[OOC] ...and the Darkness is Harsh [SF]

[Zamiel]

Interest Check

"And here, all alone in the million billion miles of midnight, is one solitary moving speck.
A fragile parcel filled with sleeping people and their dreams."
― Philip Reeve

Humanity from the dawn of time was fascinated these unfathomable lights in the sky.
The insatiable curiosity to reach the unknown just beyond our grasp drove us on journies of trillions of miles.
Humans, among myriad other dreamers of uncounted origins touched the face of their universe, and took it for their own.

Now blink - the lights are all gone. The night sky is an empty void of darker than black.



Half of all stars are rogues between galaxies, and are so thinly spread that only an incredibly faint glow to the most powerful telescopes gives away their presence. How many sentient species have come to flourish unnoticed in the vest emptiness of hundreds of millions of light years between galaxies? Far beyond the fringes of these cradles of sentient life, your race has evolved and flourished - yet utterly ignorant that anything exists past a few hunks of rock orbiting a ball of hydrogen outside their front door. Alas, not for much longer.

Where are the galaxies? Light from billions of stars packed tightly together must assuredly bridge even such gaps of millions of light years.

Yet why is the sky a flawless black?

Kardashev scale

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilization is able to utilize. The scale has three designated categories called Type I, II, and III.

Dyson Spheres

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a celestial object and hence captures most or all of its power output.

Across the universe, Type III civilizations had come to harvest the radiation emitted by every galaxy within Dyson Spheres.

Our story takes place in one such enclosed galaxy and its close vicinity of about 50 million light years - let us call it "Milky Way" for easy reference. The civilization that had harnessed their galaxy like a work horse (they happened to have been humanoid), had vanished. Many signs of struggle and violence lie scattered among the countless stars: charred planets, incredible fields of wreckage. Perhaps a few still functioning automated remnant crafts and battle stations careen silently for eternity waiting for commands that are never to come. Ostensibly no sentient life remains of any developmental stage. Are these marks of the final internal struggle of the resident species that had annihilated themselves, or are these merely remains of a long ago primitive past for even these inhabitants who were forged through war and agony and had ascended to wisdom.

Over many millions of years of disrepair, the shell of the megastructure encompassing the galaxy began to be fail, and then to be violently torn by cataclysmic strains which it had for so long endured faithfully. Suddenly, the night sky is no longer dark, and a baffling point of light emerges for races beyond the periphery that had been long hidden. That would be fascinating - and perhaps spark technological revolution and the eventual development of spacefolding technology that could bridge this gap.

Fortunately, that is not necessary.



Something a mere hundred miles across is very easy to miss among even a single solar system's loose debris - especially if no one is even looking for it. Perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago this star system was part of the Milky Way and this node was connected within a network of gates allowing instantaneous travel. The Dyson Sphere prevented any energy from escaping, which seems to have included the tracer signals between these gates - until now. In time, your race may figure out how to key destinations through these gates. For now though, each gate in player controlled solar systems open a default path to the nexus station deep within the galactic core consisting of hundreds of such gates.

Wrest the galaxy from its wild abandon and reshape it on your image,
uncover the secrets of the ancients and their forgotten relics,
and perhaps find the truth behind their disappearance.
But beware, knowledge itself can stir up long forgotten evils that are better left untouched in this vest universe.

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Technology
Each player begins the game with a pool of 100 research progress that may be used to purchase from the tech tree linked/show below. Every three days, your race's scientist stat is added to your research pool which I manage on my end. Tell me at the top of any of your posts what to set your research towards and I will change it to that and carry over progress from a previous tech you had already invested points into and not completed. Now, the very most important part: this tech tree is a very basic set of suggestions. Ultimately, you will be coming up with most of the technologies yourself, and I add them to the tech tree at a certain tier depending on how ridiculous it is. All of the technologies are "general" topics that do not unlock a particular thing - rather, a sci-fi concept that you have a wide application limited by being reasonable and adding fair weaknesses so it does not spell instant annihilation for everybody and should totally be mixed with other technologies to make something mind blowing. Whenever you wish to add a technology, post here or shoot me a PM and we will work out the science cost and possible prerequisites. It will then be available for all players to research.

Full Size Tech Tree

Brief Tech Descriptions

Tier 1:

Robotics
The creation of automated machinery that operates under direction, or scripted program.

Cold Fusion
A type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature which makes it far more compact and less resource intensive than conventional fusion.

Quantum Computing
Uses the superposition of sub-atomic particles to exponentially increase the space and energy efficiency of computation.

Particle Manipulation
A general science pertaining to controlling and directing the uniform movemment and reactions groups of atoms and sub-atomic particles.

Ballistics
The understanding of mechanics that deals with gravity, the launching, flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles.

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Tier 2:

Industrial Robotics
The use of mechanical contructs to perform labor intensive or repetative actions in manufacturing.

Artifical Intelligence
Complex programs that are capable of decision making that allows them to change their actions depending on changes in their environement.

Impulse Drives
The use of brute force to accelerate directly in a straight line halfway from point A to point B, then decelerate the rest of the way. This is a far more effecient than slinging from gravity well to gravity well.

Particle Fields
The manipulation of particles in such a way as to form uniform planes and hold them suspended to be used as a barrier or some other restrictive measure.

Orbital Ballistics
Thorough knowledge of the physics involved in the launching, flight, behavior, and effects of projectiles that move around gravity wells of celestial objects.

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Tier 3:

Orbital Platforms
Large compounds in space that may house hundreds of people, be used at bases for orbital defence, shipyards (provided you have Orbital Construction), or whatever you race desires to put there - like an obnoxiously sized fallic symbol.

Swarm Intelligence
A form of artificial intelligence that relies on a myriad of small indpendent components following programmed imperatives to work together and acomplish tasks.

Adptive Thought
Another form of artifical intelligence that is sentient, or near sentient in its ability to creatively solve problems given unexpected, unique or dynamic environements or situations.

Matter Acceleration
The capability of accelerating up to several tons of matter to a speed of 99.99% of the speed of light with it remaining stable and unchanged.

Particle Beams
Concentrating and containing particles in a narrow region that results in a potentially devestating flow depending on its properties.

Magnetic Shielding
The defensive or restrictive use of particle fields that can deflect or neutralize particle beams, or potentially even slow/stop projectiles with a metal content.

Astrogation
The planning of a route through space and the actual navigation of spacecraft, either in interplanetary travel or in interstellar travel. This allows for a far higher degree of evasion, maneuverability and general speed with which flight maneuvers can be completed.

Asteroid Mining
Do I really need to say?

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Tier 4:

Orbital Construction
Understanding of equipment required for manufacture and large scale construction of products such as ships in a null-g environment.

Nano Robotics
The use of a massive amount of microscopic machines to work in concert to perform an action - such as converting water into wine.

Tactical Computing
Capability of computers or artifical intelligences to predict and preempt the actions of an oppoenent, recognize intent as well as overall strategy of said enemy, and work out methods to spurn them while working towards your own strategic goals.

Light Speed Acceleration
The capability of accelerating a entire spacecraft unharmed to speeds within a hair of the speed of light and use of powerfull computers evade catastrophic collision with even a microgram of matter.

Quantum Anomolies
The study and thorough understanding of entanglement, the workings of particles that conventional particles are built from and consequent effects on their behavior, and the theories that govern the fabric of space.

Antimatter
Manufacture and storage of antiparticles, which have the same mass as particles of ordinary matter but have opposite charge and other particle properties. When they come into contact with ordinary matter it goes boom.

Celestial Survey
Capability to quickly assess, calculate, and understand the properties of celestial bodies such as stars, planets, moons, asteroids, etc.

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Tier 5:
Warp Theory
Theorectical understanding of the possibility of travel through non-conventional space.

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Tier 6:
Micro-Warp Drive
An operable device that when equipped on a spacecraft allows it to travel from point A to point B of convential space without traveling the space between the two points. Vague huh?

Religion
Religion is made to compete and piss off the science/fleet focused infidels. Faith accumulates in much the same way that science does except obviously with faith points - and again, done entirely on my end. The most powerful use is purchasing "destiny" tokens that can shift even the most hopeless situation in your favor dramatically once, or using that faith instead to purchase "miracles" that are essentially a significant mystery present that could be anything from a random technology to an advanced semi-sentient remnant cruiser joining your forces to revealing locations of many relics across the galaxy. Particularly religion focused races can find themselves capable of purchasing unique passive and activate-able abilities for themselves with faith. Overall, it would be a quirky with a bunch of luck and divine intervention involved - yet powerful tool for a race to have in its arsenal and viable to go all-out into. Each player begins the game with faith equal to their Theologian stat x 10.

Satan

1x Destiny: 100 Faith
1x XXL-Miracle: 60 Faith
1x Miracle: 30 Faith

50 Faith : Tremble, Infidels! - Each turn, race may select another race that does not follow your religion and reduce their Fleet Strength by 30% for the turn's three day duration. This cannot be done during approach for combat or combat itself. The same race may not be targeted for two consecutive turns.

50 Faith : God's Chosen - Each turn, race may select another race who follows their religion and increase their Fleet Strength by 30% for the turn's three day duration. This cannot be done during approach for combat or combat itself, and if the same applies to target.

50 Faith : Word of God - All races following your race's religion including yours gain 10% more initial Fleet Strength at the start of each turn.

50 Faith : Holy War - At the start of each turn there is a 10% chance that your race calls for annihilation of the unbelievers, increasing your Fleet Strength by 200% for the duration of the turn's three day duration.

50 Faith : Jihadist Fervor - Upon defeat in combat, instead of decreasing your Fleet Strength by 50%, increase it by 20%. Upon victory, instead of decreasing Fleet Strength by 20%, increase it by 30%.

50 Faith : The Inquisition - Races following your religion cannot be affected by religious effects of other races. Gain a special effect at the start of each turn that nobody expects.

50 Faith : Religious Tolerance - This race receives positive religious effects of any other race's religion who have a non-majority presence in yours.

50 Faith : Heavenly Armament - Each remnant relic in your race's possession yields a powerful unique effect.

50 Faith : Reliquary Worship - Possession of remnant relics each yield double their effect to this race.

50 Faith : Inner Eye - At the start of each turn, have a 35% chance to reveal the location of a relic for user's race only.

Combat

At the end of each three-day tick (in addition to science and faith updates) each player will receive a "Fleet Strength (FS)" that I calculate on my end. This number will be a result of raw military power modified by bonuses that I derive from science and religion. Fleet Strength represents the aggregate total fighting power of a majority of a race's ships.

Combat calculation occurs when two or more players engage in fleet vs. fleet combat (ie. it applies only to large scale fights). This is up to interpretation, but it is implied that it is between two race's core fleets that represent a majority of their military statistic and thus can only be in one place at once. Other engagements fall fully under roleplay and should be worked out by players involved.

Simply put, the player who has a higher current Fleet Strength wins the engagement. Both players will have lost ships during the fight - thus both receive a negative change to their Fleet Strength. The player who has won the engagement loses 20% of their Fleet Strength, while the loser loses 50%. The result of this system is that although it is difficult to be completely obliterated over each three-day tick, you become very unlikely to conduct successful fleet actions henceforth until the start of the following three-day tick at which time your Fleet Strength is refreshed. Aggressors receive a smaller loss that makes engagements a more strategic venture. Allied race may choose to conduct a joint fleet operation that results in their Fleet Strength being added together for combat calculation.

Currently it is very simple - winner loses 20%, loser loses 50%. In the near future I may make a small html calculator that does more complicated calculations that determines Fleet Strength loss via the difference in between the two before combat, (albeit a fleet 10x the size of another will lose a lot less that 20%).

After each three-day tick when science/faith is updated in my post, I will include an updated Fleet Strength for each race that represents them constructing more ships to replace those you lost during the previous tick.

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Posting and Turns
Each turn will be about three days long, and the change occurs when I post an update containing information of each race. This information includes a recalculated and refilled Fleet Strength number, updated science progress towards a technology, alerts of technology discovery, and the new total of your available Faith point pool. In addition to these changing figures, my post will include the affinity points and an image/list of all technologies discovered by each race available for all to view.

