Three hundred years ago, humanity took to the stars in a desperate hurry. Using primitive FTL technology, humankind left the Sol system to escape, something. Through sheer luck and happenstance, they stumbled upon the system that housed the Galactic Council, a massive space station that serves as the capital of the Galaxy-wide government that includes every known race in the Galaxy. It’s been a hectic three centuries, but it seems as though humanity has finally found it’s place among the stars. Now, only one question remains.
Why, exactly, did humanity leave the Sol System? Why have all the records of the journey been mysteriously corrupted? Why have all the probes sent to Sol gone silent?
It seems as though, if humanity is to be a part of the future, they must confront their past.
Alright, so, with that out of the way, allow me to explain.
This will be a sci-fi RP that takes place in an original universe, in the year 2334, three hundred years after humanity left our solar system for unknown reasons. I’ve mentioned humanity a lot, but worry not, my friends. If you want to play as one of the non-human races I’m going to outline, or if you want to create your own race, go ahead.
The plot of this RP will follow a group of military personnel and civilian volunteers as they investigate what remains of the Sol system. There’ll be a need for all sorts of people. Medics, soldiers, engineers, pilots, about fifty people, of all races.
So, without further ado, let’s outline some stuff!
~100 CE: The first space-faring race, the now-extinct “Precursors,” finish building Council Station.
134 CE: A massive plague breaks out on the lost Precursor homeworld, and soon spreads to Council Station.
139 CE: The Precursors manage to develop a vaccination for the disease. However, by this time, the number of remaining Precursors is below five hundred.
152 CE: The remaining Precursors discover that a failed cloning experiment was the cause of the plague.
180 CE: The last Precursor, a being known as “Alpha,” spends the last days of his life developing a beacon to attract other spacefaring races to council station. According to legend, he died the moment he powered it on.
420 - 424 CE: In this period, three races (The Ikari, The Venians, The Ra’Voric) happen upon and reinhabit Council Station. There is some disagreement about the order in which they arrived, with the Ikari and the Ra’Voric each claiming they were first.
500 - 900 CE: After some initial squabbles about the ownership of planets near Council, the three races enter a period of peace and mutual benefit. For the first time in known history, races begin inter-mating, resulting in so called “Hybrids.” It is during this time that the Council makes its greatest scientific advancements, including the development of plasma weaponry and modern FTL tech.
901 CE: The Ra’Voric emperor is assassinated by a Venian-Voric hybrid. The enraged Ra’Voric call for an end to inter-species breeding. Tensions mount as the the Ra’Voric begin introducing anti-hybrid laws on Ra’Vor Prime.
903 CE: After two years of toleration by the other races, anti-hybrid laws come under attack when 600 hybrids are killed by Ra’Voric authorities during a riot. After a month of tense negotiations and peacekeeping efforts, the Ikari declare war on the Voric.
903 - 907 CE: The Hybrid Wars take place. Though the Venians swear neutrality, they eventually join the war on the side of the Ikari. The Ra’Voric eventually surrender, and are allowed to extradite all hybrids out of Voric space. The Ra’Voric also officially swear to never breed with other races.
920 CE: The fourth Council Race stumbles upon the Station. The Talarians, a flying insectoid race, are allowed to inhabit Council Station and the surrounding planets, but not yet given a seat on the Council itself.
920 - 1200 CE: The introduction of the Talarians renews efforts to discover new races. A period of rapid expansion ensues, resulting in the discovery of a plethora of intelligent races in various stages of technological development. None of these races were space-faring at the time of discovery.
1200 CE: The Talarians are allowed to join the Council. A law, called the “Beacon Protocol” is signed, saying that only races who were space-faring prior to discovery are allowed to sit on the council.
1222 CE: The Precursor language is cracked, allowing for the reading of ancient Precursor documents. The Council learns of the Precursor Plague, and the role cloning played in it. A law, called “The Alpha Protocol” is signed, outlawing cloning in any form or capacity. Many people begin worshipping Alpha as a deity.
1224 CE: Alpha Worshippers unite under one banner as The Church of Alpha.
1300 CE: The Galactic Standard Language is created, based off of the Precursor language. Up to this point, most people were either multi-lingual or relied on translation technology. The next few hundred years prove to be period of stagnant stability, in which very little of note happens in Council space.
1961 CE: Far, far away, humankind sends cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space, and thus become a space-faring race.
1973 - 2025 CE: On the Venian homeworld of Vena, a cultural revolution occurs. For the first time in a very long time, the Council begins to focus on things like art, music, and literature, as well as increasing the general quality of life. While there are no major scientific breakthroughs or major expansions, this era is fondly looked back on by many races, especially the Venians.
2032 CE: For unknown reasons, humanity flees their solar system (called the Sol System) using primitive FTL technology.
2034 CE: Human ships enter Council space, signifying first contact. It is unknown what happened during their journey, or why it took them two years at all. Fortunately, the Council was skilled at handling first contact by now, and the encounter was peaceful.
2035 CE: After half a year of living aboard their ships in orbit around Council Station, linguists from both sides manage to cross the language barrier. Humanity agrees to take on Galactic Standard as its official language and is given a seat on the Council. This angers the Talarians, who had to wait for their seat for almost three hundred years.
