The Cessians, distant cousins of humans, through their mastery of robotics and information technology blew past the singularity, not only having essentially conquered biological death, but having fully integrated themselves with machines. Most of their massive population live on one world, disembodied, mostly-cloned brains wired into a digital paradise, where existence is a utopia designed by the inhabitant(s), most unaware that their bliss is digital. This existence of digital paradise is supported by the million+ Cessians who do not live in the Dream, who protect the Brain Clusters from outside invaders, and trade, explore and conquer all in the search for that most valuable of commodities, new experiences and foreign memories, to be fed into the dream and maintain the paradise a little longer, to fend off the horrible specter of stagnation and boredom that would drive billions to madness.
The Cessians were blessed with a truly incredible home system, and have not expanded beyond it. It was chosen by their distant human ancestors millennia ago, on their fabled exodus from their old homeworld, and boasts large natural reserves of important strategic resources and rare elements, mostly concentrated in the rich asteroid belt. Their homeworld, Cessia, is a verdant world dotted with the hive cities that contain the lion’s share of the hundreds of billions of Cessian brains that inhabit the dream. The population density being truly massive [seeing as each inhabitant takes only a few feet to store], most of the world’s surface is devoted to producing the gargantuan amounts of food needed to keep the billions of Dreamed citizens alive, mass-scale on land or sea. There are five other terrestrial planets, and several habitable moons, not to mention a mineral-rich asteroid belt. Many of these spaces are devoted to food production, much to the industry needed to sustain such population and keep the Dream functioning without fail, not to mention the massive Manufactories that produce the trade goods that cement the Cessian diplomatic position. Much of the asteroid field is cannibalized for antimatter production, or for the shipyards that churn out either manned or unmanned exploration vehicles for the great galactic Experience Harvest
The Dream, being an unconsciously-directed wonderland that can be shared or instanced per person, has no real government. Those Cessians who exist outside the Dream work under the direction of the Shepard Council, a gathering of a dozen of the oldest Cessians, who direct the running of all Reality functions, with each Councilor controlling their own aspect, from Agriculture to Maintenance to Exploration to Diplomacy. The Arch-Shepard has almost absolute executive control, though on matters that effect all aspects of Reality, the council holds a veto with 1/3 agreement, and on matters effecting the dream, unanimous agreement is required. Councilors and the Arch-Shepard hold permanent positions, but they can be voted from power by plebiscite, and the Arch-Shepard only removed by the will of the council itself.
The Dream is constantly changing, and to almost every citizen of Reality it is entirely alien, its trends and changes invisible to the outsider. In reality, in its massive mental exchange the average citizen seeks entertainment and pleasure, trends and diversions shifting constantly, burning through experiences and living or creating fictions and tales to be enjoyed by all. In Reality, the culture is one of highly moralistic duty-oriented service, with the improvement and maintenance of the Dream holding almost religious significance, each Reality-bound Cessian hungry to do their duty, and each prizing highly the most valuable commodity for the Dream, new experiences and never before seen memories. Lives for the small population of Reality-bound Cessians are as luxurious as can be afforded, but none are forced to live outside the Dream, being allowed to enter and never return at will, a clone bred to replace them.
As mentioned, the Shepard Council controls the entirety of the Cessian Reality operations. Subject to the council, the Exploration Councilor controls the Discovery Fleet, a massive assembly of manned and unmanned vehicles to meet new species and buy their memories, or chart new worlds and bring tales of their geography back to the Dream to fuel its paradise a little longer. The Discovery Fleet works closely with the Defense Councilor’s Vanguard Fleet, which is the second largest institution, and is tasked with defending the home system and the Dream from foreign powers, fanatical and absolutely devoted to their role as the bulwark of their species.
The earliest history of the Cessians is unknown, and the reason for their exodus from human society is a mystery. What is known is that after they settled on Cessia their scientists raced forwards in the fields of robotics and biology, and created semi-sentient robots and the ability to create believable, malleable alternate realities. The effects of this latter development nearly destroyed the Cessians, with nearly every citizen leaping at the opportunity to live in the Dream. The Cessians nearly died out, and starvation or technological failures killed hundreds of millions of the first adopters of the Dream, but during a scramble to create the infrastructure necessary to support these Dreamers the Cessians finally became almost entirely sustained on the labor of machines, most citizens remaining in Reality joining their Dreaming brothers and sisters as those who remain outside paradise are needed only for oversight and large-scale guidance.
