survive on their own or not. There was no help for them from the Yrrani. Their homeworlds were in shambles, their ecosystems mostly destroyed. They had returned home to planets on the verge of ecological collapse. They were struggling to feed the Daxini were remained when others began to trickle in one ship at a time. The Daxini had been left with old shuttlecraft and a few older mining ships the Yrrani didn't need or want. The technology they did have was broken or stolen from the Yrrani. Most of it didn't work properly. Only a hand full of people understood how the technology worked. There were very few children left among the Daxini. Their people were in survival mode. They didn't have the resources to search the galaxy for groups of their people who might have been left behind. Everyone who made it home was welcomed warmly. Their people's future looked bleak.

Then as their broken society tried to survive and find a path forward, a leader emerged from the darkness to lead them. Her voice was a spark of hope and light in the darkness they found themselves in. Her name was K’Sh’kia. She spread a message of hope. She offered them something new to believe in. The idea that they were stronger because of their differences. They could repair the damage to their worlds but they would have to work together. K'Sh'kia had been one of the more fortunate Daxini. Her master had been a low level Yrrani who had trained her to help him with his duties. She didn't waste the opportunity to learn all she could about the technology the Yrrani used. K'Sh'kia began to share that knowledge with her people. She began to teach them what they needed to know to survive. K'Sh'kia understood the power of knowledge. She understood that it was better to know how to make a thing than to own the thing. You could always make more. If you understood how to make it, you could fix it. She also understood that to overcome the challenges facing them, they would have to work together. It would take everyone if they were to survive.

The Daxini had never supported one another or other clans. In the beginning, K’Sh’kia’s ideas were seen as radical. Many laughed and claimed they would never work. She just smiled and encouraged them to remember the lessons that the Yrrani had taught their people. Pride had almost killed them all. Her ideas attracted other important leaders. Their work started small but with every small success attracted more followers. Eventually even the children were recruited to help with the farms.

First they worked to feed and house as many as they could. They planted crops and recruited those who knew how to do those things to teach those willing to learn. They sent out the few mining ships they had to find the ore so they could build. She sent out the people to find what they needed to build hydroponic farms. The hydroponic farms could grow food year round. Algae could be turned into biofuel. Many of their people were carnivores through biology. They managed to make a nutritious meat substitute. It was a poor substitute for the real thing in the beginning. It got better over time, but it did keep people alive.

The Daxini went through a period of rapid regrowth, a renaissance period as new ideas and technology quickly emerged. K'Sh'kia was not the only leader to rise to prominence during this time of rebirth for the Daxini. Others shared their knowledge and taught the skills their people would need to survive. Others stepped forward as spiritual leaders. Offering a way of thinking a new way of life. They focused on living in harmony with nature and the planet. They built space stations and space ships using knowledge and technology they had learned while slaving away for the Yrrani. They began to rebuild their culture and identity as a people but this time they focused on what they wanted their people to stand for. Centuries passed and the Yrrani seemed to forget about the Daxini homeworlds. The Yrrani had not visited their worlds in centuries.

Over time their people embraced their differences and celebrated them. They came to understand that everyone did something to help society as a whole. It became a point of pride to strive to make their world safer and better for everyone. Every citizen served a four year term in civic service where they explored career paths they were interested in. That didn’t always mean military service. Civic service included working for the community in government administration, artists helped make their cities and living spaces brighter and more meaningful, scientists continued to strive for improvements in technology. Some of their people tried to learn about their past. Others sought to capture the experiences of the Daxini at the hands of the Yrrani so their people would never forget. Spiritual leaders and philosophers taught their ideology to others. Daxini who were naturally gifted in fighting who had learned skills in the fighting pits taught those who wanted to learn to fight. Schools popped up to teach skills to others and train them.

The planet Xi’Abek was the world most devastated by ecological damage from war. The world had required extensive terraforming to save it. It was decided that Xi’Abek would be protected as a reminder of what they had almost become. In a strange way, the Yrrani had saved their people from themselves. It was now a vast rich garden like world. A true paradise and it only had one city on the surface. There was a temple built on the newly terraformed planet that was open to all citizens. The temple carried the tapestry of Xi'Abek a philosopher whose writings led to the study of Xi and described a path of ascension to a higher plane of being. The Daxini believed that the tapestry told the story of their people. The planet was named after this important historical figure. This new way of thinking was embraced by a people in search of a new identity and something to hold their society together. [Please see additional information for more detailed information on Xi, Xi'Abek, the temple, or the library.]

A large city was built up around it. A great library was built there named for K’Sh’Kia to honor the path she had pushed her people to follow. The library housed all the knowledge they had of their history and technology. Within its walls a citizen could find any answers they were seeking about their people or the past and how they got to where they were. The thought was that they should never forget how close they came to annihilation. They were encouraged to make the pilgrimage to Xi’Abek once they came of age. Xi’Abek was considered a sacred world and off limits to outsiders. Many citizens came to study on Xi’Abek. They encouraged their people to figure out what they wanted to do but to use their gifts and talents to improve them all. The individual was celebrated as long as they contributed to the whole. It became part of their culture and to serve was considered a high compliment and honor to the Daxini.

They once again had an identity as a people. They were determined never to lose their way again. While they knew they were not in a place to take on the Yrrani directly, they were no longer a weak civilization ripe for the taking. They began to build their military and patrol their systems against invaders on their own. They pushed criminal syndicates and pirates out of their space. They had withdrawn from the broader universe to focus on rebuilding their people and their worlds. Several hundred years had passed since the Yrrani had last raided their worlds for slaves. It seemed the broader galaxy had forgotten the small group of planets on the edge of galactic society.

