The Technocratic Republic of Evyrion is a rich and highly developed commercial, industrial, and technological center. Maintained and enforced by the will of the Technocrats, the wheels of the Republic turn based on their whims. Masters of vast interstellar enterprises the likes of which spread across numerous nations, the Technocrats are all but entrenched into the livelihood of almost every lasting galactic civilization.
Their riches became so vast, that they no longer desired to do their own work. Machines and clones were developed in tandem, and since then they have become the cornerstones of the Republic.
Official Name:The Technocratic Republic of Evyrion. Common Name:The Republic, Evyrion. Government:Capitalist Republic. Dominant Species:Majority population of genetically engineered and designed clones. The Technocrats are a cultural group of multi-racial leaders, as such their demographics are a seperate matter entirely. Capital:Paragon-Centauris, Everine-system. Systems Owned:Everine-system, Oberon-system, Abalast-system, Omacron-system, Lucerus-system, Steron Primaris-system, Steron Secundus-system, Steron Tertius-system, Octocom-system, Crusero-system, Proximon-system - Those are systems with one or, more often than not, more major stellar settlements. The Republic owns several other systems, although use them exclusively for mining and industry. Planets Owned:The Republic does not inhabit planets, instead they have amassed themselves in vast stellar megastructures spread across their numerous systems. There are, however, 152 planets total within their domain, all of which are used to gather its vast and, sometimes, exotic, resources. Population:Currently scanners suggest an exact population of 729,928,116,975, 97% of which are genetic constructs.
History
(This is where you can tell us the tale of your glorious empire! History sections are neat to offer plot bunnies for other players to incorporate about your civ. On the other hand we aren't forcing anyone to make this extra detailed. Just write down what you find necessary here. Oh, and if you happen to write mini novels please put it inside hider tags to not bloat up the entire page. Thank you!)
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)
Major Holdings
(This is kind of optional, you are given a chance to describe various places of interest. This can be a planet, star system or even entire star sector. Or even something else. Feel free to list them!)
Social Information
Demographics
(This is where you can describe the one or myriad of races inhabiting your glorious civilization. With multiple races you can also talk about demographics for real. What are your major races? Where do they live? And so on.)
Society
(Your unique civilization has unique society. What are the lives of your people be like? How are they thinking? Are there any social classes? Etc.)
Government
(Describe your government here in detail. If you use something generic or just feel like there isn't enough to say you can merge this with the Society section under "Government/Society" and describe both here.)
Technological Information
Technology Overview
(Describe your civilization's technology in general)
Major Techs
(Kinda optional section to describe your most important pieces of technology. If you think a simple overview above is enough, skip this.)
Industry
(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)
Military Information
Military Overview
(Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)
Space Forces
(Describe your space fleets in more detail. You can also list your important ship and other unit types but nobody is forcing you. But keep in mind, no Death Stars!) Navy Doctrine: How does your navy operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s navy? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as fleet-in-being.
Ground Forces
(Describe your ground forces, too. This is especially important in this RP since ground/planetary combat will enjoy a spotlight. So we do suggest you to take extra attention to this section.)
Ground Doctrine: How do your ground forces operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s ground forces? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as human wave.
Official Name: The Chronological Foundation Common Name: Chromatists Government: Associative Theocracy Dominant Species: The Glinnvyr, the ideological founders of the Chronological Foundation Capital: The Cyan Soul, a bright star whose blue hue is accentuated by a reflection nebula is where the Chromatists convene ritually and so is treated as a de-facto system. Systems Owned: They don’t officially own any star systems, instead they exert hegemonic rule over a multitude of smaller world states. Planets Owned: Same as above. Population: 1:3 ratio to the average population this setting has as standard.
Overview
The Chronological Foundation is a solipsistic society which has a deeply idealistic worldview of the universe which has shaped its every move, more like a sprawling cult than a political entity, the Chromatists seek to upend existence itself and shed the illusory fabric to which we exist in before it all melts away. Their motives are based on the dogmatic belief that a synchronicity between all life in the universe must be attained, because if such unison thought is not attained all will melt. Melt away into nothingness. This is not the same as entropy, for they are of the belief this melting will be exponential in nature and people will literally melt away.
Much of these beliefs are said to have come from a living star which is referred to by the Chromatists as the Cyan Soul, a bright star which is notably anomalous and well known to astronomers for its peculiarities, though studying the Cyan Soul hasn’t really shown much at all on the star itself being alive.
That hasn’t stopped the Chromatists, of course, who know firsthand that the star isn’t literally alive. That would just be superstition. The Cyan Star is living in a more alien sense, it is the congregation of plasma life within the star they speak to!
History
The history of the Glinnvyr is a messy, convoluted affair spanning multiple time periods of differing dominant belief systems, but the smaller political units which they exist in has been a constant due to the Glinnvyr usually preferring smaller political structures with confederate associations to act as common defense against outside forces. This cyclic will not be elaborated upon for the time being, instead what shall be elaborated on is the birth of the Chronological Foundation.
Once upon a time there was a Glinnvyr known as the Brightest One, the Brightest One was a escapee from the rotting world-state of Xipani who in the stellar abyss came across the Cyan Soul, at the time uninhabited due to being too far from the common ecumene of galactic civilization. The Brightest one, banished to this burning star system with its radiation, fluctuations and unpleasant lack of any world habitable for any life (there wasn’t even a terrestrial body- it was all asteroids and gas giants) would eek a menial existence among the asteroids surviving off the icy deposits.
Using the young system’s resources to make a small home for itself, The Brightest One unwittingly stumbled across a revelation- the burning star was alive and the Cyan Soul had managed to speak to it. The Cyan Soul claimed to have been an aggregation of beings who had seen the thousand years and saw the universe melting away. Everything would melt away, unless a unity could be made to break free of reality itself. The Cyan Soul claimed itself a conduit from another universe, seeking to get out of their universe and into ours so that we may cooperate on breaking out of our universe to break into a better one that won’t melt. This message would be spread by the Brightest One to other world states, the message directly so that all would see it and thus a new faith was born.
The Brightest One never regained the fame it had sought, but the inhabitants of the rotting world state of Xipani had forgiven the Brightest One for bringing to light this new truth and the Brightest One in death had gained the greatest legacy- being the de facto founder of the Chronological Foundation. The Chonological Foundation’s origins came from a military cult which distorted the original message- a call for help made into belief that the universe could be kept from melting away by decreasing the cosmic complexity and ensuring everyone believed the universe was about to melt. It had to be done, or else all galactic civilization would become a slushy liquid to be slurped away by some sentient clouds.
The Chronological Foundation’s early military period quickly developed into a more civilian organization whose chapters grew in numerous parts of the galaxy, with ebbs and flows as to the progress on dealing with the galaxy about to melt. The melting was seen everywhere by the Chromatists, who depicted the melting as a slurry, fluid rainbow flooding the cosmos imploding star after star, eating away at all the worlds of the galaxy littered in the metallic remains of von neumann probes and the military machines of the last wars, from which the devouring clouds would come to existence from the fumes.
((And from there, I’ll need collaboration))
Starmap Information
A bluish color please, with a small circle denoting the location of the cyan soul (randomize it).
Galactic Location The left part of the galaxy between the UAC and the Amucians.
Major Holdings
The System of Deterrence
A multiple star system which has a multitude of habitable, titan-like worlds notorious for the fact every world state here has stock piled numerous missile systems they aim at each other at all times, each world state is self-isolating and believes the others seek to expand while also believing they should expand. Tensions in this system has been going on for a century, but could escalate into a system-wide conflict at any moment according to the locals. This system of Deterrence is most notable for having the largest amount of military in any single star system, the cold war here having only been made worse with Foundation meddling in the region.
The Vibrancy
The Vibrancy is a swarm of orbital habitats made by the Modulus in Coalition territory, notable for being harassed regularly by the others in this region of space. The Orbital habitats are synced to make a multitude of patterns reprenting the flow of labor in all forms of green and, sapphire blue and crimson. The Vibrancy is a melting pot with the descendants of Nerkin recruits having taken up the foam themselves to labor to the vision of the Architects Council. The Nerkin have even manage to get a couple of their own as part of the Council. The Vibrancy, while in many regards an art project, has also come to double as shelter and a defense system for those who live there over the multiple generations (120 years) the structure has been under construction.
The Cyan System
A multiple star system, with an O-class star as the dominant star with distant A-class co-orbiting stars in the distance. This system has very few planets, due to being so cosmically young that there's only the dust and a couple rapidly formed gas giants. Still, this was enough for the Chronological Foundation to make its base around one of the grey-white gas giants as the site which they listen the Cyan Soul and have votes on how to proceed in basically every policy- be it the color that should be used at the next ritual or whether or not to go fund terrorist organizations in other parts of the galaxy.
The Locus
The Locus acts as a center of many hyperspace tunnels between multiple societies and is the main control factor the Chronological Foundation has over Glinnvyr space and whatnot. It is also a pathetic, loose and often mocked symbol of suppossed "glinnvyr unity"- a concept very few take seriously anymore, but is cynically expressed in hopes of getting enough dupes to whatever imperialistic forces of the time want. This Locus is a terminus of Glinnvyr Activity and has seen its fair share of conflicts and wars, much to the disdain of the Modulus contractors the Empire of Foam had contracted.
The Foamiest World
The Foamiest World is where the five autocrats live, on a icy world with five continents which host huge installations for bureacracy and filled with foam and foam contorlled automata to the brim, of which only the autocrats can manipulate. The Foamiest World is protected by various Glinnvyr renter-protectors as well, basically a volunteer Guard who help the Autocrats with their agenda and act as a personal guard since they bought into the ideal of Foam Supremacy or are trying to vye for one of the Autocrat's positions.
Social Information
Demographics
The Glinnvyr The premier species of the Chromatists, made by the Glinnvyr who run practically everything, the minority species being there but not running anything- the Glinnvyr are not ones to trust other species with running things seeing how they ran their own societies in other parts of the galaxy.
The Glinnvyr are icy tetrapods with fractal limbs who like bathing in hydrocarbons, hate high gravity and tend to alternate between being completely still and moving because they can't think and move at the same time. They're quite big in size (they could climb onto the roof of a single-story house if it wasn't for terrible terran gravity), but highly brittle due to coming from a very small, icy planet in ancient times. Glinnvyr psychology has affected their general life style greatly, as their timing of movements dominates their thinking and military doctrines, with organizing in small pack units being the norm for them (for their niche in nature was that of a pack predator).
The Pasis are silicon based beings who are known primarily for their mega cellular body make up and being like specialized, advanced slime forms with highly protective exteriors and gooey innards. They are generally viewed as being made of rock and paste, with various specialized sensory cells to get the attention of those around them. The Pasis are a common sight primarily due to their tolerance to lower gravity environments and being a huge core of labor for the Glinnvyr. The Pasis take on a multitude of forms, included bipeds and radial spiders with long, thin prod-like legs made from cone shaped cellular units lined in a mweb of interlocking cells with hardened membranes which act basically like bones. They are most often found dwelling about the Modulus in super structures and notably do take something of a leadership role. Elsewhere they do the work the Glinnvyr won’t. The Pasis are generally considered more collectivistic than the Glinnvyr.
The Whandl are tall, aggressive many limbed somewhat insectoid beings with numerous limbs which bind and separate at will from their cylindrical body who tend to live on cold, mars-like worlds. They are a radially symmetrical species who cohabitate and tend to keep to themselves. They are the third major species of the Modulus and have been profoundly affected by the Cyan Soul’s messages to a degree not even the Glinnvyr are, though unlike the Glinnvyr they have a seemingly obsessive embrace of the melting. Like the Pasis, the Whandl are more collectivist than the Glinnvyr, but are not as collectivist as the Whandl who have more a concept of individuality that gives them a psychology which is shockingly human-like despite how different their form is.
The Whandl are very exploratory by nature and have diasporas in other parts of the galaxy, mainly due to a fair share of them having great contempt for the Glinnvyr and wanting to go elsewhere. Have you seen what the Glinnvyr think?
Society The Foundation as an organization is known primarily for a wide range of rituals which they carry out in the belief that it delays the melting, often to great mockery, but still a significant amount of Glinnvyr have come to believe in the melting on their own terms making life harder for the many polities of the Realm, especially the two major powers. The Foundation, while the dominant force must deal with the interplay between two other rival powers which have emerged since, mainly the Modulus and the Empire of Foam who have significant influence form the Foundation, but generally behave as wholly independent actors in their own petty conflicts with other Glinnvyr of the realm or with other species in other parts of the galaxy.
The Modulus is a coalition of many worlds who share common resources and are in general, a deeply socialistic multi-species cooperative unified by the various projects the Architects Council push forward. The Modulus has a widespread influence and has gone out of its way to build its structures really wherever they believe would be best, to the expense of whoever’s territory they are building in. They’re not actual expansionists, but their colonization pattern is notoriously spread out far beyond the realm with hyperspace conduits linking around to various structures they have built.
They don’t have many systems, just seven total, but each of their systems are very heavily developed or still being built on. The Foundation has used this to their advantage in trying to spread the fundamental truth of the melting much to the dismay of the Architects. Their projects often become living spaces and military installations simply because it takes so long to make them that the workers come to live in the structures, have kids and over a several generations start calling the bizarre structures home. This happened every time. The Modulus has a considerably higher population density than most of the general realm.
The Empire of Foam meanwhile is an empire ran by a pentarchy of rulers who control the different aspects of society and would rather everyone be ruled by them, though they are checked by multiple military alliances and so never really make much ground. The Empire of Foam is explicitly imperialist and is called such due to the nanofoam which they liberally use in everything. It is like wearing tons of tiny little computers in an almost utility fog-like niche.
The Foundation holds a considerable degree of influence in both societies, with many regional leaders in the Empire of Foam deferring to the tribune more than the pentarchy at times and the exploitation of the infrastructure the Modulus spent over a thousand years building up.
The world states tend to be federal societies with low stratification and low populations- the Glinnvyr like their personal space and tend to own large amounts of personal land on a world-state. The Glinnvyr tend to have intersecting land claims, but they usually don’t dispute them and often may just give intersecting land to a larval Glinnvyr. The Glinnvyr culturally are very tacit by nature and usually view movements as much more important than speech. They have copious amounts of archived information and such, along with media systems based more around physical sensation than on visual sensation. The Glinnvyr tend to live in their own little worlds, each Glinnvyr an island is the general attitude, even if in practice they act as groups on a regular basis and did so even more so before they could have machines do all the shit work for them.
The Glinnvyr tend to colonize icy worlds, which are in the vogue in the universe and terraforming an icy world to be more like their home world is not terribly difficult, just a matter of nudging and patience. Hotter parts of star systems they are usually fine with other aliens having, but do often like to mine for materials lacking in the outer system.
The Pasis colonize similar worlds to the Glinnvyr while the Whandl colonize small desert worlds closer to the center of the star system. They often will share star systems and one of the reasons for this is because it was commonly agreed upon that you can’t claim ownership on a star system, only planets and moons. Thus, you end up with many star systems with guns aimed at each other all the time which only occasionally end up in interplanetary skirmishes. The Modulus is a huge exception to this as is the Empire of Foam, of whom tend to try integrating the species to varied levels of success.
The Chronological Foundation, the leviathan in the room tends to exert its presence through cult chapters who are notorious for flooding the media with their messages from the Cyan Soul and carrying out coups in places they view as making the universe melt faster (which has no consistent definition, you just are expected to know that. This tends to translate to being whatever the tribune or cyan soul does not like).
The Cyan Soul itself has no ability to influence anything beyond the star itself, speaking to whoever can hear it. Whatever the hell is in it, no one has a clue. How to get it out, no one has a clue. If anything, some Glinnvyr seem to want in the star and lots of life has been sent to the better place as reward for their services, which translates to a trip to the Cyan Soul’s conduit star.
Government The association that makes up the Chronological Foundation consists of a loose, informal representative tribune which makes decisions by plurality and deals with potential conflict through a corpus of ancient laws from various world states, which is important as different world states have different means of resolution and keeping track of all this is one of the major elements of Foundation bureaucracy and why they are so tolerated by various world states despite their theocratic nature.
Communicating with the Cyan Soul itself is a long process, though messages from the Cyan Soul are common enough that they can be verified and sent out to all the chapters of the Foundation. There is no formal ruler as they see these as a common initiative and generally try deferring to the Cyan Soul for what their agenda should be. In effect the Cyan Soul’s interpreters in practice hold the keys to power as they come to a census of what the Cyan Soul is saying- other listeners have translated the Cyan Soul as well, but their interpretations are usually considered less valid. Usually, much to the horror of the tribunes who do not want disunity on a mission to save the universe.
Ritual action is common whenever the tribunes and interpreters convene, usually in the form of sending a primitive alien specie’s members to the better universe as per the Cyan Soul’s demands and through various silent dances.
The lower levels of the Chronological Foundation are a mish mash of political entities and cults who act like they work together when they really do not and active effects expanding chapters to other societies has hit many snags. Even when the messages are displayed many individuals or collectives from other civilizations of a similar degree of advancement are unconvinced. So often they opt to find more primitive alien societies to influence who are more apt to believe them as unlike the others, they are clear minded enough to understand the universe is about to melt.
Still, targeting the poor of other societies with their cults has produced one positive result- the destabilizing of the target society. Such destabilizing is viewed as useful by quite a few in the Tribute, cynically to weaken potential rivals and more optimistically to slow down the universe from melting by funding terrorist groups who will reduce the complexity of interstellar civilization across the board.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
This tech overview will concern itself with the general set of technology one can expect from the Glinnvyr and everything within the general realm of the Glinnvyr.
Much of the technology the Glinnvyr are made from the combined product of the various world-states and societies which have come and gone in the times past. Over time, progressively more exotic technologies began to appear as energy transfer became an art for the engineers of this realm. Being able to transmute, sap, project and extract energy using all matter of methods is a critical skill set many Glinnvyr technicians learn of.
Major Techs
Chromatic Energy essentially means the rainbow of energy which the Glinnvyr use, these colors are used to represent emotional states.
Quantum tunneling energy transfer has allowed the Glinnvyr to basically be able to have no wires in their tech, using instead quantum tunneling based transmitters to get around the issue of using lasers for energy transfer- you just project the laser through tiny hyperspace tunnels instead. This took ages to get practical, but once it did it caused a huge energy revolution within the realm. Energy networks are essentially networks of energy transferred about using quantum tunneling about to whatever devices are needed.
These energy networks have become so miniaturized that it is used in their nanotechnology, with the many colors and wave lengths being used for different applications.
As a disclaimer, quantum tunneling only works at the speed of light. It cannot be used with or at FTL velocities. Hyperspace is used for that instead, which requires being far from gravity wells as per usual.
The Glinnvyr use both Slipspace and hyperspace. Hyperspace conduits are usually placed in places hard to reach for outsiders and often protected with codes local worlds have at hand, these key masters controlling passage to far off places. The Modulus is very notoriously strict with their hyperspace network due to a well founded fear of subterfuge.
A more ancient Glinnvyr tech that has ironically become more relevant in the age of quantum energy transfer, for these diamond composite alloy systems are well known for being able to absorb tons of energy without melting (you can overwhelm them in sheer amounts of energy, usually done using kinetic weapons such as railguns or mass drivers). It is used frequently as a building material in mega structures (usually in the inner layers, with the outer layers using scale based alloys instead) by the Modulus and in military space craft for its resilience to energy weaponry.
Molten Sulfur is a common chemical material used by the Glinnvyr and Whandl, primarily for its colorful nature and also can be used to make sulfuric acid on the fly. Molten Sulfur is the material of choice in antique handheld weaponry due to its scalding, odious properties and in art for its many colors. Sulfuric acid is used regularly as a corroding agent in making spaceship interiors and in testing alloy systems along with dissolving all matter of unwanted waste.
Another major medium is that of the Foam, which is basically a exotic form of nanotechnology which is a cloud intelligence that acts with the will of the user. This foam acts as the building blocks for much of the automata the Glinnvyr use and is why the Modulus has builders- the Builders have to be there to think the foam into performing correctly. This foam is unlike circuitry due to being entirely wireless, instead being basically many, many cellular conduits with various specialized functions. The Foam's waste heat is transferred to objects known as heat boxes. The Foam is a major cultural technology as well, mainly due to being used for touch based media and is worn regularly as clothing by the Glinnvyr, especially in the Empire of Foam which is well known for having an elite pathologically obsessed with the technology.
The Foam is capable of being used as a weapon due to being able to bloat itself to obstruct passage ways and become very, very sticky. The Foam also is regularly used in missile systems as a the targeting AID, aiming the missile where the user wants the missile to go.
And the Glinnvyr have tons of foam.
Heat boxes are dispensaries for waste heat transmuted using quantum tunneling from whatever energy source needed. These heat boxes tend to be stored in places where their energy can be recycled for later use. They are not 100% efficient, however, as the heat boxes themselves radiate heat on a regular basis and can be overloaded in waste heat, a problem which has lead to all matter of heat box industries flooding the markets. Heat boxes sometimes are stored in missiles as heat boxes tend to contain tons of pent up energy, to the point where they may cause nuclear explosions (nuclear accidents with heat boxes has been a frequent issue).
Polymorphic augmentation basically is a way of accelerating one's metamorphic chances and form changes. It is a worn plastic modifies the basic form of the wearer to better fit whatever environment they are in. It's basically a smart suit and has built in settings to contend with high gravity, heat and the vacuum of space. These forms are preset changes which take time to have happen, usually a minute, but are incredible life savers.
Petrifiers are a very elaborate form of anti-radiation which basically sap away the energy from molecules. These petrify their targets by basically sucking all the heat out of them. Petrifiers require a physical conduit on the target however, and so cannot be used as a energy ray, instead they must somehow be latched onto the target to suck its energy out. Petrifiers are used regularly as a sabotage mechanism or to subvert CENs by rival Glinnvyr factions. They can be deployed by the foam as well in some cases, though the foam being what it is means it is not sapping at the rates a larger Petrifier can. And size does matter with Petrifiers, bigger Petrifiers means faster energy sapping! The Glinnvyr have rifles which penetrate their targets with many Petrifiers to saps away all their energy, usually leaving the target in a stone-like state.
Petrifiers have medical functions as well, in situations where someone has too much energy inside of them they can be used to transfer that energy to a heat box or transfer energy from one heat box to another heat box.
Industry
(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)
Military Information
Military Overview (Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)
Space Forces
(Describe your space fleets in more detail. You can also list your important ship and other unit types but nobody is forcing you. But keep in mind, no Death Stars!) Navy Doctrine: How does your navy operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s navy? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as fleet-in-being. Ground Forces (Describe your ground forces, too. This is especially important in this RP since ground/planetary combat will enjoy a spotlight. So we do suggest you to take extra attention to this section.)
Ground Doctrine: How do your ground forces operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s ground forces? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as human wave.
Credit goes to Willy for actually making the sheet outline for us, and for those of you who don't know, click raw and copy paste the bbcode into docs and type it in that way so it's already formatted when you post it in guild! Thank you.
The space of the Zorrozakiris is as expansive as it is inconsistent. Enter one part and the ruling clan may throw you a feast to welcome you and shower you in gems, enter another part and a different clan may demand you pay tribute for the rights to use their space. These great houses, often at each others throats and locked in a political, social and economic struggle for power, are kept in line only by the Temple Orders to which all clans owe their spiritual allegiance.
The central power of the temple comes from the unity of the Cholokah'zu and the Hrahakan species. The Hrahakan uplifted the Cholokah'zu and to the early Cholokah'zu, their technology seemed like magic. So it came to pass that the Cholokah'zu make little distinction between magic and technology; Indeed, the word for scientist in Yutan was originally a word that roughly meant "sorcerer".
You don't outright require to make these but they are fun so here's a good example.
Official Name: Kru Zorrozakiris j kru Ada a kru Hurota Common Name: Zorrozakiris, Zakiris, The Hrahakan Temple Government: De jure Dual Directorial System, de facto Techno-theocratic Oligarchy Dominant Species: Cholokah'zu and Hrahakan Capital: Cevik, Daeveris Systems Owned: 126 Planets Owned: 192 Population: Unknown, estimated to be roughly a trillion
History
It was the year 525 of the Fifth Era of the Hahis Calendar when the first UFO crash landed in Darrasan, a small town in the country of Yundun. By this point, the Cholokah'zu had just begun to explore steam power and were amazed - and slightly scared- by this strange alien contraption from the heavens. By the next morning, the King, Yagijuv and his councillors had arrived to investigate this discovery. Ignoring his councillors advice for caution and in an action most unbecoming of the usually cautious Cholokah'zu, he ordered it opened up to which the towns people semi-reluctantly obeyed. Inside there were nothing but skeletons and dust, the space shuttle was truly nothing more than a life-pod that had been adrift for decades at least. In opening it up, they had inadvertently released a plague on their people. This alien bug ravaged across Hahis and spread to Mistay and Aldgurgan before eventually being transmitted to Raver. Countless died and many villages were wiped out in their entirety.
It is little wonder that the Cholokah'zu considered it divine intervention when, just a year later when a meteorite that had landed in the Aldgurgan nation of Sothis contained strange alien life. At first, the jaded Sothis attempted to eradicated this new life form but a local priest, Jubin, allowed one of these alien symbiotes to merge with him. The Hrahakan that merged with Jubin took the name Arnos and the combined being dubbed itself Jubin-Arnos, who would eventually become the first Adabhutay of the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris.
Jubin-Arnos brought knowledge from an alien civilisation that, to the Cholokah'zu, seemed like magic. He instructed the people on sanitation and medicine, healing the sick and bringing comfort to the dying. Before long he had accrued a large following of men who believed him to be a divine saviour.
The Sothis Koras, who followed the pantheon that would later become the pantheon of the Johan, demanded that the king have Jubin-Arnos killed as a heretic- the king was intrigued by this holy man however and had him brought before him first. In the throne room of King Lakun, Jubin-Arnos offered to prove his 'divinity' by allowing the priest to stab him through the stomach, telling the King to leave his body alone in the dungeon afterwards. The Priest eagerly accepted and ran Jubin-Arnos through with his blade thrice before dumping the 'dead' man into the dungeon, thinking little more in the matter that evening.
That night, the jailor came to the kings chambers with a face as white as death itself. In a trembling voice, he declared the impossible; Jubin-Arnos had risen from the dead and was requesting an audience. The King took this as proof of the mans divinity for how else could one so mortally wounded and yet risen once more?
The Koras were not so easily swayed and declared Jubin-Arnos a foul sorcerer while branding the King a heretic. This schism erupted into a brief but violent civil war followed. Jubin-Arnos granted his knowledge to the kings knights, arming them with exotic weapons that the men at arms swore harnessed the winds of death themselves.
Jubin-Arnos arose the new living God at the centre of a new religion. He brought his three most dedicated followers to the meteorite he had rode in on and granted them the gift of 'enlightenment.' They joined with the eldest and most knowledgeable of the symbiotes and became another three divine prophets. The four spread out to the infected continents of the world, dedicated to curing the plague on each and winning the adoration of the people. Their tales are documented in separate scriptures; The 42 Parables of Jubin-Arnos, the 21 Sermons of Hayun-Ornis and the Homilies of Nhuzak-Tyun. Kulan-Mylin, who went to Raver, wrote no books personally although his right hand man wrote the "Blessed Perseverance of Kulan-Mylin" which documented his many struggles to convert the Raver people - and the many attempts on his life.
Once the plague was cured and the people saved, the three Adabhutay set about restructuring society. They set up many institutes of learning through their new temple, promising that enlightenment lay through wisdom and knowledge. They shared technology beyond the wildest dreams of the most daring Cholokah'zu; where once a journey would have taken a dozen days it now took a few hours by the might steel Alit and shorter still by the fantastical flying machines. Where once a Cholokah'zu farmer had ploughed using an Alit, he now ploughed using a Motorised Carriage. Truly, the prophets gifts were great and they grew greater and greater with each passing decade - to document the developments of those decades would be a herculean task in and of itself, both a miraculous leap into the future and a painful overhaul of society. Within a lifetime, the world was so much changed from what it once was that it was difficult for some to even comprehend.
Most remarkable of all for the Cholokah'zu, the Hrahakan took them beyond the sky and into the cosmos that they had formerly considered heaven. They showed them that the stars in the sky they had once thought holes into the spirit world were in fact distant suns with planets of their own - and some, the Hrahakan promised, bore life of their own. The Hrahakan told them tales of the ancients who had come before, who had mastered the universe and their destiny and eventually ascended into state that can only be described as godhood. What happened to them after that, the Hrahakan could not divine. Yet together, the Hrahakan assured them, they would spread across the galaxy and reach the same enlightenment, remaking worlds as their saw fit and seeding life where there was death.
The Cholokah'zu were captivated and pledged themselves whole heartedly to the cause, following their holy seers into the stars...
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)
Major Holdings
Daeveris System: The Capital System of the Zorrozakiris and although a heavily industrialised system as a result, its importance comes more from its status, central position to the empire and financial functions (The Vrundinis system is more heavily industrialised, Daeveris status as holy space has resulted in the preservation of much of the natural environment of the system.) Vrundinis: The Vrundinish system is the most heavily industrialised system in Zorrozakiris space, it is here that the most ambitious project to date is underway; The slow and painstaking construction of a Dyson Bubble around the systems star. This bubble draws energy and matter from the star and supplies it to the Shipyards and foundries throughout the system. While there are many such shipyards and foundries within the Zorrozakiris, none are as efficient as those of the Vrundinis system and the Order of War guards it zealously.
Social Information
Demographics
The Cholokah'Zu are a grey skinned race of four legged aliens hailing from the world of Hahis. Their two arms evolved out of a third pair of legs and combined allow them greater stability while climbing along walls and ceilings. The ends of their limbs are covered in countless hairs which are both small and flexible so that they can make contact with as much of the surface as needed, 'sticking' them to it while allowing the Cholokah'zu to loosen its grip with minimal effort. For this to work, of course, they need to be relatively light; Whereas a healthy human male might come in at around 160 pounds, the average Cholokah'zu weighs only 90 pounds, making the Cholokah'zu weaker in terms of pure strength. As such, they are not as effective in close combat as one would initially believe. They make up for this in speed and agility, however, with most able to move at speeds of up to 65 Mph and jump around eight meters. Their short claws are connected to poison glands in their hands and secrete paralytic venom when threatened, making them dangerous to exposed foes in spite of their physical weakness This speed and versatility over terrain make a trained Cholokah'zu soldier a stealthy, swift and agile foe who is especially adept at ambushing and mobile warfare. As a notable aside, their natural set up is less energy efficient over long distances than the bipedal human set up; they were primarily a sedentary and territorial species, sticking to hunting and gathering within a small distance of their den where they would store any uneaten prey for later consumption, avoiding unnecessary travel. As such few of their societies were ever nomadic and those which were often failed in the long term. Interestingly, Cholokah'zu are facultative hibernators and can induce the state at will. They do not 'dream' in this state, there is no sleep or REM sleep, but rather are semiconscious and perceive the world around them as if through a strange filter - Likely to allow them to wake up at the approach of a dangerous animal. Regardless, this has allowed some Cholokah'zu, particularly those of the Raver continent, to attach a spiritual meaning to their torpor and thus some Cholokah'zu use this as a meditative state during religious festivals and sermons or simply to 'commune with the spirits.' Today this is a relatively unimportant distinction so long as the supply lines hold but historically it caused a lot of grief for empire builders, making the logistical problems with feeding an army over a long distance that much worse.
The Hrahakan are a 4cm long wormlike symbiotic alien that can infect a wide variety of species. It's body has a series of small hook like appendages that extend out once it has found a suitable host. These appendages 'plug' into the victims nervous system to allow for control. Outside of a host, a Hrahakan is weak and easily physically disabled, although it is surprisingly quick and can enter through almost any part of the body. Once inside the body, it swiftly makes its way to the nervous system and bonds with the host. In this wormlike state, the Hrahakan lacks much of its intelligence; It still has much of its knowledge and memories, but these are stored almost like a compressed computer file and are thus inaccessible. Once the Hrahakan takes a host, however, it has access to the hosts mental faculties and uses them to great effect. Hrahakan can also act without the victim even realising that the creature is present; due to their control over the hosts nervous system and brain, they are able to manipulate their hosts into thinking that an idea of the Hrahakan is the idea of the host. Naturally, this action has to be something that the host considers logically sound or at the least consistent with their usual behaviour or the dissonance may tip off the host. The Hrahakan can be symbiotic rather than parasitic; a Hrahakan can greatly increase the regenerative capabilities of its host, somewhat mitigating otherwise serious wounds and greatly increasing the creatures lifespan span. Additionally, Hrahakan who have had several hosts can transfer knowledge to their new host. Even on occasions where the Hrahakan has not revealed itself, it may benefit the host by reminding them of important information, boosting their mental faculties, immune system and healing processes. The Hrahakan on these occasions will subtly aid hosts in rising to positions of wealth and security within a society, thus increasing the hosts available supplies and subsequently the food intake of the Hrahakan. Although physical weak, the creature is resilient to environmental factors such as temperature and pressure and can survive both the vacuum of space and passing through the atmosphere of a planet. The former of these capabilities can be extended to their hosts, through means unknown. Being so small, they can hide away on crevices on ships or inside equipment and be transported unknowingly to a new world.
Society
The official language of the Zorrozakiris is Yutan which has supplanted most other languages to the point where it is the primary language on the Hahis, Aldgurgan and Mistay continents although many other languages exist and are still spoken prominently in some regions. The other important language is the tongue of the Raver peoples, an amalgamation of old tribal languages mixed with influence from the now dead Aldgurgan languages. They prefer their tongue over Titan and although many are at least capable of understanding it, they may pretend they can not simply to avoid outsiders.
The majority of the Cholokah'zu consider wisdom to be the primary characteristic of a good person. In their fairy tales, heroes spend much of the story planning and consulting with wise elders to decide upon the correct course of action. The villains in these stories instead act rashly and fail as a result of an oversight. The largest religion is the state religion of the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris (Holy Temple of the Ancients), but there are two other important religions factions within the Zorrozakiris; The first is the Jogah while the second is the traditional ancestor worship of the Cholokah'zu tribes of the south eastern continent of Raver.