The first issues arose hundreds of years later, after the cloned populace had surpassed previous census levels and the Dream had become stable. People started to grow bored within ‘paradise’. It was a catastrophe, and while solutions were looked for years of perdition held the Dreamers as there was nothing left for them to do. The idea was finally struck to begin feeding the Dream computers with harvested memories, and while new species and planets were searched for the Reality-bound Cessians gave their memories to keep the Dream alive that little bit longer. Eventually, new civilizations and new locations were found, and the Dream was bolstered, but in the years leading up to the Vacuum the realities of this tactic, that it would only delay and never solve the problem of boredom, became evident.
Elated. This is the absolute best-case scenario. Exploration fleets were sent out in a mass exodus to build a massive stockpile of experience, and trade with new lifeforms has tapped an entirely new vein of philosophies, tales and memories. There is little care about why it happened, though scientists are beginning to look into how it was survived and if it can happen again [or be caused]. There is fear for the safety of Cessia proper, seeing as Cessia is surrounded by unfamiliar, possibly-hostile species, but the Defense Councilor is confident in the terrifying extra-planetary defensive perimeters.
Technology:
Semi-sentient, self-modifying robots under strict control from biological Cessians make up almost the entirety of the massive workforce. Artificial intelligence has progressed by leaps and bounds, and automation is a natural process. Everything from farming to fleets to construction is run by single Cessians and performed by armies of robots. Biological advancement has made cloning possible [a necessity when the stable breeding population entered the dream], and though not entirely immortal lifespans have been increased to millennia [a number constantly increasing, despite the negative effects on the stagnation of the dream]. Most Cessians are little more than brains wired into their virtual paradise, with most not even knowing their world is fake. Power is generated via non-orientable wormholes, a new and slightly unstable technology but one with massive potential in the eyes of the Cessians. Mass fabrication, though the focus of a great deal of Cessian research, still lies far off. Regardless, controlled self-replicating work-autos mean that Cessian factories perform at remarkable speeds, stockpiling goods useful to other races. Food production is a much more refined science for the Cessians, and though the 'food' produced for the dream resembles more industrial waste than victuals, it can be produced extraordinarily quickly with a remarkable nutrient density. Digitizing memories has been achieved for Cessians and most other human descendent races, but new species take sometimes years of study to become compatible, if it is even possible. These memories are fed into the massive superstructures that are the Dream main processors [riddled with failsafes and security redundancies, of course], which then distributes new experiences and foreign ideas to those minds which it detects begin to grow tired of their ‘paradise’, whatever it may be. The Dream computer and the individual brains form a symbiotic reality-creation arrangement, where one plays off the other to maximize enjoyment. Sensor systems and other means of information gathering are a particular strength of the Cessians, and they have equipped the Exploratory Fleet with the ripe fruits of their research, scanners and cameras and telescopes to survey areas quickly and accurately.
Military Structure:
There are only a few thousand Cessians involved in Defense, but with autos that is seen to be sufficient. The last millennia has seen a constant buildup and improvement of planetary fortresses, spheres of defenses surrounding inhabited planets made up of every weapon at the Cessian's disposal, thought by their designers to be nearly impregnable, or at least dangerous enough to assure mutual destruction. The Cessian fleet is fairly small by comparison, intended to supplement defensive structures and engage alongside fortifications, never to commit to aggressive action. The Defense Councilor has overall command, and beneath him are two Admirals, one of the Fleet and one of the Fortresses. Beneath them the required staff are present. Not a military institution, the Exploratory Fleet is organized as one, with several admirals commanding massive automated armadas of scouts, tying closely with the diplomatic and trade services in procuring requisite commodities from other civilizations.
The Irodien empire a Imperial monarchy that seeks to regain its power after a long civil war.
The most important system in the empire is the home system of Iro which serves as the poltical and religious center of the empire.. The empire has conquered a sizable swath of territory of 47 systems. The Havadar region is known for being the most heavily industrialize area of the empire. Dotted through out the empire are fortress world that have to watch over a sector. Many of the areas of the empire are going through reconstruction to recover from the war.