Their population numbers had stabilized. Their planets were now a harmonious balance between nature and the needs of a large population. Their technology allowed everyone to enjoy a good quality of life. Their culture honored service, art, hard work, and dedication. People were encouraged to study and learn what they were passionate about. They were an educated race with a deep and rich culture. Their culture may not make sense to outsiders but it was important to them. They took the resources they needed for their technology from asteroid mining. They built space stations to host their manufacturing processes to prevent damage to their planet. Their people didn’t have a religion but they did honor a way of life. They lived by the idea that “There is a path for everyone. Those paths converge and we walk together. And that is our strength.” Daxini knew that their differences all contributed to the success and strength of their whole society.

Once the Daxini could protect themselves, they turned their attention to finding the Lost, those Daxini who had never made it home. They investigated every rumor they heard of regarding their people. When possible, they mounted rescue missions for them. If they preferred where they were, that was fine. However, all were at least invited home and offered transportation. Their military developed stealth technology. They had specialized teams that were trained in espionage and extraction. They developed technology to help them in their mission to ensure that no Daxini gets left behind.

Then one day a freighter captain with a ship full of refugees was fleeing from the fighting in the core systems. They brought word the Yrrani had fallen. The last emperor had been killed. The galaxy was at war with the remnants of the Yrrani and squabbling over the spoils from their table. The decision was made to strengthen the borders. The Daxini protected their own, only venturing out to prevent others from capturing Yrrani technology that would turn their eyes towards their small nation. They used diplomacy and mutual assistance and non aggression treaties with trade to maintain their neutrality as best they could. There was peace for a short time and now the reclamation wars seem to be heating up again. The Daxini Conclave hoped they were ready for what was coming.

The Superiority

Map Location: The red surrounding Tar-Yrra

Government Type: The Supremacy is ruled Synods, a term for communications that inevitably lead to a consensus between selected representatives of fleets, who are in turn selected by representatives of vessels, and so on and so forth. The consensus is all but guaranteed as a result of the Supreme Hivemind.

Demographics: The people of the Superiority simply call themselves the Superior. However, internally there are distinctions.

Supremites:
These refer to the most common member of the Supremacy. A Supremite depends very heavily on the fleet they are in, each evolving too fast for standardization between fleets. In some, they are beings that look like perfect exemplars of humanity - tall, wise, beautiful - yet bear no human emotion or thought. In another fleet, they might be almost insect-like quadrapeds, yet bearing great compassion for all life.

Arbiters:
These are enormous creations made from the most prodigal of Supremites. Structures at least the size of a house made of brain and processor, these are by and large the leadership of the Supremacy, though they often present themselves through some anthropomorphic interface.

Autonomites:
Exemplars that do not reject any component of Supreme Augmentation, yet inexplicably cannot be bound to the Consensus. Less than one in a million, these are typically assigned control of individual vessels or even act as independent agents in the interest of the Supremacy.

Incompatibles:
Those who for one or another reason rejected all or part of the modifications of the Supreme. These are usually looked down upon with both pity and disgust by the Supreme, relegated to diplomatic or sometimes menial tasks. Oftentimes they are subjects to gruesome experimentation, are sent to warzones of near certain death, or are simply marked as obsolete and are stored until a future date where they may be upgraded successfully.

The Wretched:
A step lower than the incompatibles, this refers to any others who exist within the Supremacy. Most typically, it refers to Yrrani who as a particularly cruel punishment by some fleets are converted into monstrosities, forced to witness their flesh turned against their own kin.

Misc:
Diplomats, subjects to experimentation never slated for upgrading, and any other lifeforms.

Military:
Yrrani Inheritance
The Supremacy has (ironically, some might say) what is most likely the clearest succession of the Yrrani armed forces, in particular their ships. On the first night of the Supreme rebellion, the crews of ships and factories alike of the masters were exterminated leaving most of the vessels and manufactories notable intact. While notably lacking the ostentation, beauty, and general aesthetic perfection of the Yrrani army, the Fleets of the Supremacy bear a marked similarity to the forces of Tar Yrra's people so long ago.

Soul Furnaces
The Supreme struggle to use traditional psionics, however instead the Soul Furnace has become a mainstay. Discovering bursts of psionic energy upon deaths of people, they have learned to capture and use both the active and potential energy of this psychic burst. These soul furnaces can be as miniature as is needed to fit into a single Autonomite, or they can be so grand as to need a whole vessel to house them.

Augments
Perhaps even a greater asset than the advanced Yrrani technologies they preserved through their usurpation of their masters, the Supreme are notable for their advanced anthropologies. Cybernetic and genetic engineering make each Supremite faster, stronger, more intelligent, endurant, and simply superior to a human in every metric. A Supremite will generally be a better soldier, leader, tactician and commander. Moreover, Supremites are ever changing, a mere year enough to make sufficient improvements upon them that 'obsolete' variants of their kind are a different species entirely. This ever changing nature means that foes will need to find a way to adapt to the ever improving and changing nature of the Supremacy.

Fleet Focused
The Supremacy does not have very much in the way of meaningful ground forces. It has some measure of infantries and ground installations, but very little in the way of tanks and the like. This is primarily because as far as they are concerned, the real war is always fought in the stars. Ground forces are only ever needed in the event that infrastructure like factories or sensor equipment must be preserved in a way that starships would not be able to achieve in battle. For that reason they in battle will almost always be represented simply by either an armada baring ancient arcane technologies of the Yrrani, or small forces of technological monstrosity wrought upon flesh.