2122 CE: A pirate ship, captained by a Human, raids a Talarian vessel and kills its captain, a high-ranking Talarian soldier. The Talarians call this an act of war and declare a war of extermination on humans. Humans declare a war of extermination back. So begins the Human-Talarian war.
2122 - 2134 CE: The Human-Talarian War, at that point, the Galaxy’s longest and bloodiest conflict. It eventually becomes a war of attrition, and escalates to the point where the other powers can’t remain neutral. It is at this point that the Human-Talarian war becomes an entirely different conflict.
2134-2300 CE: The Great Galactic War, the bloodiest and longest conflict in Galactic History. Billions dead, and general casualties numbering possibly upward of one trillion. End result was that, eventually, all of the races and powers sided against the Talarians. Almost all Talarians are killed and the million or so survivors flee to the outer rim and conquer an unguarded farming colony with little resistance. The Council decides to not intervene with military, deciding that too many had already died as a result of the war. There has been no communication with the Talarians since. Talaria and its moons were terraformed for resources to cover the costs of the war.
2322 CE: The Council outlaws the racial empires that had been common up to that point and, instead, creates four new empires consisting of multiple races each. Delegates from each empire are chosen to sit at the Council. Due to this rule change, it is hypothetically possible for a non-council race to sit in the Council, but this has yet to happen.
2334 CE: After a period of relative peace, the Council begins to worry about the probes to Sol going missing. This, combined with the fact that there are no records of what, exactly, caused humanity to flee from Sol, has lead the council to establish a small scouting party to investigate.
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This’ll be for creating your own race. Non-Council races, of course. If you have an idea for a Council Race, PM me and we’ll discuss it.
Sign me up, this RP looks absolutely great! I'll have some character ideas ready for the sheet: I hope you like transhumanism and space-fascism, because they've been on my brain like white on rice.
If you're attempting an rp version of Mass Effect, it better actually have multiple endings this time
That'd be interesting. I have an idea for how I was planning on ending this, but it'd be fun if I let your characters actions affect the ending.
(Also, I love your sig. So much. I haven't played the game yet, but the short story is fantastic. Then again, with a title like I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream it has to at least be interesting.)
That'd be interesting. I have an idea for how I was planning on ending this, but it'd be fun if I let your characters actions affect the ending.
(Also, I love your sig. So much. I haven't played the game yet, but the short story is fantastic. Then again, with a title like I Have No Mouth but I Must Scream it has to at least be interesting.)
I honestly have no interest in the game. Its so different from the true story.
Is fascism intertwined with charisma? I always just assumed that fascism meant "Right-wing authoritarianism"
Sorry! I was thinking in pop-culture references to Hitler and Mussolini. "Right-wing authoritarianism" can be made for Monarchism, as well. Hmmmm. Are you just using the jist of Fascism as "Strong leader controlling a collectivist and nationalist society through militarization and heavy (autsrkist) influence in the economy?"
Sounds like a cool idea, but I'd like to know more. The character I have in mind (a military commander who is running a small company of artillery vessels to protect the other ships) would work better if it was from a larger council race, so I'd like to know more about the council races before I actually commit.
Since I'm the one who initially brought it up, I'm going to paraphrase from "eastern Europe in the 20th Century" by RJ Crampton, which contains one of the best single chapter analyses of fascism.
"Fascism is not easily defined. It has no corpus of ideology similar to the canons of marxism-leninism. It is a phenomenon of action rather than ideas: A hungargian who interviewed peasants involved in fascism reported "We fight for the Idea", but were unable to tell what the 'Idea' actually was. All that the fascists could really say was that they were for an authoritarian state whose function in most cases was to protect and foster the interests of its dominant nation: the state was usually corporate in nature. Fascist movements demand control and discipline of society and of themselves. Fascism is also at least as strong in its antipathies as in its sympathies; feeding on hatred and fear more readily than on benevolence and magnanimity. Fascists in general are anti-socialist, anti-communist, anti-semite, anti-rational rather than pro-anything, though there are always corollaries and the national concept and its lineage form the heart of fascist ideology. The Rome congress of Fascists declared:
The nation is not merely the sum total of living individuals, nor the instrument of parties for their own ends, but an organism comprising the unlimited series of generations of which individuals are merely transient elements; it is the supreme synthesis of all the material and non-material values of the race.
As a result of all of this, Fascism most commonly manifests as an authoritarian corporatist state, almost always dictatorial de jure or de facto, with an emphasis first on race and nation, and then in opposition to those factions and ideas which appear to oppose the ideas of race and nation, whether they actually do or not. It forms an ideology of action, most commonly birthed from stagnancy and appeals in giving simple answers to complex problems while fostering a feeling of belonging and purpose to those dispossessed by previous formations of nationhood."
@Zugzwang That's actually quite similar to the Space Tiefling Ra'Voric Empire. They're also really low-key eugenicists who are obsessed with the purity of their race.
A note about the empires, while they aren't technically racial, the capitals are the homeworlds of each of the council races. Each of the four empires is generally associated with, and primarily populated by, one of the council races. This is especially true with the Ra'Voric, who have managed to lower their non-Voric population by imposing huge taxes on non-Vorics. The Galactic Council is a bit upset by this, but they're still licking their wounds from the War and the Ra'Voric have the largest post-war military since they were neutral right up to the end. No one wants to risk another war over space-racism.