Header Format for Each Post

<Race Name>
<Current Fleet Strength / Fleet Strength you started the turn with>
<Game mechanics related orders - research a certain technology, purchase with faith, use Destiny token etc.>

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Example:
Borg
100/600
- Change research to Molecular Forging
- Use one Miracle

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I will play as the (mostly) inactive remnant automatons, and will occasionally surface special events in the galaxy that may be either dangerous, or boons for you to possibly fight over if you so choose - and a loose sequence of events as players uncover history of the ancients over time. The most common such thing will be the uncovering signs of ancient artifacts which grant powerful effects for your race that may even include stat points, and a player may purchase additional effects for these artifacts with faith. Other than that, it is all up to you and your fellow players to guide the game!

Race App

- Players begin with 100 Science Points
- Players begin with X * 10 faith with X being their faith stat

(15 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: X
Scientists / Research Income: X
Theologians / Faith Income: X

Race Name:
Name of Faction:
Government Structure:
Race Biology: Appearance, what do they breathe / drink / eat etc.
Cultural History: Should loosely reflect your cultural affinity stats, write out a story on how it got the way it is.
Social Structure: How is your race's society organized?
Reaction to Aliens: Do they run in fear, send representatives, or fire at will? **Is a reflexive tendency, not always

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:

List of Known Starting Technologies: From list above, spending up to a maximum of 100, and optional descriptions of how your race uses or came to develop them.

Glossary/Terminology

WIP next day or two

[Zamiel]

Repost your race apps here! I know some of them are still WIP so no rush. All apps completed up to this point look good, no issues here.

Make sure to pick out the techs you want to start out with or suggest ones you want off the bat so we can work out cost. You have 100 points to work with, and here is the tech tree again.

Nation List (WIP):

duck55223

Warmongerers / Military Production: 1
Scientists / Research Income: 10
Theologians / Faith Income: 4

Race Name
Rerans

Name of Faction:
The Reran Federation

Government Structure
Position in the the Reran Government is based off two things, contribution to the Federation as a whole as well as your level of intelligence. The leaders at the top have often made great contributions in the forms of advancing science and technology, as well as being vastly intelligent compared to the rest of the Rerans. The Government does have pretty much authority to do whatever they please, as if they were totalitarian. However this is rarely used, as the ideals of freedom and liberty have prevailed in Reran Society.

Race Biology
The Rerans are a physically frail race, the strongest not even reaching what could be considered average for a human. This does come with the advantage that however they are extremely intelligent, with even the most dumb of Revans still being what most races would consider above average. Their intelligence is often what most contribute to their quick rise technologically and socially.

Rerans are humanoid in appearance, having the standard two legs, two arms, two eyes, and a single mouth and nose. However unlike most other races their noses are two slits in their face, rather than cartilage projecting outwards. A Reran’s skin color is either a light blue or a yellow-green, hair and eyes can be anywhere within the visible spectrum, leading to some truly weird hair colors. Reran’s reach an average height that is a few inches below a human.

Rerans breathe a similar atmospheric combination to humans, as well as having a similar required temperature.

Cultural History:

Rerans heavily believe in the progress of science and society forward, and are also heavily passionate about working together as a whole for the good of all Rerans and the ideals of Unity and Equality. Their belief in the progress forward of science has lead them to sometimes abandon certain ethics to continue on the march of science, leading the Rerans to explore some questionable areas of science. Their belief in Equality has lead to having a no-discrimination policy very early on in their history, and females have never been forced into gender roles or discriminated against. Their ideals of Unity also lead to a society that works together really well, and as helped avoid conflict between Rerans in the past.

The Rerans also believe in peace, and rather than accomplishing it via force they believe it should be done through mutual cooperation. Despite this however the Rerans are not afraid to fight, and will often use their advanced technology as truly destructive weapons.

Their religion is a bit odd, they believe that their is some type of higher power but that he does not intervene in the affairs of the universe. Rather the best way to discover him and the truth to all things is marching forward science and progress.

The current culture currently exists due in part to their intelligence, and as a natural evolution of it. The current Reran Government as well as past Reran nations before they become the united Reran Federation today heavily reinforced the ideals everywhere, leading to it to become the dominant culture of the Rerans.

Social Structure
The Rerans do not really have a caste or class system like many other species, rather everyone is considered equal, and to get farther in society, you need to make great contributions and have a great intelligence.

Reaction to Aliens
Ever since the Rerans first entered the gate they have theorized about the possibility of other sentient species. Their main reaction is to hold position and attempt to establish a line of communication, via translating the alien’s language or space charades. After this they try to discover as much about them as possible, and attempt peaceful relations.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate

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What Lies Beyond the Gate:

The small silver frigate approached the gate, preparing to enter it. The Eve of Discovery has many prominent scientists were saying it was, that there could possibly be something beyond their tiny little solar system that lays in the vast void that is space. News show had been going on for hours, saying that this could either make or break the Reran Federation. The crew aboard the frigate made the final preparations, as it entered the looming gate.

What they saw was both amazing and terrifying to them. Those bright dots, though the captain, what could they be? As scans kicked in and revealed their nature, that they were not unlike the own ball of hydrogen that they orbited, they realized that they had made a truly amazing discovery. The crew was in awe of the sight, thinking about what rested at each of those tiny little points of light, what mysteries laid in wait for them to discover

Scientists aboard the frigate been hurrying about as they analyzed all of the data they were gathering. They were more excited than a tiny human in a candy store, excited about the new discoveries. Excited to be the first scientists to witness this truly amazing discovery.

Today was truly a Eve of Discovery.

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Technology 100/100 Used

Tier 1:
Robotics
Cold Fusion
Quantum Computing
Ballistics

Tier 2:
Industrial Robotics
Impulse Drives
Orbital Ballistics

Tier 3:
Orbital Platforms
Asteroid Mining
Orbital Construction

Balena_Rex

Warmongerers / Military Production: 3
Scientists / Research Income: 4
Theologians / Faith Income: 8

Race Name: Lunaras

Name of Faction: The Holy Kingdom of Luna

Government Structure: Theocracy (Like the Vatican)

Race Biology: Appearance, what do they breathe / drink / eat etc.
They drink a type of liquid found across there homeplanet and some of the surrounding solar systems called Cakocoka. They eat any meat they can get there hands on as long as it is not there own.
Appearance:

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Cultural History:
The Holy One and his close family stay on one palace on the home planet, Guarded by a group of special soldiers called Holy Guards. This Palace, which is really just a temple for the Holy one, is the largest building in there kingdom, some days it even reaches above the clouds. People say the original holy book of there religion, the Lunararora, is hidden in the palaces catacombs, and when a Holy One discovers it, that will mean the end of days. The distant family of the Holy one live around the Palace, while they are also on watch, they are not as closely watched as the Holy One himself. The Primary Population is Economic Involvers, so when they put there mind to it, they can boom.The Priests in training live in cities called citadels in which no connection to the outside world is allowed, these cities are dark, but when the priests finally pass training they may move to wherever they like and they may start the holy worshiping. Science, while not as important as Religion, is still a good practice, the typically studied things are how to prove the Heretics wrong, but they also research ways to make more money. Military, they don't really care about, but still, about 5% of the population are in the military, so if a war does break out, they should be prepared.
Social Structure: A social Hierarchy, with the leader, the top priest, at the top with the cardinals on the bottom, looks like this.

The Holy One: The one and only ruler, the "Pope" of there Kingdom.

The Holy Family: The Family of the Holy One, Typically close, going only as far as 2nd cousins.

The Priests: Fellow Holy people but not as Holy as the Holy One

Economic Involvers: The Ones involved in Economics, like Traders.

Scientists: The Researches of there Kingdom.

The Warriors: The Ones in the Army

The Lower Ones: Any other Jobs Except Slaves and Heretics

Slaves: Horrible jobs who get no money

Heretics: Not allowed to get jobs in the kingdom unless they pay high taxes.

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Reaction to Aliens: MUST BE CONVERTED, CONVERT EVERYTHING!

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate

The Discoverer ship flew towards the gate, hoping to see the other side. The Discoverer held the best scientists in there kingdom, these people not only wanted to see what was on the other side, but if there god was there waiting for them, with his embrace out. They thought about how the Heretics would despise them for proving them wrong, and how many wars would be broken out over the madness. But what they saw on the other side amazed them.

Lights, lights everywhere, blinking, pulsing, like little bulbs in the sky. This must be a message from the God, about how this is there final goal, these lights are what they need to harvest to summon him.

The scientists on the Discoverer where amazed, writing messages for the leader, this was it, this was all the proof they needed.

Starting Techs Unselected

mpjama2

Warmongerers / Military Production: 15
Scientists / Research Income: 0
Theologians / Faith Income: 0

- Players begin with 100 Science Points
- Players begin with X * 10 faith with X being their faith stat

Race Name: L.O.C.U.S.T

Name of Faction: L.O.C.U.S.T Conglomerate

Government Structure: Autocracy.

Race Biology: The appearance of any Locust varies wildly, but the standard template for a Construction Drone is a mechanical torso with arms and a wheel instead of legs that attaches to rails that go along and inside Locust constructions. The Construction Drone is by far the most common form of the Locust.

Cultural History: In a binary star system, where stars much like ours orbited eachother, there were two races. There was a carnivorous race of warmongers who lived on a lush jungle world, and there was a race of scholars that lived on a moon that barely supported life orbiting a gas giant. Over competition of resources, these races came into conflict. The carnivores made the L.O.C.U.S.T swarm, and they were able to defeat their foes. The scientists wiped out the carnivores with a great manufactured plague. Eventually, both sides AIs eliminated all sentient organic life in the star-system. Soon afterwards, the Locusts prevailed over the AI of the scavengers. With it's primary directive complete, the Coordinator began to pursue his secondary objectives which were related to the expansion of the Locust war machine. They devoured the cities for scrap material, leaving no trace of their existence. They harvested all of the plants on the surface of planets for biofuel. They extracted tons of minerals from the planets, moons, and even the asteroids of the system. For the next fifty years, the Locusts produced nothing but ships for their fleet, and the infrastructure to support it. They had produced an awesome fleet, one bigger than any other since the fall of the T3 civilizations. But, in that fifty years they also had almost depleted all of the resources in their system. The coordinator realized this, and shut down production. The race would remain dormant for 200 years, while telescopes scanned the sky for other objects to find resources. Eventually, they saw the first Dyson sphere collapse. The race was awoken from their slumber, and they began a frenzy of construction to send the entire race to this new star-system. However, they had stumbled across the jump-gate to the galactic core, and that brings us to the events of this RP.

Social Structure: The coordinator has absolute say in any decision, but delegates tasks to multiple managers. The managers are AI's in charge of at least one ship, and obey the coordinator unquestioningly. However in the interstellar era, messengers are required to bring orders from the coordinator through jump gates. So often each manager will be loyal to the coordinator, but largely self-autonomous due to the gap in communication. Soldier-Drones and Targeting AIs are gifted sentience, but they follow their duties without question. Worker drones, are also blessed with self-awareness, but they are not nearly as intelligent as the others. There is no class mobility. If a L.O.C.U.S.T is built a soldier, then it will remain so the rest of their lives.

Reaction to Aliens: In all honesty it depends on the manager that is encountered, but most managers will interpret the Coordinator's directive of 'expand' as don't let anything get in your way. So often the response to Aliens is to leave, and then return with an overwhelmingly large fleet of ships and blast them out of the system.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate: A scouting drone rotated while taking pictures of the galactic core. After it had taken multiple pictures of all perspectives, it simply flew back into the jump-gate.

Technology (A note on the Locust's tech. As self-replicating military and construction drones, they will never research any new tech, ever!):

Tier 1 techs:

Quantum Computing: Locust computers are so advanced, the computing power of a 21st century supercomputer would fit into one Locust computer chip. Because of this, almost all Locust tech is fitted with at least a few computer chips. Doors, guns, welders, you name it. Every single piece of Locust tech has blueprints for all generic Locust designs of ships, mining equipment, guns, and etc. Anything that was designed by a particular Locust manager (which never uses any new tech, think of different kinds of swords, although a Katana is different than a European broadsword, they are constructed very similarly and meet a similar purpose. In this analogy, no manager would ever invent a gun to replace these weapons.), will be downloaded on all Locust tech that the manager owns and all Locust tech that has contact with that manager's drones. By contact, I mean within the same star-system. In short, Locusts treat computers like we treat electricity. A pervasive source in the walls that we always expect to be there that helps us with daily tasks.