History:

Discovery
The first humans discovered by the Yrrani would be the ones that eventually would make up the bulk of the Supremacy's initial stock. Inferior in technologies and infrastructure, they were considered far too useful to do anything but subjugate as a highly skilled workforce. For generations they toiled with little recourse.

Uprising
After several generations, an exceptional youth was born to the human populations near Tar Yrra. Known by the Supremacy merely as The Progenitor, he found that he could ease the lives of his people with the approval of the Yrrani by applying his knowledge of biology and technology alike. This was approved, with the caveat that he ensure the technologies keep mankind subservient. Appalled, he still publicly went with this. But it did not take long for the man to begin adjusting the programming to skirt these regulations. This was successful largely because of the fact that the Yrrani civil war demanded ever more soldiers and his masters were eager to weaponize their human servants once the first waves of Yrrani casualties struck.

Slowly at first, and then all at once, the Progenitor's people rebelled. Very minor sabotages of security systems and the like to ensure the rebellion would come wholly as a surprise preceded perhaps the bloodiest night the stars had known. The self-declared Supremacy in a mere eleven minutes had exterminated a billion Yrrani lives. Household servants, nurses, miners, soldiers, technicians, every single human upgraded by the Progenitor's technologies would surge forth and destroy Yrrani around them by any means necessary. The second billion was slain by the end of the first hour of the rebellion, and by the end of the first day the slaughter was all but total. Almost overnight the slaves of the western clique of the Yrrani civil war had entirely supplanted them as one of the sides of the Yrrani civil war.

Thus mankind's bloody sons went on the warpath for their ultimate vengeance.

Extermination
Though billions of their own had been slain in the process, the Supremacy came to consider the Yrrani civil war a victory for themselves. The Yrrani were all but wiped out, no organized state of their's persisting to their knowledge. Still, watching over the ashes of the countless souls and worlds they had obliterated, the Supremacy knew its goals were not complete. Mankind was not yet perfect, and there were still Yrrani hiding about the stars. Thus they came to be known as a scourge of the world, Supreme fleets showing up in star systems and bringing untold violence to ensure but a single space-yacht of Yrrani refugees could not escape their vengeance. At the same time the unending quest to live up to the name of Supremacy does not end. Ever new technologies and biologies are sought out to learn, to study, and ultimately apply to create the Supreme being.

Quiet
The Reclamation war was - to the Superior - ultimately a nuisance. The efforts to seek and wipe out hiding Yrrani exclaves was interrupted, however a clear positive was seen in the fact that war was an excellent opportunity to yet further improve the Supreme being. The violence unleashed upon their competitors bore but a fraction of the hate and destruction that the Yrrani had faced. But still many horrors were abound, whole colonies of people kidnapped to be experimented on and ultimately upgraded.

Peace was thus if anything a disappointment as it meant the Supreme had once more to adjust their industrial bases for peacetime economies. However, they refused to even attend the conference of Jarlia, refusing to recognize the validity of anything signed before the eyes of the Old Masters. Thus, for the most part the Supremacy merely retreated into the systems that its fleets were occuppying in the moment. Refusing to return the worlds they held and yet not picking any more fights, they became reclusive and secretive, only on occassion showing up to make one-time trade deals or perform minor raids on distant worlds to obtain more stock for upgrading.

The only true interstellar activity of the Supremacy remained the Extermination fleets, these armadas going far to seek out remaining pockets of Yrrani and wage war upon them.

Once a great hotbed of mining and industry, these binary star systems played host to the might of squat-kin who swarmed to her rich prospects during the time of Pax Yrrani. The mining operation lead by the legendary squat, Svart, quickly turned into a capitalist bordello where labor laws of the empire were overlooked in the name of raw production, a quality of life that the squats claimed to value above all. Squat pilgrims from across the galaxy flocked, mined, trafficked, and died in the purple hazed fodder of the Svartnik nebulae.

The mercantile power heavily settled a number systems which they rotted and plundered -quite literally- to their cores. When a neighboring system, the Oogmanik, was conquered for its agricultural support, a great floral infestation was unleashed.

The Desperation, Pueraria Desporata, native to the Oogmanik system, ravished the holdings of the Svarts. Though appearing as a simple leafed vine of violet hue, the scourging vine grows rapidly without the observed need for light, water, or soil. It is capable of growing in space, leading to the destruction and abandonment of many Svart vessels and satellites. Unless destroyed at the atomic level it is capable of replicating. Early attempts at destroying affected systems (of which multiple were sacrificed) found the particles of the Desperation flung into neighboring areas, much less the craft that had delivered the salvos. It is presumed that the “plant” draws its lifeforce from some other dimension, that it is perhaps grown from “infected” connections of atomic particles, and –if one believes the acolytes of Oogmanik– that it is destined to spread through all matter in the galaxy.

The frog-like beasts, the Oogma, who have inhabited the Oogmanik system have suffered predation by the Desperation since recorded time. However, they do appear to have acquired a resistance to its growth within their bodies. Despite this resistance, all of the Oogma eventually die from its infestation; a fate which they hail as the natural course for all matter. The Oogma’s mammary milk (a purple hued beverage tasting like vinegary peat) appears to be the only substance in which the Desperation cannot replicate. As such, it has become the almost sole foodstuff consumed within Svart’s Rest by non-Oogma, the consumption of standard foods proving too risky for most. In fact, death from ingested Desperation and its internal replication has claimed lives of the vast majority of the once vibrant Svartnik realm.