The sanfures are mostly under the rule of an imperial government lead by a powerful emperor advised by an imperial council. The most powerful of them is usually the military advertisers’ referred to as Governor-Militant. Territory is dived into provinces which are ruled by Governors. They are Expansionistic and have a Machiavellian mindset using their military to intimidate or outright conquer their weaker neighbors. They are willing to form alliances with other nation if it can be beneficial for them. The organizational break down of the government is the Emperor followed by other members of the imperial family, council of the high lords, regional lord, planetary Governor, then to local magistrates.
Sanfures:Most sanfures are humanoid with a generality muscular build. they stand about 6'8 tall for males and 6'1 for females. Their bones are tougher have a more angular structure to them and their muscles system is stronger due to the harsh condition on their homeworld. They developed a bi-cardiovascular system (which means they have two hearts), as well as a higher metabolism, evolving larger lung compactly due to the mountainous terrain. Their blade like front teeth and rounder back teeth are believed to come from a past omnivorous habits. They have dark colored hair and only one color eyes, different shades of grey. They prefer colder climates but can tolerate warmer climates
Their culture is an honor centric, self-sacrifices, war glorifying, and hardworking spices. They have been known for the very harsh in warfare using harsh tactic to force there enemy to surrender. Going along with their self-sacrificial attitude they believe that casualty is secondary to the overall goal. The Irodeins are know for being repressive towards xeno races conquered by the empire. Generally keeping the xeno conquered as second class citizen living in horrible conditions. The stander for living of those in the lower classes is decent. The Irodien are a very pious people the have a strong belief in their god Verimar the god of the forge and war. Servies in the imperial military is consider the greatest honor in imperial culture.
Imperial strategic intelligence (ISI): The most amoral organization with the empire. ISI handles all the intelligence gathering, spying activist, and also acts as the secrets police of the empire. The ISI uses advance torture techniques and other interrogation methods to get the information they want. The ISI only answers to the Emperor.
The Irodiens started out as a small city state in the turbulent Vosta region. They existed as a small force in-till the first Emperor arrived according to their legends he conquered the region and several of the outlining area. After the passing of the first emperor the emperors fallowing him keep expanding the imperials borders. Eventual after centuries of bloody wars there homeworld of Iro was brought under the rule of the empire.
Over time the empire made it into space and began to colonize nearby planets. Over the next decades the empire expanded carving a good portion out of the galaxy. During the rule of the weak emperor Valcon III the father of the current emperor the imperial governor Barcus seeing an opportunity to size power from the old Imperial family gathered allies and revolted. But Barcus made a miscalculation and underestimated the emperors son Axium Uldra. After his father died on the battlefield Axium was soon coronation emperor. With a strong emperor on the throne he wage a 30 year long war to reclaimed the lost territories of the empire. The war went back and forth for ether sides intill the battle of mount Valsu were the Imperials won a major victory and slain Barcus. After the 35 years of heavy fighting the Imperial loyalties came out on top and won a major victory. The empire has rebuilding since them. The looking to expand its borders to try to restore the empires glory. But the scarce of the civil war linger in Imperial society to this day.
The Irodiens see it as a divine intervention to rebuild there lost glory.
Technology: Much of Irodien technology can be described as simple and rugged. Most of the empires technology progress has be shaped by the 35 year long civil war. There ships have FTL drives and powerful sub-sunlight engines. The empire has the ability to colonize most environments and planets. .
-Power armor: consider the pinnacle of imperial military technology. Suits of reinforced titanium alloy armor with servo powered joints that improved the strength of the user. The armor comes with life support systems, medical auto-injectors, and
-Metallurgic foundry: one of the few areas that the irodiens lead in is in the field of metallurgy. The foundry allows for alloys to be better metals for both civilian and military use.