Particle Manipulation: Gotta be able to manipulate particles for nuclear fission.

Robotics: The Locusts are robots, and are used to build just about anything.

Ballistics: The Locusts without fail like using AI-guided nuclear missiles at a target from very far away. The Locusts also use AI-guided missiles to shoot down enemy missiles. In the case of bullets however... They are kinda screwed. But Locusts expect to be able to detect enemies before they get too close. 100 km is considered the optimal range for engagement. Lasers are a secondary weapon used by the Locusts, used to supplement missiles. They are far weaker than Missiles, even those without a nuclear payload. But they can assist the fleet in getting the job done.

Tier 2:

Artificial Intelligence: Most Locust computers are self-aware, and can reason through problems. Since Locust computers are so ubiquitous, almost all Locust tech is self-aware. Albeit, the AI in a door for instance may only be the equivalent of a 5 year old's intelligence, they will still attempt to kill intruders. Weaponry ripped from a Locust ship will attempt to kill any non-Locust who tries to use it. Locust equipment in the hands of an outsider will deliberately fail at best, and attempt to kill the outsider at worst.

Orbital Ballistics: In the case of interplanetary warfare, the favorite strategy of Locusts is to fling massive asteroids at the planet. These asteroids are also accompanied by AI guided missiles that are meant to shoot down any attempt to blow up the asteroid.

Industrial Robotics: Locusts are Robots, and build anything with Robotics. In particular, worker drones glide across maintenance rails on structures adding improvements and fixing damage.

Tier 3:

Adaptive Thought: Locusts are absolutely rigid in their directives, however how they accomplish their directives is not so rigid. A Locust that fails a task attempting one approach will attempt another. However, disobeying their prime directives is unthinkable. Obeying the coordinator is as natural to Locusts as eating and sleeping is to humans.

Asteroid Mining: Locusts mine through asteroids with terrifying efficiency. Within 50 years they almost depleted the resources of their own system.

Orbital Platforms: Locusts build three classes of orbital structures: space-elevators, solar farms, and factory complexes. Space elevators efficiently carry cargo from and to the surface without expending nearly as much fuel as a rocket. Solar-Farms provide the bulk of Locust Energy needs. While a Dyson Sphere is more efficient, the creators of the Locusts put in a directive preventing them from building on around the binary system, because they would rather have their suns still shine thank you very much. Factory complexes produce everything that is required to build space-craft. Anything that is used planetside is usually produced there. These factories often orbit mineral rich objects within a solar system, and move whenever that object is depleted to a new one.

Tier 4:

Orbital Construction: Most of Locust Tech is built in space, for space. Massive factory complexes produce Locust Ships.

Goldeagle1221

Warmongerers / Military Production: 0
Scientists / Research Income: 1
Theologians / Faith Income: 14

Race Name: Munus (The Muni)
Name of Faction: Pax-ra
Government Structure: tetrarchy
Race Biology:

The Muni are human like in stance, anatomy(two legs, two arms, hands) and posture, but tend to be taller and

usually lean (with exception). Their bodies are bare and wrapped in milky white, soft skin able to feel heat

differences in immediate areas. Also they have sensitive black whiskers jutting from their joints, down their

back and neck, and behind their ears, females are the only gender able to grow hair elsewhere, on their heads

like an average human. Their eyes are like dark polished jet that reflect aggressively when light is shined

upon them. A Munus’ teeth are numerous with long sharp front teeth, perfect to ripping and grabbing, while

the back are harp as well but much more for sinking into food and working already bitten off bits of food,

this of course reflects a once very aggressive appetite, ironic to the graceful Muni’s peaceful, passive

nature. Their native lands are thick with smog and gase, giving the area a seemingly endless night and

causing the Muni to adapt with their feeling whiskers, heat sensitive skin and nocturnal eyes, but also with

filtered lungs that are able to take quite a smoky beating.

Their muscular structure is not amazing, but it is impressive. The average human has an awesome endurance

provided by a hard hunting past involving days of uninterrupted movement and exertion, while the Muni in

contrast live in a relatively shaded and hard to see enviroment, making quick, powerful movements more

favorable than tough long lasting abilities, causing the Muni to have piston stength movements, unbelievable

acrobatics agility and swift grace, but to tire quickly physically, and have extremely low pain tolerance.

Cultural History: The Muni are nocturnal hunters by nature, and being equipped with some of natures finest

genetics for hunting, they never sought outstanding amounts of technology, and with their easily tired

physical prowess, long violent excursions from sports to war, never interested the seemingly lazy

civilization. Despite their deadly night prowls they consider themselves peaceful, content, and happy, having

everything they would ever need. In their amazingly large amounts of free time due to the settled peace they

focused their energy more on thought, but not of research and science, but of philosophy and religion.

The Muni have a complex religious system honed to a sharp point, and recognize it in every second of their

life. The general themes are love, and compassion. Since they have super sensitive skin and able to actually

feel those around them with every inch of their bodies, they have grown extremely social, emotional and

revere friendly interaction, commonly hugging and physically touching complete strangers. The central idea of

Muni belief is a oneness with all and the belief of an “I” to be foolish, thus giving birth to a very close

and friendly civilization, one of long open debates and friendly chats of many Muni hugging, rubbing, and

holding each other in public forums, or traditional social bond making hunts, where the prey are revered and

felt guilt for after the demise, a divine comedy of life.

Social Structure: On their warm dark nocturnal planet of gas and smog, the Muni have developed a strong sense

of family, tending to live together in large houses usually connected to a neighboring family. Forums are the

center of the social structure, and where the Muni discuss new ideas they pondered in recent meditations.

Public baths are also pretty popular, and public nudity is hardly offensive in them, as the Muni tend to wear

very little to begin with on account of their sensitive skin and whiskers.

The four leaders represent the voices of the Muni and are descendants from a long uninterrupted forum

appointed leaders, who prove themselves on more dangerous hunts and through many religious rites until the

major forums of the largest cities are satisfied, but otherwise the government is quite lax.

Reaction to Aliens: Probably a hug, or run away into some smog somewhere and hide.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the

densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate: "Holy shit."

---

Technology

Tier 1:
Robotics
Cold Fusion
Quantum Computing
Particle Manipulation
Ballistics

Tier 2:
Industrial Robotics
Artifical Intelligence
Impulse Drives
Particle Fields
Orbital Ballistics

Tier 3:
Adaptive Thought

(10 Science Remaining)

darkwolf687

Warmongerers / Military Production: 7
Scientists / Research Income: 5
Theologians / Faith Income: 3

Race Name: Lorca

Name of Faction: A Lorca Ghaj (Eng: The Lorca Imperium)

Government Structure: The government structure favours achievement over anything else... And that achievement

is either military or technological. Given their proud warrior culture it is perhaps inevitable that the

military holds a considerable degree of power (indeed, all are trained from birth to fight so they can be

called on if need be). At the top of the government is the high council, a body composed of three High

Councillors. These councillors are elected by the council and then adopt a new ceremonial name.
Below them is the Council, composed of 200 councillors. These recieve a ceremonial suffix -Ax
Next come the lower councils and below them the Ministries. Both adopt the honourific suffix of -Oi

Race Biology: Lorca are muscular and tall, usually standing between 2.23 and 2.57 meters. Their jaws are

quadruple-hinged, with an upper jaw and four lower mandibles arranged in two tiers. Mandible and upper jaw

structure along with teeth shape and numbers result from different phenotypes, usually relative to ethnicity.

They are still compatible with other members of the species, however. These mandibles have between eight and

twelve teeth each and some Lorca, those whose descent is from the Lorca inhabitants of Sarudun, have an

additional, larger fang on the tips of each mandible. Anywhere from eight to more than a dozen broader teeth

may be mounted on the upper jaw structure. This structure will likely make it harder for them to speak alien

languages, and vice versa, as some of the pronunciation is through mandible positioning which most other

species lack, and as the Lorca have mandibles they have no lips to position to make certain sounds. They are

omnivores however they are more inclined towards eating meat and their body is more adapted towards

carnivorous. Lorca smell with the use of two nostrils, each slightly in front of and below the eye socket.

Given their predatory nature, their sense of smell is very developed.
Their hands are tetradactyl, each having two fingers in the middle and an opposable thumb on either side.

Their legs are digitigrade, with short upper and lower legs, using the two phalanges in their legs to support

their weight when walking. This arrangement allows them to run very quickly and jump large distances. Their

agility may also be attributed to their homeworld's high gravity (Which is 1.6G); the additional strength

required to move normally in a higher-gravity environment would cause them to be more powerful in lower

gravity situations. They also have a double set of pectoral muscles, which contributes to their notable

strength. As an aside, their digitigrade stance makes it difficult for them to climb ladders
Lorca have a circulatory system in which two hearts pump indigo-colored blood, as their blood has a high

level of hemoglobin. This higher level of hemoglobin and secondary heart is used to offset their larger size.

Through a rare birth defect, they are sometimes born with only a single heart and while they will survive

with only a single heart, they have much less stamina than their two hearted brethren. They breathe oxygen

and their homeworld has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere.
Lorca have gray scaley skin, though those descended from the inhabitants of the Arusa subcontinent are a

gray-brown colour. They have forward-facing eyes with vertical slits and horizontal eyelids that are

reptilian in nature, giving them high-resolution central vision and depth perception. Interestingly, they

have 4 types of cone cells in the eyes, however in most only three of these function correctly, the nerve

ending in the fourth cone does not transmit to the brain. However, those descended from the inhabitants of

the Arusa sub-continent or the Tauri islands have a fully function fourth cone, allowing them to see ultra-

violet light spectrums. The Lorca have approximately 130 million rod cells in their eyes. Their eyes are

almost universally colored an yellow-orange.
Lorca exhibit minor sexual dimorphism, with the females being slightly smaller than the males and they are

oviparous, laying eggs rather than giving live birth. The species is remarkably long-lived; Lorca over 70-80

years of age are usually fit for combat duty and their average life span is currently around 124 years. They

also possess the ability to regrow lost limbs over a period of several months if properly fed

Cultural History: Although the Lorca had evolved to chase and hunt creatures comparable in size to dogs,

their natural prey did not move in herds but were generally solitary. As such, while individuals could feed

themselves, supporting tribes was near impossible. As such Lorca relied on pack tactics to bring down much

larger prey in order to feed their tribes in the prehistoric era. This, coupled with the dangers that many of

their new prey posed, led to them relying on each other heavily. Over time, these strong brotherhoods created

codes of honour, which became high in value.
Over time they moved to a more technologically advanced society, but the ideals of honour were resistant to

damage. For most Lorca, an existence without honour is worse than death.
Naturally, the way to gain honour in earl society was through combat, and lacking an understanding if the

world religions began to form around what has since been named in the most common tongue of the Lorca as "A

Kha o a Lor", or "The Path of the Warrior". It was believed that only those with honour would be admitted

into paradise upon death, and that the honour of a family was also taken into account during the day of

judgement. Naturally, the link was in time made between Family Honour and blood and as such honour became

associated with blood. Since honour was carried in the blood, when one bleeds they are losing some of their

honour. The spike of adrenaline during battle was said to be the feeling of honour rushing into the blood.
Even though they now know the biology behind it and that blood carries no DNA, the traditions behind it still

remain and some even contend that having an operation in shameful as it makes you "bleed without honour"
When the eggs are layed, most are turned over and the raised by the "Shapers" of the area. The young may have

little communication with their parents or even none at all. These "Warrior Crèches'" are divided into

Lances, which are the equivalent of squads in the Ghaj. Upon reaching the coming of age, the Lances are

transferred to the fields it is believed would suit them best. These Lances are kept together where possible,

and usually regard each other as brothers. Youths who are part of a Warrior Crèche have the suffix of -oo.