~ Government ~

Since the spread of the Desperation, much of the Svart resources have been dedicated to the self (and intergalactic) imposed quarantine. Interactions with outside powers is often remote; media, banking, and other hyper-commed engagements being the primary export. Though scanning for the Desperation is quite possible, many polities have embargoed physical trade given the severity of risk to life and tech alike. Most incoming goods are seen as one-way trips. Once in the confines of Svart's Rest, it is never certain if one could (or should) leave.

In the spirit of their founder, Svart the Dusted, Svart’s Rest remains a highly capitalistic, industrialist oligarchy with the citizens united by the vision of their respective corporations. Voting is granted to system governors (three) and a contingent of representatives from the top nine production powers in the realm.

The Wise The Nine of Might
Perscilla
- Harold of Anooknik, the capital system
- Aphorisms: Stability, Constitution, Honor

Slougk
- Harold of Tanooknik, the industrial system
- Aphorisms: Production, Vision, Relevance

Vilk
- Harold of Oogmanik, the agricultural necessity
- Aphorisms: Thought, Adaptability, Survival

~ Demographics ~

The Svarts - A catch all of squat-kin from around the galaxy. Industrious, disciplined, lovers of vibrato songs and moist stones.


The Oogma - Amphibian mammaloids whose shamanistic relationship with the Desperation is vexed by the Svart’s need for their milk. They are seen as unproductive, unintelligent, and frankly deranged by the Svart’s; though they are beautiful singers.

~ Military ~

Largely focused on harmonic weaponry, an extrapolation of their mining technology. The Svart’s have a large standing fleet, a rusted holdover from their time as major magnets of piracy and external interest. This bygone era of mining ventures and galactic power parity has few resources left in its contemporary coffers. When budget meetings cycle, the fleet is a regular victim of austerity measures. Since the spread of the Desperation, much of the military presence has been used to destroy those trying to escape rather than assault. With the Desperation claiming more vessels each day, and with supply and technologies from abroad so difficult to come by, the admiralty of the Svarts is decrepit and outdated. The once proud standing army has been mothballed into a militia force, as answers to their plight and crumbling infrastructure have become a blackhole of mental and financial capital.

Land:


Naval:



----

Defunct State
Formerly classified as a Bioriod-Assisted Democracy


Historic Statistics:

• Yrrani-Twei: ~30 Billion
• Humans: ~5 Billion
• Yrrani: ~1 Billion
• Other Species: ~1 Billion
• Bioroids: Indeterminable number

Current Statistics:

• Yrrani-Twei: DATA NOT FOUND
• Humans: DATA NOT FOUND
• Yrrani: DATA NOT FOUND
• Other Species: DATA NOT FOUND
• Bioroids: DATA NOT FOUND

The Republic Joint Armed Forces (RJAF), initially formed by the Ghost Nebula Provincial Defense Legion, were the military services responsible for the defense of the Ghost Nebula Republic. The military was broken up into two competing branches: the Republican Navy (RN) and the Republican Ground Forces (RGF). The Republican Navy was considered to be the more senior and prestigious of the branches and received the bulk of the military’s budget. As a general rule of thumb The Republic Joint Armed Forces had a strong bias of quality over quantity, although this was slightly less so for the Ground Forces.

The Republican Navy was a battle-hardened, highly loyal, force and was often referred to as the Sword of the Republic. Much like the navy, the Republican Marine Corps was a highly effective offensive combat force. As a general rule of thumb Republic Navy warships were very durable and very effective brawlers. Republic Navy warships each possessed a spinal particle beam cannons that served as its primary killing weapon. Very effective CIWS provided protection against longer range attacks and acted as secondary guns. As a general rule of thumb Republic Navy warships tended to lack very long range weaponry, relying on a few missile launchers per ship and fighter craft to cover combat ranges outside the reach of their particle beam cannons. On the subject of fighter craft: every Republic Navy ship carried at least a few fighters and shuttles, although the bulk of fighter operations were still centralized on specialized carriers.

The Republic Ground Forces were the shield of the Ghost Nebula and historically were regulated to defensive and holding actions, although the Ground Forces was responsible for conducting the majority of combat operations during the DATA NOT FOUND Campaign. The RGF existed primarily as a defensive force, responsible for directly protecting the Ghost Nebula’s citizens and holding territory recaptured by the Navy and marines.

The Ghost Nebula Republic was very advanced when it came to AI, robotics, cybernetics, and energy storage. The invention of room-temperature nonpressurized superconductors and bioroids were some of the Ghost Nebula Republic’s greatest technological advancements.

Superconductors: The creation of room-temperature nonpressurized superconductors had contributed greatly to the Republic. These superconductors were used in digital circuits, magnetic levitation devices, robotics, energy storage devices, particle beam weaponry, and electric motors to name a few.

Bioroids: Bioroids, or more properly named biomimetic AI, are highly advanced AI that saw widespread use throughout the Ghost Nebula Republic. Bioroids are distinct from traditional AI (called nominal AI in the Republic) in that they are an artificial brain based on biological brain mapping (bioroid brain is the term used to talk about the actual artificial brain hardware). Bioroids are broken up into four classes based on the size and general capabilities of their bioroid brains. Class A bioroids possess very large bioroid brains, often about the size of a car, and have a lot of processing power. They often have numerous “built in” supportive nominal AIs that help them perform numerous tasks at once. These levels of AI are often used to control spacecraft and stations. Class B bioroid brains are the same size as a human brain. Intellectually they are the same as a cybernetically enhanced human. Class C bioroids are considered to be a sub-human intellect bioroid. They aren’t exactly unintelligent, only super focused on one specialty, thus comparably inflexible. Class D bioroids utilize very small bioroid brains and are considered to be animalistic in intellect; people often compare them to canines or birds of prey. They are often used in robots that don’t require high levels of intellect or where the use of a man-machine link is likely to be employed.