Military Structure:
The Imperial army is the largest of the armed force of the empire. Its troops are organized into legions consisting of 250,000 soldiers lead by a general. Imperial tactics are a mixture of static trench warfare and fast moving blitz. The organization of officers is the Governor-Militant, lord marshal, field marshal, Corps general, Major general, Colonel, Major, Captain, from there their is the stand NCO. The military structure the largest to smallest formation are legion, corps, cohort, brigade, battalion, company, platoon, section, squad. Penal battalion Criminal, scum, traitors, dissident, and psychopaths are is the best way to describe the men of a penal battalion. The men assigned to the battalion are usually poorly armed and supplied. Common use of them is cannon fodder to cover more value Imperial units. Imperial legionnaire The common imperial solider armed with variety of weapons such as laser weapons, sub-machine guns, and light machine guns. In addition their standard kit includes an e-tool, combat knife, bedroll, rations, and other necessary. For heavier or anti-tank weapons, two legionnaire are organized into a team to use the weapon. Imperial commissioned and not commissioned officer look very slimier to the men they lead as not to be signaled out and shot by a sharpshooter. An imperial legionnaire are well trained highly discipline soldiers. Imperial Commissars To keep order in the legions the commissariat office was formed, given the authority to do what is necessary to keep order in the ranks. They are effective of keeping imperial soldiers fighting on the frontlines. Strike legionnaire The elite troopers of the Imperial legions these men are recruited from the army they go through very difficult training. The end result are highly dangerous killing machines. They are also are given the latest in imperial weapons technology and armor. Archain The elite super soldiers of the empire taken from the strike legionnaire and imperial army troopers. Going through grueling training to hone them into deadly killing machines. They receive advance cybernetic and genetic enhancement. Unfortunately the process gives them only 30 years to live. They get the Model A11 power armor and have access to a verity of imperial weapons. M21 mech suit Imperial heavily armored mech suit armed with a single 20mm auto cannon on each arm, it can also be armed with a twin linked 50. Caliber machine guns, or a deployable riot shield. Armored Personnel Carrier An all-terrain vehicle used for transportation and logistical support. It can be equipped for a large variety of equipment and weapons for many different roles. V-16 Main Battle Tank With a crew of 5 it's armed with a 155 mm smooth bore cannon and a mounted 20mm auto cannon. It's the main battle tank for imperial forces. Ar-21 Artillery With a crew of 7 it has a sophisticated targeting system and armed with a 250mm howitzer. Main role is to act as a long range artillery. V-22 "Saber" gunship A rugged Imperial VTOL it’s armed with a dual 45 mm auto cannons, a nose mounted 35mm auto cannon, and several different types of missiles under the wings. It has a crew of two a pilot and Weapon systems officer. IF-45 "Razor' multirole fighter A single seat fighter it’s armed with dual 35mm cannons and several different types of missiles, bombs, or torpedoes. It can also preform space operation. VT-32 light transport Simple and rugged Infantry transport used the imperial military for the transportation of infantry to and from combat zones. Crewed by four a pilot, a co-pilot, and two door gunners its armed with one 25mm chain gun under the nose, two 30mm chain gun door gun, a 70 mm rocket pods under each wing, and optional extra 6 anti-tank missile. The Vt-32 has different configuration for different task. It’s capable of going into space. VH-56 heavy transport The imperial heavy lifter transport it cans transport large amounts of troops, vehicles, and cargo to were ever they need to go. It is limited in it uses in combat due to its size and armament. It’s mostly used as a bulk transporter for transporting supplies, troop, and vehicles from orbit to the surface of planets.
The area of the most rapped growth the in the Irodien military has been putting a good amount of resources into developing the navy. The empire's deigned philosophy for ship put focus weapons and armor on ships. It also focuses on simple ship designs allowing vessels to be built quick and cheaply. The navy's star fortresses are also built the same way. Imperial Marines They are armed, equipped, and organized in the same fashion as the imperial army. Avantor class transport The main transport of the empire able to carry entire legion to battle fields. Valdor class Destroyer The Valdor is main escort ship of the empire navy it isn't that very heavily armed. They are meant to build quickly. Baldor class Cruiser The main ship of the line for the empire. Galdar class Carrier It carry's 230 planes and it is armed with light cannons and point defense. Navar class Battleship The empires capitol ship it is heavily armed and armored. It has several hanger bay's for fighters, bombers, and drop ship. Emperor class dreadnought The newest ship and largest ship in the empire the dreadnought. Has some of the largest guns and heaviest armor in the empire.