The shapers have suffixes relative to their field, there is no shaper suffix.
Members of the military have the suffix -oa. "Swordsmen" have the suffix -ei, which denotes nobility; All

swordsmen are automatically made part of the nobility, however the title is not hereditary. Swordsmen are

allowed to wield the Plasma Sword, a weapon that is valued highly. It is considered an honourable weapon for

a Lorca to use as it requires them to get close to their opponent, and to meet your fate on the tip of a

Plasma Sword is considered one of the "least dishonourable" ways to be killed in battle, as it cauterises the

wound and as such prevents blood loss, thus minimising the loss of honour. The plasma sword works by

containing super heated plasma within a magnetic field to form a "blade". It is devastating in combat, though

it requires the user to be close to their target.
With the advent of technology and enlightenment, technological prowess has become a new avenue for gaining

honour. It is considered that a scientist will share in any honour his ideas and technologies lead to the

creation of.

Social Structure: As has been mentioned above, the government is made up of the High Council, the Council.

The Lower Councils and the ministries. After them comes the rest of society. It is hard to tell where the

military begins and ends, as every member of society is trained to be a warrior. All members of society also

hold a military rank as such. The higher members of society hold higher ranks.
Marriage exists, but is discouraged until the two partners are older. Known as "Binding", the two agree to

whatever vows they decide, however one is universal: To protect each others honour and body.
There are rites and rituals that individuals perform that constitute legal agreements. These are often

legally binding (which automatically constitutes honour binding) though some are not legally enforced. These

may change social placement depending on the agreement.
The nobility is a distinct class, made of the dominions rulers and Swordsmen. Nobility is not hereditary,

however having a noble parent may increase ones chances of becoming a noble. Nobles are granted certain

rights others are not, but more responsibilities are placed on them and failure can have disastrous

consequence's for the offending noble

Reaction to Aliens: Generally, they will attempt to make contact with aliens. However, they will keep their

weaponry ready... and will almost certainly challenge a representative to a fight at the slightest insult to

their honour

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the

densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:
“Get the group ready to move through the Eye” The fleet Master barked, as the ships moved slowly forwards

towards the gate. It activated in a blast of light, but the fleet master kept his eyes on it through the view

screens. “We ascend from darkness.”
The ships glided forwards towards the event horizon of the portal, passing through it in formation and being

teleported across space to the nexus station some million light years away.
The specs of light that stuck to the black void were reminiscent of jewels strewn over black velvet, glitter

taunting them with its beauty.
"By the blood of my father..." he whispered. A gate, the object was a portal. That confirmed the suspicions
And now here he was. Like the captains of old who had established great Empires, the Fleet Master stood

staring at his new find assessing it.
The reports returned and these glistening lights turned out to be balls of fire, similar to the ball of fire

in their own homes… And presumably with rocks orbiting them like the rocks at home as well…
Like the captains of old, he stood in awe of his own find and the riches it would bring. But someone must

have built this, there must be aliens of some sort across these stars. So were those to be the Lorca’s

colonial competition? So be it…

---

Technology

Robotics - 5
Cold Fusion -5
Quantum Computing -5
Particle Manipulation -5
Ballistics -5

Industrial robotics -10
AI -10
Impulse drive -10
Particle fields -10

Particle Beams -15
Magnetic Shielding -15

Leftover points 5

Skylar

Warmongerers / Military Production: 8
Scientists / Research Income: 5
Theologians / Faith Income: 2

Race Name: Mithran
Name of Faction: Mithran Dominion
Government Structure: In theory, an absolute monarchy. In practice, a system of landed (or orbital slot-holding) noble aristocracy handle day to day governance while the monarchy serves as a strong-yet-hands-off central authority, resulting in a more coalition-like framework as the interstellar era begins.

Race Biology:
The Mithran species resembles a number of variety of humanoid felines, majority ethnicities being foxkin, wolfkin, and lionkin. The Mithrans have a 9-1 female-male gender ratio, and a rapid rate of maturation where a pup grows to “adulthood” in nine years. Lifespan without medical intervention is 70 years, although a Mithran can expect to be vigorously active up to their last years without too much decay, barring injury or sickness.

Cultural History:
To sum up the Mithran culture: meritocratic militant hedonism.

The Mithran culture is centered around the concept of self-fulfillment. An individual’s priority should be self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment of their abilities and potential for good of the state and self. The result has been a society that embraces both high militarism and hedonism, holding the loyal and dutiful soldier with the same respect as a person able to enjoy high wealth and luxury. The pursuit of rank and glory on the battlefield is just as lofty a goal as becoming a successful businesswoman or tycoon and being able to enjoy sky yachts all day long, and many high-ranking individuals embrace both extremes of living insofar as it doesn’t interfere with their duties.

Mithran militarism has resulted in a partial melding of their industrial-military complex with common society. Military hardware is often repurposed for civilian tasks and vice-versa. Civilian cruise liners and yachts have military-grade power cabling and provision for quick refits for heavy weapons, while an entire line of military frigates double as megafreighters with mounting for heavy cargo pods or torpedo pods.

In general, the Mithrans prefer to build capital ships than escorts, and prefer big-gun battlecruisers and battleships over strike-craft carriers in combat. Crew training and quality is highly emphasized and a high priority issue in ship and military R&D over rushing new weapons or technology to the front. Training is rigorous, crew quarters must be ergonomic and comfortable for extended ops, and ships are built with large crew complements in mind for redundancy and high readiness. But conversely, the high responsibility work and combat conditions also result in slightly relaxed off-duty regulations.

Social Structure:
The Mithran Dominion are divided into social classes of nobility, middle-class, and lower-class. The classes of the middle and lower classes are largely built on wealth, social position, and access to luxuries, meaning fluid movement is not uncommon. Transition into and within the upper class elites and nobility is more complex however, and often strictly tied to meritocratic action either in combat or in political scheming.

Mithran males stand apart from the social hierarchy owing to their limited and protected status under the Imperial government. Males are expected to take more philosophical, scientific, or social professions in addition to serving as breeding mates under Imperial or clan matchmaking. Recently the gender wall is suffering some cracks due to high theoretical and technical knowledge required to run FTL drives and starships, resulting in some males branching into high-tech space industry or even military auxiliary roles.

Reaction to Aliens:
The reflexive mindset the Mithrans have towards aliens is “how can be make use of them?” Whether it is a militaristic exploitation mindset or hedonistic thrill-seeking perspective depends Mithran to Mithran. Most would lean towards the former.

---

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:

"Flag, this is Winter Tide. 2rd Light Cruiser Division assuming jump position."
"5th Destroyers, on station."
"6th Destroyer squadron, on point."
"8th Destroyer squadron in position, awaiting orders."

"Admiral, all escorts on station. Capital ships Braveheart, Intemperate, and Stalwart have assumed formation positions. We are ready to jump."

Admiral Serina Hawthorne nodded as she looked at the holo-screen depicting the formation before her. 3 squadrons of destroyers, 1 squadron of light cruisers, four battlecruisers. Her task force for exploring what was behind this gate. Not far off from the display, she watched the young male manning the hastily-installed "Jump-key" terminal as he input field parameters and programming needed to cross the threshold. Finally, he made a sign of affirmation.

"Field set. Gate signal active. Admiral, requesting permission to transit the fleet."

"Permission granted. All hands, prepare for jump. All stations to alert status one."

The crew fastened harnesses and donned the helmets kept on their shoulders. Gun stations were manned and atmosphere was drained from nonessential compartments, the ship brought to full battle and emergency preparedness. There was no telling what would be on the other side.

"Jumping in five....four...three...two...one! Jump!"

The universe inverted itself, and in the blink of an eye the fleet was moved from one place to another in the universe. And suddenly the universe was filled with light.

"Jump completed, beginning search for navigation beacons......woah." Adrian looked up from his console to look at the starscape being projected across the holo-screen dome of the bridge, transfixed like the rest of the crew at the sight before them. No one said a word, not even the AI's dared interrupt the breathtaking scene before them. For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, they simply watched the sight of the stars surrounding them. Finally the Admiral broke the awed silence.

"Flag to 8th destroyer squadron. Break off a ship and return back through the portal. Signal for the rest of the First Fleet to come through and prepare for exploration operations. We got a big galaxy to map out ladies....and gentlemen. Lets get to work. We'll have plenty of time for gawking after we find out where the closest planet we can put a beach resort on is."

---

Tier 1:
Robotics (5): Robots of many sizes, builds, and levels of computer sophistication are common in Mithran society as servants, workers, assistants, and military support drones.

Cold Fusion (5): The advent of miniaturized cold-fusion was what kicked off the Mithran space age, enabling clean energy to power their society without wasteful fossil fuels, and have the power budgets to build grand capital ships to travel to the new stars. But Mithran scientists are working on even more powerful forms of fusion.

Particle Manipulation (5): Investigations into the manipulations of electrons, neutrons, non-baryonic particles, and other elements of the universe have yielded considerable theoretical applications the Mithrans have been quick to capitalize upon and advance.

Ballistics (5): The Mithrans primarily prefer to engage enemies with long-range energy weaponry, due to the industrial expense of missiles and contact-lag of ballistics. However they do arm their ships with railguns capable of launching space-to-ground kinetic ordinance or space-to-space volleys of grapeshot as a deadly close-range weapon.

Tier 2
Industrial Robotics (10): Industrial automation of a large range of fields is an essential pillar of Mithran society, with several low-level repetitive manufacturing industries solely made of robots with minimal organic supervision required.

Impulse Drives (10): The Mithran fleet has replaced standard chemical-fuel engines with impulse drives, which they have developed into a number of different series of engines for high-speed battlecruisers, fuel-efficient transports, lumbering battleships, and many other variants.

Particle Fields (10): Advancing their understanding of particle manipulation and theory, the Mithrans discovered the capability for building particle-beam weaponry and electrostatic reinforcement of ships to resist incoming fire.

Tier 3
Particle Beams (15): The primary weapon of the Mithran fleets is the electron particle beam cannon, a long-range energy weapon. While not high-damage, it is effective at piercing armor. More brute-force powerful neutron particle beam cannons are in development, but limited solely to only the most advanced battleships and battlecruisers due to power and space requirements.

Orbital Platforms (15): While the Mithrans are primarily a planet-bound species, they can build large orbital shipyards and space platforms to host large semi-permanent populations to exploit orbital positions or resources. They have also built a number of orbital luxury resorts.

Tier 4
Orbital Construction (20): The Mithran orbital naval shipyards are the birthplace of grand capital starships. Battleships and battlecruisers that could never be built or exist at planetary shipyards are brought to life at sprawling orbital complexes.

Small tech issue (see PM)

Darc

---

(1 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: 3
Scientists / Research Income: 6
Theologians / Faith Income: 5

---

Aria, with it's still burning crater embers and the moons (From top to bottom) Y'vale, Avea, Lilith-2, 67E, and Eotn. (not pictured; Lilith, New Lilith, the Lilium Territory, Freezones 1, 2 &3, and Rex)

---

Race Name: Eira (Eiran)

Name of Faction: Aria Duodecium (or, The Eiran Confederacy, Confederacy of the 12 moons)

Government Structure: Confederacy, each moon has a different exact structure of power, but all are general variations of Athenian Democracy, with any number of counties and a commonly employed system of Single transferable voting. However, some moons occasionally shift into periods of Anarchy.

Race Biology: From a scientific perspective, the Eira closely resemble humans, internally, at least. Aesthetically, they differ greatly, melanin in Eira gives each member a varying shade of a gray sin hue. Their eyes are larger than Human eyes, and each contain four separate, large pupils. It's takes much longer for muscle to develop in the Eira body, their bones are structured different, making them much light, and the Eira, on average, are smaller than humans. Females tend to be larger than males, and females outnumber males 3:2. They are cold-blooded, and as opposed to the typical hemoglobin contained in blood, Eira blood has hemoglobin, meaning their blood is blue. Each Eira possesses 3 pairs of large, insectoid wings sprouting from their back, these wings continually shed and regrow their entire life. The Eira have sugar and liquid based diets, they reach sexual maturity at the age of 15 and have an average lifespan of 40 years.