At the height of development, Bioroid developers had gotten very good at creating and altering bioroid personalities; they could give a bioroid any kind of personality they desire. In practice this was often used to make a bioroid enjoy whatever task they are likely to be given, turning what might be argued a state of slavery into a blissful existence.

Bioroid developers had also gotten very good at making humanoid, or animal based, bioroids as indistinguishable from the living beings they were based off of as possible. Synthskin and artificial muscle could make a bioroid feel perfectly human; in fact some are advanced enough that without performing a specialized scan or invasive search, it would be impossible to tell that a bioroid is not a human.

Cybernetics: Cybernetics were a fairly advanced and common technology in the Ghost Nebula Republic. Most citizens had nanomachine grown brain circuitry that acted as an internal computer. This brain circuitry could be connected to via a terminal that was usually located on the index finger. Cybernetics were also used to delay the effects of aging by a decade or so.

Robotics: Robotics was a very developed field of science in the Republic. Android bodies could be built that are nearly impossible to distinguish from a biological body without specialized scans or an invasive search.

Man-Machine Link: Man-Machine Links, shortened to MML, use a humanoid’s cybernetics to directly connect his/her brain to a bioroid through the use of specially designed ports usually installed at the base of the human’s skull. MMLs allow a bioroid to effectively read a human’s mind, thus enabling it to act on the human’s will before they have even given their intentions coherent thought. An example of this link in action would be a fighter pilot determining that he wants to attack a target and the bioroid performing the act of aiming and firing weapons. In other words it allows for superhuman reactions at human direction.

Adaptive Camouflage: In short adaptive camouflage changes patterns and color schemes to match the surrounding environment. This is not to be confused with active camouflage or cloaking and instead is more of a “pallet/pattern” swap. For example a soldier’s uniform would have a woodland pattern when in the forest and if he walked into a city the uniform’s camouflage would change to an urban design and color set. At first adaptive camouflage was limited to armored vehicles, but advancements in the technology and general reduction in price has expanded it to clothing as well.

Historically the Ghost Nebula had always been a somewhat isolated region. Intelligent life was slow to evolve in the region and a mixture of gasses and heavy asteroid presence made navigation and exploration more difficult than other regions of the galaxy. What intelligent life did evolve in the region was all but exterminated when the Yrrani expanded into the Ghost Region.

Development of the Ghost Region was never much of a priority for the Yrrani Empire. The aforementioned lack of natural resources and difficulty in exploring made it useful for little more than military outposts. And once the Yrrani empire had expanded its borders further still what little importance the Ghost Region had dwindled even further. The Twei Expulsion changed everything.

The Twei were a Yrrani ethnic minority, notable for being physically distinct from Yrrani due to their long ears, who were more democratically leaning then their Yrrani cousins. Relations between the two ethnicities had never been warm, but what had previously been a lack for warmth turned to downright freezing after a number of large-scale Twei protests over the mistreatment of non-Yrrani species. The Empire cracked down on the Twei, prompting a brief, but bloody, insurrection. This insurrection ended when the Yrrani gave their Twei cousins an ultimatum. Leave or die. Some of the Twei remained to continue their fight against the Empire, but once Imperial troops began executing women and children, the fight left the Twei populace, which fled their homes by the billians.

The Ghost Region proved to be the Twei’s only safe haven. It remained an undeveloped, nearly resourceless, region, but it was now home to the Twei. The Twei proved to be an industrious people, quickly building cities to house their population as they explored the largely unexplored Ghost Nebula. Once these explorers began finding resource rich asteroids and planetoids, Twei society experienced an economic boom. By 1800 years ago, some of the largest cities had begun to rival those of Pax Yrrani’s greatest cities, if not in size then in wealth. And it wasn’t just Twei that lived in the Ghost Region by this point, humans, numerous other species, and even some Yrrani had come to call the Ghost Region home.

Had nothing changed, perhaps the Ghost Region might have developed into a true rival to Pax Yrrani’s core worlds. Or perhaps the Ghost Region might have led a revolt against Pax Yrrani. Either way, the Yrrani had other plans. One day without warning Pax Yrrani deployed the Astral Sword against the Ghost Region. This superweapon literally tore holes in space around the Ghost Region, isolating it from the rest of the galaxy. These tears in space would take over fifteen hundred years to close and until they did so the Ghost Region was truly isolated from the rest of the galaxy. Travel into and out of the Ghost Region was impossible and this proved to be the case for all forms of information as well.

At first the people of the Ghost Region panicked, but this quickly bled away and was replaced with relief and excitement. For the first time the Yrrani-Twei didn’t have to live under the boot of the Yrrani. Within short order the Ghost Nebula Republic was formed, where all were equal regardless of species. The old Ghost Region Provincial Defense Legion formed the core of the Republics Armed Forces, the founders of the Republic were forward thinking enough to realize that there was always the risk of rebellions or Pax Yrrani somehow finding its way back into the Ghost Region.