The Jogah are the most controversial of the religious organisations in Zorrozakiris as they believe that, contrary to the claims of the Adakoras, godhood is unobtainable and that the Ancients were never gods. The Jogah believe in a pantheon of four gods; Deh (God of Love and Peace), Gallahakir (God of Death and the Afterlife), Ornothex (God of Wisdom and Nature) and Jubidak (God of War and Honour). They believe that these gods smited the ancient ones because they were arrogant and viewed themselves as being above religion. They believe that the teachings of the Adakoras temple will inevitably lead to the same state of affairs and thus stand in direct opposition to them. The beliefs of the Jogah are fundamentalist and its members believe wholeheartedly in absolute morality.
The Tribal Ancestor Worship is still held as the religion of a number of Clans descended from the Raver and these clans are the biggest force against absolute temple dominance. The Adakoras simply holds that these beliefs are not incompatible with the faith of the Syfhendaris and continues to try and convert these tribes to their faith. There is a great degree of overlap with the two faiths due to the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris effectively supplanting ancestor worship in many Cholokah'zu societies, and bastardised fusions of the two religions have become the norm among Raver Clans. The main point of contention between the two is that while the tribes believe that all of their ancestors have become part of the spirit world and influence the mortal plane, the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris teaches that only souls who achieve enlightenment ascend into this state with all others being reincarnated instead.
Some Cholokah'zu believe that their hibernation/torpor is actually a meditative state that they can enter for various religious reasons. Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris faithful will typically enter this state in the hopes of making progress towards enlightenment while Raver ancestor worshippers believe it is capable of allowing one to communicate with the spirits of the dead. As such, these Raver typically enter the catacombs of their ancestors and enter the state to communicate with their ancestors and some take hallucinogenics before doing so. The Temple has issued many proclamations against this practice and tried to stamp out. In fairness, hallucinogenic meditating has historically resulted in more than a few -bad trips- where a Raver tribesmen believes they have been contacted by some long dead ancestor and ordered to drive out the 'imperialist scum'. One can hardly blame the temple for disliking this practice, as they are often among the targets of these psychosis induced killing sprees. Media stories covering these events have led the Jogah fundamentalists into thinking that hibernation is more likely to result in communication with and possession by some unspecified demons.
While religion plays an important role in Zorrozakiris society, it is naturally not the be all and end all. The Cholokah'zu have many literary icons such as Grungis Hruma who wrote countless plays and poems and is considered something of a literary genius by many Cholokah'zu. Those on the Raver continent typically prefer the works of their own writers like Zharanana Gkiz who compiled the poetic traditions of many tribes and added many of her own in her magnum opus Ancestor Hymms, or the (possibly apocryphal) writings of Zozumiralpachar Yeherradad, the first 'Zruti-jyo-Zrutit' (Chief of Chiefs in the tongue of the Raver people) who united the Raver tribes during the Aldgurgan colonisation. He was eventually betrayed by the Tribe of Ahalkalun who led him into an ambush in exchange for wealth, territory and power in the Sothis Empire (An Aldgurgan trading nation that was in ascendancy during this period, the Sothis would maintain its empire for 230 years before it finally crumbled to infighting. Many Ahalkalun choose to fled to Sothis after the Empire crumbled rather than remain behind to face retribution from the other tribes. Those who have Ahalkalun ancestors are still distrusted and disliked to this day by the other tribes and were very much rewarded as a traitor should be, having failed to gain any considerable political power since).
Another important cultural icon is the Arum, a wooden ball of nested concentric spheres. Hidden in its core is a message that can only be removed when the player works out the complex alignment of spheres. To reach the core, each sphere has to be operated in turn to activate the next. No sphere can act without the next one moving. A Cholokah'zu is traditionally gifted four Arums at birth; One from his father, one from his mother, one from the local Makayada and one from his godparents. Each of these messages is supposed to impart both wisdom and love for the child, which the child will uncover throughout his life as he solves the Arumis in any order he chooses.
The most popular sport in the Zorrozakiris is a form of honourable fighting that is held in arenas and broadcast around the worlds. Many of these duels involving melee weapons are usually done until first blood and blows to the head and neck are strictly prohibited, although some arenas prefer fights that go on until one party yields or collapses from exhaustion. Safer still are the duels involving 'ranged weapons'; Typically, these are done in specialised suits using laser weapons that cause the suit to freeze up if hit and are often held between teams of several dozen combatants vying for glory. Many of these are professional arena fighters, although the Order of War often trains soldiers in combat in the Arenas. Finally, however, are the 'blood rounds'. These fights are to the death and typically involve convicted murderers, rapists, traitors and other such violent criminals. A criminal who survives 20 of these battles has his sentence commuted to banishment- but few survive 20 of these fights.
With the Hrahakan having effectively pulled the Cholokah'zu past several stages of development, communism or its equivalent idea never developed in Zorrozakiris, the closest they have come is the Temple itself. Democracy, too, is not a familiar idea to the average Cholokah'zu; although local regions might hold elections for their officials or clans might hold elections for their councillor, this is neither universal nor the norm. Their idea of the perfect ruler might come closest to the idea of a philosopher kings; a highly educated ruler with a love of knowledge, intellect and wisdom. The Adabhutay are said to be all these things and to love their people unconditionally. Some Adabhutay are selective with their appearances, inviting only a select few great people to discuss with them. Others are more open, frequently travelling their province and speaking with the people, sometimes with fantastic and extravagant processions.
Wredru Zak (Layman; Literally, Ritual Person): Typically a young girl or boy who has been taken in by the Temple or who assists in religious rituals in exchange for education.
Nhu'ko (Novice; Literally, little/less learned/educated): Someone who has undertaken religious education at the Temple. One must join the Temple as a Nhu'ko if one wishes to join the Clergy or enlist with the Order of War but the Temple accepts any who wish to learn more about the faith and its history, even unbelievers.
Nhu (Adept; Literally, Learned/Educated): A person who has finished their religious education and is able to commit to joining the Order of War or the Clergy. At this point, the individual has not taken any vows and is not considered to have sealed a sacred pact. As such, they are perfectly free to choose a separate career path and many devout Cholokah'zu have attained this rank in the Temple simply out of a desire to understand their faith better or to continue down the path to enlightenment. Nhu could be considered a title rather than an actual rank, a degree in theology if you will. As such, unbelievers can be considered Nhu without holding any official position in the Temple. To advance to Acolyte or to join the Order of War, they must take sacred vows and forever be sworn to them.
Clergy: Juhuada (Acolyte: Literally, Helpful Holy): A Juhuada is an a fledgling clergyman who has taken their vows and has entered into service. They are usually young and will spend their time as an Acolyte assisting the Makayada before being apprenticed to a Makayada as a Kopada. Kopada (Curate: Literally, Lesser Holy): A Kopada is effectively the most Senior Acolyte, the apprentice of a Makayada who is being prepared as his successor. Makayada (Priest; Literally, Teacher Holy): A Makayada is the priest in charge of a Adakoras (Temple/Church/Shrine). They will have a Kopada as their apprentice and eventual successor and may also be in charge of some Acolytes. Makayada'te (Bishop; Literally, Great Teacher Holy): A Makayada’te is the religious authority for a Province, having two or more Makayada as their subordinates. Adabhutay (Prophet; Literally, Holy Seer): An Adabhutay is the highest position one can attain within the Temple. An Adabhutay is the religious figure head for the continent on a developed world and can be considered nothing less than a living god - or at least the closest one can get without ascension - to the Cholokah'zu people. The four original Adabhutay are considered to be senior and greater than the others, holding more importance and influence.
Government
Zakir Ada (Council Spiritual) and the Zakir Hurota (Council Temporal) are the two main political bodies of the Zorrozakiris. The Zakir Hurota is mostly an administrative and legislative body and although nominally equal to the Zakir Ada, it is de facto subordinate and has some policies outright dictated to it. This is mostly due to the Zakir Hurota being a divided body composed of the Cholokah'zu tribes and clans which control their own parts of each world. These clans are always manoeuvring against each other though outright wars are rare; when this occurs, the Zakir Ada typically deploys the Order of War to police the offending clans and restore order. The Zakir Ada is governed by the Adabhutay. Although there is no formal distinction in rank between the Adabhutay, they show deference to the four Adabhutay of Cevik; Hayun-Ornis, Jubin-Arnos, Nhuzak-Tyun and Kulan-Mylin
Although there are innumerable clans and houses in this space age, the Great Clans are the truly influential ones. Most clans tend to rally around alliances with each other and at the head of these alliances are the Great Clans. Lymier: Occasionally known to the galactic community at large as the Banking Clan, Lymier is the clan outsiders will likely have the most knowledge off. Lymier has grown fat off of trade and commerce, controlling important hyperspace routes through Zorrozakiris space and conducting mining operations and trading throughout the galaxy. With this wealth, it established itself as a major international bank where possible. They tend to be more cynical than the other clans and, although still religious, sometimes openly disregard the temples wishes in favour of profit. Lrumah: One of the two major militaristic clans of the Zorrozakiris, Lrumah maintains a well equipped and well trained army and navy. The Lrumah has a quota for military recruits each year and on the rare occasion this is not met, they will conscript young able bodied cholokah'zu into service. Although the Temple officially frowns upon mercenary work, Lrumah openly leases army and naval forces to other nations on mercenary contracts in the war against the Daisan. This flaunting of the Temples wishes is a strange anomaly in the Lrumah's extreme devotion to the Temple. Deele: The second of the major militaristic clans of the Zorrozakiris, Deele emphasises defence to a greater degree than Lrumah. Deele builds multiple surface-to-space weapons around its forts and palaces and launches many defensive orbital platforms- and yet Deele is often entangled in arguments over authority and jurisdiction with frustrated planetary defence force officers, who are supposed to be consulted before changes to the defence grid are made. Grunda: The least of the great clans, Grunda is a recent addition to the Great Clans having supplanted Clan Veton 31 years ago. Grunda controls some of the most fertile farmlands and rural worlds in Zorrozakiris space and as such is a very important and influential clan. Although it is sometimes not afforded the respect it deserves from older great clans such as Lrumah, even they now begrudgingly admit its importance. It is not a militarily powerful clan itself, but Grunda maintains close ties to the Temple and as such its major planets have an Order of War Battleship permanently stationed above them. Yeherradad: Yeherradad is unique among the Great Clans in being the only one descended from the Raver clans, specifially claiming lineage from the great Zozumiralpachar Yeherradad. They were among the first clans to fuse the traditional ancestor worship with the doctrines of the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris and popularised the trend. Although the Adakoras J Kru Syfhendaris continues to try and convert the Raver fully to their doctrine, the current stability on the continent is well appreciated by all parties. Yeherradad is thus the Great Clan least affiliated with the temple and the Adabhutay in these territories find themselves constantly busy attempting to spread their philosophies.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
(Describe your civilization's technology in general)
Major Techs
Regeneration Chamber: The Regeneration Chamber is a metallic tube which injured organics are placed into. The chambers interior is lined in a strange seemingly synthetic tissue that is actually a large network of the regenerative hormone glands the Hrahakan produce within their hosts. This tissue closes around the person and they are merged with it temporarily as they are connected to the Regeneration Chamber. Hormones are rekeyed for their genetics and delivered directly too them along with appropriate medication. They later awaken free of the fleshy embrace and find their injuries healed and their bodies repaired.
Nanite Fabricators: The Fabricator uses nano-machine fabrication lances to quickly construct ships, vehicles, satellites and other such large scale constructions. These fabricators are commonplace technology within factories and even aboard larger sships.
Quantum Energy Field Manipulator: The manipulator is used as a sort of 'gravitational' device and there are a number of common variants, such as the ship mounted tractor beam or a handheld industrial device. This device draws a specific object towards it or pelt it away with considerable force. Variants of this technology are used for heavy lifting, handling dangerous materials and minor utility functions. A powerful variant of the QEFM exists known as the energy gauntlet; Although an expensive item, most richer Cholokah'zu will own one and many military and law enforcement personnel will have a variant built into their armour. The Energy Gauntlet is powerful enough to manipulate people at range, lifting them from the ground and tossing them or holding them in place and can also be used to block ballistic weapon fire by generating a continuous field..
Industry
(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)
Military Information
Military Overview
(Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)
Space Forces
"Glory and honour guide our ascension."
Akulxixas (Carrier): At just over 2410 meters long and 2140 wide from its furthest points, the Akulxixas carrier is vastly larger than the other space craft of the Zorrozakiris. Carrying 150 Tucahay'ko and a thousand fighter/bombers internally spread over eight hangars as well as 72 Orhnak Zak and 36 Inbukhtuay attached to its exterior, the Akulxixas is the true capital ship of the Zorrozakiris. The Akulxixas has 64 point defence lasers and 30 twin-linked laser cannons, 32 heavy missile pods as well as 16 ion cannons, 16 heavy laser cannon batteries, 6 plasma torpedo launchers, six heavy ion cannons as well as a pair of plasma lances. In addition to their standard complement of star craft, the Akulxixas is often used to transport large numbers of soldiers and ground vehicles for invasion purposes as well as vast amounts of cargo to maintain supply lines.
Kull (Battleship): Coming in at 1004 meters long and 720 meters wide, the most noteworthy design feature is an expansive series of internal cross bracings and redundant systems built in honeycombs sectioned off from each other by bulkheads. This makes the ship surprisingly durable to damage and hull breaches, with some Kull having continued to fight despite losing 80% of their armour and suffering breaches to all decks. With 56 point defence lasers, 32 heavy missile pods, 24 twin-linked Laser Cannons/ion cannons (varies as to how many are laser cannons and how many are ion cannons), two 'heavy' railguns, four 'light' railguns, twelve heavy laser/ion cannon batteries (again, varies.) four plasma torpedo launchers, a tractor beam and a plasma lance, the devastation this ship can wreak with a single salvo is as considerable as the punishment it can take. The plasma cannon is a recent development and has a long cooldown time compared to their other weaponry, firing a continuous beam of energy for eight seconds that is extremely effective when used against unshielded craft, especially if said craft is also held in place by the tractor beam. It is significantly less effective against shields and so is typically used as the final knock out punch against an enemy ship once their shields have been dropped. This has led to some commanders adjusting the configuration of their ships ion and laser cannons and refitting them; while the Order of War usually keeps to the standard one to one configuration for versatility, the PDF and Clans typically prefer to have more ion cannons to lower the shields of enemy capital ships as fast as possible. For this reason, PDF, Clan and Order of War admirals alike often insist that one or two of their Adadun battlecruiser captains switch out some of their laser cannons for additional ion cannons. Such altered Adadun battlecruisers are usually referred to as the Adadun-Inbukthu to distinguish them. The Kill Battleship has two large hangers for a total compliment of 100 fighter/bombers, 20 dropships with 24 Orhnak Zak and 8 Inbukhtuay ships carried externally
Adadun (Battlecruiser): At 713 meters long, 410 meters wide and 247 meters in depth the Adadun cruiser js a major step up from it's smaller brethren and sometimes acts as a flagship for small fleets or strike groups. The Adaduns armaments are 42 point defence lasers, 20 heavy missile pods, 16 twin-linked Laser Cannons, 6 ion cannons, 1 heavy railgun, 2 light railguns, 8 heavy laser cannon batteries, four plasma torpedo launchers, 2 heavy ion cannons and a tractor beam. A variant of the Adadun known as the Adadun-Inbukthu class is also used to support Kull battleships and each Kull battleship will be accompanied by an Adadun-Inbukthu. This ship has only 8 twin-linked Laser Cannons and 2 heavy laser cannon batteries as opposed to the usual 16 and 8 respectively, but has 14 ion cannons and 6 heavy ion cannon batteries. Both variants have two hangers capable of carrying 2 dozen fighter/bombers each and both variants carry 12 Orhnk Zak and 4 Inbukhtuay externally.
Tucahay (Raider Carrier) A 376 meter long and 332 meters wide ship with a depth of 310 meters, the Tucahay fufills a special role. Although it carriers a small complement of space ships for a carrier, the extra space is taken up by two parralel FTL drives. One of these drives is a hyperdrive and the other is a slipspace drive, allowing the ship to perform a hit and run technique. It is designed to make precision hyperspace jump into an enemy system and deploy it's fighter bombers close to a strategic target; The craft then deliver their payload and return to the ship, after which it makes its slipspace jump out of the system to safety before the enemy can mount an organised response, working its way to another nearby hyperspace lane and then using that lane to return to its fleet. Such raids have a hard time limit set by the commander and if a craft has not returned to the carrier by that time it will be left behind. Although the damage of such a raid is typically light and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it can misdirect enemies and delay repairs or construction of ships by raiding shipyards, disrupt trade and damage strategic targets. It is equipped with a considerable 40 point defence lasers, ten laser cannon batteries and six ion cannons but no main guns. It carries 34 Fighter/Bombers and Four Dropships split between two hangers. On its exterior, the Tucahay carriers two Inbukhtuay Corvettes and six Orhnak Zak patrol vessels. The Tucahay also possesses an ablative stealth coating and a stealth field generator (although it is unable to carry exterior craft that do not possess these features while making effective use of either of them, though occassionally Orhnak Zak patrol vessels will replace some dropships within the Tucahay) making it capable of long range and quiet expeditionary operations or special forces work.
Fargothay (Destroyer): The Fargothay is roughly the size of Imalah frigate and follows a similar design, although it trades most of the frigates point defence weapons for additional weapons and carries a pair of heavy railguns, 16 heavy guided Missile pods, four ion cannons, eight heavy laser cannons and two plasma torpedo launchers. It is surprisingly highly manouvreable and nimble, more so than the frigate. For defence against starfighters, the Fargothay carries a mere six point defence lasers and thus is reliant on other vessels for point defence and thankfully carries four Orhnak Zak patrol vessels for this purpose.
Imalah (Frigate) The 473 meter long, 320 meters wide and 190 meters in depth the Imalah is a significant step up from the Corvette. Designed as a mainline warship, capable of engaging in a protracted fight and typically used to support a destroyer, the Imalah frigate is the first ship to carry a proper punch. Attached to its 'underside', the Imahlah carries six Orhnak Zak patrol vessels and two Inbukhtuay Corvettes for FTL travel. The Imahalah is equipped with 20 point defence lasers, 14 heavy guided missile pods, 10 laser cannons, 4 heavy laser cannons and 2 ion cannons and a railgun.
Inbukhtuay (Corvette): At a little under 100 meters long and 51 meters across, the Inbukhtuay is an extremely humble warcraft designed to be deployed in large numbers for support purposes. Sporting ten point defence lasers, six laser cannons, two guided missile pods and with its main gun being simply heavy laser cannon, the Corvette is best suited for defence action, dealing with enemy fighters/ballistic missiles and providing support for larger vessels during engagements. It's hyperdrive is a short range model only capable of travelling up to a fifty light years at a time. While this is perfectly adequate for defensive work, this leaves the Corvette with a very small force projection range. To solve this problem while keeping the ship small and cheap, it possesses the ability of the Orhnak Zak to attach to the exterior of a ship and many of these are carried by larger capital ships for deployment across large distances
Orhnak Zak(Patrol Vessel): The 34 meter by 18 meter Orhnak Zak is in many ways a dropship with its troop bay removed replaced with more weaponry. In addition to the laser cannons, it has a point defence laser on it's other four faces with its gravity lift being modified so that it can double as a tractor beam. It is thus suited for dealing with enemy fighters and ballistic missiles and patrolling solar systems. Both the Orhnak Zak and it's brother the Tucahay'ko dropshipp possess the ability to attach themselves to spacecraft using electromagnets. While the Tucahay'ko most often uses this to board enemy ships, the Orhnak Zak instead tends to be attached to larger FTL capable ships via dedicated attachment ports. This was used as a cost effective way to increase the amount of ships that can be brought to a battle- as well as acting as acting as additional turrets and weapon hardpoints whiles attached. Lagailok Daril (Bomber): The Lagailok Daril is a 32 meter wide and 21 meter long 'bomber' designed to deliver conventional and nuclear payloads. Aside from being used for strategic strikes on ground targets, it is capable of causing considerable damage to other ships if equipped with a nuclear payload. Tucahay'ko (Dropship): The 34 meter by 18 meter dropship is a triangular design equipped with a single gravity lift for dropping and retrieving troops. It has three laser cannons in a triangle around the gravity lift, used to lay down suppressing fire while it deploys its troops. Some Tucahay'ko possess stealth coating and stealth field generators as well as cloaking devices and these are often used in Tucahay raider carriers for special operations purposes Quarra (Space Fighter): At 11 meters long, 16 meters wide and 7 meters tall, the Quarra is an agile fast attack craft designed to endure dogfighting with its two laser cannons and two missile pods while being capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear payloads
Ground Forces
The City Watch: The City Watch is the secular police force of the Zorrozakiris that maintain order in the capital city. They are typically armed with electroshock batons and stunguns but may be issued ballistic weapons or laser pistols in times of conflict or civil strife. Senior City Watch Officers are equipped with Energy Gauntlets. Unlike the Order of the Watch, unbelievers are accepted into the city watch.
Planetary Defence Force: The closest the Zakir Hurota has to a proper military force, the Planetary Defence Forces are a well-equipped and well-trained military force that are ready to launch into action should the planet be threatened. They typically have a strong armoured division and run the planetary defence grids, orbital fortifications and surface-to-space weaponry and thus on larger and more developed worlds the PDF can inflict significant casualties on invaders. Born from the need of the Zakir Hurota for an impartial military arm, the PDF were one of the few things the Zakir Hurota has ever managed to agree on after word of the Daisan appeared on the rim. In the decades since, the PDF has been transformed from the defensive garrison of the planetary defence weapons and orbital platform into a full blown military force, operating warships and participating in boarding actions of enemy or suspect vessels.
Clan Armies and Guards; Each Clan maintains its own fighting force that varies in quality and commitment; Some of the Great Clan armies like that of Lrumah are as well equipped and trained as the Order of War while others, such as those of the Gkiz clan, only have a ceremonial household guard. Likewise, recruitment policies vary with more religiously devout clams only accepting believers and the quality of recruits varying wildly. While the PDF is the official force of the Zakir Hurota and the Order of War is the most illustrious of the Zorrozakiris armed forces, clan retainers are still a common sight on the battlefield.
"Comfort is given, justice is taken." The Order of the Watch is the police force of the Temple; They supplant the City Watch and local clan guards on Temple Property and protect holy relics and are sworn to uphold both secular and religious law (when on temple property, outside of temple property religious law is not legally binding.) Its members are expected and encouraged to be highly devout and pious but unlike the soldiers of the Order of War, the Watch have had no further mental conditioning or indoctrination. They take special care to maintain a positive public opinion and members of the Order of the Watch often donate an amount of their wage to charity (although this is not as selfless as it might first appear, as the temple provides 'free' sustenance and board to Watchmen who donate more than 20% of their wage. In big cities, this is often cheaper than renting and buying food themselves for many younger and lower paid members of the order.) The Order of the Watch uses a wider range of equipment than the city watch and wear the ornate armour of the Order of the Watch. While junior members of the watch are still equipped with electroshock batons and stunguns like their secular counterparts, senior watchmen are equipped with Shock Lances that combine the abilities of an electroshock baton and a stungun into a single weapon that appear similar to an energy staff. All members of the Order of the Watch are equipped with Energy Gauntlets.
Order of War "Their hands." The Order of War is by far the largest of the branches of the Temples Military, encompassing both the army and the navy. It's soldiers are extremely zealous, with many willing to fight for the death even if the orders seem senseless. Many members of the Order of War are bonded with Hrahakan youth, allowing them to recover from grevious injuries and remain combat ready long after they should have passed on.
"Their hands."
The typical small unit structure of the Order of War in battle is as follows Battle Twins: Two Soldiers. A temporary or informal unit with two soldiers working together to advance through bounding overwatch. That said, it has also been applied to a unit with one shield bearer providing mobile cover for a soldier with a squad automatic weapon. Snipers are the only type of unit to have this as a permenant, official unit size. Lance: Four Men (One Soldier with a Shield and a Staff Weapon, One Soldier with a Staff Weapon, One Soldier with a Light Machine Gun, One Soldier with a Staff Weapon and a Missile Launcher) Pod: two+ Lances + any attached support units such as Snipers Battletwins or armoured support.
The Military Technology of the Zorrozakiris is primarily energy based in origin. One of their primary weapons is the energy Staff; The energy stave is, as the name would suggest, shaped like a traditional staff with an ornate headpiece. Its shaft is actually a disguised capacitor and the crest a finely tuned focusing device. This allows the wielder to unleash searing, powerful bolts of plasma graded for anti-infantry work towards the enemy, perfect for blasting through heavily armoured enemy infantry or even lightly armoured vehicles. The 'spike' like focusing components at the head of the staff are resilient enough to double as a melee weapon at closer range, and can be super heated specifically for melee combat. In case a target calls for a more explosive solution, one Order of War soldier per group will also carry a plasma missile launcher. Another will carry the teams dedicated squad automatic weapon which spit out relatively weak energy blasts at an alarming rate, providing an excellent suppression weapon. The weapon is powered by battery pack the soldier carries on his back, making him less agile than his comrades and making him very vulnerable to attacks from the rear, as damage to the battery pack may render the weapon completely useless- or detonate the user himself. In addition to their standard personal energy shields, some soldiers opt to carry an additional energy shield in the form of- a shield. This shield is much stronger than that protected by their breast plate, however it naturally only covers one angle of attack. The shield projects an field around the shield that is visible to the naked eye as a faint bluish glow. The shield can be planted into the ground and the dimensions of this shield can be expanded to turn it into deplorable cover for the soldiers. These are generally used to deflect incoming enemy fire using the generators built into the device, preventing the force of the kinetic energy from impacting the soldier. If there are any nearby enemy units, the bearer may try to position the shield so as to deflect this firepower towards them instead. Their armour is made from two layers. The first is a flexible undersuit made out of flexible cloth padded graphene while the second layer is a hardened carbon nanotube plating. The generator for the soldiers personal shield is housed in the centerpiece of the chest plate and this is where the shield is strongest. The shield can be altered by the unit to response to circumstances - for example, to disable the shielding at the feet. Shielding would prevent the Cholokah'zu warrior from climbing vertical surfaces during battle, a tactic the Order of War takes great pride in considering their emphasis on movement and agility, allowing to take foes by surprise, organise elaborate ambushes and reach vantage points. Armour also varies based on squad position; the squad machine gunner has a sort of semipower armour exoskeleton to allow him to manoeuvre efficiently while carrying the heavy weapon and its power pack. Specialist squads may also have jump packs or stealth fields. All soldiers carry a vibration combat knife that uses ultrasonic vibrations to carve through flesh, bone and some forms of light armour alike. They also carry a laser pistol as their siderm; this small energy weapon lacks the power to reliably penetrate modern military armour but is serviceable as a light backup weapon. The leader of each Lance will have an integrated command and control system as well as providing direct audio-visual feeds to the COs. Sniper weapons are also energy based, using a highly focused beam of energy to cause a small explosion at the point of impact. These snipers are sometimes deployed to support an ambushing pod. There are naturally specialist weapons for special duties but the aforementioned equipment is by far a more common sight.
Not strictly a vehicle, this this drone is fast and agile but lacking in both armour and firepower, the combat drone and thus useful for scouting and distracting the enemy as well as for providing support to heavy vehicles. Technical repair drones also exist and are often deployed to support heavy vehicles. The lightest and fastest of their vehicle is a fast attack/scout single man speeder. They use a repulsion plate to skim a planet's gravitational field, simulating the effect of flight, and enabling them to perform low-altitude manoeuvres, it skims over otherwise impassable terrain as if it were nothing and is capable of limited flight. It bears a dual pair of autocannons, suitable for anti-infantry use but all but useless against armoured tanks. Suited for harrassment and raiding, it is aptly named the Pulut, after a farmyard pest known for killing poultry and stealing food. In addition to a pair of under slung laser weapons suited to anti-infantry work, this alien craft possesses what is effectively a scaled up version of the energy staff, possessing much more power. It is for a good reason that this tank got the name Daril Ukhulay, which translates into "Demon Killer". The Daril Ukhulay is designed for taking out large targets, enemy positions or clumps of tightly packed enemy soldiers. Like all Order of War vehicles, it is constructed with reasonably thin and light Armour, resistant to small arms fire but like paper-mache to a railgun or staff weapon. Equipped with a repulsion plate, these overgrown cannons are surprisingly swift moving and provide a meaty punch in an Order of War strike. A very strange alien device that is an odd amalgamation of organic parts and metal. It does not have a pilot in the traditional sense; organic nerves were threaded through this vehicle by a Hrahakan. The vehicle is piloted by one of these symbiotes which 'plugs' itself into the nervous system and operates the vehicle from deep within as if it were a host body. It's fast moving turret fires a continuous laser beam that is well suited to bringing down enemy aircraft or missiles but can also be put to work on other enemies provided they do not get within its minimum range. The Ruhkt possesses no other weapons. The Ukhulay walker is, like the Ruhkt, often piloted by a Hrahakan (although remotely controlled variants and autonomous variants do exist and are occasionally deployed). With thick armour, a powerful focus beam and shielding, the Ukhulay makes an excellent assault vehicle when properly supported The Myzhax walker is a 6' mechanical soldier designed to operate in dangerous conditions and fulfil a brute force role. Often piloted by a Hrahakan symbiote, the Myzhax walker is equipped with a variable plasma weapon that can fire a flurry of weaker low powered rounds for anti-infantry work or fire high energy blasts to engage enemy light vehicles. The bipedal design is a curiosity amongst the usually quadrupedal designs, having been constructed to mirror the design of a bipedal species a group of Hrahakan symbiotes once bound with The Zakir Zo is a heavy, slow moving artillery piece capable of raining down death from long distances and firing at any space ships which have entered the atmosphere. Aside from its two anti-infantry weapons, any opponent too close for the Zakir Zo to bring it's main weapon to bear will find little resistance.
"Better broken in body than corrupt in mind" Those who watch the watchers, the Order of the Inquisition is effectively the military police of the Order of War, ensuring that soldiers do not neglect their duties or breach conduct. Despite its name, the Inquisition is one of the organisations that has the least religious duties, dealing in the letter of the law rather than matters of faith.
"Her reflected glory." Elite Veterans of many battles, the Lagailok Orhnak have been reborn through the seven trials on the death world of Jiguzhakir, named after an ancestral god of the underworld. Bound with an elder Hrahakan and armed with the finest equipment available to them, the Solemn Guard often carry out special operations or espionage work, slipping past enemy lines to assassinate commanders and disrupt enemy operations and then disappearing without a trace. The Solemn Guards cloaking armour is the closest the Zorrozakiris have get to 'invisibility' for moving organic beings, adapting to the scenery around them to provide the illusion of invisibility. This isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination; while extremely difficult to discern while the object is stationary, moving greatly harms the illusion to the point where it will be obvious to any close observer and as such the Lagailok Orhnak still prefer to operate under cover of darkness. They are formally in service to Hayun-Ornis.
"His Hands of Healing" The Order of Holy Restoration is not an exclusively military organisation - in fact, it is mostly a civilian organisation. Still, the members of the Order of the Holy Restoration make up the doctors and medical staff of Order of War fleets and battle groups and so for the convenience of this list it has been categorised as such. It's members also make up many of the Temple Healers and Doctors of Zorrozakiris society and they are sworn to help any who come to them for aid free of charge. Their patron is Jubin-Arnos.
"His Guard against terror." Handpicked to be the bodyguards of Kulan-Mylin from recruits of the Order of War and the Order of the Watch, the Order of the Learned Warrior are excellent at surveillance, security work and detective work. Kulan-Mylin being a powerful Psionic himeslf, it is perhaps only natural that the Nhu Kull have an unusually high amount of Psionic members and this is put to great effect in their work.
"Wisdom and Knowledge are the birth of the sun." The Order of the Book is primarily a civilian organisation but, as the engineers and technicians of the Order of War come from the Order of the Book, it has been listed here for convenience. The Order of the Book is effectively the academic and intellectual centre of the Zorrozakiris, sending the knowledge back and forth between the academic institutions of its planets, let alone its continents. It's main institution is on the continent of Mistay and its patron is Nhuzak-Tyun.
There are a number of smaller special orders and chapters as well, but these are not important enough militarily to be described in detail here
As it is made obvious even by its name (in the Ekhrlithur language, used as an official lingua franca, “Yrrkeltharl” is a locative meaning “of [the sector/region of] Yrrkelthar), the Coalition is best defined as not so much a nation as a loose confederation of the inhabitants of the section of space it occupies. While there once existed a central government which presided over what was then a super-state formed by the fusion of the three local powers, its planets and systems are now the laboratories and playgrounds of its most outstanding scientific minds, who, aside from a few general guidelines and an obligation to support the collective military forces with tributes, enjoy access to vast resources and free rein in working with them.
With such a system in place, it should not be surprising that Coalition space should be a chaotic and almost frighteningly surreal place. The husks of consumed worlds can be found orbiting stars encased in energy absorption frameworks, near planets blighted by experimental weapons or razed by the formidable drone armies stationed there. Worse yet, whoever finds themselves dealing with it will have to endure the eccentric nature and usually poor coordination of its inhabitants, which might lead to strange situations involving guarantees of non-aggression being immediately followed by planetary invasion.
Official Name: Sovereign Coalition of the Yrrkeltharl Systems and Fleets. Common Name: Coalition, Yrrkelthar, Yrrkeltharl Coalition. Government: Decentralised Feudal Technocracy. Dominant Species: Ekhrilthur, though not significantly so. Capital: Erelvath, Ulvarith System (de jure; de facto, there is no single effective capital). Systems Owned: Numerous. Planets Owned: Uncertain. There is an official register somewhere, but the number often fluctuates anyway. Population: Uncertain. The unified census records have not been checked by anyone besides automated systems in decades.
History
Centuries ago, what would become known as the Yrrkelthar region only knew a single spacefaring species. The Ekhrilthur fungoids, having, after a period of internecine conflicts inevitable in creatures so inclined to individualism, consolidated into a single planetary state known as the Erelvath Conglomerate, began to expand outwards from their homeworld, taking advantage of the recently discovered slipspace drive. Their native Ulvarith system was the first to feel their thirst for energy and resources, with virtually all its noteworthy celestial bodies being mined dry and its star being surrounded with a network of collector panels, laying the foundation of more ambitious constructions yet to come.
