The Moljac Republic
GENERAL INFORMATION
Faction Overview
The Moljac Republic is a republic based out the capital system of Leptir. The Republic has around 34 billion residents spread across 7 habitable planets, however their reach extends to multiple non-habitable planets and systems.
Territory Overview
Leptir - As the capital planet, this planet has the dubious honour of being the most important and most populous of all Moljac systems. It is here that the government convenes to decide the fate of the Republic.
Maslac - Maslac is the second most populous planet, owing to being the first one inhabited by the the Republic beyond their home system. It's an industrial powerhouse.
Linje - The third most populous system is Linje, once an independent dictatorship that was forcefully overthrown by the Leptirica. An aggressive attempt to force the locals to adopt Leptir ways and customs lead to a huge backlash, and to this day, it is the great shame of the Labour party that they had to put down a revolution on this planet. That revolt has resulted in the far more moderate stance all three parties have today.
Luftoj - Luftoj was incorporated under the Liberal party. Like Linje, it was independent until the Leptirica came in and overthrew the old monarchy, replacing it with a puppet government. The intention was that the republic would slowly grant them more and more powers, and that they would guide them through the transition from dictatorship to democracy. However, they underestimated the loyalty of the new government, who was constantly voting to grant more and more power to Leptir, eventually devolving into a regional government. This was not the Liberals intention and although they were praised at the time for their "successful" intervention, many veteran members of the party see this as something of a failure.
Lojtur - Lojtur was a purely colonial effort. An ocean planet, it has a paltry population, but it maintains relevancy through its impressive fishing and tourism industries.
Holoj - Similar to our own Pluto, Holoj is a very cold planet. Initially, the Republic was going to skip past it, but scientists discovered some interesting ruins on the surface and went to study them. Lo and behold, they found a tribe of natives still living in the icy wastes. The Republic now takes an active role in helping the Holojica form a space-faring, democratic nation. Older members of all three parties point to Linje and Luftoj as examples of why this is a very bad idea, but they are a minority.
Kula - Kula is a terrestrial, but incredibly rainy, planet with no known sentient natives. The constant barrage of water has lead to some interesting life forms that are of significant scientific interest to the Moljac, so colonisation is well underway.
Hypergate Codes: M376, M216, M998
History
(Of course you can also tell the history of your civilization. It doesn't need to be novel length or I'd say this is even optional but eh, most players love to do this.)
SOCIETY INFORMATION
Demographics
The vast majority of citizens are Leptirica. Natives to Leptir, Leptirica are roughly humanoid in shape, though slightly taller. Leptirica's bodies are covered in short, fleecy feathers that cover all areas bar the face and digits, where their grey skin is exposed. Their noses are flat and feline, and their eyes solid black. Their ears have long tufted feathers that filter loud sounds and aggressive vibrations to keep the ear safe. Males are generally smaller and have brighter colouration than females. Leptirica comprise around 75% of the Moljac Republic's population.
Luftojica make up around 20% of the population of the republic. They are short and completely hairless, with feline faces and big, wide ears. Natives to Luftoj, they once ruled under a benevolent but authoritarian monarchy until the Republic forced him to stand down. Confused at their new-found "freedom", many Luftojica voted the only way they knew how: by giving one leader absolute power. This resulted in their eventual integration with republic proper. Luftojica are renowned for their grumpy faces and their "ugly-cute" appearance.
Cultural Overview
The Republic is known for it's stoicism. Keeping your head down, moving along with your life and not making a fuss is an unspoken rule. Something going wrong? Quietly report it to the authorities; don't make a song and dance about it. The correct response to someone else talking about your achievements is to shrug it off bashfully. Loudmouths and braggarts are NOT welcome here.
A cornerstone in the Republic is it's devotion to welfare. Collectivism, far from being a negative quality, is openly promoted as one of the Republic's greatest strengths; here, the majority rules. Citizens have a direct say in how the government is run and make decisions they think will work for the greater good. To think about your own desires is selfish; only the group matters. The welfare state is far too popular for even the most daring politician to try to remove without committing political suicide.
The Republic sees their democratic system as the ideal, free from autocracy. They have no hesitation in stopping colonial nations in their sphere of influence, and have taken it upon themselves to bring democracy to their alien neighbors. They see themselves as the bulwark against dictatorship, and nearby minors are their charges.
Government Overview
The Republic is, well, a republic. Every adult citizen may vote for a representative every five years across three levels: a regional representative who handles the affairs of the local area, a national representative who handles the affairs of the country, and a planetary representative who handles the affairs of the whole planet. The Planetary governors are the most powerful, and out of the seven elected, one is chosen as First Speaker.
The whole republic uses a top-down voting system to manage its issues: should the Planetary representatives not come to a majority conclusion, the vote is put to the national representatives. If the national representatives fail to come to a conclusion, then it is handed to the regional representatives, and after them, a direct vote from the citizenship.