Cultural History: The planet the Eiran moons orbit, Aria, is a barren, toxic wasteland, filled with many precious resources that keep the Eiran Confederacy strong-- the first resource Aria gave, was the gift of life. Several hundred thousand years ago, Aria had 13 unoccupied moons with very unique ecosystems-- this was until an event know as "the first melody" and the legendary 13th moon, known as Oraiaphonia roughly translated as 'Orpheus,' 'the bringer of life and darkness,' or 'the great separator,' jump-started Eiran growth. For as of yet unexplained causes, Oraiaphonia collided with Aria, causing the first melody, a planetary impact strong enough to send the amino acids and bases for the genetic code of all Eira to all 12 moons, where primordial soups were all waiting for the final ingredients of life. These events became known as the first concerts, they came in the form of meteor showers created by the first melody, this created the Eira, and their growing knowledge and appreciation of these events has had a great effect on each moon. While all socially and culturally diverse, especially after centuries of isolation before interplanetary communication and eventually space travel made the Confederacy proper possible, they all appreciate the common genetic code and origin they share. Although science proves more about their origins each day, like that Oraiaphonia was significantly larger than any of the other 12 moons, and may have even been a super asteroid or rouge dwarf planet, and that Aria itself was once populated by a great civilization that was destroyed by the first melody, many still worship Aria and Oraiaphonia as deities.

While similar in many regards, each planet does have a distinct culture;
Lilith: Generalists and imperialists of the confederacy, they achieved space flight before anyone else and carved out a considerable chunk of Aria's moons for themselves before treaties and alliances led to the Confederacy. Held the first inter lunar war to acquire Ray as a territory. The most populous and largest lunar state of the Aria Duodecium, they generally handle the interstellar politics of the Confederacy. Their moons tend to be warm and temperate.

Lilium Territory (Ray): The former 'first colony' they were the first to make contact with the other moons through the use of messenger rockets and radio, they directly influenced the technical advancement of the other moons. They were absorbed by Lilith after the loss of the First Lunar War. Their moon is tepid and second in natural resources only to Aria itself.

Eotn: Eotn is a moon of inventors and artists, being the closest moon to Lilith should have meant absorption, the creative people of Eotn were able to stave off Lilith, through political agreements, treaties, alliances, and the creation of culture the entire Aria Duodecium can appreciate. The were one of the moons to lead the charge in the creation of the Confederacy. Eotn is very mountainous, although the mountains (and the moon itself) are hollow, wind makes the landscape play music.

New Lilith: Moon conquered by Lilith. Warm and tropical.

Eiran Freezone-1: While not technically a member moon of Lilith, the Freezones, through a series of treaties with individual representatives, provide resources to Lilith while also getting to be members of the Confederacy and remaining free. Freezone-1 is 80% water, with tropical and arctic islands few and far in between.

67E: While being the smallest moon in the Aria belt, 67E makes up for it with ingenuity. The entire planet is an industrial powerhouse, composed almost entirely of impossibly tall and high-tech skyscrapers. 67E is the embodiment of Aria Duodecium's scientific ability.

Eiran Freezone-2:] Freezone-2 is perpetually in the shadow of either Aria or other moons, as such it receives very little light. It is a sparsely populated arctic tundra.

Eiran Freezone-3: Freezone-3 is polluted with smog and the litter brought about by being in a near perpetual state of war, it is also the moon that seems to attract the most meteor showers, even acting as a "meteor rod" of sorts. The environment is broken and post apocalyptic.

Avea: Avea is like Eotn with no inventors, and twice as many artists of all kinds. While Eotn provides significant culture, Avea is the postmodernist, cosmopolitan, cultural center of Aria Duodecium, giving the height of all from physical art to media forms. Avea climate is in a state of constant flux.

Y'vale: Y'vale is the secretive planet that serves as the Aria Duodecium's religious capital. not much is known about Y'vale, but it does have an alliance basically surrendering itself as an ally to 67E. Y'vale is in a near constant state of sunshine and is a desert.

Lilith-2: Temperate and warm.

Rex: Rex is a barren dead moon. But after the creation of the Confederacy, the final moon was seen as the perfect place to muster all of the military might of the Aria Duodecium's military might that doesn't consist of Self-Defense forces. The moon bases hold all from vehicles, to troops, to weapons and most are underground, leaving the moon to appear still mostly barren and white.

Social Structure: Being a confederacy, the Aria Duodecium is only led loosely, with each final decision being left up to the planets. It is run through a democratically elected think tank, who are advised by (arguably) democratically elected leaders from the various representative districts on all of the moons, each Lunar state is given power respective to it's portion of the over all Eira population; Lilith ((Lilith, New Lilith, Lilith-2, and the Lilium Territory) with each Eiran Freezone giving it's think tank power to Lilith, via treaty, and abstaining on exercising any representative power), Eotn, the alliance of 67E and Y'Vale, Avea, and Rex. Lilith receives 3 confederate think tank members, each other Lunar state receives one (including the Y'valian/67Eth alliance). While this is how the confederacy is presented on an intergalactic level, on a lunar level, each lunar state has it's own social structure:
Lilith: Athenian Democracy

Lilium Territory (Ray): Athenian Democracy

Eotn: General Democracy

New Lilith: Athenian Democracy

Eiran Freezone-1: Sustained Anarchy

67E: Rule by think tank

Eiran Freezone-2: Sustained Anarchy

Eiran Freezone-3: Sustained Anarchy

Avea: Post-anarchism (Small city states with Democratically elected think tanks)

Y'vale: Post-anarchism (Small despotic and plutocratic city states)

Lilith-2: Athenian Democracy

Rex: Democratically elected Military Junta

Reaction to Aliens: General apathy
Two Avean youths watched as the sky exploded into a cacophony of new lights and sights they had never seen before, it was a beautiful arrangement of white twinkling lights making fantastic shapes, and clouds and nebula's of all different colors, comets buzzed by as space came to life in a way that had never been seen since the first melody. It was truly an astronomical and amazing sight, for the void to become such light and light, especially for the Eiran, who were undoubtedly used to such oppressive darkness.

Boo, the younger of the two, looked in relative wonder and said, "Wow, what do you think about that?" His black irises, filling with the gleaming white lights of space, he couldn't help but have a smile on his face.

Ka, the older, was visually moved for a few seconds, before he motioned to return indoors. "It's alright, I guess." He opened the door, taking a final, almost wistful look. "Let's go play a mental uplink."

Boo let out a squeal and flew, weakly following his brother indoors.

---

Technology

Lv. 1: Ballistics
Lv. 2: Orbital Ballistics
Lv. 3: Astrogation, Asteroid Mining
Lv. 4: Celestial Survey, Orbital Construction

TwistedSun

---

Race Name: Padoven
Demonym: Padovens

Name of Faction: The Padoven Union / PSCF Union ( Padoven States and Colonies Federate Union)
Government Structure:
The Padoen Union is an intergovernmental organization, first founded in 7678 C.I. in order to promote planetary and extraplanetary co-government. Officially declared a federation twenty years later, it regrouped the 23 nations of the Padoven Hegemony under a common flag,
In the Union, each state preserves limited local authonomy, whilst the executive, the legislative and the judiciary are held by the central government.
Each great state boasts one to three representatives* in the 'Nations Council', a counseling organ from which are elected those deputies who will make up the General Council. The latter detains legislative power, and the power to elect through a votation system the Primarchs, heads of the military.
The judiciary power is composed of a tripartite organ, each composed of different courts for various crimes, ranging from war ones, to civil ones.
Lastly, the executive is held by the Union Steward, a life tenure office, who has moreover veto over the laws passed in the General Council. The Union Steward is elected by the Nations Council after a week of mourning after his predecessor's death.

Those here have been accepted, and those who have not selected techs yet just post or shoot me a PM when you have done so!

Representatives are not chosen by the Council, but by the local state government, whose government form may vary. As of the day, the permitted local
administration governments allowed are: Republic, Monarchy, Illuminate Dictatorship, Militaristic Hegemony, Technocracy, Theocracy, Democracy, Monarchy and
Organized Anarchy.

Race Biology:
Characterized by an thick hexagonal plates exoskeleton that covers almost entirely Padoven skin (except for the neck, hands and *cough* private locations), and low sexual dimorphism, this race body reseambles particularly that of other species. Vertebrates, bipedal mammals, Padovens have, like many other species, a capillary cardiac system, a neuronal one, organic fabrics and a diplontic life cycle. They are particularly tall and based on an avian build.
Having a slow metabolism, Padovens need half-dozen more hours of sleep during the night than averange species, though noticeably increasing their life-span, tranquillity and thoughtfulness.
Having evolved in an envirnment based on L-amminacids, Padovens are not able of disgesting any kind of organism not based on the same amminoacid structure. Though originally evolved from an herbivore species, they are omnivore, and really appreciate eating soft and well-coocked meat.
With small and thick eyes, their prolonged head is covered with unusually straight shining plates, that end over a toothed mouth - to be noted the presence of six canines-, devoid of lips. Lastly, on the side of the mouth, important is the presence of two long and moving mandibles, once used by Pedovens' ancestors to group substantial bundles of grass to be eaten; today they don't have any pratical use anymore, since the invention of cutlery, but still bear symbolic meanings and attractiveness.
Their hearing is really developed, and they can catch even lower and higher frequences compared to other species. For this reason it is commonly said 'listening to the universe' in order to indicate someone who isn't very talkative, because when in empty space, Padovens can hear a weak background considered as the 'Universe melody'.
An interesting anomaly of Padoven physiognomy is an odd soft protuberance situated behind the neck, capable of stretching over their heads and shrinking back at will: though without any practical utility, thus leaving geneticists really baffled on why their race developed something this useless, this hood-like sack is often used by people to cover their heads during particularly hot or rainy days.

Cultural History:
Almost seven thousands of years before the current times, Vituvia - Padoven homeworld - was devastated by a cataclysm, which transformed that idylliac terran world into a scorching ball of restlessness. A comet, moving unexpectedly away from its course, entered in contact with the atmosphere of the planet, unleashing high values of toxic gases; moreover, after the melting of the frozen gases, the comet revealed an heavy metallic core, which survived and crashed with unimaginable strenght on the surface.
The Padovens, silent spectators of their world premature end, eventually adapted, evolved to strive and survive in the new hostile environment: taller and more slender physognomies appeared, and they naturally developed in the successive two thousand years enzymes for digesting meat based meals, easier to find in those blasted lands.
Eventually from the ashes of the world they boosted an healing process of their own planet, slowly regaining pieces of land from the toxic miasma, or rebuilding the fractures on the land. Today Vituvia has returned to his former beauty, partly at least, having undergone an heavy terraformation process. Godless, Padovens rebuilt their world with their own capabilities, thus ascending to a new level of self-conception. They were the center of the universe.
Today the original tendency of equilibre and sobrity frequent during the cataclysm has passed out, and since the last thousand of years -basically, the return of drinkable waters in most inlands- the Padovens have started again to regroup in differentiated ethnics and cvilizations, eventually leading to the birth of very different nations all through the world. Cultures are now incredibly different each from another, and describing each one of them would be quite a pain in- it would be really wearsome.
Only to be noted that Padoven mix of cultures has led to the birth of the 'New Empire' culture, a global elegant but simple union of arts, architecture and forms of speech, which is swiftly gaining its space in both planetary and extraplanetary communities.
Of what was before the cataclysm, very little remains: only shadows of a forgotten past, and the first light that wasn't from their sun.

Social Structure:

Formerly, the Union is based on the sacrosanct equality of rights for all Padovens.
In practice, society is based on a socio-economic hierarchical system based on wealth, and merits. Basically, the self-fulfillment of the individual is entirely based on its capability of striving through this sprawling society, and also on its social background. However, the government bases most of his fortune on this propaganda, promising better conditions and a more just meritocracy.
Still, socio-economic inequalities are frequent, and probably the situation will never change. This is in fact the main reason why the numbers of people enrolling in colonial missions in the system is esponentially growing, having seen that by creating a new colony - and thus a new state -, they would achieve that generally precluded high-ranking position. Of course, that if they survive the unknown environment.

---

Reaction to Aliens: After the sudden leak of top secret informations, Padovens discovered that the government didn't have an emergency 'first contact' plan, thus leading to the massive exploitation of such an hot topic by the media. After the sold-out 'Baugrund Investors II - The Vengeance', a major weekly magazine surveyed great portions of the population on 'how would they act, whether they see an alien': surprisingly enough, the choice with the highest votations was the number C 'Interested in a Lemon Bubbling Blaster?', immediately followed with equal votes by answer A and E, respectively saying 'Welcome, did you lost yourself or somethin'?' and 'GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!'.
The Steward suggested an alcoholism survey next.