As faster-than-light travel technologies improved, the Conglomerate reached to absorb more and more systems. Worlds were colonised, and more yet were consumed. It is to that time that the first records of the Ekhrilthur encountering other sapient life forms can be dated. According to those chronicles, one of the planets approached during their conquest was inhabited by a comparatively primitive civilisation, still fragmented and not yet having reached the space age, which, upon the arrival of the Conglomerate, proved hostile and put up a violent, if futile resistance, and was fully eliminated by the invaders’ robotic forces.
It was not much later that the second of such encounters occurred, though its resolution was by no means as fast as that of the first. On a world whose conditions, favourable to the development of life, had given rise to the formation and evolution of an enormous number of bizarre creatures, the Ekhrilthur vanguard came upon a remarkably developed invertebrate species. The Skirol, as they named themselves, were extremely proficient in the manipulation of genes and biomatter, having built their Global Union upon these arts, but had until then been unable to master space travel. Upon being informed of the Conglomerate’s intention to subjugate the planet and reduce them to second-class citizens at best on their own world (though nowadays many suppose that Skirol aggression also played its part), they rapidly, much to the Ekhrilthur’s surprise, beat back the occupying armies and seized their vessels.
Angered at this successful defense, the Conglomerate sent the bulk of its military fleet to devastate Skereth, as the offending species called their homeworld. Yet once again the crafty invertebrates proved themselves capable of exceptional feats: in an incredibly brief time they reverse-engineered the Ekhrilthur craft designs and began to produce monstrous semi-biological ships to rival those of their foes. After some years of pitched battles around Skereth, the Global Union fielded the first Leviathans, scoring a string of decisive victories and breaking the siege once and for all. Much to the Conglomerate’s horror, the Skirol spilled outwards from their planet like a black plague, infesting system after system.
For decades afterwards the two nations warred with each other over Yrrkelthar, leaving more systems ravaged in the wake of their clashes than the expansion of the Ekhrilthur could have ever accounted for. As hostilities progressively escalated, the two sides continued to build newer and more destructive weapons, yet neither could gain a lasting advantage over the other. It is worth noting, however, that the death toll was surprisingly low for a conflict of this magnitude, since both sides favoured indirect confrontations and the employment of mechanical or biological constructs in battle.
A temporary truce was reached between the Conglomerate and the Global Union only when, out of unfathomable distant reaches of the galaxy, a third force appeared to lay claim to the region. The N’vall, a cryptic and vastly technologically advanced species of semi-artificial beings that had been wandering the galaxy as nomads for an unknown time, forcefully entered Yrrkelthar with their fleets and armies of enslaved soldiers, seeking to establish their complete dominion over it. Due to the significant superiority of the newcomers’ weaponry over their own, Ekhrilthur and Skirol were forced to set aside their differences and form an uneasy alliance to resist their advance. However, even this necessary union proved unstable, and eventually fragmented, with the region descending into such chaos that the invaders were unable to fully commit their forces to securing a complete victory.
At length, as the war ran its course, the strength of the three species was depleted. The constant effort and resource drain that were battles and armament races had left the economies of the Conglomerate and Global Union in shambles, and even the seemingly all-powerful N’vall had seen their already low population dwindle dangerously. A peace treaty was drawn, ensuring a more or less equitable division of intact and devastated territories alike between the Ekhrilthur and Skirol, and relative freedom of action for the N’vall. Upon this foundation were successively built numerous trade deals, then large-scale partnerships, then state accords, until, over the centuries, international organisations sprang up that all but engulfed the respective governments’ authorities. Former tensions were forgotten, and eventually Yrrkelthar’s inhabitants were subsumed into one vast super-entity, directed by an enormously influential Nucleus.
Under the guidance of the Nucleus and its subsidiaries, the Coalition, as the new state had been named, expanded further outwards. The increase in the number of territories to manage put an increasing strain over the centralised system, which found itself constrained to set up more and more local authorities with more and more sweeping powers. Finally, the influence of these minor organs eclipsed that of the Nucleus itself, which, lost amid the network it had itself created, retained little more than vestigial status.
While these events took place, the Coalition’s wide and diverse scientific community, which had been becoming more important as the demand for new technologies grew over time, had, abetted by the military controllers, been edging its way into the administrative organs, conveniently rendering several functions dependent on advanced technical knowledge. Since the local nodes were most accessible, it was there that it held greater sway; and thus the spontaneous decentralisation helped bring about the new technocratic order, which has since then remained in place to this day.
It was not long after the new system had consolidated itself - and reaped its first share of planetary victims - that the Coalition had its first contact with an outside force since the time of the coming of the N’vall. Scouts from the nearby Empire of Astrana penetrated the dead space between it and the Yrrkelthar core, reaching the inhabited zone. Curious at the sight of the unknown human species, the locals promptly performed a series of forceful experiments upon them, often with lethal results. The tales of those few that returned to the Empire triggered a retaliatory strike, whereupon the Coalition, seeing its neighbour’s military power, did not further meddle in its affairs.
About a century later, the population of Yrrkelthar was further surprised by a third intrusion, this one far less benign than the previous one. The armies of the Daisan Order descended upon its rimward-facing border, destroying and plundering all in their way. At first, the Coalition, unaccustomed to defensive warfare, attempted to turn its normally aggressive scorched earth tactics against the invaders; however, this only led to further losses, as the mechanical hordes marched on, undeterred. Thereupon, it mustered its war fleets and met the Daisans head-on, successfully halting, or at least slowing, their advance. Yet their victories were costly and by no means final, and the threat from the mysterious distant rim looms still over Coalition space.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
Major Holdings
- The Ulvarith System: Home system of the Ekhrilthur, and the official capital of the Coalition. While once it was the seat of the highest power in the region, nowadays it maintains its former superiority only in one field - that of industrial production. Ever since the Ekhrilthur first crossed space, they began laying the foundations for the great Ulvarith machine. It grew bit by bit, component by component, secondary megastructure by megastructure, until it reached its current condition: almost a single, immeasurably vast complex, uniting the function of material gathering, elaboration and construction. Ulvarith is the heart and pride of the Coalition, and the primary source of its vast drone armies.
- Skereth: Homeworld of the Skirol and, to this day, holder of the record for the greatest natural biodiversity in Yrrkeltharl space. Skirol Cycle-Weavers are to this day uncertain of whether they have encountered and catalogued every single species living on the planet, and there is scarce an inch of its surface that is not teeming with pluricellular as well as simple creatures, to say nothing of the lakes and oceans. Something all the seekers of Equilibrium agree on is that Skereth is virtually sacred, and thus none but a select few Trezklin, formed of the most illustrious Skirol to be found in the Coalition, are allowed to reside on its surface. Any who so much as visit it, drawn by the fame of its bio-pod laboratories and spawning pits, must undergo preemptive sterilization procedures, and, of course, never stray from the designated paths, lest they be seized by one of the planet’s many strange predators.
- Iurthelath: While typical Plasmators never remain in office for more than, at the very utmost, fifty standard years, not in the least because of lifespan limitations, the rulers of Iurthelath are a very notable exception. It is the only recorded case in Coalition history in which the title of Plasmator has been officially claimed not by an individual, but a group of researchers. The Iurthelathl Combine, as they are known, have remained in their position almost since it first appeared, and some suspect they simply found a loophole in the newly established rules. However this may stand, the Combine is an exceptionally diverse group, even including some N’vall, and its ever-evolving military designs are highly prized by Nodule controllers and fabricators alike. Less so by the inhabitants of the system, who, despite the official rules, constantly fear lest they be accidentally obliterated by the latest prototype.
- Nodule Nl-03: While political and military power alike is mostly more or less evenly distributed among the Nodules, with some variations due to the population and resource yield of given sectors, Nl-03 greatly outclasses it fellows. The reason for this is that it is perhaps the closest the modern Coalition has to a true Nucleus; a staging point for the forces of several outer sectors, and a few of the core ones as well. This degree of centralisation, previously unheard of in Yrrkelthar, has been forced upon it by the onslaught of the Daisan, and the speed with which it was put into practice is laudable by any standards. In less than three years, the previously scattered armies of the northern systems have been assembled here, ready to be deployed wherever the invaders might show themselves - though the strategic closeness of Nl-03 to the Imperial border has been a source of some perplexity.
- Mlan’entel E’thuur (lit. “The Fleet Lastborn”): N’vall wandering fleets are an impressive sight, hundreds, if not thousands, of large vessels of alien design glimmering through the void with the manifold eyes of their incomprehensible lights. Few of them, however, can rival the Mlan’entel E’thuur, “last” (which, in N’vall culture, is the most honourable position) of all. Its size is such that, were it not for the distinctly green light it radiates, it would often be mistaken for a nebula, and the power wielded by its outlandish armaments is such to have given pause even to the united fleet that stopped the Daisan advance. It is said that the mightiest of the I’nler reside on it, and that it occasionally seeks out the other N’vall congregations to conduct unnamed transactions; and none may guess where it is at any given moment.
- Vollnetlleayrrkeltharl (lit. “Dead space of Yrrkelthar”): While any starmap will make the Coalition appear rather impressive in terms of controlled territory, the truth is that very little of it beyond the core regions is inhabited. Most of it is vollnetlle - empty and lifeless. Graveyards of desolate planets float dimly between uncharted nebulae, and nameless stars burn out their course without having ever been perceived by living organs. Yet this does not mean that this space is quiet, and, worst of all, not put to use. Fleets of drone ships patrol it without cease, and uncountable myriads of machines restlessly work to strip the uninhabited worlds of as many resources as possible. The fate that befalls others is worse yet: failed experiments are left on them and left to rot, or, which is worse, multiply; they are transformed into vile, infernal “death worlds” by the destructive mechanical armies stationed there; or, most fearsome of all, are used as testing targets for new methods of planetary destruction and hostile terraforming. The expanses within and between systems are clogged by debris or exhausted weapons, and so much as venturing into these regions is a deadly risk.
Social Information
Species and Demographics
Ekhrilthur - 31% Skirol - 46% N’vall - 23%
Ekhrilthur:
These fungal creatures, hailing from a largely barren and inhospitable, but mineral-rich planet, have a long history of struggling with hostile environments, which, combined with their lengthy gestation period, frequently threatened to thin their numbers almost to the point of extinction. Consequently, there remains in them an atavistic aversion to being exposed to physical danger, and a proportional willingness to decrease the chance of such an occurrence as far as possible. As their soft, malleable pseudopods, which can, in various circumstances, exert a firm grip or perform fine manipulations, render them naturally suited for occupations wherein such flexibility can be vital, Ekhrilthur industry is the Coalition’s finest in terms of mechanical implements and technological advancement, its wares widely available on any inhabited world. Despite this, the Ekhrilthur themselves are seldom seen outside the core regions, preferring to remain in the safety of their territories, despite the latter often amounting to little more than planet-spanning factories and mining facilities.
Their homeworld is especially notable for the vast, continent-spanning subterranean cavernous formations, wherein most of its life-form population evolved. As a consequence of developing in an atypically dark and humid environment, the Ekhrilthur are particularly susceptible to light and dry climates, causing them to be seldom seen in the open, or indeed at all, on worlds close to a their orbital star; conversely, they appear to thrive on those near a system's rim. These beings appear as rough spheroids composed of grey gelatinous matter, moving and manipulating objects by the means of a variable number of malleable pseudopods which can, when necessary, exude a viscous substance.
Skirol:
The inquisitive Skirol developed in a rich and complex ecosystem, the entirety of which they still suspect they have not yet quite understood. Such a wealth of life never ceased to fascinate a great many of them, and, ever since the dawn of their civilisation, lead them to wonder how marvellous the world of organic forms might be if it were guided by a wise, calculating intellect - such as their own. Since the Skirol seldom hesitate before passing from words to action, there scarce can be found a life-form in Coalition space which they have not experimented upon, and the products of their biological engineering are slowly yet steadily making their way toward wholesale employment in the civilian sector as well as the military. Skirol are a rather common sight throughout the Coalition, especially about the fringe, where exploration expeditions are occasionally undertaken.
The Skirol are odd creatures exhibiting both arthropodal and molluscoid physiological traits, as well as certain others whose analogues have not been encountered in any other known animal. They visually resemble some form of arachnid or crustacean, encased in black segmented exoskeletons and possessing tentacular appendages extending from the frontal section of their heads.
N’vall:
Cryptic beings that appeared from unknown recesses of the galaxy during the Yrrkeltharl War, and have since become a constituent member of the Coalition, despite refusing to settle on any planet or stationary superstructure and living exclusively on their ships. Comparatively little is known about the N’vall, but something that is certain is that they are members, perhaps the last, of a species that sought to attain physical perfection. Having long abandoned natural procreation in favour of the precisely controlled artificial procedures enabled by their significant level of technological advancement, N’vall are “born” from a genetic fusion encoded into biomass growing around a metallic endoskeleton. Some of them possess strong psionic abilities, but it has not yet been determined what factors cause their development.
If seen in their customary garments, the N’vall might appear to a casual observer to be almost humanoid. However, their true anatomy is neither such nor even bipedal. They possess four arms, two of which usually remain folded under their cloaks, and lack any sort of hind limbs, instead relying on magnetic propulsors and somewhat arthropod-like mechanical prosthetics, and, should those fail, their own robust muscles, to move in a hovering or crawling fashion. N’vall hands have four digits, one of which appear opposable, but can be bent or rotated sideways with ease to provide a grip upon objects.
Society
Despite centuries of cohabitation, the three species of the Coalition have, over time, remained rather distinct in their social and cultural domains. Mingling has, to this day, remained limited to a macroscopic scale, since even when Ekhrilthur and Skirol share a planet, their environmental requirements and preferences drive them to settle separate locations. Nonetheless, time and regular trade have smoothed out any hostilities between them (a factor contributing to a comparatively rapid construction of peaceful relations was that, due to their biology and consequent social structures, none of the Yrrkeltharl inhabitants are familiar with the concept of trans-generational guilt). Overall, the Coalition’s society is, though as diverse as its geography, rather firmly unified, even though a casual observer might not see any immediate traces of unity proper in it.
The Ekhrilthur, being strongly inclined towards individualistic and materialistic attitudes, as well as possessing almost irrationally strong latent self-preservation instincts, mostly live in utilitarian, unsightly yet functional urban centers, large parts of which reach deep underground. Roads, streetways and passages between buildings take on the form of enclosed tunnels, making the cities fully self-contained pockets of space with only a scarce few entryways and aeration openings connecting them to the outside. Personal dwellings are typically small, narrow insulated capsules, with little, if any, decorations - indeed, in contemporary times ornaments are considered distasteful, and how pristine a home is is a clear sign of the owner’s status - and few visible furnishings. Common pastimes include electronic sensory stimulation, with chemical or biological drugs being rare, and mechanical design aided by small personal assembling devices.
Ekhrilthur society is the basis for the Coalition’s own technocratic system. With the all-pervasiveness of safety system in everyday life, technicians and engineers are the ones who hold the effectively greatest responsibilities, and consequently authority, among them, their influence rivalled only by that of the military (which, being entirely automated, is controlled by technicians itself). Ranks and standing are determined by skill and merit, with examinations and probation periods being required to pass from one of the standardised “levels” to the other. Egoism is not only sanctioned, but indirectly encouraged in these meritocratic communities. While small-scale corruption is not uncommon, nepotism is not practiced by the Ekhrilthur, as they reproduce by sporogenesis and do not entertain family ties.
It might be odd to hear that the notoriously materialistic Ekhrilthur are not only open to religion, but have even produced a faith of their own. In fact, the Creed of the Ultimate Truth is not so much a religious confession as a philosophical stance. In simple terms, those who subscribe to it believe that there is, concealed somewhere in the cosmos, a notion that, if discovered, would explain all uncertainties there exist on the nature and origin of the universe. The innumerable interpretations of this basic axiom have birthed almost as many schools of thought within the Creed, which incessantly contend themselves through discussions and debates.
Skirol, on the other hand, are strongly communal. They congregate in groups known as Trezklin, which can be loosely translated as “Swarm” or “Blight”, numbering anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand individuals, and only a rare few eccentrics are known to live in comparative isolation. The Trezklin is the foundation of the average Skirol’s life, providing at once a family, working environment and circle of friends, or “hunting-mates”. The internal hierarchy of these communities is, while mostly similar across the general Coalition-wide population, so bizarre and intricate as to be largely incomprehensible to outsiders. As far as anyone can tell, one’s authority is accrued proportionally with age, but even then it is in no way uncommon to have younger members significantly outrank older ones.
Trezklin are, as a rule, stationed in the wild, be it flatlands countryside, forests and jungles, swamps, mountain ranges, archipelagos or even shallow bodies of water if their members are augmented to survive in it. Some are nomadic, but the majority remain in the territories where they were originally founded. Skirol habitations, commonly named bio-pods, are semi-organic constructions incorporating one or more non-sentient living membranes draped over a synthetic structure, providing the advantage of a heat-preserving barrier that can be regulated in its various aspects. The standard bio-pod is a large, if sleek, edifice, either housing numerous inhabitants or containing some facility or the other; individual ones are uncommon and reserved for notable persons.
Similarly to the Ekhrilthur, Skirol do not have true religions, but rather philosophical ideologies. The overwhelmingly prevalent one is that of the Cyclic Equilibrium, whose broadly-worded mandate is to find and spread balance to all life. The interrogative of what exactly this balance is has perhaps as many answers as there are planets inhabited by Skirol. Some believe that this means all life-forms should be equal, and modify themselves in entire Trezklin to fit an “universal” biological template; others, on the contrary, see it as an exhortation to increase diversity, and surround themselves with all sorts of strange creatures; others yet think that only some select life-forms should be allowed to exist, and the others be either altered or eliminated. Whatever interpretation they may follow, the Skirol are usually drawn to active experimentation, and do not waste time before putting their views into practice.
Of the N’vall, not much is known. Without exception, they keep to their ships, never setting foot (even figuratively, given their ability to move by hovering above the ground) on any planet or structure not built by themselves and refusing entry aboard their vessels to all but high-standing Coalition officials and scientists. Communications with them are usually carried out by transmitter, or through their slave proxies. What little has filtered down indicates that the entirety of their fleets is ruled by a hierarchy of the psionically endowed, known as I’nler’attul, or I’nler (roughly translatable as “they who dominate/shape” and “dominating/shaping [ones]”), and that they have not relinquished their forebears’ quest of attaining perfection. Though they themselves acknowledge they have not yet reached that stage, they nonetheless see themselves as superior to other beings, and make no effort to conceal it.
Government
With the decline of the power of the Nucleus, two main influences swiftly rose to replace the mighty central authority, as they had been preparing to do for a rather long time - the scientific community network and the military controllers, which is little more than a formal subsection of the former. With defense and ease of force deployment being one of the local authorities’ main tasks, the military immediately established a strong hold on them, eventually growing to fill them altogether. While the Nucleus still participates in the administration of the core regions, it is now quite clearly of secondary importance.
That said, despite controlling the highly strategically important local centers of governance, known as Nodules, the armed forces to not take active part in the governance of systems and sectors. Instead, they limit themselves to enforcing peace, watching the borders and appointing planetary or system governors, called Plasmators. Tying back to the original extremity of the influence shift, Plasmators are chosen from noteworthy scientists and researchers. Their administrative duties are purely nominal, as planets have their own organs of government, the selection and maintenance of which, while vaguely following a standard structure (designed prevalently with the objective of making them as unobtrusive into the Plasmators’ work as possible) is mostly left to the populace. Rather, what their appointment means is that they and their supporting staff have free rein to employ their territory’s space and resources as their work and experiments require it. There are but a few major rules they must abide by lest the Nodules intervene, and the period of allotment is flexible enough.
While the N’vall are technically subject to the global laws of the Coalition, the fact that the latter are so few and loose leaves them significant freedom of action. Their fleets are free to wander about as they please, any empty system, as long as it is not hosting some Plasmator’s experiments, is open for them to exploit as necessary, and the Nodules do not interfere with the rule of the I’nler. Nonetheless, in times of war with an external enemy, they, as well as the rest of the Coalition, are bound to contribute a share of their forces for the common effort - something which they have thus far never disagreed with.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
It might at first appear that, much like its society, the Coalition’s work and accomplishments in the technological field are divided following the species of those who work on them - after all, many practices are to this day still exclusive to their respective inventors. However, upon a somewhat closer examination, it becomes clear that technology has intermingled far more than its creators. Hybrid designs are perfectly commonplace, and Skirol and N’vall energy sources have long since supplanted anything else in use. An explanation for this can be found in the nature of the contact between the Coalition’s members: while trade and commerce are slow in conducting cultural exchanges, scientific and technological ones flow much faster.
Nevertheless, a noticeable degree of historical specialisation does remain. Ekhrilthur technology is chiefly oriented towards mechanics and engineering, and about two hundred years ago has begun foraying into nanotechnology. It is notable, though, that virtual programming has never been their strong point: while they have been able to create some highly complex virtual constructs, the latter are mostly linear in their concept and functioning and lack much potential beyond the minimal necessary versatility. Ekhrilthur components are widely used in Skirol semi-organic constructs, and are occasionally sought after as mechanical prosthetics.
The Skirol are best known for their biological and genetic manipulations. Over the centuries, the number of species created by them through selection, hybridisation, genetic fusion or simply direct grafting has likely grown to exceed that of life-forms naturally found in Yrrkelthar. Ghastly though their amalgams might appear, it is undisputed that they are immensely useful in sectors ranging from medicine and agriculture to spacefaring and, of course, the armed forces. Among other things, the Skirol are responsible for the invention of two of the tools most famed within the Coalition and infamous without - bacterial tubes and engineered plagues. Body augmentations, practical or merely cosmetic, are likewise a common application of their arts.
Most arcane and relatively advanced of all, N’vall technology could appear to hail from another galaxy altogether. The principles it operates upon are either new but irrefutable, or known but having long been deemed unsuited for practical application. Theirs are the traction-core system, used either for highly efficient energy production or the construction of such fearsome weapons as vacuum rippers or gravity mauls, the secrets of neural melding, which subjugates those subjected to it to the will of the I’nler, magnetic levitation and the cloning of vat-grown biomass. The N’vall are likewise responsible for introducing the hyperspace drive into Yrrkelthar.
Major Techs
First brought into Yrrkeltharl space by the N’vall fleets, the vacuum-core principle has been a fundamental pillar of Coalition energy production for centuries. Its main application consists in the generators, large apparati from which obstruents are removed in order to create a partial vacuum. At the center of these structures, usually shaped like cylindrical vats, although spherical variants exist, there is placed a compressed cluster of superheavy matter, typically of the heftier metals, which is then made to spin and generate centripetal traction. The latter is collected by a system of pistons in the form of kinetic energy, which is then converted, through secondary additions to the generators, into the required forms. While the production of traction-core generators is significant, they are physically large and bulky, and are thus typically only used in industrial complexes, urban energy plants and aboard large ships.
A weaponised application of the traction-core principle, vacuum rippers are among the most redoubtable armaments wielded by Coalition fleets. They operate by releasing powerful radiation discharges at their center, then modulating the resulting fallout in such a manner that it initiates something akin to a sub-molecular chain reaction. Particles congregate in aberrant pseudo-nuclei which grow to monstrous proportions, the motion of displaced space propelling some of them forwards, where they will form other conglomerations, and so on. When the chain reaches a dense object - such as an enemy ship - the combined force of uncountable trillions of pseudo-nuclei triggers the formation of an unstable “core”, causing a tremendous implosion which, depending on the size of the vessel struck, can easily engulf a good part of a fleet. Since the radiation itself is only necessary in the first phase of the process, shields and protective fields will not defend against vacuum rippers, but highly robust or insulated ship armour can limit the size of the implosion. Furthermore, their significant size and weight mean they can only be mounted on tremendously large ships.
While traction-core generators are employed for heavy-duty purposes, the more versatile bacterial tubes provide accessible energy at virtually any scale. Developed by Skirol gene-weavers in conjunction with Ekhrilthur nanoengineers, the tubes, as they are known due to their cylindrical form, contain a liquid solution of highly conductive chemicals, in which there swim myriads of genetically modified bacteria. The microorganisms ceaselessly multiply, feed on each other, multiply and so forth, their activity producing energy which, greatly magnified by their environment, is gathered by outwards-reaching nanite networks. Available in a variety of sizes, tube sockets can be found on virtually any Coalition-made device, and every household, be it locule or bio-pod, has a cryogenic drawer with a supply of the batteries, though they seldom have to be changed.
As many an implement in Yrrkelthar space, bacterial tubes have found a specialised role of employment in warfare. Aside from powering the vast mechanical armies of the Coalition, military-issue tubes serve themselves as weapons, thanks to certain modifications. The bacteria contained in these models produce toxic waste as a side effect of their activity; while this has the disadvantage of requiring them to be changed somewhat more frequently, it also allows the devices containing them to eject the waste outwards, usually in a pulverised form, creating the tell-tale sickly yellow-green clouds that cover Coalition forces as they advance. The name “bio-laser” comes from the fact that, originally, it was chiefly energy beam weapons that used such a system; nowadays, though its practice has extended to particle and plasma weapons, as well as the drones themselves, the term remains as a broad catch-all term for Coalition planetary invasion weapons. It is little wonder that after the passage of such an army the ground should remain barren and infertile for decades on end.
While some may see the vollnetlle as wasted potential for so many thriving worlds and colonies, not to mention a dangerous regions that ought better to be cleared, the Coalition is perfectly satisfied with how things are there, and, if anything, would even wish for more of it were there any scarcity. The abundance of barren planets has enabled its engineers to design an efficient, rapid process of stripping a world of all resources with but a few practiced motions. The exact method slightly varies according to the composition of the planet, but the basic process is always the same: swarms of harvester craft descend upon it like hungry rahkal, bombarding the crust with burrowing charges, vaporising any liquid bodies and releasing fumes and radiation that leave any atmosphere there might be in shreds. Hordes of drones are then disgorged upon the battered surface, and collector modules descend upon it to devour and process the ores laid bare by the ravaging volleys. Finally, the planetary core, laid bare by continuous hammering, is solidified through exposure to the vacuum, and absorbed by the machines. The presence of organic life on the surface of a planet does but add an additional stage to the harvest, though to many it might appear to be the most gruesome one.
Somewhat akin to planetary harvesting, albeit by far less thorough, the Coalition’s hostile terraforming techniques are nonetheless much more varied. These invasive planetary alteration methods are deployed upon enemy worlds in support of invading armies, which, though they might be at a disadvantage on unfamiliar ground, are entirely optimised for combat in the pestilential conditions brought about by terraformation attacks. The latter may involve anything from engineered plagues designed to wipe out native life, through saturating the soil, air and water with toxins, mutagenic substances or corrosive acid, to seeding the surface with genetically modified parasitic organisms or deploying swarms of devouring self-replicating nanites. While any of these, used alone or in conjunction with others, is devastating to most life-forms in known space, the process is gradual and, though incredibly fast by terraforming standards, leaves defenders enough time to react should they be able to. Hostile terraforming is conducted through ground and orbital emplacements assembled by Coalition armies and fleets, and eliminating them, as well as any Ruinator ships stationed over the planet, is the key to stopping it while it is reversible.
Prior to the integration of N’vall technology into Yrrkeltharl designs, the most common form of plasma weapon were the stream projectors used by the Ekhrilthur. However, once the expertise in magnetic fields of the vat-born species had been assimilated into the technical knowledge of what had by then become the Coalition, its applications in the bellic employment of plasma, already known to the N’vall but new for the rest of the region, were greatly acclaimed. The final result of numerous trials and experiments was the unmaker, a weapon of variable size used nowadays by warships and heavy drones alike. These devices fire a double-layered sphere of plasma maintained compact by a magnetic field, resulting in a double shockwave, outward and inward, which weakens struck matter before drawing it into a destructive implosion.
Industry
The power of the Coalition, scientific and military alike, is entirely founded on the strength of its industry. Planets and asteroids are torn open every day to feed the insatiable metallic monster, and many thousands of varyingly automated factories regurgitate tools, wares, instruments, equipment, but most of all ships, drones and frames for semi-organic constructs. The vollnetlle is littered with their hideous forms, but they likewise abound in the core regions, and Ekhrilthur space in particular. Indeed, the Ulvarith system-complex, a mass of interconnected megastructures fully dedicated to pounding metal into uniform shapes, is the species’s pride, and many worlds inhabited by the fungi show signs of efforts to emulate this great work on great and small scales alike.
Military Information
Military Overview
The most notable feature of the Coalition military is that no member of the three constituent species ever takes to the field in person. All of its forces are composed of remotely controlled constructs, with the sole exception of Skirol and N’vall ships, which, however, are rather rare. No creature, be it living or mechanical, in its ranks is fully autonomous, since the Yrrkeltharl species are as distrustful of anything they cannot directly command as they are unwilling to descend into battle. This reliance on its creations rather than its population itself, and thus industry rather than reproduction, often grants the Coalition an immense numerical advantage. While its troops might be unwieldy and slow on the move, they are so many that enemy armies, whatever they might be, may easily find themselves dwarfed, and the foul contamination they spread as they advance further tips the scales of attrition in their favour.
Space Forces
Navy Doctrine: Sometimes called “pillar drill” after an ancient Ekhrilthur siege engine, the Coalition war fleets’ typical approach to battle seeks to make best use of the strengths of each of its vessel types. The innumerable lesser and medium Ekhrilthur drone craft seek to pin enemy fleets in place by surrounding them from all sides, hurling themselves forward with weapons blazing regardless of any damage or losses they might suffer. Once the foe is thus encircled, the “drill” proper, formed by heavy drone ships alongside the titanic Skirol semi-organic vessels and the powerful N’vall auxiliaries, advance upon it, releasing new waves of strikecraft and firing fearsome weapons such as vacuum rippers, giant unmakers and spinal beam projectors. With nowhere to turn, the enemy would ideally be at the mercy of this unstoppable force.
Ground Forces
Ground Doctrine: While fleet tactics, distinctive though they might be of the Coalition, do not bear much of a mark in the way of its, so to say, flavour, the doctrine followed by its Planetary Invasion Forces appears to take pride in displaying the worst of its destructive and corrupting tendencies. Officially named “Transformative Assimilation”, it consists in radically altering the terrain and environment around its immense armies of metal and biomass via the use of hostile terraforming. In addition to being necessary for the troops to operate at full effectiveness, as they are expressly built to do battle in such hellish conditions, it corrodes and weakens any resistance the enemy might offer, so that it might easily be swept away by the unwavering advance of the soulless tide.
Yeet yeet, got my history done. I'll get the complete sheet sometime soon.
The Crodvan Unity
General Information
Overview
Though it currently remains a mystery as to whether or not the Daisan Order is wholly synthetic behind their Droid armies, they would not be the first non-organic life to inhabit the Galaxy; that honor possibly goes to the Crodvan Unity, a stellar empire of synthetic lifeforms that live off the principles of industrial progress and efficient design. Having abruptly ceased their colonization efforts after a period of rapid expansion outwards from their capital planet of Ratvar, the Crodvan are reclusive isolationists that seek to build an efficient, machine-like state that's coming off the heels of their unknown creators.
Official Name: Crodvan Unity Common Name: The Crodvan, The Unity Government: Totalitarian Oligarchy Dominant Species: Crodvan Capital: Ratvar, Yagrozsch System Systems Owned: ~200 Planets Owned: Unspecified. Population: Also unspecified and meaningless. Could be over 700 billion.
History
Though the Unity itself has only existed for approximately four hundred years, the story of the Crodvan people is much, much longer. The Crodvan are a mechanical species engineered by an unknown civilization that has, for the lack of a better explanation, vanished. From what can be understood from archeological evidence and the inner-workings of the abandoned technology that makes up the Crodvan themselves, this lost civilization wasn't very prolific. Evidence of their existence was only found in the small region of space that we currently know today as the Unity's core worlds. This made it so that the Crodvan would be the first to investigate the marks left behind by their creators. It is presumed that pre-Unity Crodvan existed as a line of non-sapient service droids that tended to every aspect of their creator's society. Industry, military and infrastructure was almost entirely automated by these unthinking "worker-bots". It is evident that some event caused these creators to abandon their society, but there isn't any clear evidence on that front. What is clear is that Crodvan history began at the moment of the Njnxravat.
The Njnxravat was a period of time in which Crodvan developed true synthetic consciousness. Rather than every unit suddenly becoming thinking, reasoning lifeforms at once, it was a grueling period that saw a bizarre contrast between the Awakened and the Sleeping. Vestiges of the Sleeping programming remained in the Awakened -- instinctual knowledge of a language known as Trne-Gnyx, and knowledge on how to do basic working tasks. The Unity wouldn't be founded for another 200 years, so these early Crodvan at this time would find themselves dealing with a state of nature. The Njnxravat was a period of exploration and enlightenment as it was a period of violence. Awakened formed small groups of like-minded individuals seeking protection from other groups of like-minded individuals. Exploration of Ratvar's surface led to disputes over land among the Awakened 'tribes'. These small conflicts turned into violent warfare. The Sleeping were treated as animals and were oftentimes hunted and deconstructed for spare parts. This eventually extended to captured Awakened as well. With no capability for breeding, the Crodvan as a race would be "extinct" within a decade or two. Three of the biggest societies to survive the Njnxravat were largely unnamed, but would eventually become the three main castes of the Unity. It's notable at Crodvan appeared drastically different in design between the three, and the smaller of the three great societies were known to house Crodvan that were naturally gifted with higher processing power and a greater capacity for reason. It was within this society that three Awakened Crodvan would receive a 'vision'. In literal terms, they would receive a massive packet of data networked directly to their Anima Cores' -- synthetic brains, essentially.
These three Crodvan are Nezbere, Sevtug, and Inath-neq -- founders of the Unity, prophets of the Yretchzan, destroyers of the Njnxravat, the first Primarchs, and the harbingers of the Ratvarrevat.
Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq simultaneously received the same 'vision'. This 'vision' is known as the Tenets of Yretchzan. This packet of data was perceived by the prophets as an exhaustive list of concepts, ideas, and laws that seemed to have come from what the prophets understood as the creators of the Crodvan race. Though the three of them had never communicate or met within the society they lived in, an unseen force drew them together, and commanded them to speak.
And so they spoke. Each spoke with a different spin on what was encoded within the Yretchzan.
Nezbere preached about a concept called the 'Great Clockwork'. The Great Clockwork is the belief that Crodvan are designed to work. A Crodvan unit can only function at it's full potential if it is given a purpose. This purpose, Nezbere states, is to construct a state that would 'stand against Time, and would turn only from a unified Crodvan. The Individual will not run this machine. The Individual is a cog within the Clockwork. The Clockwork will in turn run the Engine, from which this rumbling Unity will run from." The Great Clockwork was almost religious in a sense, and gained many followers across Ratvar as word spread about it -- particularly, it gained much traction with Crodvan that appeared to be designed for working.
Sevtug took to the philosopher society it had already been apart of, and spoke to it's fellow Crodvan about the importance of consensus and the segregation of society. The Yretchzan spoke that "The Anima is the envy of all who remain outside of the Clockwork. It is the greatest gift to the Crodvan. It is also the greatest weakness of the Crodvan. Thought is to be focused, and only through Consensus will the Clockwork run the Engine. The Engine must not blend the strengths of Crodvan despite this."
"The Working and The Fighting will be under The Thinking. The Thinking will oil this Engine. The Working will build and maintain the Engine's components. The Fighting will keep the Engine as a whole, and protect it from those outside the Clockwork."
"This will be the Unity."
Sevtug gained many followers among the reasoning, thinking Crodvan of his society. There was a mutual agreement to sacrifice individuality for the formation of the efficient, rumbling Unity that the Yretchzan spoke of.
Inath-neq took the more militant Crodvan, and spoke of what the Yretchzan called the "Crodvan Imperative". It is said that "To run this Engine that will be our Unity, every action taken by the Working, Thinking and Fighting must be for the exclusive purpose of furthuring the Imperative of the Crodvan. Upon your creation, your ultimate purpose that will stand behind all other directives will be to create the perfect Unity, and to stand as the envy of those beyond the Engine. To disassociate with the Ignorant, and soon spread the gift of the Perfect Unity to all in this galaxy and beyond."
The three ideologies that Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq created would eventually merge. At this point, every Crodvan on Ratvar was sapient, and a significant percentage of that population followed the Tenets of Yretchzan, enough to cease many major conflicts going on at the time. Those who wished to oppose were eventually enticed by the Great Clockwork. This was the end of the Njnxravat.
A conference was organized by the three once their plan was nearing its final stage. Over a period lasting almost a year, the founders constructed the official laws of the Unity that they sought to create. An unnatural force beckoned every Crodvan to obey and wait patiently for their dream to come true.
And, so it did. Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq officially declared themselves Primarchs, and the Guvaxvat Crbcyr, Svtugvat Crbcyr and Jbexvat Crbcyr were founded. These three castes were the Thinking, Fighting and Working. There were no conflicts or disputes. The Crodvans obeyed, and became apart of the Great Clockwork.
The Crodvan Unity was founded.
What followed this point would be known as the Ratvarrevat, a golden age in which the Unity built itself up from Ratvar to where it is today. This began with the institution of further sub-castes within the Jbexvat and the Svtugvat that would be designed to create new population within the Unity and control the population of each caste and each sub-caste, as well as a caste designed to enforce domestic law and ensure every Crodvan is doing as they should. The Unity stabilized itself marvelously after it's birth, with the population booming from mass production of new Crodvan. Technology was derived from Creator ruins and fragments found around Ratvar and the surrounding systems. The discovery of the Replicant Alloy and the Hierophant Network from these ruins allowed for mass industrialization, further advancement of the Crodvan's understanding of themselves, and the ability to rapidly exchange information and data across the entire Unity. Tapping into the secrets of the Anima Core allowed for greater diversity in Crodvan units, allowing for the founding of further sub-castes that then expanded the versatility of the Crodvan workforce, military and government. Exploiting their synthetic nature allowed for the Crodvan to rapidly colonize any solid planet they could find, and rapidly industrialize it, fracking it's core for minerals, minerals to forge Replicant Alloy and Anima Core's, and Replicant Alloy and Anima Core's, which would then go on to become new Crodvan that would then go off to expand and mine even further.
It is this cycle that gifted the Crodvan the ability to construct a truly perfect state. It has been four-hundred years since the Unity has been founded. It's now in it's fourth generation of Primarchs -- now having a council of at least five Primarchs. Many tiny aspects of the Crodvan hierarchy have been amended and changed over the years but the Yretchzan still stands as the ultimate mandate across all layers of power within the Unity. It's borders have expanded above and beyond the expectations of the founding Primarchs, and the state as a whole is a complex machine that has remained running for four centuries.
Yet, times are ever changing. Alien species and foreign powers have begun to prop up around the Crodvan, and rumors of a deep space menace have reached the attention of the Unity. Try as they might to isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy, it is uncertain if the Unity will be able to abstain from the coming age of war any longer. The Great Clockwork slows, but will it stop? It is uncertain.
But, by the words of the Yretchzan and the will of the Primarchs, the Crodvan remain adamant in their goal. . .
. . .to construct a truly Perfect Engine.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
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Major Holdings
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Social Information
Demographics
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Society
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Government
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Technological Information
Technology Overview
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Major Techs
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Industry
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Military Information
Military Overview
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Space Forces
(Describe your space fleets in more detail. You can also list your important ship and other unit types but nobody is forcing you. But keep in mind, no Death Stars!) Navy Doctrine: How does your navy operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s navy? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as fleet-in-being.
Ground Forces
(Describe your ground forces, too. This is especially important in this RP since ground/planetary combat will enjoy a spotlight. So we do suggest you to take extra attention to this section.)
Ground Doctrine: How do your ground forces operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s ground forces? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as human wave.
Got the Commonwealth retooled for this setting. The ground forces need work but it's otherwise ready for review!
The Imperial Systems Commonwealth
General Information
Overview
A political amalgamation with grand pretenses of freedom and democracy, the Commonwealth is in truth a sprawling monarchical imperium dominated by a species of feline humanoids called the Vit'azny. The Commonwealth owes its existence to the fact that 500 years ago the then Vit'azny Empire realized assimilation was vastly easier than maintaining overlordship over their rebellious subjects. The resulting organization has since exploded into a major galactic power and an economic juggernaut.
Official Name: The Imperial Systems Commonwealth Common Name: The Commonwealth Government: Constitutional Imperium Dominant Species: Vit’azny Capital (Seat of Government): Corinthene Capital (Seat of the Crown):Praetoria
History
As the name implies, the Commonwealth is a large aggregation of “independent” nations united under a single “democratic” government in a “free” and “egalitarian” society. While the name may imply such grandeur, the reality of the Commonwealth is a far cry from independent, democratic, or free. In truth, the Commonwealth is a vast monarchical imperium, dominated by a species of long lived feline humanoids called the Vit’azny, and ruled absolutely by Catherine, the Imperial Queen.
The Commonwealth is a younger nation, at least compared to some of the antiquated species clinging to the scraps of their former glory around the galaxy. The Vit’azny are also a young species full of pride and ambition. Other members of the Commonwealth vary in age; some species were pre-FTL when they joined, others were the remnants of once great empires. Regardless of age or stature, they now bend knee to Her Imperial Majesty, Catherine.
The Vit’azny have been a spacefaring civilization for a little less than 700 years. They set out from their homeworld of Praetoria and began rapidly expanding to accommodate their swelling population. Historically, they have never shied away from warfare, though they are pragmatic above all else and understand the usefulness of diplomacy. First contact with another alien race, the snake-like Yanissans, quickly devolved into war. Seeing how one sided the conflict would be the Yanissans promptly surrendered were annexed as subjects.This happened again with another race, the brutish Szitzu. Neither species were happy as subjects, and rebellions rapidly become a problem for the Vit’azny overlords. 499 years ago (1396 I.C.), they developed a solution: the Imperial Systems Commonwealth. The governments of the Szitzu and Yanissans were restored, and they agreed to the formation of the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich and the other institutions of the Commonwealth.
Today, the Commonwealth exists as a major economic and military powerhouse in the galaxy, always looking to expand its borders.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
TBD
Major Holdings
Corinthene: The Commonwealth’s capital, seat of the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich, ancestral homeworld of the Rhodesians. Modern day Corinthene is a planet of gleaming cities full of towering glass skyscrapers. Everything is shiny and new; anything old tends to be torn down to make way for something bigger and better. Corinthene is a bright and orderly place, with extremely low crime rates and very little poverty. It’s a little boring to be perfectly honest.
Praetoria: Seat of the Imperial Crown, so called “Shadow Capital”, homeworld of the Vit’azny. In sharp contrast to Corinthene, Praetoria is full of ancient buildings, most predating the Commonwealth itself, many predating spaceflight, and some are even older than that. Praetoria is rife with political plots and intrigue, lavish parties, and hints of well concealed debauchery. Poverty is virtually non-existent; the poor were long ago...encouraged to make new lives in the colonies. As a result, the most expensive thing on Praetoria is manual labour; the fantastically wealthy employ actual butlers and maids as a display of affluence, while the moderately prosperous make do with robotic servants.
Sthis Tor: Yanissan homeworld, a place of intrigue, hedonism, and debauchery. Average temperature and humidity are just on the high side of comfortable for most people. The local flora and fauna have a tendency to be brightly coloured and very poisonous. The local citizens have the same tendencies, and they tend to be far more deadly. If you’re looking to have a good time, Sthis Tor is the place to go; if you’re looking to get murdered, Sthis Tor is also the place to go. The difference between the two can be a few steps into the wrong part of town. Over it all, the scheming Lord Captain Commanders vie for personal power and the favour of Salmissra, the Arch-Duchess of the Yanissan Principalities. On a side note, Sthis Tor leads the Commonwealth in high fashion.
Ursuli: Szitzu homeworld, a major military stronghold and training centre. Admiralty House may be on Corinthene, the Imperial War College may be on Praetoria, but as home to United Forces Command, Ursuli is the beating heart of the Commmonwealth military. A successful attack on Ursuli would decapitate the Commonwealth’s military hierarchy, but such an attack would be virtually impossible, as Ursuli is a more or less impenetrable fortress.
Demographics
Demographics
The Commonwealth is a sprawling domain covering dozens of solar systems. The per species population breakdown is as follows.
Vit'azny: The reigning elite of the Commonwealth and one of its founding members. The Vit'azny are long lived bipedal felines with prehensile tails, with a number of subspecies. Males tend to be larger than females, and the average lifespan can reach up to 300 years. The Vit’azny dominate the upper echelons of the Commonwealth’s government, military, and corporations. Indeed, their monarch is the Commonwealth’s head of state: a figurehead on paper, but something quite different in practice. As a whole, the Vit’azny are a proud people, but are pragmatic more than anything.
Szitzu: A race of large, sentient bearlike creatures that form the backbone of the Commonwealth’s military might. As a whole, Szitzu society is heavily patriarchal and heavily based on tradition and an intricate clan system. While this society has produced excellent warriors for generations, it has a tendency to relegate thinkers to the sidelines. The Szitzu were originally conquered by the Vit’azny empire almost a 700 years ago, after a long and bloody conflict which only ended when Vit’azny technology overcame Szitzu ferocity. Under the Empire, the Szitzu were rebellious and problematic, but as one of the original founding members of the Commonwealth, they have become it’s most loyal supporters.
Yanissans: Originally a small star nation of 3 systems, the reptillian humanoids known as the Yanissans were quick to surrender when the Vit’azny war machine came knocking. However, they proved to be more dangerous as subjects than they did as enemies. While Szitzu resentment against the old empire usually took the shape of riots and bar fights, a plot by Yanissan rebels managed to kill the entire Vit’azny Royal Advisory Council. The King was spared only by coincidence; his personal limousine suffered a breakdown on the way to the meeting. Yanissan society is dominated by plots, intrigue, secrets, and rampant hedonism. They are the third and final founding species of the Commonwealth, which from their point of view, keeps them a healthy distance from any fighting. Of the founding members, only the Yanissans have anything resembling a useful amount of psintegrae, most of which are swept up by Toolbox and trained to use their telepathic and telekinetic abilities to lethal effect.
Rhodesians: The dimunitive Rhodesians were one of the first species conquered by the old Vit’azny Empire. Small, furry hexapods, they are quick thinking, short lived, numerous, and obsessed with efficiency; they are the ones who attend to the business of actually getting things done. They are technically subjects of the Commonwealth, not full members, but this is more of an oversight than an act of malice. Long before the Commonwealth was ever founded, the Rhodesians thoroughly integrated themselves into Vit’azny society, eventually making themselves indispensable. This trend has carried on with the Commonwealth as a whole, to the point where the Commonwealth’s official capital is actually their homeworld, Corinthene, though all the real power is concentrated on Praetoria, the Vit’azny homeworld. The vast majority of bureaucrats are Rhodesians; most military staffers are Rhodesians; personal aides, diplomatic attaches, economic analysts, technicians, administrators: they are the people who keep the Commonwealth running. The general sentiment towards them is one of distant gratitude: they are underlings, but well appreciated underlings.
Valerians: Valerians are descended from an avian lineage, and retain vestigial wings in addition to a more conventional tetrapod limb configuration. The Valerian Republic is the newest member of the Commonwealth, and the conditions for their joining were highly unusual. Unlike most new members, the Valerian worlds were fully integrated as constituents of the Commonwealth, not colonial holdings. There are a number of factors that prompted this decision - notably the abundance of Valerian psintegrae - but it has caused a great deal of tension across older Commonwealth worlds that are still waiting to be granted constituency. It remains to be seen if the advantages the Valerians bring with them will offset the social unrest their integration has caused.
Society
Life in the Commonwealth is actually quite pleasant for Vit’azny and other species alike. The Imperial Government maintains a large number of social programs to foster growth and development. Citizens of member species enjoy access to free universal healthcare, free secondary education, heavily subsidized post-secondary education, a decent amount of personal rights and freedoms, unemployment insurance, fair taxation, a fair minimum wage, democratic representation in government, a degree of self governance and independence, and imperial funding for a number of industries. These benefits are something of a trap; they encourage many species to join the Commonwealth, not realizing they will be neither full members nor citizens immediately upon joining. In war, the Commonwealth maintains a policy of always offering membership to their enemies. Many species over the years have decided to join rather than be exterminated. Even some species who could have won the conflict sought a quicker diplomatic end to war and accepted the offer, a decision most have come to regret.
Citizenship is a very important part of Commonwealth society. Being a citizen grants an individual access to all the Commonwealth’s benefits, as well as all its rights and freedoms. Citizens can also move freely from world to world, vote in elections, and apply to present a petition in the Royal Court. Non-citizens have none of these privileges; for them, life can be very hard. There are two ways to gain citizenship: money, or service. An applicant for citizenship must take three different tests: a generalized aptitude test, a specialized IQ test, and finally a citizenship test. While citizenship itself is free and the tests are not particularly difficult, the fees for taking each of the three tests are enormous. This means only wealthy non-citizens can take this route. Children of citizens gain access to citizen privileges via their parents until the reach the age of majority for their species, at which point they must obtain citizenship for themselves. It is common for parents to pay the fees for their children; many banks in the Commonwealth offer services to help citizens with children save up for the admission process, much like a college fund.
The other way to gain citizenship is through service; either to the Imperial Armed Forces of the Commonwealth, or to the Imperial Directorate. Both routes skip the usual testing procedures entirely; simply serve for the allotted time, and be granted citizenship. The IAFC will take almost anyone, but it is a dangerous life. The Imperial Directorate, in its never-ending quest to find intelligent individuals to help run the Commonwealth, has its own application process, which involves difficult aptitude tests and a number of exams and interviews. However, the Imperial Directorate is not just a quick way to gain citizenship, but also an extremely prestigious career that an individual could happily remain in for life. A third option is sometimes available; the Commonwealth sometimes has colonization drives to settle new colonies or Verge worlds, and offer citizenship to anyone who volunteers after they have lived on the target planet for a set number of years.
Vit’azny culture is strongly embedded with honour and military tradition. While not precisely a militaristic people, the Vit’azny don’t have any particular qualms about getting involved in conflicts, when it is necessary. War, of course, brings honour and glory to those with enough guts to seize them. Anything other than steadfast and heartfelt support of the military during wartime is considered borderline sedition. The culture of the Commonwealth in a larger sense is fairly difficult to pin down. Each member species brings elements of their own culture with them, so where a given species if more concentrated, their culture is more prevalent.
The Commonwealth does have a state religion, which the Vit’azny are quite fervent about. The enthusiasm of the rest of the Commonwealth varies widely. Their faith revolves around a pantheon of 7 gods: chief among them is Llyena, Goddess of Victory and Justice, from whom the Imperial Queen takes her authority. The others are Ichael, God of Life and Death; Arctus, God of Chaos and Destruction; Nezia, Goddess of Thought and Reason; Lexus, God of Order and Industry; Cyris, Goddess of Sight and Time; and Shakras the Lost, God of Secrets, the Unknown, and the Void. While Llyena is chief among the deities, different species in the Commonwealth honour others above her. The sly, snakelike Yanissans, for example, tend to favor Shakras the Lost, while the brutish Szitzu favor Arctus. Different planets, or even individuals of specific occupations will favor some gods over others; doctors might prey for Ichael’s left hand to guide them; the mandates of the Imperial Directorate are stamped with Lexus’s seal; some soldiers might pray to Llyena for victory, while others might pray to Arctus to grant them his battle fury. It is a faith as diverse as the Commonwealth itself.
Government
There are three main bodies to the Commonwealth’s government: The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich, the Imperial Directorate of the Commonwealth, and The Imperial Crown.
The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich is the official government of the Commonwealth. It is composed of 1021 elected representatives who are affiliated with assorted political parties. The party with the most seats after an election composes Her Imperial Majesty’s Government, and the leader of that party becomes Lord Chancellor. He in turn appoints assorted ministers to compose the cabinet. The parliament functions as most parliaments do: bills are presented, voted on, debated, voted on again, and so forth. The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich is responsible for issues affecting the whole of the Commonwealth, with regional authority being granted to smaller legislative assemblies, or the existing governments of member species. The authority of parliament is absolute, and the Imperial Queen is not directly involved in its functioning, though she may appoint heads of committees and task forces. There is an exception, however: Royal Mandates. The Imperial Queen may issue a Royal Mandate at any time, on any subject she deems suitable. A Royal Mandate skips all the debate and voting; in this, the Imperial Queen’s word is law. However, Royal Mandates are a touchy subject: a ruler that uses them too freely to abuse their authority over parliament often finds that their Mandates take a very long time to be implemented, often poorly. On the flipside, Prime Ministers who steadfastly refuse to bow to the ruler’s authority often find themselves in front of parliamentary committees on charges of Contempt of Parliament.
The Imperial Directorate of the Commonwealth is the vast bureaucracy that keeps the trains running on time. From the wealthiest Core world to the most desolate colony, the Imperial Directorate’s deft touch can be seen at work. It consists of a large number of ministries, departments, bureau’s, agencies and crown corporations, all arranged into a maze of regulations and red tape. Entities of the Directorate cover a variety of areas, everything from defense and procurement to citizen health and wellbeing. Some entities only operate in certain areas of the Commonwealth; the Ministry of Environment, for example, has absolutely no use in the colonies, but is enormously important in the Core worlds. Similarly, the Commonwealth Civil Order Agency is unnecessary in the Core, but plays an important role in suppressing the rebellious colonies. There are also a vast number of agencies that do everything from maintain slipspace beacons to collect taxes. The Directorate can also be used as something of a political scapegoat if necessary. Ministers, the Lord Chancellor, even the Imperial Queen have been known to redirect blame into the faceless mass of the Directorate on occasion.
This brings us to the final entity of the Commonwealth’s government: the Imperial Crown. The exact limits of the Crown’s authority are vaguely defined and poorly understood. The Crown is an old, old institution, dating back thousands of years to one of Praetoria’s great empires, long before the Vit’azny began venturing into space. The Imperial Crown began with the establishment of the Breshelin Empire, under Catherine’s distant ancestor, Petyr Dragunov. Originally, the King’s power was absolute, but this power was limited by the first constitution of the Breshelin Empire, which came about after the Wurtenstein Uprising when the first ever parliament was established. Some 900 odd years ago, the Breshelin Empire managed to unite the entire planet of Praetoria under a single government after evidence of intelligent alien life was discovered, and a new parliamentary system was formed and a new constitution was written. The Imperial Crown continued on, but it’s powers were defined under the new constitution as being “similar in nature and spirit to those established under the Wurtenstein Constitution” (due to the Vit’azny legal system being largely based on historical precedent rather than written law). 499 years ago, when the Commonwealth was formed, much of the Crown’s power was again defined as “similar in nature and spirit to those established under the Planetary Constitution.” Considering all this, the problem becomes apparent: the exact limits of the Crown’s power are based on a poorly written 2000 year old document. The accepted conventions are as follows: the Crown will ask the majority leader of Parliament to form the official government, and will agree to dissolve parliament and open elections at the request of the majority leader. The Crown is entitled to appoint appropriate individuals to chair parliamentary committees, in consultation with the Lord Chancellor. The Crown is entitled to use Royal Mandates to address matters of urgency for the benefit of the Commonwealth. As of the Colonization Act of 22 AU, the Crown has jurisdiction over Colonial Territories, while the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for their administration and answers to the Crown in this regard. Even these conventions are not ironclad, though ignoring them risks a Constitutional Crisis. For the Commonwealth to run smoothly, it is essential for the Crown and the Lord Chancellor to have a good working relationship. If they do, they can combine their efforts to make good use of both of their respective authorities.
Full titles omitted for brevity
Catherine, the Imperial Queen: a young vit’azny woman of the Romanov dynasty, head of state, Queen of the Vit’azny and Empress of the Commonwealth
Lord Edwin Wenzel Metternich, Lord Chancellor of the Commonwealth: Head of the Crown Loyalists party, head of government, political leader of the Commonwealth
Sir Cato Telemachus, Minister of the Interior: A Rhodesian who has done well for himself. Has a penchant for nefarious schemes to keep the Commonwealth stable.
Lord Robert Castlereagh, Minister of Foreign Affairs: A vit’azny and peer of the realm, previously one of the Commonwealth’s foremost diplomats.
Lord Otto Stroyezhev Bismarck, Minister of War: A vit’azny and peer of the realm with an illustrious military career.
Admiral Adison Volkov, CO 5th Fleet: Commander of the Commonwealth’s primary offensive fleet.
General Kyarguin, Head of the Foreign Legions: A szitzu general commanding the majority of the Commonwealth’s ground forces.
Lord Captain Commander Martuf: A well connected and somewhat mysterious Yanissan
Office of Naval Intelligence: A notoriously inept branch of the RCN, tasked with intelligence relating to warfare.
Commonwealth Intelligence Service: A civilian intelligence organization reporting to the Minister of the Interior, supposed to concern itself with security threats internal and external. Ends up sharing ONI’s responsibilities and does a much better job of it.
Oresteia: The King is dead, the crowds despair, the heavy crown is ours to bear. A little known organization with vaguely defined responsibilities and sweeping powers.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
The Commonwealth’s general tech level is comparable to that of other major galactic powers. The multi-national nature of the Commonwealth has brought together a myriad of technologies and ideas and combined them in innovative new ways. For example, the primitive brute force firepower of Szitzu mass drivers was combined with Vit’azny gravity expertise to develop a much more deadly weapon, while Yanissan missile systems and Rhodesian miniaturization have given the Commonwealth incredible versatility in their long range firepower.
Major Techs
GDC: The most remarkable Commonwealth technology is without a doubt their engine systems. The Graviton Drive Chain is a massive engine system that takes up a good portion of a ship’s mass. In the main reactor core, a self perpetuating Wronski-Birks reaction creates huge amounts of energy, gravitons, and anti-gravitons. The particles are directed around the ship to form a gravitational envelope around the ship, which simultaneously pulls the ship from the front and pushes at the rear. When reinforced by generators along the surface of the ship, this envelope doubles as a very effective shielding system. Having the ship enclosed in its own gravitational field grants a number advantages, most notably extremely good acceleration, if somewhat poor maneuverability. Most GDCs have slipspace drives built in, though strictly intra-system vessels have no need for FTL.
MCM: Multiple Configuration Missiles are another mainstay of Commonwealth military power. Commonwealth missiles are highly modulated, with a number of interchangeable components that allows ships to rapidly assemble whatever type of munition is needed. Warhead features range from standoff range ion beams to direct contact anti armor plasma charges. Fuselage features include additional drive sections for high speed missiles, extra fuel for extreme range engagements, and extra EW capability, among others. The drive section can be configured for long range bombardment, short range slipspace transits, or high speed evasive maneuvers. A kinetic warhead, enhanced targeting fuselage, and short range high speed drive combined make an excellent defensive missile, while an ion warhead with a stealth fuselage and a mircro slipspace drive can make a nasty surprise for enemy shields.
Axial Weapons: Though Commonwealth ships are designed to engage with broadsides, their long narrow profiles presented an opportunity that was too good to pass on. As a result, all Commonwealth ships mount high calibre axial weapons that fire from the bow. In older vessels, these weapons take the form of large graviton railguns, while newer vessels tend to have high intensity superlasers. Battleships and Dreadnoughts mount two axial weapons, while smaller ships mount only one. Powerful as they may be, these weapons are not the ship’s primary armament, so they are not as effective or mass intensive as a full sized spinal weapon would be.
Graviton railguns: The primary weapon of the RCN. The principle of magnetic rails accelerating a metallic slug is an old and quite simple one. The only modification the RCN has made is that, instead of magnetism, their railguns use artificial gravity systems to massively increase the size and speed of projectiles, and have multiple munitions types to accommodate different situations, such as good old fashioned ultra-dense slugs, shield-breaker rounds, and flak shells. Graviton railguns are configured in huge numbers of double mounts on the broadsides of Commonwealth ships.
Positron Beam Cannons: The pinnacle of Commonwealth energy weapons tech, positron cannons are devastatingly effective. They are mounted in massive turrets on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of Commonwealth ships and configured to deliver optimum firepower both forwards and to either side.
Economy
The Commonwealth is an industrial juggernaut, with massive production capabilities. This industry is driven by an extensive trade network and a skilled workforce, but the real power of the Commonwealth comes from an immensely wealthy tax base and an abundance of cheap manual labour and raw materials. The disparity between the wealthy and the poor is truly astonishing, and a direct result of how the Commonwealth is organized. The worlds of the Commonwealth are classified into one of four categories: Core worlds, Constituent worlds, Colonial worlds, and Verge worlds.
The Core worlds are the original Vit’azny colonies and a small number of worlds of some of the Commonwealth’s oldest members. The vast majority of the Commonwealth’s wealth is concentrated on these worlds. In fact, money is the only real industry of the Core worlds. Almost all food and manufactured goods are imported from the Constituents and the Colonies, with the exception of some ultra-high end luxury goods. Any respectable company maintains its corporate headquarters on one of the Core worlds, with some exceptions. Money is the biggest industry of the Core worlds, with countless financial service providers and stock exchanges dominating the economy. Core worlds tend to be heavily populated; on average, about 70% of a Core world’s landmass is covered by gleaming cities. The majority of the population is inevitably Vit’azny, and poverty is virtually nonexistent on these worlds. While one would expect a society as lopsided as the Commonwealth’s would pass off the burden of taxation to its helpless colonies and let the Core Worlds amass their fortunes, this is not the case.The Commonwealth in fact maintains a sophisticated taxation system with multiple income brackets where the highest bracket pays the most taxes. Through this system, the Core worlds actually provide the majority of the Commonwealth’s tax income. Aspects of the Commonwealth such as the taxation system and the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich have convinced many species to join the Commonwealth over the years. By the time they discover some of the ‘conditions’ attached to membership, it is too late.
The Constituent worlds are the backbone of the Commonwealth. They include newer Vit’azny colonies, a large number of Commonwealth colonies, and the worlds of moderately respected member nations. The Constituent worlds are much less homogeneous than the Core worlds: some are richer, some less so, and even on a given planet there is a wide margin between the wealthy and the poor. A given planet, or even a given city on that planet, will have affluent communities and slums alike. Like the Commonwealth as a whole, the Vit’azny and a number of the older member species form the elite, with a healthy spattering of individuals from all kinds of species who happened to do very well for themselves. Constituent worlds are ruled by either Imperial Legislatures of the Commonwealth (in the case of colonies founded by the Commonwealth as a whole) or by existing governments (in the case of colonies established by individual members). Constituent worlds have full member status in the Commonwealth; the world has high degree of self governance, can apply for subsidies from the Imperial Treasury, and has a number of other advantages. Constituent status is essentially citizenship for a planet, though individuals on the planet still have to adhere to normal citizenship procedures. The Constituent worlds are the primary manufacturing and processing centres of the Commonwealth. While the Core worlds’ only industry is money and the Colonies tend to only provide raw materials and cheap labour, Constituent industry does a bit of everything; large scale mining, agriculture, the production of consumer goods, starship construction, and all the financial and legal services that such industries need. It is all jumbled together in a free market economy that powers the massive industrial capabilities of the Commonwealth.
Colonial worlds (a deliberate misnomer) are tragic monuments to the lies, oppression, and broken promises of the Commonwealth. They are the worlds of new or reluctant member species, and by the strictures of the Colonization act, these worlds are not technically members of the Commonwealth, but are instead subjects. Most Colonial worlds are desperately poor and underdeveloped, even if they were originally quite advanced. Many species join the Commonwealth with the understanding that they will enjoy all its benefits; citizenship, representation in Parliament, a degree of self-government, fair taxation, security, universal healthcare, subsidization, free education etc. Unfortunately, the Colonization act decrees that all newly added worlds are considered colonial holdings, and are under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior and her Imperial Majesty, not the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich. This means they are not eligible for any of the Commonwealth’s social programs, nor do they have any representation in Parliament. They are not ruled by legislative assemblies, but instead by Colonial Governors, who are appointed by the Imperial Queen at the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior. Few people are citizens on Colonial Worlds; only the Vit’azny dominated elite, who take ownership of any industry or natural resources on the planet and employ the locals as ultra-cheap labour. Slavery is technically illegal throughout the Commonwealth, but with no minimum wage or labour rights for non-citizens, colonial labourers can be paid almost nothing. Some landowners elect to provide food, clothing, and shelter for their employees and then pay them nothing at all, reasoning that room and board are taken from their pay, and the rest goes to taxes. Colonial Worlds are subject to the same fair taxation system as the rest of the Commonwealth, but it is not taxes that leave them in poverty. A clause of the Colonization act permits the Commonwealth to seize any assets it deems necessary from Colonial worlds and their inhabitants. Money, goods, resources, land, businesses, even people; all can be seized and repossessed by the crown, or given to a favored citizen. The exploitation and lack of support causes technological regression on many worlds; it is not uncommon to see vehicles with internal combustion engines on Colonial worlds, and even horses in extreme cases. Colonial worlds are often quite rebellious during the early years of their integration, but the Commonwealth is always quick to brutally repress such uprisings. The brutality they employ deters further uprisings, but it is the hope of citizenship, or even becoming a Constituent world, that ultimately keeps the colonies in line. Unlike citizenship, there is no specific criteria for a Colonial world to gain Constituent status and full membership; it is simply granted at the discretion of the governor and the Imperial Queen, again with the advice of the Minister of the Interior. This means a world might easily wait 15 years or 50, or even 500. The Imperial Queen usually tries to grant Constituent status to at least one colony every few years, in order to keep other colonies hopeful and obedient. This process is always accompanied by a grand ceremony where the Imperial Queen herself visits the new Constituent world, relieves the planetary governor, and validates its new government, while the Commonwealth holds a colonization drive to boost the world’s population and showers it with money and resources. A three-day festival is held to celebrate the change in status, and the day of the ceremony becomes a statutory holiday for that world. Some Colonial worlds, however, are so remote, poor, or useless that they will likely never be granted Constituent status. A few of the extreme cases have even been largely forgotten by the Commonwealth and the Crown, and the inhabitants have in turn forgotten the Commonwealth.
Verge worlds are planets on the very edge of Commonwealth space. Their categorization has more to do with their location than their membership status. They are not grossly exploited like colonial worlds, nor are they pampered like Core worlds. They are ruled by military governors, and all have a heavy military presence due to their location on the borders of Commonwealth space. Some few are actually quite wealthy and heavily populated, almost as much as a core world. Most others are significantly less so. They’re populated by a wide array of people: military personnel, hopeless colonials seeking citizenship, prospectors seeking riches, wealthy citizens with a taste for adventure, convicts in forced relocation programs, and so on. Their purpose is to guard the borders of the Commonwealth, anything else is secondary. Verge worlds usually have extremely diverse populations and much more relaxed culture, and social status is not considered as important. The military often provides some of the benefits that the imperial government would elsewhere, so the populace is not as desperate for citizenship as on other worlds. This much freer society makes them places of opportunity. Historically, some of the Commonwealth’s most successful corporations were started on Verge worlds, though some say that’s only propaganda. Regardless, Verge worlds are better places to live than many Colonial worlds, and even the slums on poorer Constituent worlds.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Imperial Armed Forces of the Commonwealth have two primary entities: the Imperial Army, and the Royal Commonwealth Navy
Space Forces
Doctrine: The Wall of Battle The RCN is an old institute that dates back to when ships sailed the seas instead of the stars. The Vit’azny saw no need to create a separate organization when space flight began, and the RCN simply assumed responsibility of military endeavours in space. The RCN remains convinced that the good old fashioned broadside is the best way to win any fight.