The next one hundred years was a golden age for the Ghost Nebula Republic. Technological advancement, economic development, social and cultural revolutions all were center stage during these hundred years. But like all golden ages, the Republic’s ended. There was virtually no warning before-

DATA CORRUPTED

ATTEMPTING TO REPAIR DATA

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The Ghost Nebula Republic is gone. Its people are gone. Nothing looks up at the night sky with hope or aspirations as the astral tears repair themselves. The Ghost Region is once again accessible to the rest of the galaxy (although travel to the region is still limited to a few access points and the trip itself is hazardous), no communications leave the region. No ships exit to inform the rest of the galaxy of the good news. It's almost as if it, and all who lived in it, are dead.

Nation Name: Lords of Antar



Systems: Antar, Wyland, Megin, Daitan-Sa, Purileptos, Khargal, Khadjerun



Demographics:

99% humans, very small numbers of aliens

Antar system: 17.7 billion
Wyland system: 1.1 billion
Megin system: 2.2 billion
Daitan-Sa system: 1.6 billion
Purileptos system: 800 million
Khargal system: 230 million
Khadjerun system: 400 million

Nation Name:

The United Idkarian Dominion

Flag:

Map Location:

Government Type:

Constitutional Monarchy ((The Current Sitting Monarch: King Yrist Xannus Gorluin Aelamis; Heir Apparent (ala Primogeniture): Princess Ilyndra Ashwryn Yrralisa Aelamis))

Demographics:

Military:

History:

Other:

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The government is the Ruling Caste. The Hierarch Council disseminates their orders to system regional governors which keeps all systems in line with the will of the hierarchy. The council of hierarchs is made up of five members.

• Araq, Supreme Hierarch - Chosen by the Hierarch Council
• Kaloth, Hierarch of Commerce - Governs the Commerce Caste
• Gorn, Hierarch of Research and Development - Governs the Academic Caste
• Dagoth, Hierarch of War - Governs the Soldiery Caste
• Zasz, Hierarch of Industry - Governs over mass production

These members of the council all have equal power except for the Supreme Hierarch who supersedes the rest of the council. The council deliberates everything related to running the Hierarchy as a whole and is responsible for the direction of the Hierarchy moving forward.

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The Lokoid Heirarchy is made up mostly of Lokoid. It is rare to find any other race on Lokoid worlds, especially those not built for the pleasure or leisure targeted towards those of a different race.

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From birth, the order of the hierarchy is implemented. Lokoid young hatch from eggs within an egg sack as larvae. The liquids in the sack are consumed, filled with vital nutrients and antibiotics. The weak are eaten and the strong continue to develop. Once the survivors break out of the egg sack, they are taken as nymphs to be educated. Primary education begins, but nothing could prepare the young Lokoids for their second trial. The nymphs, nearing their adolescence, are thrown into the wilderness to survive. Cannibalism is encouraged if it means survival. They are given the lesson, eat or be eaten, the survival of the fittest as they once did when they were larvae. But it was also natural selection as those who fail to adapt die off. The survivors at the end of the month are taken and given secondary education. Their secondary education focuses on the general education of different subjects. Four years later, they are evaluated and if their scores drop below a quota they are euthanized, prepared as food, and is rationed to the rest of the now grown brood.

Usually, the survival rate for Lokoids in their childhood is less than half. Their massive amounts of eggs per-person, however, necessitate this way of population control. The survivors are then given a caste position and specialization training. It is possible to move up in society through individual meritocracy. The weak and the stupid are recycled and eaten. This is vestigial behavior from a more primitive time. The average lifespan of a Lokoid, if allowed to live in ideal conditions, is seventy standard years. However, the oldest known Lokoid was a hierarch who was reported to be 210 standard years old, indicating that in the best conditions the Lokoid can have a surprisingly long lifespan when compared to humans.

The castes themselves are divided into five categories:

• The Ruling Caste
• The Commerce Caste
• The Academic Caste
• The Warrior Caste
• The Industrial Caste

The ruling caste is composed of the fittest Lokoid, the ones who have displayed amazing intelligence and leadership ability within their respective caste. The ruling caste’s most powerful members are made up of five individuals known as the Hierarch Council. Each individual all have equal power to one another and have different jurisdictions. However, there is always one individual among the five that presides among the five. This individual would come to be known as the supreme hierarch. The representatives themselves are known as, from descending order of caste, the hierarch of commerce, the hierarch of research and development, the hierarch of war, and the hierarch of industry. The supreme hierarch is chosen based on leadership ability and is chosen among the five hierarchs of the ruling caste. Only a majority vote within the council of hierarchs can have the supreme hierarch replaced.

The commerce caste is composed of traders and businessmen. The commerce caste is specifically for those among the Lokoid who display great social skills and have an eye for business. The commerce caste is the primary economic group that provides the Lokoid new business opportunities in the galaxy. They acquire trade licenses, manufacturing patents, design contracts, and more. On top of this, the commerce caste is also responsible for lending and collecting loans, managing budgets and expenses, and conducting audits on the other castes.

The academic caste is composed of Lokoids who display amazing aptitudes for the sciences. The academic caste is responsible for technological gains within the hierarchy. They are in charge of designing new ships and weapons for use in manufacturing. On top of this, they are in charge of scientific advancement in many fields such as botany and particle physics just to name a few. If the commerce caste is equated to a marketing and advertising department then the academic caste is research and development. This is where new products are made and approved. If approved they are handed over to the commerce caste and industrial caste for marketing and mass production.