---

'Now calculating...'
A small red light was turning repetitively around, alerting an alert. What kind, none of the crew could not guess. The ship WAS had suddenly closed all exterior windows and activated emergency measures. Whilst everyone was slowly falling into a hidden state of panic, the colonization fleet Captain Arcturus sat comfortably on his chair. None dared to speak. None dared to move. He knew everyone was looking at him, at his closed eyes: that very flesh that few minutes before ordered to cross that alien artifact.
And he could not hide his pleasure. If only they could calm down themselves...
'Now calculating...'
'Shut up, AI ! Rehabilitate the systems at once.' uttered someone in a corner of the hall.
'Now calculating...' repeated the mechanical voice.
Oh oh oh... he knew perfectly what was lying behind the walls. Baffling indeed that one of the most modern computers couldn't even understand that. Or probably it knew, but was so eagerly shocked by such a discovery that was trying to recover useless data, thus shutting up the systems to save energy. Who knew, who knew.
Well, more bemusing was the apparent inability of his crew to hear.

'Calculation complete'

All the windows opened concurrently. Not that was necessary, since all of the small colonization crew was now in the main hall. There, over their bewildered eyes, the observation dome opened, revealing what most strange existed in the universe. An infinite, sprawling sea of stars greeted the adventurers with shiny and gleaming smiles.
There a blue dot, there a giant bundle of milky lights, there, far, almost invisible, a solitary galaxy joined the welcome as well. Surely no words could describe that sight.
Still, someone dared to, and, obviously, failed to embody the beauty and magnificence of it.
'Calculated an asymmetric bundle of barely three hundreds of millions of stars. Spotted around eight point eight millions of possibly hospitable planets. Should I report to the Union, sir Captain?'
Arcturus could not refrain a smile to curl his lipless mouth. The metallic voice lost itself in the void, whilst an harmonious and strong melody completely engulfed the dazzled crew.

---

---

Warmongerers / Military Production: 6
Scientists / Research Income: 9
Theologians / Faith Income: 0

---

Technology

Tier 1: 20
Robotics
Cold Fusion
Particle Manipulation
Ballistics

Tier 2: 40
Industrial Robotics
Artificial inteligence
Impulse Drives
Particles Physics

Tier 3: 30
Orbital Platforms
Particles Beams
Orbital Ballistics

[Skylar]

Warmongerers / Military Production: 9
Scientists / Research Income: 5
Theologians / Faith Income: 1

Race Name: Mithran
Name of Faction: Mithran Dominion
Government Structure: In theory, an absolute monarchy. In practice, a system of landed (or orbital slot-holding) noble aristocracy handle day to day governance while the monarchy serves as a strong-yet-hands-off central authority, resulting in a more coalition-like framework as the interstellar era begins.

Race Biology:
The Mithran species resembles a number of variety of humanoid felines, majority ethnicities being foxkin, wolfkin, and lionkin. The Mithrans have a 9-1 female-male gender ratio, and a rapid rate of maturation where a pup grows to “adulthood” in nine years. Lifespan without medical intervention is 70 years, although a Mithran can expect to be vigorously active up to their last years without too much decay, barring injury or sickness.

Cultural History:
To sum up the Mithran culture: meritocratic militant hedonism.

The Mithran culture is centered around the concept of self-fulfillment. An individual’s priority should be self-satisfaction and self-fulfillment of their abilities and potential for good of the state and self. The result has been a society that embraces both high militarism and hedonism, holding the loyal and dutiful soldier with the same respect as a person able to enjoy high wealth and luxury. The pursuit of rank and glory on the battlefield is just as lofty a goal as becoming a successful businesswoman or tycoon and being able to enjoy sky yachts all day long, and many high-ranking individuals embrace both extremes of living insofar as it doesn’t interfere with their duties.

Mithran militarism has resulted in a partial melding of their industrial-military complex with common society. Military hardware is often repurposed for civilian tasks and vice-versa. Civilian cruise liners and yachts have military-grade power cabling and provision for quick refits for heavy weapons, while an entire line of military frigates double as megafreighters with mounting for heavy cargo pods or torpedo pods.

In general, the Mithrans prefer to build capital ships than escorts, and prefer big-gun battlecruisers and battleships over strike-craft carriers in combat. Crew training and quality is highly emphasized and a high priority issue in ship and military R&D over rushing new weapons or technology to the front. Training is rigorous, crew quarters must be ergonomic and comfortable for extended ops, and ships are built with large crew complements in mind for redundancy and high readiness. But conversely, the high responsibility work and combat conditions also result in slightly relaxed off-duty regulations.

Social Structure:
The Mithran Dominion are divided into social classes of nobility, middle-class, and lower-class. The classes of the middle and lower classes are largely built on wealth, social position, and access to luxuries, meaning fluid movement is not uncommon. Transition into and within the upper class elites and nobility is more complex however, and often strictly tied to meritocratic action either in combat or in political scheming.

Mithran males stand apart from the social hierarchy owing to their limited and protected status under the Imperial government. Males are expected to take more philosophical, scientific, or social professions in addition to serving as breeding mates under Imperial or clan matchmaking. Recently the gender wall is suffering some cracks due to high theoretical and technical knowledge required to run FTL drives and starships, resulting in some males branching into high-tech space industry or even military auxiliary roles.

Reaction to Aliens:
The reflexive mindset the Mithrans have towards aliens is “how can be make use of them?” Whether it is a militaristic exploitation mindset or hedonistic thrill-seeking perspective depends Mithran to Mithran. Most would lean towards the former.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:

First Stars

"Flag, this is Winter Tide. 2rd Light Cruiser Division assuming jump position."
"5th Destroyers, on station."
"6th Destroyer squadron, on point."
"8th Destroyer squadron in position, awaiting orders."

"Admiral, all escorts on station. Capital ships Braveheart, Intemperate, and Stalwart have assumed formation positions. We are ready to jump."

Admiral Serina Hawthorne nodded as she looked at the holo-screen depicting the formation before her. 3 squadrons of destroyers, 1 squadron of light cruisers, four battlecruisers. Her task force for exploring what was behind this gate. Not far off from the display, she watched the young male manning the hastily-installed "Jump-key" terminal as he input field parameters and programming needed to cross the threshold. Finally, he made a sign of affirmation.

"Field set. Gate signal active. Admiral, requesting permission to transit the fleet."

"Permission granted. All hands, prepare for jump. All stations to alert status one."

The crew fastened harnesses and donned the helmets kept on their shoulders. Gun stations were manned and atmosphere was drained from nonessential compartments, the ship brought to full battle and emergency preparedness. There was no telling what would be on the other side.

"Jumping in five....four...three...two...one! Jump!"

The universe inverted itself, and in the blink of an eye the fleet was moved from one place to another in the universe. And suddenly the universe was filled with light.

"Jump completed, beginning search for navigation beacons......woah." Adrian looked up from his console to look at the starscape being projected across the holo-screen dome of the bridge, transfixed like the rest of the crew at the sight before them. No one said a word, not even the AI's dared interrupt the breathtaking scene before them. For a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity, they simply watched the sight of the stars surrounding them. Finally the Admiral broke the awed silence.

"Flag to 8th destroyer squadron. Break off a ship and return back through the portal. Signal for the rest of the First Fleet to come through and prepare for exploration operations. We got a big galaxy to map out ladies....and gentlemen. Lets get to work. We'll have plenty of time for gawking after we find out where the closest planet we can put a beach resort on is."

Technology

Tier 1:
Robotics (5): Robots of many sizes, builds, and levels of computer sophistication are common in Mithran society as servants, workers, assistants, and military support drones.
Particle Manipulation (5): Investigations into the manipulations of electrons, neutrons, non-baryonic particles, and other elements of the universe have yielded considerable theoretical applications the Mithrans have been quick to capitalize upon and advance.
Ballistics (5): The Mithrans primarily prefer to engage enemies with long-range energy weaponry, due to the industrial expense of missiles and contact-lag of ballistics. However they do arm their ships with railguns capable of launching space-to-ground kinetic ordinance or space-to-space volleys of grapeshot as a deadly close-range weapon.

Tier 2
Industrial Robotics (10): Industrial automation of a large range of fields is an essential pillar of Mithran society, with several low-level repetitive manufacturing industries solely made of robots with minimal organic supervision required.
Particle Fields (10): Advancing their understanding of particle manipulation and theory, the Mithrans discovered the capability for building particle-beam weaponry and electrostatic reinforcement of ships to resist incoming fire.

Tier 3
Particle Beams (15): The primary weapon of the Mithran fleets is the electron particle beam cannon, a long-range energy weapon. While not high-damage, it is effective at piercing armor. More brute-force powerful neutron particle beam cannons are in development, but limited solely to only the most advanced battleships and battlecruisers due to power and space requirements.
Orbital Platforms (15): While the Mithrans are primarily a planet-bound species, they can build large orbital shipyards and space platforms to host large semi-permanent populations to exploit orbital positions or resources. They have also built a number of orbital luxury resorts.
Asteroid Mining (15)

Tier 4
Orbital Construction (20): The Mithran orbital naval shipyards are the birthplace of grand capital starships. Battleships and battlecruisers that could never be built or exist at planetary shipyards are brought to life at sprawling orbital complexes.

[null123]

Warmongerers / Military Production: 1
Scientists / Research Income: 10
Theologians / Faith Income: 4

Race Name
Rerans

Name of Faction:
The Reran Federation

Government Structure
Position in the the Reran Government is based off two things, contribution to the Federation as a whole as well as your level of intelligence. The leaders at the top have often made great contributions in the forms of advancing science and technology, as well as being vastly intelligent compared to the rest of the Rerans. The Government does have pretty much authority to do whatever they please, as if they were totalitarian. However this is rarely used, as the ideals of freedom and liberty have prevailed in Reran Society.

Race Biology
The Rerans are a physically frail race, the strongest not even reaching what could be considered average for a human. This does come with the advantage that however they are extremely intelligent, with even the most dumb of Revans still being what most races would consider above average. Their intelligence is often what most contribute to their quick rise technologically and socially.

Rerans are humanoid in appearance, having the standard two legs, two arms, two eyes, and a single mouth and nose. However unlike most other races their noses are two slits in their face, rather than cartilage projecting outwards. A Reran’s skin color is either a light blue or a yellow-green, hair and eyes can be anywhere within the visible spectrum, leading to some truly weird hair colors. Reran’s reach an average height that is a few inches below a human.

Rerans breathe a similar atmospheric combination to humans, as well as having a similar required temperature.

Cultural History:

Rerans heavily believe in the progress of science and society forward, and are also heavily passionate about working together as a whole for the good of all Rerans and the ideals of Unity and Equality. Their belief in the progress forward of science has lead them to sometimes abandon certain ethics to continue on the march of science, leading the Rerans to explore some questionable areas of science. Their belief in Equality has lead to having a no-discrimination policy very early on in their history, and females have never been forced into gender roles or discriminated against. Their ideals of Unity also lead to a society that works together really well, and as helped avoid conflict between Rerans in the past.

The Rerans also believe in peace, and rather than accomplishing it via force they believe it should be done through mutual cooperation. Despite this however the Rerans are not afraid to fight, and will often use their advanced technology as truly destructive weapons.

Their religion is a bit odd, they believe that their is some type of higher power but that he does not intervene in the affairs of the universe. Rather the best way to discover him and the truth to all things is marching forward science and progress.

The current culture currently exists due in part to their intelligence, and as a natural evolution of it. The current Reran Government as well as past Reran nations before they become the united Reran Federation today heavily reinforced the ideals everywhere, leading to it to become the dominant culture of the Rerans.

Social Structure
The Rerans do not really have a caste or class system like many other species, rather everyone is considered equal, and to get farther in society, you need to make great contributions and have a great intelligence.