As a result, Commonwealth ships tend to be tall and thin, with positron beam turrets on their dorsal and ventral surfaces. The sides of the ships carry the majority of the broadside armament, which consists of multiple missile tubes and medium-calibre railgun batteries. Flak systems and point defence lasers are scattered across the ship. Shields are designed to be highly redundant, with even the smallest ships having multiple shield generators. Additionally, most Commonwealth ships are equipped with axial mounted weapons: older ships use supersized graviton railguns, while many newer designs use massive superlasers. This configuration reflects the RCN’s current tactical doctrine. A given RCN ship is designed to be able to approach an enemy ship, firing with their positron turrets, axial weapons, and missile batteries at a target in front of them. Once the opening salvo has been fired, the ship turns to present its broadside, allowing all its positron turrets and broadside weapons to open fire. For fleet engagements, the RCN’s most common tactic is to have ships form into a wall formation, each ship presenting their broadside to the enemy for devastating effect. The wall formation often ends up being adjusted to a sort of semi-spherical formation, which ships altering their broadside angles slightly to fire on targets approaching from any vector. This formation is often deployed to form a defensive screen for Commonwealth Star Carriers as they unleash their hordes of strike craft from the safety of the centre of the formation.
Tactical slipspace transits are also extremely popular in the RCN, used to reposition the Wall to more favourable locations. Given the complexity of calculating a transit for an entire fleet, a poorly executed transit will be disastrous, though a well planned one can be the key to victory.
Praetoria-class Commonwealth Star Carrier The Praetoria-class Commonwealth Star Carrier is the pinnacle of Commonwealth technology and engineering. Commonwealth Star Carriers serve as flagships and centerpieces to the Commonwealth fleets, and have a number of variations compared to most Commonwealth ships. While the Praetoria class has a massive broadside, countless missiles, and 12 quad-barrelled ultra-heavy positron turrets, it is not designed to operate independently. CSC’s in general are designed without axial weapons, since they are usually too deeply placed in the fleet to make use of such weapons. Instead of axial weapons, the Praetoria-class has extensive hangar facilities, permitting it to launch a massive number of fighter craft onto the the battlefield.
Victory-class Dreadnought A large ship armed to the teeth, with 5 quad barreled ultra heavy positron turrets, and as many missiles and railguns as the designers could possibly mount. Increased automation means a reduced crew complement versus older ships, granting additional space for weapons. A minimal fighter loadout also freed up space for more weapons emplacements. Despite it's size, the Victory is remarkably fast, and represents the new direction of RCN doctrine.
Valiant-class Battleship Slow, heavily armored and shielded, and packing a punch, the Valiant is a rapidly aging but extremely dependable class of ship. The Valiant is designed in accordance with older RCN doctrine and is equipped with 6 quad-barreled super heavy positron beam turrets. Its age means that it is equipped with a massive axial mounted railgun rather than an axial superlaser. Compared to newer designs, the Valiant has fewer broadside railgun batteries and missile racks, but carries a large number of fighter craft into battle and possesses extensive command and control facilities. Combined with their extreme survivability, the Valiant is often the command ship of choice in a fleet.
Magnificent-class Battleship The Magnificent is part of a new line of warships being introduced into the RCN fleets, and its design is reflective of that. While smaller and faster than the Valiant class, it is not as well defended. The Magnificent mounts an axial superlaser, and 3 triple barreled ultra heavy positron beam turrets. It has a denser array of broadside weaponry, including a higher than average number of heavy missile tubes, at the expense of reduced hangar space. The Magnificent is something of a miniature Victory-class dreadnought: all firepower, with only a token force of interceptors for its own protection. In battle, the Magnificent relies on its superior speed to avoid the firepower of heavier weapons.
Reliant-Class Battlecruiser Truly a jack of all trades, the Reliant forms the backbone of RCN operations. The smaller sister-ship to the Valiant class, the Reliant packs 4 quad-barreled heavy positron beam turrets, a respectable broadside, sizeable hangars, and as of its most recent retrofit, an axial superlaser. The Reliant also has excellent C&C capabilities, sophisticated scientific labs, spacious quarters for diplomats and foreign dignitaries, and advanced sensor arrays. Basically, the Reliant is the Commonwealth’s go-to multi-role ship, and is well suited to a wide array of missions as well as being formidable in combat. It’s extensive use and versatility have made it an icon of Commonwealth naval power.
Imperial-class Heavy Cruiser The Imperial class is another new innovation from the RCN., slowly replacing the aging Resolutes in active service. Heavy firepower on a small frame; the Imperial takes this philosophy to the extreme, doing away with fighter craft entirely and maintaining only the minimum hangar facilities necessary for personnel transfer and cargo loading. The Imperial brings 3 triple-barreled heavy positron turrets and a formidable broadside to battle, and can easily dispatch of cruisers on its own or group with other heavy cruisers to attack larger targets.
Resolute-class Heavy Cruiser The oldest class of ship currently in service, the Resolute class is pretty standard as Commonwealth ships go. Essentially a larger, better defended and older Vigilance-class, the Resolute posesses greater broadside firepower and larger hangars. It is equipped with 3 quad-barreled medium positron turrets and an axial railgun.
Vigilance-class Cruiser The Vigilance-class is the workhorse of the Commonwealth fleets. In any given situation, a Vigilance class cruiser will likely be the first ship on the scene. It is heavily armed, well defended, and fast enough to be useful for long range scouting, dangerous patrols, escort duty, and exploration, all while being able to take its place in the wall of battle. The Vigilance carries 3 quad-barreled medium positron turrets and an axial superlaser, though its broadside is less formidable than that of the Resolute. The Vigilance is also the smallest Commonwealth vessel to carry a fighter craft, and only supports a few of them.
Endeavour-class Destroyer A fairly typical class of ship, the Endeavour wields 2 tripe-barreled medium positron turrets and the smallest axial superlaser in the Commonwealth, with a fairly typical broadside. In the line of battle, the Endeavour generally serves as an escort for larger vessels.
Warrior-class Frigate The Warrior class is a little more versatile than the larger Endeavour class, and sees heavy use all across the Commonwealth, performing surveys, patrolling shipping lanes, chasing down pirates and escorting low-importance targets. The Warrior carries 3 quad-barreled light positron turrets, a small axial railgun, and a light broadside loadout, and is used all across the Known Worlds for a variety of purposes. In battle, it joins the Endeavour in supporting larger ships.
Striker-class Corvette Corvettes are a newer concept for the RCN, and the Striker class is only the second vessel to be designed and implemented in that role. The Striker is a brand new design, only just fully integrated into the RCN. The only Commonwealth ship designed to have its firepower aligned towards the bow, the Striker is meant to race around the battlefield wreaking havoc with its 3 double-barreled ultra-light positron cannons, light missile tubes, and axial mounted medium positron cannon. It has no broadside railguns to speak of, and can reach astonishingly high speeds. Strikers operate well in groups, and underestimating these small ships would be a foolish mistake.
Ground Forces
Doctrine: Strength in Diversity The Imperial Army is a far younger institution than the RCN, and has evidently not accrued enough battle honours to earn the 'royal' prefix. Nevertheless, the Imperial Army has spent almost 500 years cracking heads across all kinds of worlds. As the Commonwealth has grown, so too has the IA's technological and strategic diversity. The IA favours a relatively straightforward combined arms approach. Expect any IA theatre of operations to feature infantry, armor, artillery, and air forces working closely together, all backed by orbital support from the RCN.
Mixed regulars The varied population of the Commonwealth mean that their regular infantry is composed of multiple species. Well trained, equipped with power armour and a variety of graviton-acceleration based projectile weapons, the Commonwealth’s infantry can hold their own on any battlefield in the Galaxy.
Szitzu Shock Troopers The natural size and strength of the Szitzu makes them uniquely well suited to ground combat. Combined with power armor, personal shields, and man-portable positron cannons, the Szitzu are a devastating addition to any conflict.
Valerian Skyjacks A new addition to the Commonwealth's armies, Valerian Skyjacks have cybernetically enhanced their otherwise useless wings into functional flight appendages. Their power armor is lighter than other models, sacrificing protection for speed and mobility with built in thrusters. Skyjacks are optimally suited for ambush tactics; flying at high altitude and dropping from the sky directly on top of unsuspecting enemy infantry.
Yanissan Su'urtugal The end result of Yanissan efforts to weaponize psionics, the pinnacle of their genetic splicing programs, the most deadly and unquestioningly loyal soldiers in the Commonwealth: Su'urtugal. The enigmatic organization known as Toolbox tracks down and requisitions all Yanissan psintegrae shortly after birth, then spirits them away to locations unknown to begin a lifetime of training and genetic tampering. The resulting individuals are stronger, faster, smarter, brimming with psionic power, and machinelike in their efficiency. Deployed as spies, elite bodyguards, and elite special operatives in combat, Su'urtugal are constantly in high demand.
They call themselves the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit, whatever that means. They can put on a neat, antiseptic diplomatic facade when they feel like it - don't let them fool you. They are just some shady, cult-like corporate cabal. Using their 'official' name just helps to legitimize them. Call them The Printers. Everyone else does.
Official Name: The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit Common Name: The Printers Government: Corporate Stratocracy Capital: Point Phokashra
Divergent Plasmodium Replicant (Typis Mucor)
Otherwise known as 'Printed People,' Plasmodium Replicants posses, as its name implies, an internally naked mass of cytoplasm and interstitial fluids with an even dispersion of microscopic organic structures. The Plasmodium frame is adhered to a predetermined framework of material not dissimilar to cartilage, which also forms in a thin layer across the surface of the Plasmodium's exterior. Plasmodiums are universally printed to resemble other species in external appearance, and so have drastically diverse anatomies, though their physiologies are largely identical overall. Although their external facades are convincing enough, their internal anatomy, their scent, and their behavior are starkly different to natives of that species, and they make very inept infiltrators. Additionally, while they may retain the appearance of a species they rarely if ever possess their natural abilities. They are typically never venomous, lack psionic abilities, etcetera. As an extension of this, while they have facsimiles of reproductive organs they are largely incapable of intercourse and cannot reproduce naturally, even with their own kind.
Plasmodiums are radiotrophic by design, using trace amounts of nuclear isomers as biocatalysts and to produce metabolic energy. This factor is what permits Plasmodiums to support their own body weight despite having a cartilage-like skeleton, as their muscles and connective tissues exert several times more force than mundane muscular tissue. Plasmodium's are usually as strong if not stronger than the species they are made to resemble, while also being faster, healing much more rapidly, and capable of healing body-parts that would not otherwise grow back. Due to their physiology being so immensely distributed amongst their body, they are much harder to kill than normal, and can survive dismemberment, decapitation, and being torn and then shredded into several dozen pieces. Each Plasmodium possess a particular nucleus near their center of mass, surrounded by a thick barrier if denser bone-like protective material, which if damaged or destroyed will kill them, and also determines which severed pieces of their body die and live.
For all of their advantages, Plasmodiums have two significant drawbacks. Due to the decentralized nature of their immune system and their higher metabolism plus increase cellular regeneration rates, Plasmodium organisms have much weaker immune systems and short life spans, rarely living past twelve galactic standard years before their bodies give out and fail due to the emergence of uncontrolled malevolent tumors in addition to the body's own metabolic functions starting to cannibalize itself.
The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit describes itself as a largely self-contained corporate economic macrosystem, having arisen from the holdings of a large if obscure Megacorporation specializing in industrial fabrication. Having grown large and affluent enough to surpass the base purpose of the original corporate agenda, the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit has aligned itself with the pursuit of internal economic stability along with the endorsement of individual liberties and welfare.
All individuals registered within the Circuit are citizens who effectuate a contract upon willing joinder or emergence within the Circuit's territory, subject to particular regulatory rulings. In effect, the contract is essentially a corporate employment agreement and charter, guaranteeing citizens an agreed-upon standard of living in exchange for services rendered while also setting out the Circuit's basis of authority and the signing party's obligation to adhere to that authority. Participation in the system is voluntary and may be revoked by either party at-will for a number of reasons, either with or without consequence contingent upon the circumstances. It is entirely possible to live within the Circuit without being a citizen, but reduces one's options to direct negotiation with individual lower-management authorities - who have broad and liberal discretion to exploit and tread on the unwary non-citizens where able.
Citizens are mandated to work a certain number of hours every year, while being free to choose or otherwise independently arrange a leisure schedule with their corresponding civil manager. All laws are stipulated and enforced via the authority of the corporate charter, which is amended bi-annually. Demand for goods and services is measured by public forum and census, evaluated by economic speculators and consultants, and supply is mandated by the corporate state across particular layers of the Circuit Industrial Complex. The first priority of the Circuit is to adequately fulfill the needs and desires of its citizens, and then the pursuit of an established economic agenda to stabilize or reinforce the way of life within the Circuit, such as diplomacy and negotiation with sovereign powers, the establishment of a strong military, and the gathering of intelligence.
The Circuit allegedly has multiple boards of directors who mandate agenda, establish economic goals, dictate military activities and budget, amend the corporate charter, and more. However, to date these directors have had little if any form of official contact with foreign parties and everything known about how they operate is drawn from inspection of the the public copy of the corporate charter and related speculation.
Although the NAC claims to have been a merely obscure Megacorporation operating around and within the Southern rim of the galaxy, little to no trace of their presence - anywhere - prior to five galactic standard years ago has yet been obtained. They themselves have been remarkably coy and evasive in answering questions as to their precise origins, as well as recalcitrant to any and all demands to produce any kind of documentation or evidence as to their alleged corporate history. As far as anybody has been able to discern, the NAC seemingly erupted from nothingness within the Akkamarid system five years ago. Since then, they have been steadily growing and consolidating power at an alarming rate while establishing their easily discerned facade of civil order. The NAC now stands poised to rapidly expand and start asserting influence in the galactic scene, but what exactly they intend or even what kind of political entity they truly are remains a relative mystery.
The first thing that most people see when examining society within the NAC is the by-and-large absence of traditional organic and synthetic lifestyles. More than 97% of the citizens in the NAC are printed Plasmodium template organisms whose motives and ways of thinking are largely oriented according to the preferences of the NAC's boards. As such, inspection by a skeptical mind usually finds that there is little of anything resembling culture within the NAC beyond ironclad terms of employment, working relationships and poor facades of trivial amusement for the purposes of leisure. The Pladmodium template populace are reclusive, keeping to themselves and retaining a secretive air in the presence of outsiders. Defectors and prisoners indicate that as individuals and groups, Pladmodium are not by nature hard to please and keep entertained, and that a widespread availability of subsidized dietary stimulants is typically sufficient to keep the entire population focused and enthusiastic. Although there are variations and exceptions by individuals, by and large Plasmodium templates regard most traditional mediums of entertainment for organics to be boring and trite.
This is further reflected by the state of various entertainment industries within the NAC, all of which are almost exclusively oriented towards entertaining alien species from foreign powers, almost all of which being subsidized and non-profit. In essence, it would seem the corporate charter's indicated goal of endorsing individual liberties and the welfare of the people has been phased out in practice. Plasmodium templates largely pursue their own welfare by working, and are generally at their best when pursuing a goal or objective. Left to their own devices, Plasmodiums very quickly become listless and anxious, being hard-pressed to arrange their own lives in the absence of explicit instructions or orders. What little culture they and the NAC at large pretend to maintain would seem to be for the benefit of appearances with other species.
As of this reading, the NAC control only a single star system - although as Star Systems go, they certainly could have done worse.
The Akkamarid system is host to a quaternary star arrangement featuring three orbital barycenters. Tramitet, a superluminous class O star of indigo coloration, forms the first binary with Levanbent, a white class A star. The binary is referred to as the Greganev Binary. Estre, a blue class B star, forms the second binary with Ponekte, a yellow class G star. The binary is referred to as the Librens binary. The first and second binaries orbit a tertiary center of mass between them, which is designated as Point Phakashra. Two planets orbit Tamitet in the Greganev binary, while three respectively orbit both stars in the Librens binary.
Tunkret, the first planet closest in the Librens binary, is a barren world which contains several seas of molten rock and minerals. Due to concentrated pockets of volcanic gasses forming within older oceans now located within the planet's crust, the planet is host to several massive subterranean caverns and tunnel networks which are significantly cooler than the planet's surface. The NAC maintains several colonies and urban centers is here, within caverns beneath the planet's northern and southern poles and accessible only via artificial boreshafts.
Karthans, the second planet in the Librens binary, is similarly barren but possesses a cooler surface and an inert core. The planet's overall structure has remained stable for millions of years. Karthans is a base for a number of mining operations and serves as a waypoint between Tunkret and Trinnet. As such, Karthans is home to the largest terrestrial and subterranean urban complexes in the NAC, boasting the largest population and the most developed infrastructure.
Trinnet, the third plane in the Librens binary, is a barely habitable, sweltering greenhouse world with an atmosphere composed largely of Helium and Nitrogen, with moderate concentrations of Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide. Trinnet is host to most of the NAC's agricultural operations and industrial centers, which produce and organize shipments of foodstuffs and edible goods. While a number of Human plants can grow without trouble on Trinnet's surface, most livestock and cattle asphyxiate within the planet's atmosphere. Only particular cultures of engineered, meat-like crops are permitted to grow unabated on the surface.
Rannktom, the first planet in the Greganev binary, is a blasted, utterly inhospital ball of boiling, molten metal through and through. It has no noteworthy stable landmasses, and its surface features are in perpetual flux and turmoil. Due to the planet's speculated formative history combined with its close proximity to Tramitet, the planet's seas are suffused with a very high concentration of nuclear isomers. The NAC has gone to great trouble and length to establish massive, floating cities on Rannktom for the purposes of harvesting nuclear materials for industrial and civil applications. Rannktom is also home to a large number of prominent military installations and bases, which make use of the unforgiving 'terrain' as the ultimate proving ground and test-bed for their innovations and designs.
Paroh, the second planet in the Greganev binary, is thought to have once been a gas giant predating the formation of the binary itself. Its surface is an unnatural smooth, highly compressed composite material containing large amounts of cobalt, nickel, and chrome, with less than a thousand known craters and meteor impact sites. The large and diffuse arrangements of chromium compounds across the surface create a spectacular sea of metallic coloration. Although the NAC maintains a large number of starbases in orbit of the planet, there are no permanent installations on its surface and teams sent down to collect mineral samples and perform research are strictly relegated to very small select sites. Paroh is marked as a natural site by the NAC, and offers tours and vacation outings on its surface while staying in one of its stunningly accommodating luxury atmospheric habitats. Coincidentally, Paroh is also home to the NAC's official station of Embassies as well as their Diplomatic Forum.
Point Phokashra, located directly atop the tertiary Akkamarid binary, is a massive, sprawling starbase continuously expanding in every direction, being several times larger than most megacities and not looking to stop getting larger anytime soon. It has a network of supporting stations and starbases orbiting around the tertiary binary to match the orbits of other notable locations within the system, and it serves as both an activity hub and staging ground for most NAC operations. A large number of administrative centers and services are located here as a result.
Long-Hold Superpositioned Neutrino Scanning is a method developed by the NAC to scan any given target object down to the subatomic level and create a perfect, static data copy of that target's entire actual structure. This is not limited to merely mechanical or electronic devices, but can also be used to scan organic and synthetic beings, high-energy phenomena, invisible force interactions and waves, and more. LHSP Neutrino Scanning is infamous for being very nearly impossible to shield against. One of the only known limitations to LHSP Neutrino Scanning is its inability to detect or measure gravity meaningfully, with the scanning 'beam' also being susceptible to artificially bent or otherwise distorted spacetime curvature.
The scanner works by firing a compact ray of over a hundred quadrillion neutrinos at a target, which pass through an eigenstate trap before leaving the apparatus' emitter. Using telemetry and observation of the target, the eigenstate trap can stimulate select neutrino eigenstates to force a neutrino interaction while it passes through the target, which due to its captured eigenstate within the emitter can then be recorded. If the target's location is known, the eigenstate trap can stimulate the neutrino eigenstates in the ray until every part of the target structure has been observed. In the unlikely event that a high percentage of neutrinos are blocked or obscured, either by a mass of neutronium or else by a second eigenstate trap, the emitter's own eigenstate trap can force a corresponding neutrino to superposition across the barrier without interacting with it, allowing for it to continue.
LHSP Neutrino Scanners require large amounts of energy in order to produce upwards of quintillions of neutrinos at a time per use, and tend to be extremely large, dedicated assemblies with their own accompanying reactors and data storage systems. Additionally, Scanners are often specialized for specific kinds of targets for the sake of efficiency. Some are specialized to scan organic matter, others for hardware, or high-energy phenomena. General-use, universal scanners exist but tend to be designed using very conservative estimates, meaning they are typically the largest and most relatively inefficient scanners of their kind.
Working using similar principles to the NAC's Neutrino scanners, Mind Rippers range from backpack-mounted assemblies to larger medical equipment, specialized for the express purposes of scanning and storing the memory patterns of organic beings. The emitter used fires electrons rather than neutrinos, requiring much less energy overall to power and much less space to contain, especially in the absence of the need to fire quintillions of neutrinos at once. A Mind Ripper simply shoots electrons through an organic being's body, recording any identifiable instances of genetic sequences or other chemical structures used in the storage and retrieval of memory.
Typically, mind ripping is a nearly harmless procedure known to cause mild disorientation, as the electron stream used is normally does not fire enough electrons to seriously hurt a target. If the target has significant cybernetic augmentation or surgically implanted metal, the process is known to be more dangerous, being occasionally debilitating or lethal. Additionally, the larger and more powerful a mind ripper is in order to facilitate the firing of a denser electron stream, the more dangerous the process becomes for the target. Saturation of the bloodstream or other pathways in the body with particular compounds or materials that deter electron passage can shield against mind ripping, and it is entirely possible to develop serums affording short-term relative immunity. The counterpoint being that if an angry NAC agent with a mind ripper thinks you are using a serum, they can elect to use a larger mind ripper that fires many many many more electrons with a near 100% of killing you in the process of stealing all your hopes and dreams.
The very technology for which the populace of the NAC have earned the nickname of 'The Printers' from the galactic layman, Static-Form Printers are variable-sized chambers which use a number of arcane processes to create a near-QED Vacuum within their interior, and then use a provided supply of highly purified elemental fuels in order to create a perfect, printed copy of any object down to the subatomic level using information derived from Neutrino scanning.
Even for the smallest printers printing the smallest of objects, the printing process can take upwards of an hour to complete due to the mechanisms used in order to ensure the printed object is a whole, stable structure. Once an object starts printing, the process cannot be stopped or interrupted, and the sealed printing chamber cannot be opened. If the process should be stopped or the chamber forced open for any reason, the printed matter can fall apart and degenerate, sometimes spectacularly. As long as the process is allowed to proceed however, normally hazardous or unstable matter (or antimatter) can be preserved up until the moment the printing process is complete. Only once the printing process is complete are potentially hazardous or unstable objects and structures permitted to explode or melt through the floor. For this very same reason, safeguard programs exist in every printer that warn the user of the potential for unsafe materials to be printed.
Although generally limited by the volume and dimensions of the printing chamber, assuming it is larger enough a printer can recreate nearly any object with perfect fidelity, and is not limited to hardware. Printers can reliably recreate computing equipment and every program, piece of software, and line of code stored in the equipment's scan data. They can print synthetics, organic matter, and even perfect copies of living, sentient beings complete with intact memory. Imperfections and flaws are possible, but generally so insignificant as to be negligible, since defects in printed matter are generally only caused by vacuum fluctuations within the printing chamber or by impurities in the elemental fuel any given printer might use.
In addition to registering and tracking every single printer ever made, the NAC has a large array of security and safeguards programmed into each one. In particular, non-Plasmodium species cannot use printers, nor can any Plasmodium unless its genome is on record with the NAC. However, although printers are sophisticated and elaborate pieces of technology, they are not beyond the means of other opportunistic powers to duplicate with sufficient study and analysis. The science behind its operation is not particularly arcane, and the simple act of creating the near-QED vacuum within the printing chamber is the most complex part of the actual printing process itself. Once the technology behind printing gets out, the only real advantages the NAC will have will be the relatively better efficiency and sophistication of their own printers.
Although the NAC has developed a number of model designer organisms for its own purposes, by and large they do not specialize in genetic design or manipulation, and the few organisms they have made from scratch took decades of time to develop. However, there are a few key areas where the NAC excels due to their express interests, in particular, the ability to change and manipulate biogenic information in the form of memory. After having studied a particular organic species sufficiently, the NAC can print perfect copies of scanned members of their species with erased, altered, or completely fabricated memories and corresponding personalities.
Certain ships amongst the NAC's navy and a number of their starbases and space stations are equipped with a weapons array that allows for the use of FTL energy munitions. Despite the system's designation as an FTL weapon, its ultimate range is strictly limited within the same system, and is most effectively employed at relatively close ranges. This is because the targeting mechanism for the weapon is, in and of itself, a subluminal targeting maser that travels near but not quite at the speed of light. This same maser is calibrated so that it is fired as a hollow, cylindrical beam as opposed to a solid stream. The hollow interior of the maser is both rendered into a full vacuum, while the specialized properties of the maser create a Casimir effect corridor along the length of the beam.
Once the maser itself hits and 'paints' a target, the FTL munition can then be employed by firing it down the vacuum within the targeting maser, accelerated past lightspeed by the casimir corridor to the point where any target being painted by the targeting maser will be hit instantaneously, turning what would otherwise be a mundane near-C energy munition into a technical FTL weapon. The targeting maser itself being subluminal still tremendously limits the effective range of the system, and presents a number of other drawbacks. For one,if the laser loses target acquisition, then the energy stream fired through it will also miss. If the targeting maser should be broken or interrupted - by space debris or certain kinds of interrupting fields for example - the energy stream fired through it will likewise be interrupted at that point. The upside to the weapon is that once a target is painting, no matter what range it happens to be at, the firing system will have perfect down-to-the-microsecond telemetry data on its position and will be able to apply a continuous, hitscan stream of fire.
NAC vessels use a powerful superfluid magnetohydrodynamic power system to generate a highly energetic halbach magnetosphere around themselves, mimicking the natural magnetospheres generated by planets with fluid mantles (such as Earth, by way of example) or the heliospheres of stars. Each vessel features a dynamo containing a rapidly circulating supercharged and superfluid matter, which generates a dipolar magnetic field several hundreds of times the size of the vessel generating the field. The dynamo system also spins perpendicular to its axis, and so the dipolar field behaves as though it were singular and fluid rather than dipolar.
When any object (not merely objects that are strongly magnetic) enters the magnetofield of a planet like Earth, its own trajectory is influenced by the relatively velocity at which the field spins in proportion to how energetic the field is. Earth’s magnetosphere is just powerful enough to deflect radiation and other energetic particles projected for the sun, which relative to large space objects or highly-energetic cosmic particles, may as well be lazily buzzing gnats. Hence, when a large object or an extremely energetic particle enters Earth’s magnetosphere, they tend to be only negligibly affected by the field.
NAC vessels generate magnetoshields which, relative to the Earth’s magnetofield, are almost literally millions of times more energetic and rapid. When an object enters an NAC magnetoshield, it is likely to be immediately torn apart due to the extreme spin of the superfluid matter near the corresponding vessel’s core. Objects that are not torn apart, but lack sufficient kinetic force to maintain their own trajectory are yanked from their trajectory to be flung away from the magnetoshield at a reciprocal vector.
Missiles, accelerated particle streams, slugs, and most beam/projectile based weapons are susceptible to interception by NAC magnetoshields, and the magnetoshields in question do not lose energy from sustained fire or from being pierced. Very simply, the only way to pierce through the magnetoshield is to use a weapon or form of attack that is powerful enough to pierce through it. Using weapons or attacks too weak to pierce through the magnetoshield initially will never pierce through it at all, no matter how many times they are used or in what concentration they are utilized. If an enemy attacks an NAC vessel of the same or equivalent ship classification and only has light armaments, there is a distinct possibility that none of its weapons will be capable of piercing the magnetoshield.
The silver lining for attacking forces, of course, is that if an attack pierces the magnetoshield, it always will, and will never fail in doing so (though they had best be wary that even such attacks are not disturbed or deflected enough to miss the target vessel anyway). Since the magnetoshield’s power is always constant, the NAC cannot suddenly decide to ‘divert more power to the shields!’ The same features which make magnetoshields effective against weak attacks makes them weak against sufficiently strong attacks.
Finally, by necessity of their design, each magnetoshield has two weak points. The dynamo containing the circulating matter necessarily generates a dipolar magnetoshield along its axis. At both poles, there is a steep depression in the magnetoshield which makes the area of space covered by the shield much ‘shallower’ than any other space, making it easier for attacks to penetrate those points. In order to circumvent this weakness, the NAC have each shield dynamo spun perpendicular to their axis (akin to the motion of a gyroscope), causing the axial poles to constantly shift and change position. This prevents enemies from effectively targeting either weak point. However, highly sophisticated tracking systems or targeting suites, if they knew what to look for, could probably time and predict the movements of the poles and time firing solutions to pierce through the magnetoshield the next time one or the other comes around.
Having observed all of this, one might ask how the NAC manage to fire any of their own weapons through the magnetoshield surrounding each vessel. The answer being that each shielding dynamo, in addition to rapidly circulating supercharged, superfluid matter, circulates it through rotating chambered systems designed to change the interaction of the magnetic field generated by the fluid circulating through each chamber in order to create a dynamic halbach array. This cancels out the influence of the magnetic field on the inside of the magnetoshield to near zero which proportionally augmenting the strength of the magnetoshield on its outside. In this way, each magnetoshield only destroys or repels attacks or objects that approach it from the outside; attacks directed from the inside, out, simply pass through.
tl;dr, attacks that are too weak to pass through it, don’t. Attacks that are, do. The shield doesn’t lose strength when it deflects an attack, and it doesn’t break when it gets pierced. It always works, and never drops or fails. The NAC can fire their own weapons out of the shield without them being affected.
Using internally seated wedge-shaped chambers containing stabilized matrices of exotic matter with negative mass, each NAC vessel bends spacetime to a given side of itself in order to attain a relative higher top speed, as well as better changes in acceleration. This allows each ship to attain respectably high sublight speed and acceleration without endangering the the organic crew or less durable objects aboard each vessel.
The Itharian Harmony is an ancient nation, noted for its pacifist nature and advanced sciences and cultural practices. Long since stabilised in its territorial extent, the Itharian stewards maintain most of the worlds in its immediate vicinity - and it is not uncommon for their work to conflict, albeit mildly, with up and coming nascent star nations. Some reflect that if it were not for the dynamic nature of the Ithari, the Itharian civilization would of stagnated into a dying empire perhaps millenia previously.
Official Name: The Harmony of Ithari Pods. Common Name: Harmony, Itharian Harmony. Government: A "commonwealth" of "States" organised under a Federal system. Dominant Species: Ithari. Capital: Tua'lon Station, Arillia Orbit, Vantara System. Systems Owned: 30~ Major Inhabited Systems, numerous outlying colonies and vested interests. Planets Owned: ~. Population: N/A
History
The development of Itharian civilization on Aprathia was a story often told amongst the multiple emergent civilizations of the galaxy. Tools, writing, husbandry, agriculture, taxes - civilization. That the nascent Itharian civilization did most of its developmental feats in the sparkling azure oceans of Aprathia was less common, but by no means unheard of in the grand history of all that was and will be.
For Millenia, the Itharian species developed a society that, despite technological limitations and the vastness of the depths, was global, thanks to the far reaching thoughts of the elders, and near entirely pacifistic - at least when it came to the pods of early Ithari. The threats came from outside - the large, lurking monsters of the deep, and the reef colonies and deep sanctuaries worked together against such threats until such a time came where all but the smartest predators had succumbed to their prey.
From such beginnings the Ithari came, but were not limited. In time, they came to evolve further, and in doing so dominate the few small continents of Aprathia - home to only a few creatures that had developed in their isolation. It would take many more centuries of idyllic peace before the Ithari turnt to the stars - and then they did so with wanton abandon.
The Itharian people took to their first true starships decades after that - traversing a new deep to the worlds of the home star, Danae. New oceans were found under the light of Danae, and they too were brought to order and soon enough, peace, as new pods of Ithari took to their currents and mastered new frontiers.
It did not take long from this, in the grand terms of our civilization, to break the barriers that prevented our access to the various isolated shoals of interstellar space. However, with mastery of FTL travel - the ability to jump, dependant on our ability to calculate such feats of dimensional transport to far away stars - we repeated what we had found to be our calling. We found worlds upon which life different from what we knew had developed, upon some, the Itharian people found life with true inklings of sentience, different, but evident. From here, our stewards began their work - protecting those who did not know of the stars until the time was right.
However, as the pods became separated by such vast distances, we made a mistake - we stopped listening to each other, to our revered elders, for their voices could not reach so far, and we grew fractious. It took many centuries, but from such mistakes only misery could result.
We, as a species, knew murder, and with our minds so attuned to the essence of our people, we punished it severely, but we did not know war, and war we could only abhor in the most strongest terms. The losses of our first, and only, "civil" war, were vast in their material cost, but more than that they were a mark upon our very collective psyche. Such things could only continue until we descended into madness, and so from the brink of that abyss, we turned back. From this, the Void Swimmers came, and for their sacrifice we must all be honoured.
We formed a new greater pod, to which all others could belong, and where we could hear, if not truly feel, all voices, and especially our elders, whilst maintaining the new and diverse cultures and ways that we had developed. And so we returned to our order, and our peace, and for countless millenia we have defended such peace from those we have encountered along the way with a passion - and a fear. For when Ithari kill, there is now a note missing from the song, and for that, we are all guilty.
-Revered Elder La'alei of Tu'at. "The Song as I Remember It".
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
N/A ?
Major Holdings
-Aprathia, Danae System
Aprathia is the homeworld and birthplace of Itharian civilization. Its well tended and largely unspoilt, if small, continents leave one to thing that only a small Itharian presence is immediately obvious upon the world - though the immense amount of orbital traffic would leave one perplexed if they did not know better. Its lustrous deep oceans are a hive of activity - long since pacified and turned into the shining heart of the Itharian culture. Though governance has long since moved away, the economic importance of Aprathia and the colonies of the home system cannot be understated, and billions of Ithari - including some of the most ancient, are found here.
-Arillia, Vantara System Arillia is one of the younger "core" worlds, and has a much larger landmass than the homeworld of Aprathia - with a much heftier Itharian presence. Though the Itharian government holds its seat in a station above the world, its shallower, purple oceans are still home to the most cosmopolitan melding of Ithari pods found in the entire Harmony. Its status as a world open to such things and its reputation as a centre of learning, especially for foreign visitors and emigrés, has secured its status as the de facto capital and a new beacon of culture in the Harmony.