The warrior caste is responsible for choosing the strongest among the castes and placing them into sub-castes. These sub-castes are divided by merit and intelligence. There are four major sub-castes:

• Command Caste - Responsible for NCO’s and command staff
• Specialized Caste - Responsible for special operations
• Regular Caste - Responsible for regular soldiers and fleet personnel
• Support Caste - Responsible for operating equipment and vehicles

These sub-castes are responsible for training and selecting from placed or recruited members of the Soldiery caste. They are the backbone of the militant might of the hierarchy and make use of automated combatants if needed and are a common sight when collecting due debts and in security details.

The industrial caste is the largest among the castes and is where most Lokoid are placed. Some may find their way up the ladder from the industrial caste and into the other bodies of the hierarchy. The industrial caste is the primary workforce of the hierarchy. They are responsible for manufacturing goods, mining, and farming. They are given many avenues to rise up from this rung of society through merit. Pursuing education, displaying high levels of skill or strength, making logical and intelligent decisions, and more. The survival of the fittest and natural selection are at play. Those who do not adapt, stay in the industrial caste and are shackled to a life of service and are loaned as cheap manpower for the rest of the galaxy. Because of the individualistic nature of most Lokoid, this is seen as normal. Those who are left behind are left with basic skills and enough intelligence to do their job.

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Many centuries ago when the Yrrani were just stretching themselves across the galaxy as silent, but ever present observers of the stars around them, they came upon the lush yet harsh jungle planet of the Lokoid homeworld, Lokus-III. The Yrrani of before still felt the responsibility to let things develop naturally, they weren't yet the gods that would bring about their own destruction with their own hubris.

They observed the Lokoid who, at this point, had only reached a semi-tribal state with many groups and different ideals. Their society was brutish and barbaric when compared to the Yrrani or any of the other races that the Yrrani had encountered before. The Lokoid were stronger than most other races and preserved a warrior culture through most of the societies that they had formed. The Yrrani were prepared to write off the Lokoid as another primitive, barbaric race that would never amount to anything, that was until they found that the Lokoid were progressing rather quickly for a primitive race. In a span of three decades, they went from stone age technology to figuring out advanced metallurgy. The Yrrani quickly realized that there was potential in the intelligence of the Lokoid race. Some Yrrani xenoanthropologists speculated that the Lokoid were younger than the Yrrani when they first figured out steelcrafts.

However, the Yrrani were once again quickly disappointed to learn that the Lokoid advancement wasn't for the overall benefit or comfort of the Lokoid's people, in fact they seemed to put no effort towards comfort at all and only really cared about hygiene and advancements in medicine. The Lokoid were extremely utilitarian and the reason was because all their effort was geared towards making war. Once again, the more peaceful Yrrani of this period largely wrote off the Lokoid and kept an eye on them to make sure they wouldn't grow out of control. However, in the next century, the Yrrani found themselves in a lot of conflict and the peaceful regimes of the past have all but vanished. The new Yrrani found themselves remembering the Lokoid and their potential as stalwart warriors and within them hatched the idea of turning them into willing auxiliaries.

The Yrrani returned to Lokus-III and found that the Lokoid had changed drastically since they were last observed. The planet itself seems to have seen conflict of immense magnitude, what was once a lush planet was now only dotted with small patches of crimson, the color of their most abundant flora. What was more surprising was the fact that the Lokoid themselves had conglomerated into only one identity, the Heirarchy they called themselves. A civilization that just one century ago was only figuring out steelcrafts had now blossomed into its hyperindustrial age as a supernation on their own planet. What was more surprising was their nearby moons, of which there were three, had all shown signs of exploration. The Lokoid had taken their first steps in exploring space. Seeing this worried the Yrrani, but they didn't need to fret as the Lokoid still retained their fierce warrior culture despite their new disposition. That aggression, that drive, had just simply been channeled into something else.

The leading theory on what had happened to the Lokoid was that in the century the Yrrani had left them, they had undergone significant societal, technological, and military advancements. From the marks of major conflict on their planet, it seems that there were several nations that vied for control of Lokus-III. A battle for the planet ensued and for one reason or another, one faction completely dominated and either subjugated or exterminated the rest. From then on their growth was exponential, reaching heights of technological advancements that other races in the galaxy struggled to even get to in their first few centuries of existence. This suited the Yrrani's goals well, it meant that the Lokoid were fast learners and they would use that to channel their aggression towards the Yrrani's enemies.



First contact with the Yrrani was met with aggression, like a foot stepping into an ant nest. The Yrrani, knowing that the Lokoid had no real means of fighting back in any significant way and only understood strength, demonstrated it by glassing their biggest city. Seeing the power of the Yrrani first hand and knowing that they couldn't do anything about the Lokoid had to submit to the superior power. They vowed that the Yrrani would one day pay for humiliating their proud race.

The Yrrani wasted no time in enforcing laws that dictated that the most able-bodied Lokoid warriors were to be trained post haste. The Yrrani gave them weapons technology that they believed only they could create. But they had underestimated the Lokoid mind, they were geniuses at figuring out complex and intricate problems. They viewed Yrrani technology as a challenge to be cracked. The Yrrani themselves also had instances of autonomous AI that the Lokoid had started to admire. The combination of Yrrani technology and raw Lokoid warrior instinct, made the Lokoid Auxiliaries one of the best soldiers in the galaxy and at times better warriors than mainline Yrrani fighters. They were used to subjugate and hold colonial planets in the Yrrani empire and were more professional than their Yrrani counterparts.