Reaction to Aliens
Ever since the Rerans first entered the gate they have theorized about the possibility of other sentient species. Their main reaction is to hold position and attempt to establish a line of communication, via translating the alien’s language or space charades. After this they try to discover as much about them as possible, and attempt peaceful relations.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate

What Lies beyond the Gate

The small silver frigate approached the gate, preparing to enter it. The Eve of Discovery has many prominent scientists were saying it was, that there could possibly be something beyond their tiny little solar system that lays in the vast void that is space. News show had been going on for hours, saying that this could either make or break the Reran Federation. The crew aboard the frigate made the final preparations, as it entered the looming gate.

What they saw was both amazing and terrifying to them. Those bright dots, though the captain, what could they be? As scans kicked in and revealed their nature, that they were not unlike the own ball of hydrogen that they orbited, they realized that they had made a truly amazing discovery. The crew was in awe of the sight, thinking about what rested at each of those tiny little points of light, what mysteries laid in wait for them to discover

Scientists aboard the frigate been hurrying about as they analyzed all of the data they were gathering. They were more excited than a tiny human in a candy store, excited about the new discoveries. Excited to be the first scientists to witness this truly amazing discovery.

Today was truly a Eve of Discovery.

Is done, however I did notice that non of the techs have cost values attached.

[WilsonTurner]

WORK IN PROGRESS

(15 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: 5
Scientists / Research Income: 10
Theologians / Faith Income: 0

Librarian Known Technologies

TIER ONE TECH
-25 pt Total
ROBOTICS -5 pt
COLD FUSION -5 pt
QUANTUM COMPUTING -5 pt
PARTICLE MANIPULATION -5 pt
BALLISTICS -5 pt

TIER TWO TECH
wip

Race Name: The Librarians
Name of Faction: The Empire of Knowledge
Government Structure: Hierachy

Race Biology: They have a strange atmosphere that they can breath in, made up of a strange, yet easily created gas. This gas is produced by plants on their planet, and is essentially so radioactive that it'd make a man pass out with a single breath, and probably kill him in an hour or two. They eat both plants and animals, and both hunt and farm them. Whether or not they were like this because of a war or a natural reason is unknown. They also work on a scale similar to my Valkian nation- they work 6 sun cycles, and sleep one, work 6, sleep 1, etc.

---

THE QUEEN CASTE: These are the ones that rule; they are the final form, and make important decisions. All Queens are linked telepathically across space.

THE LIBRARIAN CASTE: These are the middle forms, and do not number very high, though certainly more than Queens. These are scientists, researchers, designers, etc., the ones that think. They also act as lieutenants to the Queen, to carry out decisions or make their own to gain the goal given by a Queen.

THE WORKER CASTE: These are the most numerous, long-lived forms, and are the ones that reproduce, work, fight, and are religious. In religion, they simply believe that all Queens are descendants of the Gods, and carry out the Gods' wishes believing that, despite knowing that any one of them may become a Queen, they are doing the chores of a God.

---

Cultural History:
Social Structure: The Queens stay in their own fortresses/palaces, and there is currently THREE on the home planet, guarded by automated defenses and Librarians. These Palaces are often known as "Palaces of Knowledge," for they are all scientists, and these palaces are like a giant library for everything they've every known. Every story, every find, every mineral, everything that has ever been known is all kept in the Palaces. Each Palace has EVERYTHING known; the Palaces are structures that rise high into the sky, and even deeper into the ground to accomodate. Librarians live in and around these areas, or 'Local Knowledge Centers' where Workers can bring their discoveries and the like to submit to an area library, which has all its information and data collected sent to the Palaces. Workers are the primary population, doing everything from growing and hunting food on their industrialized planet, to manufacturing goods and supplies and building everything according to the Librarians' blueprints. Celebrations are erratic and are not set in stone; when there are great harvests, regardless of the time of year, there might be a three suncycle warning before the celebrations begin.
Reaction to Aliens: Strange new creatures! What are these?! What secrets do they hold?! WE MUST STUDY THEM! Go, we must explore everything, how they live, how they work, EVERYTHING!

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:

[Keyguyperson]

Well,m it's time to be original in a highly unoriginal way.

[Balena_Rex]

(15 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: 3
Scientists / Research Income: 4
Theologians / Faith Income: 8

Race Name: Lunaras

Name of Faction: The Holy Kingdom of Luna

Government Structure: Theocracy (Like the Vatican)

Race Biology: Appearance, what do they breathe / drink / eat etc.
They drink a type of liquid found across there homeplanet and some of the surrounding solar systems called Cakocoka. They eat any meat they can get there hands on as long as it is not there own.
Appearance:

Cultural History: Should loosely reflect your cultural affinity stats, write out a story on how it got the way it is.
The Holy One and his close family stay on one palace on the home planet, Guarded by a group of special soldiers called Holy Guards. This Palace, which is really just a temple for the Holy one, is the largest building in there kingdom, some days it even reaches above the clouds. People say the original holy book of there religion, the Lunararora, is hidden in the palaces catacombs, and when a Holy One discovers it, that will mean the end of days. The distant family of the Holy one live around the Palace, while they are also on watch, they are not as closely watched as the Holy One himself. The Primary Population is Economic Involvers, so when they put there mind to it, they can boom.The Priests in training live in cities called citadels in which no connection to the outside world is allowed, these cities are dark, but when the priests finally pass training they may move to wherever they like and they may start the holy worshiping. Science, while not as important as Religion, is still a good practice, the typically studied things are how to prove the Heretics wrong, but they also research ways to make more money. Military, they don't really care about, but still, about 5% of the population are in the military, so if a war does break out, they should be prepared.
Social Structure: A social Hierarchy, with the leader, the top priest, at the top with the cardinals on the bottom, looks like this.

The System

The Holy One: The one and only ruler, the "Pope" of there Kingdom.

The Holy Family: The Family of the Holy One, Typically close, going only as far as 2nd cousins.

The Priests: Fellow Holy people but not as Holy as the Holy One

Economic Involvers: The Ones involved in Economics, like Traders.

Scientists: The Researches of there Kingdom.

The Warriors: The Ones in the Army

The Lower Ones: Any other Jobs Except Slaves and Heretics

Slaves: Horrible jobs who get no money

Heretics: Not allowed to get jobs in the kingdom unless they pay high taxes.

Reaction to Aliens: MUST BE CONVERTED, CONVERT EVERYTHING!

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate

The Discoverer ship flew towards the gate, hoping to see the other side. The Discoverer held the best scientists in there kingdom, these people not only wanted to see what was on the other side, but if there god was there waiting for them, with his embrace out. They thought about how the Heretics would despise them for proving them wrong, and how many wars would be broken out over the madness. But what they saw on the other side amazed them.

Lights, lights everywhere, blinking, pulsing, like little bulbs in the sky. This must be a message from the God, about how this is there final goal, these lights are what they need to harvest to summon him.

The scientists on the Discoverer where amazed, writing messages for the leader, this was it, this was all the proof they needed.

[Sovi3t]

The Crimson Khanate

(15 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: 11
Scientists / Research Income: 3
Theologians / Faith Income: 1

Race Name: " The Wraiths "
Name of Faction: Crimson Khanate
Government Structure: Ruled by a council of four men and two females. For the fields of : Warfare , Diplomacy , Religion , Economy , Agriculture , Environment
Race Biology:

Wraiths are an extremely tech heavy race. There idealogical beliefs have changed over the years and what they believe is to be made and produced, however they keep there relics close to them. Wraiths exist in highly advanced suits, these suits have various of enchantments added to what the user is to be doing with the suit, so a solider is going to have different enchantments then a merchant, and so on. The suits overall need charging time, when a wraith depart it's suit, it's an ghosty skeleton that is weak to everything. Thus, during charging times Wraiths hibernate in there suits to avoid contact with the outside world.

Cultural History: Should loosely reflect your cultural affinity stats, write out a story on how it got the way it is.
Social Structure:

Society is a simple thing for the Wraiths. Your standing in Society is which area of the planet you were born from, your fathers and mothers jobs, and your income. Now the Government of the Khanate respects all it's citizens, however the three Noble Houses of the Khanate Rule most of the day to day things. All citizens either indirectly or directly are apart of one of these houses, by either living on there territory (planets) or working with them. The biggest house being House Dragonstar, second is House Moonspire , House Zan is the youngest house. Underneath houses are often regarded has lower houses in society, membership in lower houses is not shunned upon, however there isn't that much "real estate" in these lower houses.

At the top of society - House Leaders and Senates (Families included)

Rich Noblemen (Company Owners) and Decorated Military Servicemen/women.

Upperclass , estate owners , etc.

Middle Class - Owning day-to-day business, while having a decent bank balance

Lower Middle Class - Working average jobs, no ownership in nothing big

Lower Class - Living in slums.

Reaction to Aliens:

Most often, a meeting is held with the council, they determine what is to be done. An well armed diplomatic envoy goes to the area, and arranges a meet/greet, before contact begins.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate:

The Series X-2 spaceship flew out of the gate, as the crew of 6 men sat inside of the comfy ship, they then deployed a miniature space station via there ship , sending there coordinates and information of where they were, while various of breathtaking shots and pictures emerged, and not before long, the first spacestation outside of the Khanate homespace was formed.

=============
Tier One Techs

Robotics (5) - [i]Due to the nature of Wrath Suits, Robotics is a key component of Wraiths engineering.
Cold Fusion (5) - Basic wrap drive equations are based on the idea of Cold Fusion
Quantum Computing (5) - Suit displays and tech displays rely on the basics of QC.
Particle Manipulation (5) - The Weapon Industry's major weapons use the eqaution of particle manipulation to base there high tech weaponry for Wraith use
Ballistics (5) - Needed for weapons technology and economic improvements

=============
Tier Two Techs

Particle Fields (10) - An adaptive formula used in various industries and workplaces of the Khanate
Orbital Ballistics (10) - Weather missles are launched, or research pods, Orbital Ballistics are apart of everyday life.

===============
Tier Three Techs

Particle Beams (15) - These beams improve the quality of most Khanate weaponry
Asteroid Mining (15) - Asteroids are a great source of resources

===============
Tier Four Techs

Anti-Matter (20) - The greatest innovation in Khanate weapon history, the Anti-Matter weaponry is entering it's beta stages..

100 (Starting TP) - 95 (Ending TP) = 5 (TP Left)

[Balena_Rex]

Sovi3t said
Work In Progress

HERETIC!

[darkwolf687]

I must ask, how would combat work?

[mpjama2]

(15 unused cultural affinity points)
Warmongerers / Military Production: 15
Scientists / Research Income: 0
Theologians / Faith Income: 0

- Players begin with 100 Science Points
- Players begin with X * 10 faith with X being their faith stat

Race Name: L.O.C.U.S.T

Name of Faction: L.O.C.U.S.T Conglomerate

Government Structure: Autocracy.

Race Biology: The appearance of any Locust varies wildly, but the standard template for a Construction Drone is a mechanical torso with arms and a wheel instead of legs that attaches to rails that go along and inside Locust constructions. The Construction Drone is by far the most common form of the Locust.

Cultural History: In a binary star system, where stars much like ours orbited eachother, there were two races. There was a carnivorous race of warmongers who lived on a lush jungle world, and there was a race of scholars that lived on a moon that barely supported life orbiting a gas giant. Over competition of resources, these races came into conflict. The carnivores made the L.O.C.U.S.T swarm, and they were able to defeat their foes. The scientists wiped out the carnivores with a great manufactured plague. Eventually, both sides AIs eliminated all sentient organic life in the star-system. Soon afterwards, the Locusts prevailed over the AI of the scavengers. With it's primary directive complete, the Coordinator began to pursue his secondary objectives which were related to the expansion of the Locust war machine. They devoured the cities for scrap material, leaving no trace of their existence. They harvested all of the plants on the surface of planets for biofuel. They extracted tons of minerals from the planets, moons, and even the asteroids of the system. For the next fifty years, the Locusts produced nothing but ships for their fleet, and the infrastructure to support it. They had produced an awesome fleet, one bigger than any other since the fall of the T3 civilizations. But, in that fifty years they also had almost depleted all of the resources in their system. The coordinator realized this, and shut down production. The race would remain dormant for 200 years, while telescopes scanned the sky for other objects to find resources. Eventually, they saw the first Dyson sphere collapse. The race was awoken from their slumber, and they began a frenzy of construction to send the entire race to this new star-system. However, they had stumbled across the jump-gate to the galactic core, and that brings us to the events of this RP.