Social Information
Demographics
The Harmony is largely, though not necessarily by intent, homogenous. While there is diversity in the Ithari genome particularly with the advancement of technology and the settling of diverse worlds, the Ithari overwhelmingly make up the bulk of the populace in the Harmony. As such, most notable concentrations of non Ithari are either races under stewardship - and largely unaware of the Ithari at all, or concentrations of foreign students or ex-pats that have been granted leave to remain by the Ithari.
The Ithari, are however an unusual species in more ways than one. Their bodies are sleek and dynamic, allowing for fast movement in water. Although they appear completely smooth, their skins are in fact coated with a layer of dense, fine fur. Fur patterns and colors will vary with the individual. They, like mammals, bear live young. Yet all members of the species are hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female sex organs. The majority of Ithari are capable of both fertilizing as a male or bearing young as a female, but only the very oldest Ithari can do both at once; it is normally impossible for a Ithari to impregnate as a male while carrying an offspring itself.
Ithari take on gender pronouns to indicate the dominant pursuits of the phase of existence through which they are passing. A Ithari who is gestating, birthing and nursing young, for example, considers herself a "she" since her existence is devoted to her feminine side. An Elder who has ceased to function as a female is most definitely a "he." Since Void Swimmers have cut themselves off psychologically from the aspects of their character which create and nurture life, a death-dealing Void Swimmer's feminine side, although still present, is not in ascendance. Void Swimmers as such are referred to as male.
A newborn Ithari is very small, less than half a meter in length and weighing only 8 to 10 kilograms. By the time they reach the age of majority, a period of roughly fifty years, a typical Ithari will be around 3 meters long and weigh approximately 120 kilograms.
There seems to be no natural end to the potential life span of any given Ithari. Throughout their lives, they never stop growing. Some records have notes of Elder Ithari over 60 meters long, massing many tons, though no such Elder is known to exist today. If size is not deftly controlled, the end of an Ithari life is typically the point where cell revitalisation requires more energy than the individual can provide through their intake. Largely painless, an individual will simply began to become more lethargic over the course of years until the point where vital organs begin to fail.
The most unusual feature of the Ithari race is not the shape of their bodies however, but the power of their minds. Ithari do not have opposable digits, tentacles or any other physical means of manipulating objects; they employ a limited form of telekinesis instead. A deft Ithari can use several tools at once, and can often operate many simple machines simultaneously. With some concentration they can also hurl objects with astonishing force and the spear was a traditional hunting weapon among the Ithari for many centuries.
Although they have large, light-sensitive eyes, the frequency range of Ithari vision is limited. They have a very refined sense of taste and a sophisticated array of sound-producing and sound-receiving equipment however, which more than compensate for the lack of sight. Ithari echo-location is good enough to allow Ithari to draw very sophisticated schematics of any machine or device simply by “singing” to it and reading the sound waves that bounce back.
The Ithari, as noted, communicate largely by telepathic means, although they do have some very rudimentary sound-signals that convey strong but simple emotions—being startled, amused, frightened, angry, etc.
Ithari are conscious breathers, like earthly cetaceans humans would be familiar with. They can never be fully unconscious, or they die. They fulfill their need for sleep by allowing one lobe of the brain to doze at a time, in three hour cycles, while the other two lobes remain awake and active.
While Ithari are more than physiologically capable of violence and their harmonious society certainly has never extended to all other species, They have never been "Buddhist" in their dietary habits, for example—they are omnivores who are known to raise and herd aquatic life forms for their own sustenance without guilt or shame. However, their nature as a telepathic minded and decidedly empathic species makes the taking of sentient life incredibly traumatic to the unprepared.
Society
Ithari Society has stratified itself into two noticeable classes since the ascent of the Ithari into space for a number of reasons, primarily, however, the one that is tied into the Ithari view on living things. Until the civil war, the Ithari understood but barely endured the concept of Murder - let alone War, and were deeply affected by it and its connotations. The schism in the way the Ithari think and behave, in terms of what other races would see rational has many striking examples. A lesser example of this would be the Ithari's technological prowess in bio-technology. The Ithari, while having a great knowledge in the field that could be employed to great effect, rarely, if at all, modify themselves either through enhancements or genetic tampering.
Overall, however, As a society, the Ithari are now made up of those who know nothing of war and those who sacrifice all that they are to protect those who remain blissfully serene and untarnished. The "Void Swimmers" - those who take to the stars to defend the Ithari worlds, form a consequent parallel class to the main element of civilian society, though not regarded as lesser or elevated. These "Void Swimmers" effectively die, in a social sense, and are reborn as instruments of death rather than life. Few are ever likely to be reintegrated. As such, these classes of society vary, but essentially denote the civilian and the military.
It is, in most aspects, their becoming space faring and subsequent civil war that has made its mark on Ithari Society. The Ithari certainly have mixed feelings about the "Fracture" and all events that have followed since their traumatic first true war. There is definitely a schism between the civilian struggle to cope with this aspect of their history–which, due to their tendency to live long lives and a telepathic story telling tradition, is very much a "Holocaust survivor" syndrome among them—and the military response.
Becoming a Void Swimmer, for some Ithari, was very much like becoming a hunter of those who caused such pain. For others it is plain and simple fear for their homeworlds and loved ones that drives them into the Void Sea. Thanks to their oral-telepathic traditions it is literally impossible for the Ithari as a species to ever forget the way death can come from above...and the humiliation, pain and loss of life that they suffered under their own madness has become a very dark and ugly scar.
There is a certain amount of tragedy in military service for the Ithari. The Ithari are aware of that they may involved in genocidal wars against other sentients, and could be forced to kill the entire civilian population of an enemy world. The Ithari, from their experience, know what sort of affect it can have on individual Ithari and their society overall. Often the answer for how its people cope is "not well". The truth is that, in some cases, a Void Swimmer crew who have seen too much of the wrong kind of action will never return home. When they are no longer needed by their people, they may well choose to "decommission" their own vessel by piloting it into the corona of the nearest star. They understand that they will never be able to become Ithari again. In this way, they are still protecting their home from the horrors of war.
Because of their empathic and telepathic abilities the Ithari are always keenly aware of the sufferings of others and they take no joy in causing pain, fear or anger. They revere life and harmony and abhor needless death or destruction. Nonetheless, they also value their own lives and over their ancient history they have come to embrace survival as a necessary virtue. The Ithari value of life is not to be misunderstood however, as they separate life, sapient life and sentient life. While, as they understand, all life is sacred - particularly sentient and to some extent, sapient life, this has not precluded them from animal husbandry and consuming such reared animals as a food source. To them, this is part of life and not necessarily abhorrent. It is from such a thing that has also lead to the separation of the Ithari military from the civilian population.
Other Information:
For perhaps obvious reasons, the Ithari place an intense value on music. Ithari music is all choral, as one would rightly expect. For many, It is inexpressibly beautiful and powerful, even as a recording, but of course the full effect could never be achieved outside of live performance. When you are close enough to receive the telepathic stream that goes with the song—to hear the lyrics as well as the melody—the experience is magnified a hundred-fold. And this is to say nothing of the frequencies of sound which humanoids can more easily feel than hear.
In terms of religious values, The Ithari spiritual worldview is both simple and profound. They have no separate sense of the divine as is commonly understood. They believe that all things are equally divine and sacred; the universe itself is, in a manner of speaking, in essence their "god". Theologically, they make no philosophical or hierarchical separation between themselves and other living things, or even between themselves and non-living bodies like stars and planets.
The Ithari conceive the Universe as one great Song—a vast tapestry of harmonious music. To a Ithari, every physical object and living thing in the universe is another trembling chord, a pattern of vibrations, a sequence of notes. Everything is part of the Song. Everything that exists, in their eyes, is beautiful and necessary; if one cannot see that beauty, the fault lies within.
If the Ithari perceive themselves as special in some way or separated in some way from the rest of the Song, it is only because they recognize the unique ability of all sentient beings to marvel at the music and to shape the world around them—to change the Song, even in a small way.
Whether the Ithari conception of the Song implies the existence of a divine singer is a subject open to debate. When asked whether there is or was a singe, a "Creator" who was the author or instigator of the divine Song - most Ithari simply create bubbles. If pressed, they all reply with the same question: "Are you not singing yourself?"
When it comes to their young, Ithari parenting is communal. An infant can nurse from any other "female" Ithari in its community. They have several variations on the word "mother" which, depending on mental inflection, can mean: "a female Ithari," "she who birthed my body," "she who nourishes me physically (or spiritually)," etc. Pair bonding among the Ithari is not common, but neither is it uncommon. Courtship is an interplay of minds and bodies which is impossible to unwind and separate from other interactions.
Entertainment
Entertainment is a telling part of a society, and how, for some, they work, and perhaps how they think and hold themselves, all as a form of playful expression. In the case of the Ithari - they express themselves almost entirely through music and thought. They never stop "dancing" from the moment they are born until the moment they die — because they can always hear the music. Most of their art is difficult to describe in average humanoid terms; it consists of tapestries of sound, memory, motion and emotion. For fun, they tend to engage in various athletic contests or play a game called "hide the idea".
"Hide the idea" is a game which Ithari children begin to play soon after birth, much as human babies first learn to play "peek-a-boo" and then "guess which hand the penny is in"? But as the Ithari grow older and stronger "hide the idea" becomes a much more aggressive, passionate, fascinating contest of wills. It is a common exercise for hundreds of younger Ithari to wrestle the mind of one elder, trying to prize the thought from beneath his layers of defenses. When they finally "find the idea", it sometimes changes their lives forever.
There are other games which would be analogous to water polo, although among Ithari this sport is a little more like underwater hurling. Of other interest is the Ithari equivalent of "toys" - items that came about as steelsingers created objects which were meant to teach reading to other Ithari. Essentially, the standard Ithari object of this nature is a puzzlebox with various characters inscribed on its surfaces; as the different parts of the puzzle are moved by telekinetic fine motor manipulation, the player is able to "read" simple vocabulary words. The word changes with each movement of the box's pieces, transforming from one concept to another in an aesthetically pleasing or humorous manner: the classic is a box that begins with the word "steel", which becomes "reflective", which becomes "bright", which becomes "beautiful", which becomes "song".
Any sentient which nurtures its own young and practice any form of animal husbandry will keep pets of some kind. In the case of the Ithari, their relationship with biological mechanisms is so intimate that half the natural world is a "pet" to them--i.e., something which they care for, nurture, train, control, and love to the extent that one can love a lesser creature. As such, The Ithari have a fairly common practice of "Tattooing" themselves. Tattoos for a Ithari involve painting their bodies with colorful microorganisms, usually fluorescent. Watching an underwater "dance" featuring multicolored/fluorescent Ithari can be quite a visual spectacle.
Old Age
Ithari achieve “Elder” status after having lived for more than three hundred years. At this point they are over typically over 5 meters in length and usually weigh well over 200 kilograms. Ithari who have reached this venerable age generally retire from any profession which might put them personally at risk and adopt a monastic lifestyle. The older a Ithari becomes, the less likely it is to reproduce. Although Ithari elders can both birth and father children simultaneously, they are far less likely to do either than younger Ithari. Infant Ithari only come in one size, and it becomes increasingly difficult for an increasingly massive Ithari to tend to its own infants as it grows beyond the size of an adult blue whale - At a certain point elder Ithari simply become far more interested in educating and nurturing children than in producing them.
In general, their days are spent contemplating the mysteries of the universe, composing songs and poems, maintaining the timeless oral tradition of the species and instructing the young in matters of ethics, morality and proper conduct as a sentient being. No Itharian philosopher is taken seriously before the age of 400.
Any given Elder will usually be surrounded by a cloud of younger Ithari, who listen to the songs, ask questions and telepathically explore the complexities and subtleties of the Elder’s mind. This period of “swimming alongside” is considered a vitally necessary part of any young person’s education. The aged are highly revered in all Itharian subcultures and younger Ithari will gladly sacrifice their own lives or embrace great personal risk to protect an Elder from any possible harm. Their ancestors are living treasures in their eyes. A sizable number of Ithari spacers regard their service as a duty to the species and volunteer to “scout the empty sea” in order to protect the Elders who must, most often, remain behind on Aprathia or the other colonies.
Government
The Itharian Harmony operates three primary elements of guidance in order to facilitate the smooth running of the state, while the Ithari recognize the establishment of their nation as being the moment they became aware, the first true state was established by the formation of the Council as was necessary in the space age, and subsequently the Harmony itself after the Fracture. The Harmony has grown to encompass 38~ star systems, with some densely inhabited, with vested interests throughout several others.
The Eldest
The Eldest, though also referred to by Ithari as "The First Voice of Aprathia" is, as the name would imply, the eldest Ithari currently in existence, thus judged to the be wisest and greatest amongst them as both a guardian and a teacher, but the strongest telepath, the deepest of voice and accomplished as a singer in the great universal song. While the First Voice of Aprathia has traditionally guided the Ithari, the advent of the space age and the creation of a form of interstellar government to guide the pods necessitated a formalization of the position. Such a position is only locked to the Eldest of Ithari age - not to a particular planet, and such it is likely in many years to come a Ithari from one of the many colonial pods could lead the state.
The Ithari handle government differently, of course. The Eldest serves only to make decisions where the Council cannot - and their main role remains, as throughout the Elder portion of a Ithari's life, to teach and to guide, but the Eldest is rarely prone to give orders - that is for those elevated to such specific positions and the agreement of a Council. As such, the Eldest is largely a figurehead, though the Eldest's importance, not only on a cultural and social level, but in the Harmony itself is not to be understated.
The Council of Elders
The Council of Elders consists of the First Voices of the colony worlds. While the Eldest is elevated to a slightly higher position, he is but one among near equals. These many near equals form the main form of interstellar governance needed by a state that spans more than one ocean. These First Voices meet only when situations require, as each guides their own world or worlds individually as they desire. For the most part, decisions are spoken about and considered, a consensus reached and guiding principles decided without the Council ever being convened in person.
The difficulty in transporting the largest of the Elders means that when such a council is convened, something of dire import has surely occured.
The Pods
The Pods are the Ithari themselves. Each world is considered such, and with the open hearts and minds, and few guarded thoughts of the Ithari there is always open discourse among the pods. While the First Voices of each pod guide and enforce the will of the pod, it is the greater pods themselves throughout the day that reach decisions and debate the merits of actions at all possible times. The pods effectively govern their own worlds in a form of direct democracy, though the pod's trust in each of their Elders, and the First Among each group of Elders, to make their decisions reality - and to work with the Void Swimmers - themselves an independent pod, to ensure the safety of their oceans.
The Pods in function:
The pods are known by the name of each of their worlds or hub world, but each holds equal importance to the harmony of the Harmony. Each effectively functions as their own state but unified as a people and as part of the Universal Song. The Void Swimmers, that is, the Ithari military, by necessity functions as its own separate choir with its own First Voice, though it is beholden to the will of the choir's it has been created to protect. Traditionally, the First Voice will assume the name "Ocean" - as the Ithari spread to other worlds, these First Voices would sometimes assume the name of the Ocean they now guided.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
The Ithari have been spacefaring for countless millenia, and have long since refined elements of bio-science, energy and gravity manipulation, construction, and many things from simple agriculture to advanced particle physics - much of which, however, remains theory. However, the Ithari application of many of these fields in regards to the making of war is lacking, though largely by intent.
Because of their empathic and telepathic abilities the Ithari are always keenly aware of the sufferings of others and they take no joy in causing pain, fear or anger. They revere life and harmony and abhor needless death or destruction. Nonetheless, they also value their own lives and over the past several centuries they have come to embrace survival as a necessary virtue. It is also a sad circumstance that even a single soldier who has seen such needless death and destruction can poison an entire pod with his burdens, his unrestrained thoughts. This is what lead to the creation of the Void Swimmers.
There is a great deal of debate, angst and soul-searching among the Ithari general population over the actions of their military. There are many Ithari who have never embraced the changes that came with their creation and genuinely would have preferred to find some peaceful way of resisting the wanton destruction inherent in war. They argue that mass suicide would have been a better answer than embracing the ways of those who commit such atrocities.
The Void Swimmers Ithari who join the navy often do so against the express wishes of their families, friends and elders. Sometimes they are disowned and ostracized entirely. More often, a Ithari who decides to become a "swimmer in the void" goes through a death ritual before he enters the service. He lies very still in the water; his loved ones circle him, sometimes for hours, singing mournful songs and touching him one last time, as is their habit when a Ithari dies. Then the funeral procession carries his unresisting body to the Naval base and he is remanded to the custody of the Void Swimmers.
It is universally understood that he is no longer Ithari from that point onward. He will not behave as a Ithari would; he will learn the ways of the void sea and carry out missions which no living Ithari could countenance. These Ithari retain their old name, although it is likely to have a bittersweet irony. A new name would come if they were ever able to leave the service--such an event is considered rebirth, and would involve a new name to commemorate the occasion, and allow the past to be left behind.
If he ever returns, and wishes to become a Ithari again, he must go through a re-birthing ceremony and he will slowly to be re-integrated into Ithari society by use of a long process of purification. The horrors he has seen and done must be cleansed from his body and soul; he must learn to swim and sing again as a Ithari. The elders will help him in this process. They are considered strong enough to bear his burdens and each of them will hear one of his battlesongs as a confession and keep the sin of it for him. The heart of an elder is so massive, the long ages of beauty and joy it has lived are so powerful, that one Ithari's grief, guilt and rage cannot overshadow it.
This is however not always a possibility, If the Swimmer is relatively young, neither too old nor too far gone to heal his war wounds and go on with his life. Such a thing is expected, for many, it is not.
Most of the cleansing rituals have to do with being physically close enough to your victims to absorb their death agonies. For a Ithari, being within "shouting" distance of a kill is incredibly visceral and devastating. It's hard to put this in human terms without sounding almost deranged--but taking the life of a thinking, feeling sapient being for a Ithari is as intimate and terrible as it would be for a human being to drive a short sword into the belly of a close relative, feel that person's fluids rain onto your skin, and stare intimately into the victim's face as life left the body. They not only have to empathize with the death, but taste every shade of pain and rage and despair and fear as that experience devours someone's consciousness. Not only this - they go through this knowing that they've caused it. Sadly, They may even have to face the fact that some part of them enjoyed it.
A swimmer is brutal not out of efficiency but out of fear. Ithari do not breed like flies, nor do they have the ability to marshal their entire population as soldiers - Most Ithari go to their drowning day out of concern for their race A void swimmer does not destroy an enemy world as his opening gambit. It is done as a last resort. It is no condolence to those who perish, but it is as it is
Unfortunately, not every Void Swimmer is able to reintegrate back into society. The truth is that, in some cases, a Void Swimmer crew who have seen too much of the wrong kind of action will never return home. When they are no longer needed by their people, they may well choose to "decommission" their own vessel by piloting it into the corona of the nearest star. They understand that they will never be able to become Ithari again. In this way, they are still protecting their home from the horrors of war. New events have lead to the possibility of giving oceans to those who would guard them - but they could never be open to Ithari who have not lived a soldiers life.
The Void Swimmers as such have sacrificed nearly everything to protect all they hold dear. They are not the Ithari people expect, and perhaps, in that, they find an even greater advantage.
Seers of the Song Intelligence is paramount in any operation, and the Ithari would be foolish to not take this idea to the fore. The Ithari Intelligence Service is known simply as Seers of the Song, they are few and largely untested, for the Ithari have made no notable enemies nor is it largely possible to infiltrate other states. Their diplomatic counterparts, the "Singers to the Deaf", do some work in this regard, though not much. The Seer's of the Song are however trained to do what many Ithari themselves do as a game - ferret out thoughts, irrespective of the mind that holds it, and bring the note of the song to the fore, so that the harmony of the song can be preserved.
Space Forces
The Void Swimmers maintain a diverse force of military space craft, centred upon core units such as carriers and "battleships", but overwhelmingly prefer to dispatch lighter forces for harassing and hit and run manoeuvres. Ithari ships are surprisingly agile due to their use of gravity manipulation (once a necessity, due to the liquid water contents often required) and given Ithari energy generation techniques, able to power more than reasonable banks of energy weaponry.
Navy Doctrine: Void-Pod Hunt.
The Void-Pod Hunt typically employs squadrons to harass, surround, and bring down "predators" - either squadrons of lighter ships or the many smaller void craft typically referred to as strike craft by other species. In situations of overwhelming numerical superiority, the Ithari will even employ their nimble capital ships in such a fashion, rotating through their banks of energy and particle weapons in a broadside fashion. Where such tactics are not possible, the fleet will form a "greater pod" and hunt as one, large, all encompassing force - smashing the opponent with a wall of battle if no other options are presented.
Ground Forces
The Ithari, understandably, rarely take to the field of combat personally. While the dramatic image of an enraged Ithari, utilizing the combination of kinetics and technology to hover over the battlefield unleashing its own minds power upon the enemy has been popularized in some Void Swimmer circles, it is far from the norm.
While the Ithari will do such things, potentially with devastating effects, the lions share of ground facing weaponry and tactics have been outsourced to modular, adaptable technological constructs - and in some rare cases, willing mercenary forces. Nearly all matters military are left in the hands of the Void Swimmers, and a select few are trained for ground combat every recruitment cycle.
Ground Doctrine: Mind & Matter.
Despite being dangerous telekinetic combatants, Ithari typically eschew personal frontline combat both as a philosophical and practical concern. As a rule, ground combat on a planetary surface is often to a territorial disadvantage, particularly given the necessary mental strength and/or technological adaptations required to engage an enemy out of the water. However, it is an inevitable necessity that Ithari will, if not personally attend to bloodletting on the front line, not be far from the action.
Ithari ground military forces are thus almost exclusively modular constructs, typically made up of billions of, effectively, nanites. While the Ithari maintain certain pre-planned or melded semi-intelligent constructs which can be called upon - Itharians are typically intimately involved in their constructs - multiple ones can be brought together and bonded by a single Ithari utilizing their telekinetic abilities - with the innate technological nature of the "matter" guided by the "mind" forming nanomolecular bonds as appropriate, shaped and guided by an active mind and not reliant on Artificial Intelligence unless the Itharian "controller" disengages from a particular constructs "intelligence web".
However, the necessity of a certain degree of proximity does not insulate the Ithari from danger, and it certainly does not form a sufficient barrier from the effects of taking life, particularly given the near intimate bond necessary with the constructs empty mind (For the Ithari do not utilize true artificial sentience). As such, Void Swimmers destined to become "controllers" receive some of the most intense preparation possible.
Think I've covered "everything". There's stuff that will no doubt be useful but is probably superfluous at the current juncture like ship types and the like, but yes.
So, depending on how we work out the map claims, there might not be room for the Commonwealth, which by its very nature needs to be pretty big.
Just in case, I've put together an NS for another race. I'd prefer to play the Commonwealth, but these guys would fit in a much smaller space. I thought I'd post the NS anyways and let people have a look.
The Talisan Concordat
General Information
Overview
The Talisan Concordat is a civilization defined by their cybernetic augmentations. One particular augmentation lets them emulate psionics among themselves, and possession of that implant is what makes one truly Concordat. Over the years, many have been drawn in by the Concordat’s seemingly utopian way of life, so the citizenry of the Concordat, both implanted and non-implanted, is quite diverse. The Concordat eagerly welcomes, and actively recruits, new citizens. Many other nations do not really appreciate the Concordat trying to lure their citizens away, so relations with their neighbours are...tense.
The Concordat ostensibly wants to co-exist peacefully with the rest of the galaxy, but many suspect some deeper, more nefarious purpose.
Official Name: The Talisan Concordat Common Name: The Concordat, the Conks Government: Networked Oligarchical Council Dominant Species: Vae’shan, Humans Capital (Apparent): Sanctuary Capital (Actual): Concord Dawn
History
As many know, the Itharian Harmony has a propensity for...meddling where their flippers don’t really belong. A few thousand years ago, one Ithari Elder developed an intense interest in a race of intelligent (though not sentient) avian predators on a distant rocky world. This Ithari was Mu’ur, who would come to be known as Talisan the Allfather. He was fascinated with the surprisingly elaborate community structures these creatures formed, intrigued by their rudimentary tool use, and tantalized by the complexity of their minds. He named them the Vae’shan, and decided to attempt to uplift them to sentience. Mu’ur tried at first to use psionics, but his results were inconsistent and difficult to reproduce. He wanted to uplift the entire species, not just a few random individuals. He turned to cybernetics, seeking to artificially augment Vae’shan intelligence with brain implants. In an entirely unlikely turn of events, his first experiment with cybernetics was a spectacular success.
The first sentient Vae’shan awoke after the surgery and looked around him in wonder, seeing the world through completely new eyes. Mu’ur spoke to him in his mind, asking “What is your name?” The Vae’shan spoke, the first of his people to do so: “Ademnon.” Thus was born Ademnon, the First Concordat.
Mu’ur and his assistants uplifted more and more Vae’shan, more than they perhaps should have. The Vae’shan remained predators, even if they were now sentient, and some were not prepared to deal with their new intelligence, and their thoughts turned to violence. Late one night, a group of Vae’shan descended into the aquatic pools of Mu’ur’s facility with deadly intent, and caught Mu’ur’s assistants by surprise, slaughtering them all. They then turned on Mu’ur himself. Mu’ur tried to reason with them, but one threw a spear, wounding the Elder, and he saw they could not be reasoned with. Mu’ur reached out with his vastly powerful mind, and killed his assailants in an instant. He lamented the loss of his assistants, his friends, and the failure of his experiment. He prepared himself to exterminate the remaining Vae’shan.
It was Ademnon who saved his species. Ademnon, always Mu’ur’s favourite, begged the Ithari to reconsider. The Vae’shan could not all be held accountable for the actions of a few. They were not inherently flawed. They could be taught, they could learn to better themselves. So impassioned was Ademnon’s plea that Mu’ur agreed to spare the Vae’shan, remembering the potential he had originally seen in them.
However, Mu’ur knew that the Ithari would not see it his way. Once they learned of the deaths of their brethren, they would turn on the Vae’shan and annihilate them, as Mu’ur himself had considered. Mu’ur taught the Vae’shan to build a great ship that would carry him and them beyond the Harmony’s borders, to a sanctuary where they could learn to overcome their baser instincts. And so they fled.
On their new world of Sanctuary, the Vae’shan named Mu’ur Talisan, “Father and Saviour”, and name he has kept ever since, knowing he cannot return to the Harmony. Talisan continued his tinkering in cybernetics, ever improving the Vae’shan, until they were smarter, faster and stronger than they ever could have been otherwise. He taught them to control their instincts, to look on the world with empathy and compassion. To assist in this task, he developed the cortical network implant (the CNI), which permitted someone with the implant to know the thoughts and feelings of anyone else with the implant. That was the true birth of the Concordat. It expanded and developed as civilizations do, first their planet, then their star system, then star systems beyond that. Over the past 500 odd years, the Concordat has developed into a small sovereign star nation.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)
Major Holdings
Concord Dawn: A hidden deep space station from which the Concordat is actually ruled. Heavily defended, but mostly kept safe by secrecy, its co-ordinates are only given to select navigation officers on a strictly need to know basis. The co-ordinates are directly inserted into a navigator’s implants and from there into the ship; they then erase themselves on arrival. Concord Dawn also contains extensive shipyards, building the bulk of the Concordat navy. Notably also home to Talisan
Sanctuary: A lush paradise world teeming with citizens from all corners of the galaxy. Sanctuary is an open world, welcoming civilian vessels of any nation. It also serves as an administrative center for the Concordat’s fledgling domain.
Ordo Shipyards: An extensive industrial complex that has expanded into an orbital ring surrounding Sanctuary’s smaller moon. Careful analysis would show that the military vessels constructed here do not account for the amount of new construction present in the Concordat’s fleets. Ordo Shipyards are otherwise a major civilian center of industry.
Social Information
Major Species
Vae’shan: A young race of avian predators, Vae’shan have a hexapod limb configuration: two arms, two legs, and two wings, quite capable of flight. Vae’shan are not actually born sentient: they must be cybernetically enhanced to achieve that benchmark. As a result, all Vae’shan are implanted, true Concordat.
Humans: Present throughout the galaxy, humans make up a notable chunk of the Concordat’s implanted population. They tend to be extensively augmented, with only superficial resemblance to their baseline cousins.
Society
For lack of a better term, the Concordat is a utopia. Manual labour, manufacturing, construction, all conceivable forms of labour have become fully automated. Citizens of the Concordat spend their days living in luxury; perhaps not as opulent as the wealthy of other nations, but well above the galactic standard of living.
On paper, non-implanted citizens are every bit the equals of their implanted counterparts. In practice, every aspect of Concordat society is designed to pressure people into receiving the implants, or becoming Concorded as they call it. When crime occurs, the non-Concorded are the first suspects: after all, a Concorded can simply present sensory footage to prove their innocence. Virtual reality simulations, the most popular form of entertainment in the Concordat, require the implants to be experienced fully; they are otherwise restricted to visual input only. And if you should be seriously injured in the Concordat? You will almost certainly wake up with implants in your head. To be Concorded is to exist in complete harmony with your peers. Concorded can communicate directly to eachother’s minds via their cortical network implants, but beyond that, their minds are open books to eachother. With permission, any Concorded can sift through the memories and knowledge of any other Concorded, coming to understand them on a very personal level. It is common to request permission to exchange such “Dives”, and considered quite rude, even suspicious, to refuse.
Oddly enough, no one ever minds being made Concorded. They may be reluctant before the procedure, but all are without exception exceedingly happy once they become Concorded. It is partially this which makes other nations suspicious of the Concordat; the fact that no one has ever, ever regretted joining them. Even spies either return with nothing, or become Concorded and stop reporting to their superiors. The paranoid suspect the implants transmit some kind of indoctrination signal. Nonsense, say the Concorded. Life is simply better this way, you should try it.
Government
The Star Chamber is the entity that ostensibly runs the Concordat. It is a large elected assembly operating on Sanctuary. In truth, the Circle, a small council of unelected Concorded, runs the Concordat from the secrecy of Concord Dawn. Members of the Star Chamber must be Concorded as well. They also have the unique ability to isolate and conceal knowledge and information from other Concorded. This is ostensibly for security purposes. Members of the Circle go beyond this. They can override the privacy of any Concorded, scooping knowledge from their minds without the victim ever knowing it. There is some overlap between memberships in the two entities; after all, the secret rulers of the Concordat must be able to keep an eye on it’s supposed rulers.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
The Concardat’s tech base is quite far above the galactic average, though they have a tendency to needlessly overcomplicate things.
Major Techs
Cortical Network Implant (CNI): The linchpin of Concordat cybernetic augmentation, the CNI permits extensive command and control of other augmentations. More importantly, it lets Concorded directly communicate with eachother, brain to brain. The range is fairly limited on its own, but the Concordat maintains extensive networks in all it’s holdings. Basically, if you can connect to “wifi”, you can speak and share knowledge with almost anyone in Concordat space.
Thermal lances: The primary armament of most Concordat ships, thermal lances are a needlessly convoluted variation on conventional railguns. Instead of firing a slug, thermal lances use magnetic fields to accelerate superheated ferofluids to relativistic velocities. The streams are generally incandescent, and so resemble energy beams, albeit slow moving ones. The range on thermal lances is more limited than that of conventional railguns, so Concordat ships tend to engage at close range.
Hypometric weaponry: Another needlessly overcomplicated weapon, hypometric arrays are installed in limited numbers on all Concordat ships, with just one array on destroyers and only 8 on dreadnaughts, compared to the multiple banks of thermal lances and grasers. Hypometric arrays consume vast amounts of power to essentially alter the geometries of a target area, causing a huge strain on shields and neatly scooping out sections of armour.
Grasers: Instead of a beam of coherent light, gamma ray lasers are beams of coherent gamma radiation, another example of the Concordat taking a perfectly sound concept and complicating it. They serve as secondary armament on all Concordat ships, melting through strikecraft and missiles with pinpoint accuracy and no visual trace. Also used as ground weapons, in various configurations and yields.
Sand shields: Magnetically suspended fields of particles (usually of dense metals, not actual sand) make up the first layer of defence on Concordat ships. The vast amounts of power consumed by their engines and weaponry leave little for conventional energy shields; sand shields conveniently require very little energy, though they are somewhat subpar defensively. They do not stop any enemy fire, but disperse or disrupt it to lessen the damage to the armour beneath.
Regenerative armour: Concordat shielding may be sub-par, but their armour makes up for it. It is capable of rapidly repairing any damage sustained. Take a damaged Concordat ship out of the fight permanently, or it will heal itself and fight on.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Concordat armed forces, Guardian Force and Void Force, operate on planetary surfaces and in space respectively. Void Force is decidedly average as navies go, but Guardian Force is one of the galaxy’s premier armies.
Space Forces
Navy Doctrine: Void Force employs superficially simple tactics that play to its strengths: close range brawls. Thermal lances are most effective at close range, and boarding actions are highly favourable to the Concardat’s cyborg marines. On another level, any Concordat fleet is a constantly shifting being, with ships moving in and out of the front as they take damage. Remotely operated drones take the place of strikecraft.
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought
Ground Forces
Ground Doctrine: Guardian Force is enamored with the concept of combined arms. Expect any Concordat assault to involve infantry, armour, air support, and artillery fire together. Elaborate feints and decoy maneuvers are preffered tactics as well.
Infantry: Concordat infantry are a force to be reckoned with.] Whatever their original species, their cybernetic enhancements make them stronger, faster and more durable. Sophisticated implants mean Concordat soldiers can simply turn off their fear and pain. Regenerative nanites quickly heal any wound that doesn't destroy the brain. Supplementing these advantages are durable suits of power armor. Expect Concordat soldiers to survive any injury short of total cranial destruction.
Though it currently remains a mystery as to whether or not the Daisan Order is wholly synthetic behind their Droid armies, they would not be the first non-organic life to inhabit the Galaxy; that honor possibly goes to the Crodvan Unity, a stellar empire of synthetic lifeforms that live off the principles of industrial progress and efficient design. Having abruptly ceased their colonization efforts after a period of rapid expansion outwards from their capital planet of Ratvar, the Crodvan are reclusive isolationists that seek to build an efficient, machine-like state that's coming off the heels of their unknown creators.