There are three main parties: Labour, Liberal and Conservative. Conservatives are the most right wing, but it would be stretch to call any party particularly "right wing" in this society. The divisions are mostly those of nationalism vs internationalism, with Labour being internationalist and Conservatives being nationalist. While there are other parties, these are mostly too small to make a difference, or even get votes. The only small party to consistently get seats is the Greens, nicknamed "tiebreakers" by government officials due to their key role in giving controversial bills the one or two votes they need to pass or fail.
TECHNOLOGY INFORMATION
Tech Overview
Overall, the Republic has a mostly average technology sector.
Bio-tech is perhaps the most advanced field. Commercially available genetic modifications means that food crops rarely have an issue with predators, and disease has been reduced to a preventable nuisance. The Labour government in particular has a keen interest in keeping medical and food supplies affordable, so funds for this field of science are never short.
Ever since the early days, the Republic has been pushing for more natural means of supplying energy. Planetside, its not unusual to see entire cities supplied by solar panels, waterwheels and windmills. Even as early as their medieval days, Leptir intellectuals theorised that burning carbon-based objects would cause a "noxious miasma" and so firmly opposed the practice. Nuclear power is approved for space travel only, and is relatively in its infancy compared to other civilizations.
The computing industry is a bit of an orphan child amongst Leptir scientists. It's probably their weakest area, though it is sufficiently advanced as to allow a space-faring nation. Most homes don't have computers, and commercially available computers are a luxury only for the especially rich.
There's an old tradition of Leptir people, that when a man and woman should get married, they will leave their parents and build their own home, brick by brick. With such a tradition, it should come as no surprise that the Moljac republic has a high-quality yet traditionalist building society. Those who dedicate their life to engineering and construction are supplied with tools on the cutting edge of technology and their buildings are some of the most stable in the region.
Of course, weapons tech is what everyone's really interested in. It's run of the mill - nothing particularly stands out as being super impressive but nothing's particularly crap either. If there was an area that was to be held up as above and beyond, it would be reliability. You could drag a Moljac gun through a swamp, banging it of every rock and branch on the way, and it will come out smiling.
Notable Technologies
(If you have unique pieces of technology this is the place where you can talk about them.)
Industrial Overview
Industry is designed to be dispersed and as local as possible. Moljac runs on its small businesses. Everything, from extraction to processing to sale is handled at a regional level. The only industry that actually moves from one region to another is courier services, and that's purely out of necessity, otherwise the Leptir would be perfectly happy getting everything from a local source. This way of working things gives regions a particular industry which they excel it, whilst being mediocre at all else.
As mentioned before, the construction industry of Moljac is particularly impressive. Individuals are expected to build and repair their own homes, so while it's not much of a career option unless you go into the military or building mega-structures, it does mean that in the case of an emergency people won't be stranded with ruins they can't make anything out of. Private contractors may appeal to foreign powers, major and minor, to recruit the construction workforce.
In terms of imports and exports, Moljac is heavily reliant on foreign industry for their computers. Only devices that handle the most highly sensitive information are built in Moljac. Exports are mostly agrarian; silks, cottons, wools, liquors, that sort of thing.
MILITARY INFORMATION
Military Overview
Army Overview
As a general rule, the ground forces of the Moljac republic are motorised. Most units have designated personnel carriers, depending on what kind of unit it is - for example, most front-line units will have a truck for every squad of 12 to 20 people, while spec-ops forces might only be given a car for a fireteam of four or five.
Divisions of the Republic are organised in a 4/2/2 composition. Four relatively unarmoured regiments of motorised infantry of 1,000 men each, two armoured mechanised regiments of 1,000 men each and two artillery regiments, each 500 men. Finally, another 3,000 non-combatant roles, such as medical staff, logistics and signals are assigned to each division, rounding off every division at a neat 10,000 men strong. High production costs, however, and an insistence on keeping the army conscription-free has kept the army necessarily small. Good though they are, the simply don't have the numbers to replace losses efficiently, to either manpower or equipment. Currently, the total size of the army is 855,000,000 men strong, 85,500 divisions worth.
HALO units function independently, but closely related to the army. Control of the skies is a key feature in Moljac military doctrine. Pilots are rigourously trained, which makes them comparable to most others elite forces, but few in number. Reliability is the focus, with speed and agility second and weaponry last.
The Moljac Republic is fond of planned campaigns. They set up camps and entrench into a position, send out scouts to check the area and map every last detail, before carefully planning their advancements and defensives. This can result in some rather slow campaigns, but given enough time, the Republic can plan for just about any occurrence. However, they need that time in the first place, and can be caught off guard if forced out before they are prepared.
Navy Overview
Moljac's space doctrine is designed around small craft. Capital ships are quite small for their role, being the size of most others heavier cruisers. Commanders are expected to lead their troops from the front, not cower behind fortifications and hope that the bad guys go away. The smaller size also makes it harder for enemies to tell which ship is the capital ship, and gives both capital and screen ships with that much more room for interpretation. Do you use overwhelm the enemy with lots of small fire, or focus your efforts on one big shot? The choice is up to the commander.