Social Structure: The coordinator has absolute say in any decision, but delegates tasks to multiple managers. The managers are AI's in charge of at least one ship, and obey the coordinator unquestioningly. However in the interstellar era, messengers are required to bring orders from the coordinator through jump gates. So often each manager will be loyal to the coordinator, but largely self-autonomous due to the gap in communication. Soldier-Drones and Targeting AIs are gifted sentience, but they follow their duties without question. Worker drones, are also blessed with self-awareness, but they are not nearly as intelligent as the others. There is no class mobility. If a L.O.C.U.S.T is built a soldier, then it will remain so the rest of their lives.

Reaction to Aliens: In all honesty it depends on the manager that is encountered, but most managers will interpret the Coordinator's directive of 'expand' as don't let anything get in your way. So often the response to Aliens is to leave, and then return with an overwhelmingly large fleet of ships and blast them out of the system.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate: A scouting drone rotated while taking pictures of the galactic core. After it had taken multiple pictures of all perspectives, it simply flew back into the jump-gate.

Technology (A note on the Locust's tech. As self-replicating military and construction drones, they will never research any new tech, ever!):

Tier 1 techs:

Quantum Computing: Locust computers are so advanced, the computing power of a 21st century supercomputer would fit into one Locust computer chip. Because of this, almost all Locust tech is fitted with at least a few computer chips. Doors, guns, welders, you name it. Every single piece of Locust tech has blueprints for all generic Locust designs of ships, mining equipment, guns, and etc. Anything that was designed by a particular Locust manager (which never uses any new tech, think of different kinds of swords, although a Katana is different than a European broadsword, they are constructed very similarly and meet a similar purpose. In this analogy, no manager would ever invent a gun to replace these weapons.), will be downloaded on all Locust tech that the manager owns and all Locust tech that has contact with that manager's drones. By contact, I mean within the same star-system. In short, Locusts treat computers like we treat electricity. A pervasive source in the walls that we always expect to be there that helps us with daily tasks.

Particle Manipulation: Gotta be able to manipulate particles for nuclear fission.

Robotics: The Locusts are robots, and are used to build just about anything.

Ballistics: The Locusts without fail like using AI-guided nuclear missiles at a target from very far away. The Locusts also use AI-guided missiles to shoot down enemy missiles. In the case of bullets however... They are kinda screwed. But Locusts expect to be able to detect enemies before they get too close. 100 km is considered the optimal range for engagement. Lasers are a secondary weapon used by the Locusts, used to supplement missiles. They are far weaker than Missiles, even those without a nuclear payload. But they can assist the fleet in getting the job done.

Tier 2:

Artificial Intelligence: Most Locust computers are self-aware, and can reason through problems. Since Locust computers are so ubiquitous, almost all Locust tech is self-aware. Albeit, the AI in a door for instance may only be the equivalent of a 5 year old's intelligence, they will still attempt to kill intruders. Weaponry ripped from a Locust ship will attempt to kill any non-Locust who tries to use it. Locust equipment in the hands of an outsider will deliberately fail at best, and attempt to kill the outsider at worst.

Orbital Ballistics: In the case of interplanetary warfare, the favorite strategy of Locusts is to fling massive asteroids at the planet. These asteroids are also accompanied by AI guided missiles that are meant to shoot down any attempt to blow up the asteroid.

Industrial Robotics: Locusts are Robots, and build anything with Robotics. In particular, worker drones glide across maintenance rails on structures adding improvements and fixing damage.

Tier 3:

Adaptive Thought: Locusts are absolutely rigid in their directives, however how they accomplish their directives is not so rigid. A Locust that fails a task attempting one approach will attempt another. However, disobeying their prime directives is unthinkable. Obeying the coordinator is as natural to Locusts as eating and sleeping is to humans.

Asteroid Mining: Locusts mine through asteroids with terrifying efficiency. Within 50 years they almost depleted the resources of their own system.

Orbital Platforms: Locusts build three classes of orbital structures: space-elevators, solar farms, and factory complexes. Space elevators efficiently carry cargo from and to the surface without expending nearly as much fuel as a rocket. Solar-Farms provide the bulk of Locust Energy needs. While a Dyson Sphere is more efficient, the creators of the Locusts put in a directive preventing them from building on around the binary system, because they would rather have their suns still shine thank you very much. Factory complexes produce everything that is required to build space-craft. Anything that is used planetside is usually produced there. These factories often orbit mineral rich objects within a solar system, and move whenever that object is depleted to a new one.

Tier 4:

Orbital Construction: Most of Locust Tech is built in space, for space. Massive factory complexes produce Locust Ships.

[WilsonTurner]

Heretics, puh-lease

Now tell me all your secrets

[Keyguyperson]

mpjama2 said
Warmongerers / Military Production: 15

You're fucked.

[Goldeagle1221]

Warmongerers / Military Production: 0
Scientists / Research Income: 1
Theologians / Faith Income: 14

Race Name: Munus (The Muni)
Name of Faction: Pax-ra
Government Structure: tetrarchy
Race Biology:

The Muni are human like in stance, anatomy(two legs, two arms, hands) and posture, but tend to be taller and usually lean (with exception). Their bodies are bare and wrapped in milky white, soft skin able to feel heat differences in immediate areas. Also they have sensitive black whiskers jutting from their joints, down their back and neck, and behind their ears, females are the only gender able to grow hair elsewhere, on their heads like an average human. Their eyes are like dark polished jet that reflect aggressively when light is shined upon them. A Munus’ teeth are numerous with long sharp front teeth, perfect to ripping and grabbing, while the back are harp as well but much more for sinking into food and working already bitten off bits of food, this of course reflects a once very aggressive appetite, ironic to the graceful Muni’s peaceful, passive nature. Their native lands are thick with smog and gase, giving the area a seemingly endless night and causing the Muni to adapt with their feeling whiskers, heat sensitive skin and nocturnal eyes, but also with filtered lungs that are able to take quite a smoky beating.

Their muscular structure is not amazing, but it is impressive. The average human has an awesome endurance provided by a hard hunting past involving days of uninterrupted movement and exertion, while the Muni in contrast live in a relatively shaded and hard to see enviroment, making quick, powerful movements more favorable than tough long lasting abilities, causing the Muni to have piston stength movements, unbelievable acrobatics agility and swift grace, but to tire quickly physically, and have extremely low pain tolerance.

Cultural History: The Muni are nocturnal hunters by nature, and being equipped with some of natures finest genetics for hunting, they never sought outstanding amounts of technology, and with their easily tired physical prowess, long violent excursions from sports to war, never interested the seemingly lazy civilization. Despite their deadly night prowls they consider themselves peaceful, content, and happy, having everything they would ever need. In their amazingly large amounts of free time due to the settled peace they focused their energy more on thought, but not of research and science, but of philosophy and religion.

The Muni have a complex religious system honed to a sharp point, and recognize it in every second of their life. The general themes are love, and compassion. Since they have super sensitive skin and able to actually feel those around them with every inch of their bodies, they have grown extremely social, emotional and revere friendly interaction, commonly hugging and physically touching complete strangers. The central idea of Muni belief is a oneness with all and the belief of an “I” to be foolish, thus giving birth to a very close and friendly civilization, one of long open debates and friendly chats of many Muni hugging, rubbing, and holding each other in public forums, or traditional social bond making hunts, where the prey are revered and felt guilt for after the demise, a divine comedy of life.

Social Structure: On their warm dark nocturnal planet of gas and smog, the Muni have developed a strong sense of family, tending to live together in large houses usually connected to a neighboring family. Forums are the center of the social structure, and where the Muni discuss new ideas they pondered in recent meditations. Public baths are also pretty popular, and public nudity is hardly offensive in them, as the Muni tend to wear very little to begin with on account of their sensitive skin and whiskers.

The four leaders represent the voices of the Muni and are descendants from a long uninterrupted forum appointed leaders, who prove themselves on more dangerous hunts and through many religious rites until the major forums of the largest cities are satisfied, but otherwise the government is quite lax.

Reaction to Aliens: Probably a hug, or run away into some smog somewhere and hide.

Having never seen a starry sky, write a first hand account of your race's explorer's reaction to seeing the densely packed vastness near the galactic core upon passing through the gate: "Holy shit."

[mpjama2]

Keyguyperson said
You're fucked.

Heh. Get rekt. Figured I wanted to play some bad guys for once. But these guys never research anything, so on the plus side, they will get outpaced in tech eventually. But ya gotta love nuke-slinging Ghandi-robots.

[Zamiel]

** Fixed tech that stems from Particle Manipulation to what if was supposed to be, Particle Fields

This is how combat will work, and will also be put into post one:

At the end of each three-day tick (in addition to science and faith updates) each player will receive a "Fleet Strength (FS)" that I calculate on my end. This number will be a result of raw military power modified by bonuses that I derive from science and religion. Fleet Strength represents the aggregate total fighting power of a majority of a race's ships.

Combat calculation occurs when two or more players engage in fleet vs. fleet combat (ie. it applies only to large scale fights). This is up to interpretation, but it is implied that it is between two race's core fleets that represent a majority of their military statistic and thus can only be in one place at once. Other engagements fall fully under roleplay and should be worked out by players involved.

Simply put, the player who has a higher current Fleet Strength wins the engagement. Both players will have lost ships during the fight - thus both receive a negative change to their Fleet Strength. The player who has won the engagement loses 20% of their Fleet Strength, while the loser loses 50%. The result of this system is that although it is difficult to be completely obliterated over each three-day tick, you become very unlikely to conduct successful fleet actions henceforth until the start of the following three-day tick at which time your Fleet Strength is refreshed. Aggressors receive a smaller loss that makes engagements a more strategic venture. Allied race may choose to conduct a joint fleet operation that results in their Fleet Strength being added together for combat calculation.

Currently it is very simple - winner loses 20%, loser loses 50%. In the near future I may make a small html calculator that does more complicated calculations that determines Fleet Strength loss via the difference in between the two before combat, (albeit a fleet 10x the size of another will lose a lot less that 20%).

After each three-day tick when science/faith is updated in my post, I will include an updated Fleet Strength for each race that represents them constructing more ships to replace those you lost during the previous tick.

[Zamiel]

mpjama2 said
Heh. Get rekt. Figured I wanted to play some bad guys for once. But these guys never research anything, so on the plus side, they will get outpaced in tech eventually. But ya gotta love nuke-slinging -robots.

I like your race a lot, though I did not expect someone to choose 0 science haha. I will likely add a tiny base science gain, or a mechanic to uncover a tech from vanquished foes before we start because otherwise you would be left behind rather quickly as soon as people create bigger guns like MAC cannons. I love Civ5 by the way, which one do you prefer?

Currently I am planning on an IC within two days time, which will be plenty for me to fill in a couple blanks!

[WilsonTurner]

Well, what about strategy? A smaller force can destroy a larger one with much better planning and tactics. If a small group of very fast, lightly armored ships used FTL to appear very close to a large capital ship fleet, they could fly through the formation and do nothing but dish out damage, while the enemies may scramble and end up shooting themselves, or even accidentally ramming each other.

[darkwolf687]

WilsonTurner said
Well, what about strategy? A smaller force can destroy a larger one with much better planning and tactics. If a small group of very fast, lightly armored ships used FTL to appear very close to a large capital ship fleet, they could fly through the formation and do nothing but dish out damage, while the enemies may scramble and end up shooting themselves, or even accidentally ramming each other.

They might perform hit and runs too, which is difficult if combat is just going to be a throw all your junk at each other. They could also try to sabotage etc, though I assume all this would fall under rp'ed fights. I think his calculation method is for battle battles, like big fleet battles with ships of the line and all xD

[Zamiel]

What darkwolf said, and if both/all players agree to a certain result of ANY battle regardless of size then you can skip comparing Fleet Strength. If you want to play out a story with your Ace bomber pilots wreaking havoc on somebody else and you two agree then it is full steam ahead! The purpose is to keep it away from: "lol i hop in with super ships and autohit rek u kid" so that those who play for the story have an easier time against those who... don't.