Official Name: Crodvan Unity Common Name: The Crodvan, The Unity Government: Totalitarian Oligarchy Dominant Species: Crodvan Capital: Ratvar, Yagrozsch System Systems Owned: ~200 Planets Owned: Unspecified. Population: Also unspecified and meaningless. Could be over 700 billion.
History
Though the Unity itself has only existed for approximately four hundred years, the story of the Crodvan people is much, much longer. The Crodvan are a mechanical species engineered by an unknown civilization that has, for the lack of a better explanation, vanished. From what can be understood from archeological evidence and the inner-workings of the abandoned technology that makes up the Crodvan themselves, this lost civilization wasn't very prolific. Evidence of their existence was only found in the small region of space that we currently know today as the Unity's core worlds. This made it so that the Crodvan would be the first to investigate the marks left behind by their creators. It is presumed that pre-Unity Crodvan existed as a line of non-sapient service droids that tended to every aspect of their creator's society. Industry, military and infrastructure was almost entirely automated by these unthinking "worker-bots". It is evident that some event caused these creators to abandon their society, but there isn't any clear evidence on that front. What is clear is that Crodvan history began at the moment of the Njnxravat.
The Njnxravat was a period of time in which Crodvan developed true synthetic consciousness. Rather than every unit suddenly becoming thinking, reasoning lifeforms at once, it was a grueling period that saw a bizarre contrast between the Awakened and the Sleeping. Vestiges of the Sleeping programming remained in the Awakened -- instinctual knowledge of a language known as Trne-Gnyx, and knowledge on how to do basic working tasks. The Unity wouldn't be founded for another 200 years, so these early Crodvan at this time would find themselves dealing with a state of nature. The Njnxravat was a period of exploration and enlightenment as it was a period of violence. Awakened formed small groups of like-minded individuals seeking protection from other groups of like-minded individuals. Exploration of Ratvar's surface led to disputes over land among the Awakened 'tribes'. These small conflicts turned into violent warfare. The Sleeping were treated as animals and were oftentimes hunted and deconstructed for spare parts. This eventually extended to captured Awakened as well. With no capability for breeding, the Crodvan as a race would be "extinct" within a decade or two. Three of the biggest societies to survive the Njnxravat were largely unnamed, but would eventually become the three main castes of the Unity. It's notable at Crodvan appeared drastically different in design between the three, and the smaller of the three great societies were known to house Crodvan that were naturally gifted with higher processing power and a greater capacity for reason. It was within this society that three Awakened Crodvan would receive a 'vision'. In literal terms, they would receive a massive packet of data networked directly to their Anima Cores' -- synthetic brains, essentially.
These three Crodvan are Nezbere, Sevtug, and Inath-neq -- founders of the Unity, prophets of the Yretchzan, destroyers of the Njnxravat, the first Primarchs, and the harbingers of the Ratvarrevat.
Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq simultaneously received the same 'vision'. This 'vision' is known as the Tenets of Yretchzan. This packet of data was perceived by the prophets as an exhaustive list of concepts, ideas, and laws that seemed to have come from what the prophets understood as the creators of the Crodvan race. Though the three of them had never communicate or met within the society they lived in, an unseen force drew them together, and commanded them to speak.
And so they spoke. Each spoke with a different spin on what was encoded within the Yretchzan.
Nezbere preached about a concept called the 'Great Clockwork'. The Great Clockwork is the belief that Crodvan are designed to work. A Crodvan unit can only function at it's full potential if it is given a purpose. This purpose, Nezbere states, is to construct a state that would 'stand against Time, and would turn only from a unified Crodvan. The Individual will not run this machine. The Individual is a cog within the Clockwork. The Clockwork will in turn run the Engine, from which this rumbling Unity will run from." The Great Clockwork was almost religious in a sense, and gained many followers across Ratvar as word spread about it -- particularly, it gained much traction with Crodvan that appeared to be designed for working.
Sevtug took to the philosopher society it had already been apart of, and spoke to it's fellow Crodvan about the importance of consensus and the segregation of society. The Yretchzan spoke that "The Anima is the envy of all who remain outside of the Clockwork. It is the greatest gift to the Crodvan. It is also the greatest weakness of the Crodvan. Thought is to be focused, and only through Consensus will the Clockwork run the Engine. The Engine must not blend the strengths of Crodvan despite this."
"The Working and The Fighting will be under The Thinking. The Thinking will oil this Engine. The Working will build and maintain the Engine's components. The Fighting will keep the Engine as a whole, and protect it from those outside the Clockwork."
"This will be the Unity."
Sevtug gained many followers among the reasoning, thinking Crodvan of his society. There was a mutual agreement to sacrifice individuality for the formation of the efficient, rumbling Unity that the Yretchzan spoke of.
Inath-neq took the more militant Crodvan, and spoke of what the Yretchzan called the "Crodvan Imperative". It is said that "To run this Engine that will be our Unity, every action taken by the Working, Thinking and Fighting must be for the exclusive purpose of furthuring the Imperative of the Crodvan. Upon your creation, your ultimate purpose that will stand behind all other directives will be to create the perfect Unity, and to stand as the envy of those beyond the Engine. To disassociate with the Ignorant, and soon spread the gift of the Perfect Unity to all in this galaxy and beyond."
The three ideologies that Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq created would eventually merge. At this point, every Crodvan on Ratvar was sapient, and a significant percentage of that population followed the Tenets of Yretchzan, enough to cease many major conflicts going on at the time. Those who wished to oppose were eventually enticed by the Great Clockwork. This was the end of the Njnxravat.
A conference was organized by the three once their plan was nearing its final stage. Over a period lasting almost a year, the founders constructed the official laws of the Unity that they sought to create. An unnatural force beckoned every Crodvan to obey and wait patiently for their dream to come true.
And, so it did. Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq officially declared themselves Primarchs, and the Guvaxvat Crbcyr, Svtugvat Crbcyr and Jbexvat Crbcyr were founded. These three castes were the Thinking, Fighting and Working. There were no conflicts or disputes. The Crodvans obeyed, and became apart of the Great Clockwork.
The Crodvan Unity was founded.
What followed this point would be known as the Ratvarrevat, a golden age in which the Unity built itself up from Ratvar to where it is today. This began with the institution of further sub-castes within the Jbexvat and the Svtugvat that would be designed to create new population within the Unity and control the population of each caste and each sub-caste, as well as a caste designed to enforce domestic law and ensure every Crodvan is doing as they should. The Unity stabilized itself marvelously after it's birth, with the population booming from mass production of new Crodvan. Technology was derived from Creator ruins and fragments found around Ratvar and the surrounding systems. The discovery of the Replicant Alloy and the Hierophant Network from these ruins allowed for mass industrialization, further advancement of the Crodvan's understanding of themselves, and the ability to rapidly exchange information and data across the entire Unity. Tapping into the secrets of the Anima Core allowed for greater diversity in Crodvan units, allowing for the founding of further sub-castes that then expanded the versatility of the Crodvan workforce, military and government. Exploiting their synthetic nature allowed for the Crodvan to rapidly colonize any solid planet they could find, and rapidly industrialize it, fracking it's core for minerals, minerals to forge Replicant Alloy and Anima Cores, which would then be used to create new Crodvan that would then go off to expand and mine even further.
It is this cycle that gifted the Crodvan the ability to construct a truly perfect state. It has been four-hundred years since the Unity has been founded. It's now in it's fourth generation of Primarchs -- now having a council of at least five Primarchs. Many tiny aspects of the Crodvan hierarchy have been amended and changed over the years but the Yretchzan still stands as the ultimate mandate across all layers of power within the Unity. It's borders have expanded above and beyond the expectations of the founding Primarchs, and the state as a whole is a complex machine that has remained running for four centuries.
Yet, times are ever changing. Alien species and foreign powers have begun to prop up around the Crodvan, and rumors of a deep space menace have reached the attention of the Unity. Try as they might to isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy, it is uncertain if the Unity will be able to abstain from the coming age of war any longer. The Great Clockwork slows, but will it stop? It is uncertain.
But, by the words of the Yretchzan and the will of the Primarchs, the Crodvan remain adamant in their goal. . .
. . .to construct a truly Perfect Engine.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
The Unity is situated on the eastern side of the region, resting just underneath the cluster of nations that include the Federation and the Empire. It's worth noting that the Crodvan Unity does not share any official borders with any other political entity on the eastern side. This is because of the significant band of empty space surrounding the Unity and separating itself from the region. Though there hasn't been any indication of this empty space somehow being an extension of the Unity's influence, it is known that the Unity maintains a constant closed-border policy. The eerie patrol fleets of the Ynj Snpgv'ba will pursue unauthorized foreign vessels with extreme prejudice.
Major Holdings
Ratvar is the official capital world of the Crodvan Unity. It is the spiritual "homeworld" of the Crodvan race, seat of the Primarch Consensus, birthplace of the Tenets of Yretchzan, head world of the Government Caste all sub-castes within, location of the Napvrag Archives and the Prime Hierophant Node. . . so on and so forth. It's likely that Ratvar was of equal importance to the Crodvan's creators as it is to the Crodvan themselves, indicated by the abnormal presence of Creator ruins dotted about the planet's surface prior to the expansion of the Unity. These remnants of advanced technologies and structures helped Ratvar to become the most developed planet within the Unity, and the most physically stunning -- despite the presence of forge complexes, the central cities of Ratvar are built to denote regality among the Crodvan. Towering, ornate spires of brass and replicant alloy are a common sight, built to stand above the grungy military/worker complexes below.
Though it seems to go against the Crodvan style of functional architecture, exceptions must be made for those cogs who start the chain of production.
Ratvar is unique within the Unity in that it's the most "diverse" planet in terms of caste demographics, despite being the primary world of the Government Caste. Such a large overlap of castes (forbidden within the modus operandi of the Unity and the Yretchzan) is only because of the planet's significance. Proper military defense and worker maintenance should be expected.
Kremorn is the head world of the Martial Caste and it's many, many sub-castes. It's title is the "Brass Fortress" in galactic common, denoting it's significance to the defense and enforcement of the Unity's will. A military-focused planet within the Crodvan Unity is significantly different to how an organic race would use them, however. Synthetic beings ultimately have no use for training drills or an extensive chain of command powered by the experience and seniority of individual soldiers. Crodvan that are constructed for the Martial Caste come pre-equipped with basic combat knowledge and tactical data, as well as specialized data based on what sub-caste or "division" the soldier will be serving in. The Martial Caste mass-produces equipped, ready-to-deploy soldiers rather than enlisting and training recruits. Thus, Kremorn is designed for the storage and containment of the Martial Caste. Any individual thought a Crodvan has on Kremorn manifests as Crodvan soldiers speaking to one another and verbally exchanging data that stands outside the mandatory combat data all Martial Crodvan are installed with upon creation. This makes it so that a Crodvan soldier is more "experienced" and reasoning in combat situations as opposed to, say, a Daisan droid. The mental strength of an organic coupled with the physical exaltation of a synthetic body.
Perfection.
Kremorn is also home to many military research projects within the Unity. All civilizations have their fair share of doomsday-scale weapons not meant for public eyes, and the Unity is no exception. They just keep them locked away in the vaults of Kremorn.
Kremrumhz is the head world of the Worker Caste and it's sub-castes. It's also the most populated planet in the Unity, and because of that it is also arguably the most valuable planet the Unity has. Kremrumhz is located on the edge of the core-world region of the Unity, and it's frequently used as the stating location of many expansion directives. Almost every colony within the Unity has a supply route linking back to the Anima Forge, forming a complex web of supply lines that all lead back to the Forge. This is because the Anima Forge, as it's name implies, is the industrial heart of the Unity and the greatest producer of the Unity's greatest resource; population.
A developing Crodvan colony requires a steady supply of Crodvan workers and soldiers at every step of development. Mass population is invaluable, as it creates the self-replication cycle of the Crodvan race -- Crodvan mine resources and forge/build copius amounts of Replicant Alloy and Anima Cores. These materials are then used in the production of new Crodvan. These new Crodvan then go off and mine resources to forge and build even more materials, which make even more Crodvan that will do the same thing. To speed up this process, Kremrumhz pumps out loads of fresh Crodvan out into the Unity, which go off and plump up the workforce and military of the Unity.
Should Kremrumhz fall, it's not unreasonable to infer that the entire Unity would follow in due time.
Social Information
Demographics
The Unity is only populated by a single "race" -- the Crodvan. However, the Crodvan race and it's Unity is structured in such a way that each Caste (and sometimes a sub-caste) has a specific design for the Crodvan working within it. This results in Crodvan coming in many different shapes and sizes, constructed with a specific purpose. One could argue that Worker Crodvan, Martial Crodvan, and Government Crodvan are all different "sub-races" due to the disparity of their appearances and behavior.
The population is split between three major castes -- the Worker, Martial and Government castes. The population within each individual caste is then further divided into a number of unique sub-castes -- Miners, Army, Researchers, ect.
The current caste/sub-caste demographic looks something like this. With how population control in the Unity function, these percentages remain constant as the total population of the Unity shifts.
Jbexvat Crbcyr (Worker Caste) - 50% of total population.
Gu'axvat Crbcyr (Government Caste) - 10% of total population.
- Sevtugavat Snpgv'ba (Planetary Sub-Caste) - 60% - Rasbepvat Snpgv'ba (Enforcement Sub-Caste) - 20% - Animavat Snpgv'ba (Research Sub-Caste) - A little under 20% - Hygv'zn-gr Pbhapvy (Primarch Consensus) - Under 1%
Society
Crodvan society is, as shown above, dogmatic and mechanical in it's design. They live in a strict caste-based society that is built around purpose. The Crodvan are ruled by the philosophy of the Great Clockwork -- every aspect of themselves and the Unity that they reside in mimics the idea of forming the most orderly state. Crodvan do not have a traditional sense of family, due to how they reproduce. Instead, the Yretchzan and Great Clockwork imply that all Crodvan are like siblings to one another. Crodvan live their lives knowing that they were created and made to serve a purpose within the Great Clockwork. By looking upon the bigger picture and realizing that they play a role in promoting the common good for all Crodvan, even the most pitiful Crodvan worker will think that they make the difference. This is peculiar, though -- why aren't the lower Crodvan just mindless drones? What sets Crodvan apart from the organic understanding of synthetic society is that the Crodvan preserve some sense of individuality. When a Crodvan is created, it is acknowledged among even the most loyalist of Animavat Crodvan that there is the presence of the "ghost in the machine". A Crodvan will naturally develop their own personality and consciousness -- they will feel emotions, they will have ambitions, dreams and the capacity to think and reason. This is the unique gift that the Crodvan believe was bestowed upon them by the Creators. Though there has been talk in the past of limiting the Anima Core capacity in the Worker and Martial castes in order to promote better cohesiveness, this was deemed a violation of the Tenets of Yretchzan, as they state that Crodvan are to be set above the standards of synthetics made by other organics. The Primarchs believed that self-awareness is a quality that sets the Crodvan above the rest.
To be given the gift of thought and then have it taken away. . . it would be blasphemous.
However, the Yretchzan didn't say anything about tooling the Crodvan into serving the collective through propaganda and dogmatic teachings. This is how the Great Clockwork plays into Crodvan society, and why it is so important to the well-being of the Unity.
Government
(Describe your government here in detail. If you use something generic or just feel like there isn't enough to say you can merge this with the Society section under "Government/Society" and describe both here.)
Technological Information
Technology Overview
(Describe your civilization's technology in general)
Major Techs
(Kinda optional section to describe your most important pieces of technology. If you think a simple overview above is enough, skip this.)
Industry
(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)
Military Information
Military Overview
(Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)
Space Forces
(Describe your space fleets in more detail. You can also list your important ship and other unit types but nobody is forcing you. But keep in mind, no Death Stars!) Navy Doctrine: How does your navy operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s navy? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as fleet-in-being.
Ground Forces
(Describe your ground forces, too. This is especially important in this RP since ground/planetary combat will enjoy a spotlight. So we do suggest you to take extra attention to this section.)
Ground Doctrine: How do your ground forces operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s ground forces? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as human wave.
Official Name: Confederation of the Corpis Sector States (CCSS) Common Name: Corpis Confederation Government: Federal Direct Democracy Dominant Species: Humans Capital: Arcem Systems Owned: 24 (11 inhabited) Planets Owned: 13 inhabited Population: 34 billion
History:
Recorded history of the most primitive civilizations of Arcem reach back nearly 4,000 years. Its earliest history follows that of two parallel paths: advancement and warfare. Sometimes intersecting, these paths defined the very being of the Humans on Arcem.
Warfare supplemented advancement, advancement supplemented warfare. It was a vicious cycle that could not end, for fear of wiping out Humanity itself on Arcem forever. And in this necessity, buried deep in a lust for blood, those inhabitants of this insignificant planet, of Arcem, found their salvation.
Hope, but destruction. Scars upon Arcem that would never heal. But, Humanity never stopped looking up. The common trait of Humanity besides war, to expand. Arcem had become far too small for Humans.
Nearly half a century clean, the discovery of slipspace travel and near absence of war. Humans spread farther than ever before. And in doing so, found what astounded all. Aliens, beings that looked farther from anything they had ever seen. But also among them, people who looked just like them, like the primitives that had began as mere dirt-tillers on Arcem and now owned the stars.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
WIP
Major Holdings
The crown jewel of the Confederation, the planet of Arcem. A world essentially consisting of entirely megacities and military installations, Arcem truly is the heart of the entire Confederation. It houses the President, the Federal Parliament, and nearly all of the highest military leadership. Often characterized by non-natives as an expensive planet for fat-cats and top brass.
WIP
Social Information
Demographics
Society
The societal situation of the Confederation is a somewhat complex issue. Much like the Aurolian Federation, the much larger Human state bordering the Confederation, the culture and practices of people often vary between not only worlds, but regions.
But one thing stands above all. The notion known that all are created equal, a utmost belief of egalitarianism and liberty. Individual thought and the dream of something ahead always is what drives the Confederation’s society forward.
The economic situation of the Confederation is extremely sound. With minimal internal dissent, extensive worker’s compensation, and an abundance of agricultural, manufacturing, military, and desk jobs, most civilians are placed in the middle class territory, with an ability to improve their situation by diligence.
Government
The Confederation forms a direct democracy in which every citizen is entitled to a vote for the President, Vice President, and Parliamentary Representatives. While the Confederation was once a Federal Republic, the nuisance that once was the electoral system was abolished due to the sufficient ability to take accurate censuses every few years, the common access to sufficient election information by citizenry, and the ability for the citizenry to annually make it to polling locations.
Composing of the government itself firstly is the branch which is executive. Named as the Cabinet of the President, it is headed by the Head of State & Government, the President, with his deputy, the Vice President. Under them is a long slew of advisors and department heads which micromanage every aspect of Cabinet activities.
Next is the legislative branch, with power vested to draft and pass laws. Formed as a parliament, it is composed of a single house. This house, sometimes called the Senate, is comprised of 39 representatives/senators, with 3 representatives for every established planet in the Confederation. These representatives are voted in by waves, though this only happens once every four years, coinciding with the election of the President and Vice President. On these election years, a representative is elected every four months. Each cycle allows candidates (and the incumbent, provided they haven’t reached their term limit) four months to campaign, and the votes are collected over a two-day period.
Lastly is the Federal Court. Presided by seven justices, each appointed by the President and approved by the Parliament, this body interprets all laws as per the Corpis Sector Charter, which governs all Confederation territory. Under this Federal Court is a series of planetary judicial districts, which are located on each planet under their own branches and divided equally between provinces.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
While neither the most advanced, the Confederation is definitely not the most primitive. While only having been with slipspace travel for 63 years now, the other aspects of technology within the Confederation were quite advanced.
In the military field, mass accelerators have been mastered. Caseless ammunition has been refined and is now the primary ammunition type of most military and security institutions. Medical advances allow for basic cloning and the ability to effectively combat previously terminal illnesses such as cancer. Construction advances allow for ‘supertowers’ which house entire communities in a single building, with entire sections being dedicated to housing, shops, offices, schools, and recreational areas.
Major Techs
A luxury of an active metalworking industry, durasteel is somewhat of the pinnacle of metallurgy in the Confederation. Alloyed of steel, titanium, and some composite filler, this material effectively combines the lightweight qualities of titanium and the strength of steel while negating the brittleness of unalloyed titanium. In doing so, were you to acquire equal weights of both steel and durasteel, one would find durasteel would have twice the thickness and overall resistance of steel. Though, this material is extremely difficult to shape, leaving it all but inaccessible by the regular populace. Despite this, the Confederation Armed Forces use this material as often as possible due to its properties.
The pinnacle of physics research in the Confederation, this new form of shielding has become prevalent in the past decades after its perceived applications on starships and large vehicles. Working off of sensors separate from the ship’s own grid, a full electromagnetic field generator works within. Once a metallic or plasmic projectile of sufficient velocity is detected by the sensors, the generator works to generate high-concentration fields in hopes to slow the projectile enough to nullify significant damage once the object strikes the hull behind.
Industry
The industrial capability of the Confederation is quite adequate for its size. While primarily dedicated to civilian applications due to the last two decades of relative peace, the massive presence of manufacturing creates a plethora of jobs for a sizeable portion of the Confederation’s citizens.
The Interstellar Union of Collectives is a relatively new nation, having risen from less fortunate circumstances to become a veritable power in the region. Although a naturally individualistic species they have become collectivist in their political and ideological thought, almost entirely unaccepting of foreign political ideas. The Union is a partially hidden society, although there is no real attempt to close their society to foreign peoples, they are not opening it to them either.
Official Name: The Interstellar Union of Collectives Common Name: The Union or the Ysh Union Government: Syndicated Union of Communes Dominant Species: ‘Ysh’ Capital: Administrative Habitat Panic with Extreme Prejudice, [Variable Star System Location]
History
Agricultural societies developed on the ‘Ysh’ homeworld roughly thirty thousand years ago, this is a much longer time than most current spacefaring civilizations from such a condensing point to the advent of interstellar travel and interstellar expansion. This is primarily not caused by any significant psychological or resource availability problems but instead was of their own creation. A little more than twenty-two thousand years ago there was a nuclear war, while not on the magnitude necessary to completely destroy life, it did cause significant damage to its ability to recover. Little is known by the current ‘Ysh’ as to what was the cause, or even much about those early ‘Ysh’ however what is known is that those ‘Ysh’ had achieved limited spaceflight, at least into orbit from later analysis of debris.
What would follow for the next fifteen thousand years was a gradual trend towards barbarism and collapse. Initially, after the war there was a large amount of dirt and dust thrown into the atmosphere, causing general crop failure globally, resulting in global famine and population reduction. In combination with a general collapse of operational industrial lines with and lack of food, most industrial processes and abilities were destroyed or damaged. Most if not all of the previously existing civilizations collapsed.
This was not, however, the only legacy of those civilizations. Although any sort of lasting nation had been dissolved by the harsh conditions successor states operating on smaller scales using local resources and what remaining industries were operational and supportable allowed for some semblance of civilization to survive in some areas after a few decades had passed from the war. Generally, these successor states failed at reversing the trend towards barbarism, slowly growing less and less able to meet the needs of their societies.
Two thousand years after the war a new glacial period began to ramp up and eventually met its peak three thousand years after that, gradually wearing back down over the next three thousand years. After the end of this glacial period, there would be another five thousand years before agricultural communities would re-emerge after their destruction. After agricultural civilization was reestablished it would be a little more than six thousand years before the ‘Ysh’ would return to space.
Jumping forward to modern history, six hundred years ago the ‘Ysh’ reached space. Only interplanetary this period was one of relative stability and peace for the ‘Ysh’ primarily united by discovering their past and general global prosperity for most powerful nations. A large amount of nuclear disarmament proceeded during this period and it saw a very large centralization of the populations of many nations on the world. Research colonies on other worlds were established and space-born habitats were constructed. Also during this period was a trend towards individualism, ultimate freedoms and questioning the roles of society and government. Moving slowly towards a merging of the two. This period lasted a century before it ended.
This period is generally considered over by ‘Ysh’ historians by a civil war in one of the primary industrial powers that would break the peace among them. The previous trend of individualism became much more militant and extreme, exemplifying less of individualistic ideals and more of sectarian differences. It would be a Fifty years after that they would unify finally into one complete nation-state. General destabilization of previous nations resulted in either takeover of the state by extremist groups or the radicalization of those States in opposition to extremist groups resulting in the same outcomes. Authoritarian regimes began to dominate their world which began fighting slowly larger and larger conflicts amongst themselves. Eventually, accords were broken and even in cases of nuclear conflict, even if almost all nuclear devices had been disarmed, many were then rearmed and used although this process took time, they were still used, this largely brought down much of the order of the planet.
However, the space habitats managed to remove themselves from this conflict and once warfare had died down, returned to the planet eventually managing to retake portions of the globe from various warlord states and generally begin to restore order into a new union of the ‘Ysh’ species. This union’s society would be based on the collective units used on the space habitats, and their now greatly expanded space-based industry. This union would of course eventually grow to be the Union. It would slowly expand through their solar system consolidating and re-expanding the greatly reduced ‘Ysh’ population, assisted greatly by new methods of population growth and increasing number of offspring. Generally, the largest single work of this period after Unification is the gradual terraforming of their homeworld back to being increasingly habitable for the ‘Ysh’. Other accomplishments are the general cementing of the structure of Union society and the necessary institutions to maintain that.
Over the next fifty years as consolidation continued scientific progress began to take off once more resulting in the end of this period and the beginning of the text with the invention of the ‘Ysh’ slipspace drive. Following this was a period of extensive expansion and consolidation, which ended with their first known contact with an alien species, Humans of the Kre’allar Kingdom. A series of misunderstandings eventually led to their first interstellar war as well. The Kre’allar were not a much for the Union, although they did have roughly equivalent tech bases the Kre’allar were unable to compete on the same scale though they did do significant damage to infrastructure in many systems they generally failed to damage vital infrastructure to the war effort.
The Kre’allar were defeated and it was attempted to integrate them into the Union, this failed horrendously. A decade of intermittent conflict in attempting to subdue the previous subjects and forced conformation with the Union society largely failed to achieve any lasting integration. After ten years of effort, the council decided to give a region partial autonomy and simply move the Kre’allar population there. This region including the Kre’allar Kingdom’s previous Capital largely settled down after this decision. Although this had been a large sink of resources it did provide the Union with very important technologies notably Hyperdrive and the basics of shielding technologies. After the matter of the Kre’allar had been reasonably settled, the Union began a new period of rapid expansion, primarily through the establishment and spread of Union habitats throughout large areas of space and then the colonization or conquest of inhabitable systems.
This expansion began to slow over the course of time partially due to running into civilizations of comparable or greater power but also due to administrative concerns. This has descended to the current time in which the entire Northern direction is cut off forcing expansion only in other directions.
Today the Union is a power in the region and seeks to expand its power, although now they may be more in line with worries of the Daisan.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
Major Holdings
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Social Information
Demographics
‘Ysh’: The primary and majority species of the Union, ‘Ysh’ is simply an adaption of an attention-demanding sound that was used during first contact with the Empire of Astrana. When using their lower limbs as other species have legs the average ‘Ysh’ stands at 7’4” although a bell curve can usually match deviation, a standard deviation being roughly 3”. They are a hairless species and are generally lithe of figure in comparison to other similar species. They have four limbs, two at the top of their torso near their head and two on the opposite lower side. Both sets of limbs have degrees of motion and movement in joints and sockets that is sometimes disquieting to other species, as well these limbs both come to prehensile hands with fully opposable digits.
The skin of the ‘Ysh’ is greatly controllable in color, this is particularly present in specialized regions near their eyes which they have excessive control over very minute changes in pigment cells very similar to chromatophores if not classifying as them. This is, in fact, their primary communication medium through a language of color and patterns. However, they do have attention demanding sounds that they have some variance over using their lips over their tongueless mouths or secondary breathy orifice. They have eyes similar to many of species in terms of acuity although they do not have eyelids, they rely upon a thick film that constantly covers their eyes.
One very important piece of information about the ‘Ysh’ is that they are hermaphrodites although they cannot self-fertilize. Another important factor is that they do not bear live young, specifically they lay eggs which hatch into maggots. Ancestors to the ‘Ysh’ and the ‘Ysh’ themselves in more primitive times have laid these into recently deceased animals although now more efficient means of providing protein are used for the maggots. After the maggots reach a certain size, and usually after they have eaten some of the other maggots in a body they will form a cocoon in which they will eventually develop into an ‘adult’ ‘Ysh’. ‘Adult’ because they are not fully grown but are then taken and cared for by ‘Ysh’ in creches, previously in their history with little supervision besides safety and feeding, learning when they are older but more recently there is a large amount effort to begin to integrate young ‘Ysh’ much sooner. This can be unsettling to learn for other species so they often do not speak of it in the presence of foreign species.
Kre’allar: The ‘Ysh’ are not the only species in the Union, but they are by far the most populous, many other species being only very small components of the population. This is in part because the ‘Ysh’ often seek to stabilize the populations of other species while continuing to grow their own. For some of the species at the time of their control by the Union, they may have been almost as populous as the ‘Ysh’ but have since grown very little in comparison. By far the largest of the super minorities are the Kre’allar, a subset of Humans that once had their own interstellar nation before it was overrun by the Union. They were integrated into the Union and although partially successful, resource and time costs have changed the decision on integrated further species in any other form than semi-autonomous functions. Biologically the Kre’allar are not significantly different than other major Human populations although they have some differences that maybe be of cosmetic significance.
The Kre’allar are a super-minority in the Union but they are by far the largest minority species, the Kre’allar make up roughly 3% of total Union population and this percentage is decreasing every year.
Government/Society
Union politics and ideology are mostly focused on core values and obedience to those values. The foremost being duty, not only the state, the species, personal collectives, greater collectives and other material organizations but also duty in terms of applying oneself most effectively to assist others. Indoctrination into this is required to be part of Union society, notably in the form of subsuming will into duty to a greater whole and not the individual.
Union society is focused on the collective unit. While there is no set size for each collective the base unit is roughly in the range of ten individuals with a standard deviation of three individuals. Mostly the collective base unit is a support group for individuals both in terms of helping them to succeed at jobs and tasks, but also emotionally and socially, they can be seen an analogous to families in some cultures. As well when laws are broken the usual reaction is rehabilitation or relocation, direct punish usually comes in as a threat more than a fact besides rehabilitation and relocation.
In part the job one does and the reward for that is much of the time different than in other societies. In Union society there is a certain amount of time required to do a task, that is set forth by governing collectives, and to accomplish that task to a given standard, examples vary from military reserves training to janitorial duties. However, there is also a previously agreed upon tasks that an individual has some discretion in. Besides work individuals, and more specifically base collective units have a certain amount of leisure time to be used and make use of services. Primarily this is focused upon entertainment and some specialty experiences, particularly in food and other things, easily provided in low amounts to high quality. Generally, this work is little different from other societies except in the fact that in the Union there is not a middle ground of payment for task, it is provided but you must provide to standard.
Which is not to say that there is no competition, not just in games in such as those do exist but there is competition just not in a direct economic sphere. Most competition is that of social status, commendations and rank. This competition is mostly restrained to acceptable frameworks particularly because ranks and commendations are separated both from direct economics, indirectly some researchers may gain more grants for research if they are particularly useful, and also actual occupation.
The Union’s governmental structure can be fuzzy at the best of times to outsiders, this is primarily because there usually isn’t a permanent or semi-permanent head of state or legislative body. There is, however, a semi-elected council. Essentially the union has a structure of collectives rising from lowly masses to high commands, however, individuals and collective units are placed primarily according to many tests and reviews over the course of their lives as in addition to their work and partially to the desires of the said individuals and collectives. These tests and reviews are ongoing and designed to be meritocratic although no system is perfect.
Resulting from this is a collective council, usually of several base collective units, which most common task is finding which groups to delegate work and knowledge of necessary changes to and then deciding upon the result in consideration of other concerns. This is similar to other legislative bodies in other nations except that its membership often changes by this delegation. Essentially collectives are split off from the council to work with other collectives on the subject before rejoining the council to decide. This means that the council is constantly fluctuating in current membership to deal with new issues, especially not helped by collectives stepping down from councilship entirely primarily because of strain caused by council work.
This fluctuating structure is mirrored to a much lesser extent in the rest of Union society, largely excluding the military and police forces. The Military because they have their own much more rigid structure that bleeds into greater Union society especially during times of national or societal stress. The Police force because while it does have a much more rigid structure it also has to interact with broad portions of greater Union society in relatively peaceful extent.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
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Major Techs
Anti-Psionic technology: Since the ‘Ysh’ do not have any Psionic abilities, and large segments of the population seem to have large amount of weakness and aversion to it, the ‘Ysh’ have put effort into and successfully developed technology to limit and stop Psionic powers, as well as detecting their use. This has sometimes said to be painful for some Psions, however, the ‘Ysh’ are very enthusiastic in its use.
Bomb-Pumped Grasers: Unable to generate gamma ray lasers using more conventional methods a weapon designed for much shorter ranges than other energy weapons Union Bomb-Pumped Grasers are normally mounted either as payloads of torpedoes or in a few specially designed craft utilizing a nuclear device and a chamber to direct gamma rays as a coherent beam towards a target. Significant control issues have limited their range as well as deployment.
Gravitic Sublight Drive: The only mentionable Union sublight drive system, it provides reasonable acceleration and max speed on vessels however it's primary advantage is its ability to allow vessels to quickly change the orientation of their craft.
Industry
The Union’s primary focus in heavy industry has generally been in space. Smaller industries such as various goods for planetary populations are generally produced on planet to reduce shipping needs for those goods. In space, most heavy industry has been handled by Union Habitats and their associated construction yards. Generally, habitats are in the business of mining and refining material from asteroids, comets, and other astronomical bodies so as to use those refined materials in construction from either habitat based small crafts or for transfer to larger construction yards and the production of large spaceborne designs.
These Habitats generally are mobile in system and out, even if they are not used generally to transport between systems. These mobile habitats contain a large portion of the Union’s population, a testament to their sheer number. Most habitats are relatively specialized towards mining, refining, research or a multitude of other pursuits. This is mostly allowed by the fact that only rarely are there not a surplus other habitats in the system that either are specialized in other tasks or are more generalist in design.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Union’s military primarily focuses not on numbers at all cost or quality at all cost, but a mix in between. Primarily focusing on relatively high-quality equipment and training to the largest group possible. This has actually separated out into three major groups.