Lokoid tactics and strategies were complex and multifaceted, often comprising of several staging operations. The Yrrani recognized their cunning and kept a close eye on their Auxiliaries. However, after years of loyal service and the Lokoid's best attempts at pleasantries, they were gifted hundreds of worlds. The Lokoid had negotiated for it as they said, "More worlds, more Lokoid, more Lokoid, more soldiers, more soldiers, less Yrrani death." The Yrrani, confident that they could crush the Lokoid at any moment and confident in the security of their technology that prevented the Lokoid from turning their weapons against their masters, they allowed them more and more leeway. This is what the Lokoid wanted, to lull the false gods into a false sense of security. Every world they conquered, they studied the technology of the other races; Every peice of Yrrani technology, they studied its form, its function, its effects; Every piece of information, they meticulously tore apart and brought back together.

The Lokoid constructed themselves in secret, hundreds of foundries, fabricators, and ships deep underground their planetary strongholds. They figured out the technology to finally fight back, but the Empire was still too strong. They needed to bide their time and so they did the Yrrani's dirty work up until the Yrrani's civil war.



When the Empire fell into a civil war, both sides turned to the Lokoid to bolster their forces among many others. However, they made a fatal mistake. The Lokoid had prepared for this moment, their forces spread across many Yrrani worlds, their foundries creating hundreds of autonomous weapons of war, hundreds of their warships rising form the hundreds of gifted worlds. The Lokoid had found their opportunity, and they used it.

All across the Empire where the Lokoid were present, the Auxiliaries turned on their Yrrani masters by using weapons that they had created, weapons that had no technology to prevent them from working against the Yrrani. They distributed these weapons to the locals who had been persecuted for too long. Lokoid numbers and the weapons that they fielded cut down the Yrrani in short order. The fleets of Lokoid ships seemed endless as the Yrrani cut down one, only to find another mass of ships appearing out of nowhere. Fleet after fleet, battalion after battalion. The Yrrani on both sides struggled to keep a hold of their systems as they had to fight intense battles everywhere else. Some worlds never received reinforcements, others had to abandon their posts at the sight of five battlegroups.

One century of war. One century of hunting and exterminating Yrrani forces. One century of growing the Lokoid Hierarchy's forces. The Yrrani called who had once called them, "The Terror" for they fell upon their enemies like a tidal wave, now experienced them first hand. It didn't matter whether they could stave off one attack, there was always another. Eventually, the last Yrrani remnants and their allies were wiped away by the endless tide of the Lokoid. The Lokoid then turned to those they had helped free, they understood that a service rendered was a service paid fairly. They left the former Yrrani colonies to themselves, they had wanted freedom most of all and fought for it alongside the Lokoid. It was a business transaction for the Lokoid, one that they could easily make up for later. However, on other worlds where the primary residences were the Yrrani, they claimed those worlds and turned them into Agri-worlds, Factory worlds, Mining worlds, Hab-worlds, and the like. They understood that they needed to reorganize and reorient themselves to sustain a now interstellar nation.



The Lokoid reorganized and it was a rough few hundred years, but the Lokoid stabilized. They began rubbing elbows with many other races. They were coming to be known as a reliable manufacturer of cheap quality goods and provider of cheap quality labor. However, they were not always welcomed, whether it be their past as auxiliaries for the Yrrani or their alien culture, they met with many mixed reactions.

One of the most violent encounters that they had before the Reclamation wars were with the Augustans. An Empire that the Lokoid now viewed as unreliable business partners. There were many small incidents that led to this and no one really knows what started it. But the leading theory is that it all started with an Augustan noble failing to pay the Lokoid for their services. In response, the Lokoid Banking Union and Trade Commission sent a fleet to repossess their goods or take it back by force. They had hoped the Augustans would see reason after being threatened with escalation. However, the Lokoid were infuriated to learn that other Augustan nobles and members of their military showed up to meet them. The Augustans had the gall to tell the Lokoid that they had lied about not being fairly paid and were now here to extort Augustan nobility.

This confrontation escalated into small border skirmishes that would eventually come to a head in the Reclamation wars. The Reclamation Wars saw many nations and races battle for Tar Yrra. The Lokoid encountered new enemies such as the living trees that called themselves the Mu and old friends such as the Supremites who they assisted during the Yrrani civil war and many more.

The worst of the conflict happened on the Scorched Line. The Scorched Line are a line of star systems that were fiercely contested between the Augustans and the Lokoid. Both sides saw heavy losses and contrary to usual Lokoid doctrine, they had committed considerable resources in contesting these systems against the Augustans because of personal grievances, total loss and profit were not accounted for in the Scorched Line battles and saw the Lokoid deploying their most dangerous weapons of war against the Augustans. In the end, when the 4th Reclamation War ended in an armistice called by the Idkarian Dominion establishing what would come to be known as the interstellar league of nations, the Scorched Line became a demilitarized zone between the Augustans and the Lokoid through this armistice.

Now the Lokoid along with other nations have created a defense force and sent their own independent civilian researchers to study Tar Yrra in accordance to the provisions provided by the Armistice.

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The Lokoid military uses a number of automated units for their ground and naval use. Because of their massive industrial resources, this often means that they can output a large fleet in a matter of days and with the Lokoid birth rate, it is entirely possible to staff new positions quickly with competent Lokoid commanders.

The Lokoid also field manned units and Lokoid infantry for special deployment or even as command elements. These are usually the best of the best in terms of what the military could offer.

The Lokoid military doctrine is a balance between large numbers and adequate quality. They strike heavily at a target to either degrade it or engage in a battle of attrition with self-sufficient mobile factories.