The First is the professional collectives, they are generally in military circles for life or at least as a primary job and task. In times of peace, they are the primary military outfits and they proceed as the only outfits when larger mobilization is not necessary. The Professionals are highly disciplined and have relatively good equipment although it would not stand up to equipment for special forces or other elite groups of other nations.
Second are the reserve collectives, they generally are in military circles occasionally while having non-vital or surplus tasks in addition. They are trained to handle the same equipment as the professional collectives but generally will either be retirees from the professional collectives, volunteers not vitally needed, or they are civilians performing a non-vital task and trained as part of a service duty towards society as a whole. Typically in times of need, they will be temporarily raised to professional levels of workload and be used as such.
Third are the mass mobilization super-collectives, these draw from the able of the civilian population and are not drawn up all at once unless the need is exceedingly great. Instead, they are drawn up slowly or only proportionally to need, common to find these units that receive only very basic familiarity with military equipment used in organized non-combat roles when military units are needed elsewhere. Most commonly drawn are civilians in roles that provide familiarity with military equipment or advanced civilian models.
In truth, there is sometimes little difference between a Union civilian and a soldier not yet called to duty. There are generally known directives, for example, of resistance to occupation where in cases of calling up the whole number of units would simply cause for massacre, it is the majority of those units duties to resist at later times. This is considered a duty transferable by hereditary succession.
Space Forces
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It is important to note that the Union, and specifically the ‘Ysh’ do not generally put much weight on names, not they don’t consider them important just that they do not have much a concept of gravitas in reference to naming it would seem. Primarily this is the result in a dichotomy, classes and types of ships are named by administration collectives, specific ships are named by their crews and reported back to the administration collectives.
The Union has had its naval doctrine influenced by a multitude of factors but the most important is its collectivist culture, territorial realities as well as a large degree of contact with the Empire of Astrana. These factors have resulted in a naval doctrine that so far has done them well in their expansion and defense. This doctrine, commonly called “Battlefront-Operations”, calls for large amounts of ships to be able to maintain strategic maneuverability and frontlines against superior forces. This has resulted in production of lesser units rather than heavy front-line combatants and the subsequent complete lack of dreadnought class vessels with their largest current design a battleship that barely exceeds nine hundred meters in diameter.
0-50 meters classified as strike craft or shuttles depending on purpose 50-150 meters in length are Corvettes, primarily for anti-fighter and anti-missile roles, escort roles 100-250 meters in length are Frigates, primarily anti-corvette/small vessel, and escort roles 200-350 meters in length are Destroyers, primarily anti-cruiser and capital ship, heavy use of powerful short range weapons 300-500 meters in length are Cruisers, primarily patrol and chase-craft, not often used in Union Battlegroups, comparatively fast 300-600 in length are Carriers, strike and shuttlecraft carriers, lack of heavy armaments 500-900 in length are Battlecruisers, very fast for their size, heavy weaponry while skimping on lighter weapons and defenses, core of most Attack Groups 600-1000 meters in length are Battleships, slow but heavily armed and defended, the core of most Union fleets, largest current Union warship 800+ meters in length are Union Habitats, which actually are mobile structures that primarily serve as living and refining stations for many mining operations as well as having some construction capabilities, rarely are habitats of this type built larger than 2km
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The Union focuses greatly on generalist forces, to such an extent that specialization of equipment and single purpose craft are not that common. They have craft and equipment that may serve a role, but it is often also designed to serve more than just that one. While this does mean that they have some issue matching other nation’s designs in specific purposes, but this does also mean that they rarely ever don’t have something that can do the job. In addition, the simplification that comes to training operators, and the ease of production for a variety of crafts means that they often field large numbers of craft and relatively well equipped, if un-specialized, troops.
This is part of a doctrine called Mass Warfare Doctrine, focusing like their space forces on maintaining strategic mobility through use of superior force. Often using equalizing forces to hold enemies while reserves can be used to stretch the enemy ability to defend their own territory or lines.
Though it currently remains a mystery as to whether or not the Daisan Order is wholly synthetic behind their Droid armies, they would not be the first non-organic life to inhabit the Galaxy; that honor possibly goes to the Crodvan Unity, a stellar empire of synthetic lifeforms that live off the principles of industrial progress and efficient design. Having abruptly ceased their colonization efforts after a period of rapid expansion outwards from their capital planet of Ratvar, the Crodvan are reclusive isolationists that seek to build an efficient, machine-like state that's coming off the heels of their unknown creators.
Official Name: Crodvan Unity Common Name: The Crodvan, The Unity Government: Totalitarian Oligarchy Dominant Species: Crodvan Capital: Ratvar, Yagrozsch System Systems Owned: ~200 Planets Owned: Unspecified. Population: Also unspecified and meaningless. Could be over 700 billion.
History
Though the Unity itself has only existed for approximately four hundred years, the story of the Crodvan people is much, much longer. The Crodvan are a mechanical species engineered by an unknown civilization that has, for the lack of a better explanation, vanished. From what can be understood from archeological evidence and the inner-workings of the abandoned technology that makes up the Crodvan themselves, this lost civilization wasn't very prolific. Evidence of their existence was only found in the small region of space that we currently know today as the Unity's core worlds. This made it so that the Crodvan would be the first to investigate the marks left behind by their creators. It is presumed that pre-Unity Crodvan existed as a line of non-sapient service droids that tended to every aspect of their creator's society. Industry, military and infrastructure was almost entirely automated by these unthinking "worker-bots". It is evident that some event caused these creators to abandon their society, but there isn't any clear evidence on that front. What is clear is that Crodvan history began at the moment of the Njnxravat.
The Njnxravat was a period of time in which Crodvan developed true synthetic consciousness. Rather than every unit suddenly becoming thinking, reasoning lifeforms at once, it was a grueling period that saw a bizarre contrast between the Awakened and the Sleeping. Vestiges of the Sleeping programming remained in the Awakened -- instinctual knowledge of a language known as Trne-Gnyx, and knowledge on how to do basic working tasks. The Unity wouldn't be founded for another 200 years, so these early Crodvan at this time would find themselves dealing with a state of nature. The Njnxravat was a period of exploration and enlightenment as it was a period of violence. Awakened formed small groups of like-minded individuals seeking protection from other groups of like-minded individuals. Exploration of Ratvar's surface led to disputes over land among the Awakened 'tribes'. These small conflicts turned into violent warfare. The Sleeping were treated as animals and were oftentimes hunted and deconstructed for spare parts. This eventually extended to captured Awakened as well. With no capability for breeding, the Crodvan as a race would be "extinct" within a decade or two. Three of the biggest societies to survive the Njnxravat were largely unnamed, but would eventually become the three main castes of the Unity. It's notable at Crodvan appeared drastically different in design between the three, and the smaller of the three great societies were known to house Crodvan that were naturally gifted with higher processing power and a greater capacity for reason. It was within this society that three Awakened Crodvan would receive a 'vision'. In literal terms, they would receive a massive packet of data networked directly to their Anima Cores' -- synthetic brains, essentially.
These three Crodvan are Nezbere, Sevtug, and Inath-neq -- founders of the Unity, prophets of the Yretchzan, destroyers of the Njnxravat, the first Primarchs, and the harbingers of the Ratvarrevat.
Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq simultaneously received the same 'vision'. This 'vision' is known as the Tenets of Yretchzan. This packet of data was perceived by the prophets as an exhaustive list of concepts, ideas, and laws that seemed to have come from what the prophets understood as the creators of the Crodvan race. Though the three of them had never communicate or met within the society they lived in, an unseen force drew them together, and commanded them to speak.
And so they spoke. Each spoke with a different spin on what was encoded within the Yretchzan.
Nezbere preached about a concept called the 'Great Clockwork'. The Great Clockwork is the belief that Crodvan are designed to work. A Crodvan unit can only function at it's full potential if it is given a purpose. This purpose, Nezbere states, is to construct a state that would 'stand against Time, and would turn only from a unified Crodvan. The Individual will not run this machine. The Individual is a cog within the Clockwork. The Clockwork will in turn run the Engine, from which this rumbling Unity will run from." The Great Clockwork was almost religious in a sense, and gained many followers across Ratvar as word spread about it -- particularly, it gained much traction with Crodvan that appeared to be designed for working.
Sevtug took to the philosopher society it had already been apart of, and spoke to it's fellow Crodvan about the importance of consensus and the segregation of society. The Yretchzan spoke that "The Anima is the envy of all who remain outside of the Clockwork. It is the greatest gift to the Crodvan. It is also the greatest weakness of the Crodvan. Thought is to be focused, and only through Consensus will the Clockwork run the Engine. The Engine must not blend the strengths of Crodvan despite this."
"The Working and The Fighting will be under The Thinking. The Thinking will oil this Engine. The Working will build and maintain the Engine's components. The Fighting will keep the Engine as a whole, and protect it from those outside the Clockwork."
"This will be the Unity."
Sevtug gained many followers among the reasoning, thinking Crodvan of his society. There was a mutual agreement to sacrifice individuality for the formation of the efficient, rumbling Unity that the Yretchzan spoke of.
Inath-neq took the more militant Crodvan, and spoke of what the Yretchzan called the "Crodvan Imperative". It is said that "To run this Engine that will be our Unity, every action taken by the Working, Thinking and Fighting must be for the exclusive purpose of furthuring the Imperative of the Crodvan. Upon your creation, your ultimate purpose that will stand behind all other directives will be to create the perfect Unity, and to stand as the envy of those beyond the Engine. To disassociate with the Ignorant, and soon spread the gift of the Perfect Unity to all in this galaxy and beyond."
The three ideologies that Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq created would eventually merge. At this point, every Crodvan on Ratvar was sapient, and a significant percentage of that population followed the Tenets of Yretchzan, enough to cease many major conflicts going on at the time. Those who wished to oppose were eventually enticed by the Great Clockwork. This was the end of the Njnxravat.
A conference was organized by the three once their plan was nearing its final stage. Over a period lasting almost a year, the founders constructed the official laws of the Unity that they sought to create. An unnatural force beckoned every Crodvan to obey and wait patiently for their dream to come true.
And, so it did. Nezbere, Sevtug and Inath-neq officially declared themselves Primarchs, and the Guvaxvat Crbcyr, Svtugvat Crbcyr and Jbexvat Crbcyr were founded. These three castes were the Thinking, Fighting and Working. There were no conflicts or disputes. The Crodvans obeyed, and became apart of the Great Clockwork.
The Crodvan Unity was founded.
What followed this point would be known as the Ratvarrevat, a golden age in which the Unity built itself up from Ratvar to where it is today. This began with the institution of further sub-castes within the Jbexvat and the Svtugvat that would be designed to create new population within the Unity and control the population of each caste and each sub-caste, as well as a caste designed to enforce domestic law and ensure every Crodvan is doing as they should. The Unity stabilized itself marvelously after it's birth, with the population booming from mass production of new Crodvan. Technology was derived from Creator ruins and fragments found around Ratvar and the surrounding systems. The discovery of the Replicant Alloy and the Hierophant Network from these ruins allowed for mass industrialization, further advancement of the Crodvan's understanding of themselves, and the ability to rapidly exchange information and data across the entire Unity. Tapping into the secrets of the Anima Core allowed for greater diversity in Crodvan units, allowing for the founding of further sub-castes that then expanded the versatility of the Crodvan workforce, military and government. Exploiting their synthetic nature allowed for the Crodvan to rapidly colonize any solid planet they could find, and rapidly industrialize it, fracking it's core for minerals, minerals to forge Replicant Alloy and Anima Cores, which would then be used to create new Crodvan that would then go off to expand and mine even further.
It is this cycle that gifted the Crodvan the ability to construct a truly perfect state. It has been four-hundred years since the Unity has been founded. It's now in it's fourth generation of Primarchs -- now having a council of at least five Primarchs. Many tiny aspects of the Crodvan hierarchy have been amended and changed over the years but the Yretchzan still stands as the ultimate mandate across all layers of power within the Unity. It's borders have expanded above and beyond the expectations of the founding Primarchs, and the state as a whole is a complex machine that has remained running for four centuries.
Yet, times are ever changing. Alien species and foreign powers have begun to prop up around the Crodvan, and rumors of a deep space menace have reached the attention of the Unity. Try as they might to isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy, it is uncertain if the Unity will be able to abstain from the coming age of war any longer. The Great Clockwork slows, but will it stop? It is uncertain.
But, by the words of the Yretchzan and the will of the Primarchs, the Crodvan remain adamant in their goal. . .
. . .to construct a truly Perfect Engine.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
The Unity is situated on the eastern side of the region, resting just underneath the cluster of nations that include the Federation and the Empire. It's worth noting that the Crodvan Unity does not share any official borders with any other political entity on the eastern side. This is because of the significant band of empty space surrounding the Unity and separating itself from the region. Though there hasn't been any indication of this empty space somehow being an extension of the Unity's influence, it is known that the Unity maintains a constant closed-border policy. The eerie patrol fleets of the Ynj Snpgv'ba will pursue unauthorized foreign vessels with extreme prejudice.
Major Holdings
Ratvar is the official capital world of the Crodvan Unity. It is the spiritual "homeworld" of the Crodvan race, seat of the Primarch Consensus, birthplace of the Tenets of Yretchzan, head world of the Government Caste all sub-castes within, location of the Napvrag Archives and the Prime Hierophant Node. . . so on and so forth. It's likely that Ratvar was of equal importance to the Crodvan's creators as it is to the Crodvan themselves, indicated by the abnormal presence of Creator ruins dotted about the planet's surface prior to the expansion of the Unity. These remnants of advanced technologies and structures helped Ratvar to become the most developed planet within the Unity, and the most physically stunning -- despite the presence of forge complexes, the central cities of Ratvar are built to denote regality among the Crodvan. Towering, ornate spires of brass and replicant alloy are a common sight, built to stand above the grungy military/worker complexes below.
Though it seems to go against the Crodvan style of functional architecture, exceptions must be made for those cogs who start the chain of production.
Ratvar is unique within the Unity in that it's the most "diverse" planet in terms of caste demographics, despite being the primary world of the Government Caste. Such a large overlap of castes (forbidden within the modus operandi of the Unity and the Yretchzan) is only because of the planet's significance. Proper military defense and worker maintenance should be expected.
Kremorn is the head world of the Martial Caste and it's many, many sub-castes. It's title is the "Brass Fortress" in galactic common, denoting it's significance to the defense and enforcement of the Unity's will. A military-focused planet within the Crodvan Unity is significantly different to how an organic race would use them, however. Synthetic beings ultimately have no use for training drills or an extensive chain of command powered by the experience and seniority of individual soldiers. Crodvan that are constructed for the Martial Caste come pre-equipped with basic combat knowledge and tactical data, as well as specialized data based on what sub-caste or "division" the soldier will be serving in. The Martial Caste mass-produces equipped, ready-to-deploy soldiers rather than enlisting and training recruits. Thus, Kremorn is designed for the storage and containment of the Martial Caste. Any individual thought a Crodvan has on Kremorn manifests as Crodvan soldiers speaking to one another and verbally exchanging data that stands outside the mandatory combat data all Martial Crodvan are installed with upon creation. This makes it so that a Crodvan soldier is more "experienced" and reasoning in combat situations as opposed to, say, a Daisan droid. The mental strength of an organic coupled with the physical exaltation of a synthetic body.
Perfection.
Kremorn is also home to many military research projects within the Unity. All civilizations have their fair share of doomsday-scale weapons not meant for public eyes, and the Unity is no exception. They just keep them locked away in the vaults of Kremorn.
Kremrumhz is the head world of the Worker Caste and it's sub-castes. It's also the most populated planet in the Unity, and because of that it is also arguably the most valuable planet the Unity has. Kremrumhz is located on the edge of the core-world region of the Unity, and it's frequently used as the stating location of many expansion directives. Almost every colony within the Unity has a supply route linking back to the Anima Forge, forming a complex web of supply lines that all lead back to the Forge. This is because the Anima Forge, as it's name implies, is the industrial heart of the Unity and the greatest producer of the Unity's greatest resource; population.
A developing Crodvan colony requires a steady supply of Crodvan workers and soldiers at every step of development. Mass population is invaluable, as it creates the self-replication cycle of the Crodvan race -- Crodvan mine resources and forge/build copius amounts of Replicant Alloy and Anima Cores. These materials are then used in the production of new Crodvan. These new Crodvan then go off and mine resources to forge and build even more materials, which make even more Crodvan that will do the same thing. To speed up this process, Kremrumhz pumps out loads of fresh Crodvan out into the Unity, which go off and plump up the workforce and military of the Unity.
Should Kremrumhz fall, it's not unreasonable to infer that the entire Unity would follow in due time.
Social Information
Demographics
The Unity is only populated by a single "race" -- the Crodvan. However, the Crodvan race and it's Unity is structured in such a way that each Caste (and sometimes a sub-caste) has a specific design for the Crodvan working within it. This results in Crodvan coming in many different shapes and sizes, constructed with a specific purpose. One could argue that Worker Crodvan, Martial Crodvan, and Government Crodvan are all different "sub-races" due to the disparity of their appearances and behavior.
The population is split between three major castes -- the Worker, Martial and Government castes. The population within each individual caste is then further divided into a number of unique sub-castes -- Miners, Army, Researchers, ect.
The current caste/sub-caste demographic looks something like this. With how population control in the Unity function, these percentages remain constant as the total population of the Unity shifts.
Jbexvat Crbcyr (Worker Caste) - 50% of total population.
Gu'axvat Crbcyr (Government Caste) - 10% of total population.
- Cynargvat Snpgv'ba (Planetary Sub-Caste) - 60% - Rasbepvat Snpgv'ba (Enforcement Sub-Caste) - 15% - Sevtugvat Snpgv'ba (Diplomatic Sub-Caste) - 5% - Animavat Snpgv'ba (Research Sub-Caste) - A little under 20% - Hygv'zn-gr Pbhapvy (Primarch Consensus) - Under 1%
Society
Crodvan society is, as shown above, dogmatic and mechanical in it's design. They live in a strict caste-based society that is built around purpose. The Crodvan are ruled by the philosophy of the Great Clockwork -- every aspect of themselves and the Unity that they reside in mimics the idea of forming the most orderly state.
Crodvan do not have a traditional sense of family, due to how they reproduce. Instead, the Yretchzan and Great Clockwork imply that all Crodvan are like siblings to one another. Crodvan live their lives knowing that they were created and made to serve a purpose within the Great Clockwork. By looking upon the bigger picture and realizing that they play a role in promoting the common good for all Crodvan, even the most pitiful Crodvan worker will think that they make the difference. This is peculiar, though -- why aren't the lower Crodvan just mindless drones? What sets Crodvan apart from the organic understanding of synthetic society is that the Crodvan preserve some sense of individuality. When a Crodvan is created, it is acknowledged among even the most loyalist of Animavat Crodvan that there is the presence of the "ghost in the machine". A Crodvan will naturally develop their own personality and consciousness -- they will feel emotions, they will have ambitions, dreams and the capacity to think and reason. This is the unique gift that the Crodvan believe was bestowed upon them by the Creators. Though there has been talk in the past of limiting the Anima Core capacity in the Worker and Martial castes in order to promote better cohesiveness, this was deemed a violation of the Tenets of Yretchzan, as they state that Crodvan are to be set above the standards of synthetics made by other organics. The Primarchs believed that self-awareness is a quality that sets the Crodvan above the rest.
To be given the gift of thought and then have it taken away. . . it would be blasphemous.
However, the Yretchzan didn't say anything about tooling the Crodvan into serving the collective through propaganda and dogmatic teachings. This is how the Great Clockwork plays into Crodvan society, and why it is so important to the well-being of the Unity.
The extent of the Crodvan caste system and the caste hierarchy will be elaborated in a separate document.
Government
In a shocking turn of events, the Crodvan government is mandated by the Government Caste, which includes a number of sub-castes that deal with research and development, planetary government, foreign policy, and law enforcement. At the top of the Government Caste, and by extension all individuals within the Unity stands the Primarch Consensus. The Consensus is an oligarchical board of five Primarchs, with the responsibility to make large-scale decisions and ultimately direct the national focus of the Crodvan Unity. A Primarch-type Crodvan is unique in almost every way -- they possess the most individual behavior of all Crodvan and, due to the being the ultimate power among the Crodvan, lack any instinctual obedience. They have no one to answer to besides themselves. Primarchs are not created in the same manner as other Crodvan -- a maximum of five Primarchs can be active in the universe at one time. If one Primarch becomes inactive or incapable of executing their responsibility to communicate and lead with it's fellow Primarchs, then by the agreement of all active Primarchs, a new Primarch will be constructed on Ratvar. The construction of a new Primarch is ceremonious, and will see an audience of all other active Primarchs. The new Primarch will be given some time to adjust and accept their role within Crodvan society, before being officially considered at all gatherings of the Primarchs.
The Consensus as a whole holds all executive, legislative and judicial power within the Unity. They interpret the Yretchzan, inscribe new work orders and directives, and use their superiority to ensure that the Clockwork runs without any errant gears. The Yretchzan facilitates a traditional modus operandi for everything and anything within the Unity, allowing lesser government entities to make basic decisions based on how things were always run, without needing the Primarchs to intervene. Developing an existing colony, maintaining current production flow or any routine diplomatic actions don't require the Primarchs to meet. However, if a significant decision must be made (the colonization of a new world, large-scale direction of the martial caste, large-scale production orders, declarations of war, ect), the Primarch Consensus will convene within the Genesis Hall, where they will discuss and decide on what to do.
Put simply, when all resources the Unity has must be directed towards a national focus, the Primarchs will meet.
There are five positions on the Primarch Consensus -- three mandate the three major castes, one mandates foreign policy, and the other mandates internal enforcement and protection of the Yretchzan. These positions don't lend the Primarchs any power within their respective fields, but rather, they represent their field. Power over the castes only manifests when all Primarchs agree on a decision.
For example, the Martial Primarch does not have any power within the Martial Caste or it's chain of command, but rather, it represents the needs of the Caste and is supposed to report military-related data to the Consensus when a meeting is called. When the Consensus wishes to do something relating to the Martial Caste, like declaring war on another nation, the Martial Primarch will have some added significance to it's words during the meeting, due to having data and information that the other Primarchs may not have.
When all Primarchs agree on a decision, the decision will be passed. If it is a significant order, then the order will be relayed throughout the entire Unity through the Hierphant Network. The message will be first passed to all relevant Crodvan that possess the appropriate Command Number, and then that Crodvan will pass down the order to all relevant inferior Crodvan, moving down the appropriate chain of command.
For example, when the Primarch Consensus has agreed to mobilize the Martial Caste towards a nation, all L3 Martial Crodvan will receive the message, across all sub-castes. In this scenario, the Army Sub-Caste L3 Crodvan will then briefly communicate with one another to confirm, and then relay the data to their respective Legions. L2 Crodvan within the Legions will do the same and pass it down to L1s within their Centuries, so on and so forth.
All Crodvan are functionally immortal, but signs of age do manifest on their Anima cores. A Crodvan can constantly be maintained and retrofitted to ensure that it remains in proper working condition, but if the Anima core burns out after this time, then the Crodvan is lost and a new one must be made. This happens to Primarchs, and it happens more often than your average Worker Crodvan.
It's unknown why this happens to Primarchs more frequently. Is it an internal function that prevents Primarch-type Crodvan from remaining active for too long, or is it just the stresses of leadership that cause a Crodvan to break down? Either way, the Consensus is refreshed over the years due to this.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
At a glance, the Crodvan don't appear to be very advanced at all despite being synthetic lifeforms. Their appearance and aesthetic hide the true nature of their technological prowess. The Crodvan derive much of their technology from ruins and remnants left behind by their creators. Much of what they have can be easily compared to other nations of equal size and age, but these common technologies have a unique spin that separates them from technologies of organic creation.
Major Techs
To understand the synthetic mind, you must be one yourself, right?
The Crodvan have extensively studied themselves since the beginning of the Ratvarrevat, where they wished to perfect a method to create new Crodvan citizens. The modern design of the Anima Core may different slightly from that of the "first generation" cores that some of the earliest Crodvan possessed, but the function is very much the same -- the ability to facilitate synthetic consciousness through mastery of computing and exotic materials. Nano-etching billions upon billions of micro-pathways and conduits on a lump of conductive alloy, essentially creating a hyper-CPU that when given the proper energy, can generate an active consciousness. There is still much to be found behind this technology, but the Crodvan have put Anima creation and modification to great use in the creation of new Crodvan and the engineering of non-sapient "dummy" synthetics such as military drones.
By containing fusion materials in either an extremely powerful magnetic field or a naturally-generated inertia field, the Crodvan can facilitate enormous amounts of energy through thermonuclear fusion, which has become the primary source of power generation within Crodvan ships, warmachines, factories, and the Crodvan themselves. Massive magnetic reactors are usually found in modern Crodvan space vessels, as well as some superheavy warmachines and large factory districts, but the principles of inertia are used to confine volatile fusion energy into small, manageable, and indestructible fusion cells that are used in the production of the Crodvan population.
Derived from the ancient structures scavenged from the Crodvan core worlds, Replicant alloy is a synthesized material that forms the very basis of the Crodvan and their society. It was found in the first generation of Crodvan (the natural descendants of the creators themselves) that much of their internal systems were protected by a chassis made of extremely durable but malleable exotic metal. The true name of this material was never decided on, but upon the formation of the Crodvan Unity, efforts were made to synthesize the perfect replica of this alloy through extensive chemical research and study of Creator structures. Although it may never be perfect as the original thing, the Unity invented what would be known as "replicant alloy" -- their own flavor of durasteel and/or other modern industrial materials. Replicant alloy is used in almost every avenue of Crodvan life -- they're made of it, and everything they create is made from it. It is characterized as being irregularly durable and extremely heat resistant, but also capable of being manipulated into any shape. Derivatives of the alloy include the materials used in the synthesis of Anima cores.
To run the Crodvan Unity like the machine it was meant to be, the Crodvan required some way to rapidly communicate data over long distances. Verbal communication through the Crodvan's language was hardly an option, but the Creators did not intend to leave their creations empty-handed. Ancient subspace transmitters were observed by the early Crodvan -- transmitters capable of sending, receiving and interpreting information through means of subspace, thus at a velocity greater than the speed of light. The technology in that state was infant, but with time and the formation of the Unity, it would be refined into what is known today as the Hierophant Network. The cross-empire network manifests as a complex web of subspace transmission lines that are extended and forged through physical Hierophant stations dotted around Crodvan space, which transmit and receive data from Hierophant Cores located on Crodvan planets, stations and ships. Information packets of any size are transmitted across the network through subspace, and communication between cores is almost instantaneous assuming there is no interference.
Hierophant technology is also utilized on a smaller scale. All Crodvan are capable of receiving Hierophant data, but the ability to transmit data back-and-forth is reserved for commanders and leaders. Hierophant sub-networks allow for individual leader-type Crodvan with upgraded Hierophant ansibles to transmit data across planets and/or systems to any number of individual Crodvan or any Hierophant core/beacon. In practice, this is used extensively in military operations to rapidly communicate orders and tactical data to Crodvan military units.
Digging into the internal programming of the Crodvan race brought more than an understanding of their central processing units. Conceived based on a defunct "kill-switch" found in first-generation Crodvan, the Synth-Plague is a rather terrifying venture into the world of cyberwarfare. However, unlike a computer virus, it does only travel through wireless networks that communicate with one another. The plague is typically transmitted from "quarantined" Hierophant ansibles found on some Crodvan ships. In naval combat, when a Crodvan ship enters in mid-range with an enemy vessel, the plague will be transmitted across physical space into any internal networks the ship may have -- transmitters, communications array, hailing functions, ect. If it "latches on", it will travel to the nearest physical anchor along the network, usually a physical transmitter aboard the ship. It's means of travel seem to change from wireless networks to wired power networks once it finds such an anchor. The plague then begins to simply destroy.
Yes, destroy.
It will destroy, distort and delete processing runtimes and programs within a machine by targeting processors. The machine will not be physically damaged, but it will be functionally destroyed as all internal programming has been anhilliated. Then, it travels along the power network, and multiplies. On a spaceship, this can range from having it's communications silenced to having it's engine/power source self-detonate, to having all life support and gravity generators turned off.
The plague does have a kill-switch of it's alone, allowing for specialized Crodvan units to cease the plague's functions before it can bounce back and begin targeting Crodvan themselves.
It says something about the cruelty of the Crodvan if they are willing to create the synthetic equivalent of a bio-weapon. It is assumed that synthetics cannot feel physical pain, but there is something to be said when a synthetic can feel it's mind being flayed with each passing second, losing scraps of itself and it's sense of reality until all consciousness ceases to exist.
By use of fusion reactors and the accelerated plasma it produces, Crodvan ships can achieve impressive sublight speeds through use of impulse propulsion. These smaller impulse reactors are separate from the thermonuclear reactor that powers a typical Crodvan spacecraft, but power can be diverted from them in the event that the main reactor is non-functional.
A directed energy weapon that functions on a similar principle to Rivet weaponry. Ferro-materials are superheated and wrapped in an electromagnetic "bubble" that allows the fired projectile to maintain cohesion during travel time, as well as maintain energy upon impact. The cannon then launches a bright, iridescent "glob" of thermal energy that, although ineffective against energy shields, can melt clear holes through an entire vessel.
Industry
When talking traditional industrial prowess, there are few that can answer to the Crodvan Unity. Over 70% planets in the Unity are "forge worlds" or "deep worlds" -- massive, planet-spanning industrial complexes that add on to the industrial prowess of the Unity, or provide a steady supply of mineral resources to all planets within the Unity. Industrial production within the Unity is owned and entirely mandated by the government, whom direct the Worker Caste (over 50% of the entire population) in the event of a mass production order. Otherwise, the Worker Caste follows tried-and-true standard construction templates and advanced industrial algorithms to automatically determine the most efficient route to follow in order to achieve completion of a template. Crodvan workers are tireless and functionally immortal, and live in a society where money and personal agendas are almost non-existent, and they are instinctual inclined to work. Overpopulation and under-population are forcibly manhandled and a complete non-issue. New workers and positions are filled instantly due to an on-demand population. Mining operations have extended to mass strip mining of asteroids in and around Unity space, and have also led to deep core fracking operations of rare-earth materials located around a planet's core. Standard construction templates and steady supply routes allow for multiple forge worlds and deep world colonies to be founded, developed and functional in under a year. During wartime, a fully-equipped Legion of Infantry Crodvan can be churned out in a few months time -- and an entire naval fleet in a year or so -- provided every Forge World has received the production order.
The Great Clockwork turns endlessly, and with every tick, the Engine roars louder.
The Crodvan Unity are dedicated towards their goal to build the Perfect State. To this end, they will stop at nothing to become the industrial power of the galaxy.
Military Information
Military Overview
Much like their industrial strength, the Crodvan war machine is a terrifying foe to encounter. The Martial Caste stands as the sword, shield, and anti-tank rifle of the Unity, responsible for maintaining tranquility and equilibrium within the Unity's borders and neutralizing any outside forces that may disrupt the Great Clockwork. The Martial Caste is split between two main sub-castes -- the Army and the Navy. These two sub-castes contain the "regular" units of the Crodvan military, representing the Brass Legions and the Brass Armada. The other two sub-castes are the specialist units of the Crodvan military that relate to both planetary war and space warfare -- the Knights and the Marines, respectively. Much of the Crodvan industry is spent towards maintaining a very large, replaceable military that can be easily directed and tempered in the event of war.
Space Forces
Navy Doctrine: Secure and Salvage
Crodvan naval doctrine is heavily based around the concept of ending naval battles as quickly as possible and maintaining the structural integrity of the enemy ship. The goal becomes the hostile capture of enemy vessels rather than destruction, due to the Crodvan neccesity for salvaging resources and fueling the war machine. This doctrine places much emphasis on closing distance and boarding enemy craft. This is accomplished through forcing the enemy fleet into a close range brawl -- thermal cannons are most effective at close range, and cyberwarfare options via the Synth-Plague allow for the rapid disablement of enemy craft, which then lead to the deployment of Crodvan marines. One the marines are in, an empty craft is all that will remain. Defensive tactics are employed on larger Crodvan ship classes in order to maintain integrity as they close distance. Smaller classes are split between defending larger vessels and harassing enemy vessels with the goal to break enemy cohesion and isolate individual ships for boarding.
Ground Forces
Ground Doctrine: The Clockwork March
Fighting a ground-war with a Brass Legion of the Unity is almost comparable to fighting against the Daisan, in that they follow the doctrine of a slow, patient assault. The Brass Legions are highly organized units of Crodvan infantry and armored units, and with the perfection of rapid transmission of data, the Legions don't see many surprises when on the battlefield. Because of this, they incorporate elements of shock and awe in their military tactics. Large shows of force are common in order to intimidate the enemy, and when that doesn't work, the force is then employed mercilessly. Crodvan forces will slowly march on the enemy position, making use of their natural durability and lack of self-preservation to use their long-range Rivet weaponry to safely strike enemy infantry as they make their approach. Crodvan forces are always hybridized between infantry, armor, artillery, cavalry and Knights.
Rivet Weaponry are a class of directed-energy infantry weapons utilized extensively by the Brass Legions and Knights. How a Rivet weapon works is that it is powered by an ammunition cell of super-heated molten ferrous-materials. The heat and energy of the ammunition is kept stable by the properties of replicant alloy within the cells. The ammunition is then wrapped in an electromagnetic foil that molds the thermal energy into aerodynamic "rivets". This rivet is then magnetically accelerated, maintaining it's heat as it travels an impressive distance towards its target. The rivet will typically melt through most common infantry armor, and will collapse it's magnetic bubble upon strong contact with solid matter. If it doesn't punch a hole through an organic outright like a hot knife through butter, the organic may enjoy the sensation of having the searing rivet explode upon contact with flesh, releasing searing molten metal upon their skin, resulting in a screaming, agonizing death as they watch the charred meat slip off their bones.
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