Magnus Kuklōps, or the Grykians, are a bipedal species that typically colonize small planetoids with low gravity and poor atmosphere. The Grykians are a squat, muscular species with naturally strong bones produced by their planet's extreme gravity and deadly predators. A typical Grykian stands at around five feet five inches tall and weighs half a ton. Their skin is usually varying shades of orange. Grykians differ from most species in that they consume radiation for sustenance and strong concentrations of oxygen burn their skin. Because of this, Grykians typically wear protective suits when exposed to foreign atmospheres.
The Union are a xenophobic people. They fear and despise what they do not understand, and seek to destroy what they deem unholy or sinful. Extremely religious, Grykian culture revolves around the Holy Church of Haeni. Haeni is the goddess the people of Grykia worship as their sole deity and creator of all things. The Lunar Colonies are a group of united tribes, each guided by a chieftain. These chieftains form the Council of Twelve, the ruling body of the Lunar Colonies who follow the directives of the True Prophet. The True Prophet receives visions from the goddess and interprets them for the Council who wouldn't dare question the goddess or her prophet. Inter-tribe warfare is common in Grykian culture. The chieftains typically turn a blind eye toward the fighting as long as the people keep their squabbles contained to acceptable levels. Gladiatorial games are popular among the colonies as a means of satisfying the bloodlust of the common Cyclops.
The Grykian Union is made up of twelve tribes, with each tribe controlling the moons of a single planet. The star system is relatively normal, with an adequate number of habitable worlds surrounding a single yellow star. Each world is surrounded by multiple moons, which are used by the Grykians as their population centers. The Grykians use the planets to gather resources and for research purposes, however permanent settlements on any garden world are impossible due to millions of years of evolving on a dead planet. This dead planet is known as Tass, the birthplace of the Grykians and the alleged homeworld of Haeni herself. Millions of years ago, Tass suffered an apocalyptic level disaster that made the surface of the planet uninhabitable for almost all forms of life. The Grykians evolved from a group of hardy sea creatures that managed to adapt to the impossible climate change. A few other species stepped out of the disaster alongside the Grykians, and the planet lived on despite it's supposed death.
The capital moon of Grykia serves as the cultural and religious center of all of the Union. The entire moon is little more than a single city that takes up the entire mass of the moon. This is the primary seat of government within the Union.
The Keplan Gas Giant serves as the main source of Grykinium for the Lunar Colonies. Multiple space ports surround the gas giant, and use it as a place to refuel and mine for Grykinium within the Keplan Asteroid Belt.
The Grykian Union of Lunar Colonies is made up of twelve moon clusters. There are anywhere for five to a dozen colonies on a single moon, with each colony controlled by a mayor that is elected by that moon's governor. A moon and all of it's colonies are controlled by a single governor. Each moon cluster is controlled by a single tribe. These tribes are governed by a chieftain. These chieftains make up the Council of Twelve, the ruling body of the Union. The council possesses full executive authority over everything within the Union, with the exception for the High Church. The True Prophet serves as the voice of the goddess, and leads all things religious within the Union. The Council does not technically have to follow the advice of the prophet; however to do so would bring about great instability and rebellion, as the goddess is followed by all of the Union's population. So, in practice, the word of the prophet is law.
Society within a single tribe is split into multiple guilds. Each guild leader reports to the chieftain of their tribe. The guilds serve the greater good of the tribe, and the colonies as a whole. For a business to be successful, they must have the endorsement of their guild. Generally, Cyclopes are assigned to a guild at birth and must stay within the confines of the guild for the rest of their lives. The school system is split into different sectors with each sector assigned to a single guild. These sectors focus their efforts on teaching what will be relevant for a Cyclops' life within the guild. For example, a member of the political guild would learn about government and geopolitics. In contrast, a member of the economy guild would focus their education on mathematics. It is extremely rare for a Cyclops to switch guilds, especially later in their life cycle. The only reason a Cyclops might swap guilds is because they show signs of being naturally gifted in areas that would allow them to excel in another guild.
These are the average percentages of the population split into guilds:
Science Guild: 13% Economy Guild: 15% Political Guild: 5% Military Guild: 25% Religion Guild: 2% Worker's Guild: 40%
Grykians are all members of a monotheistic religion called Haenism. The sole deity is the goddess Haeni, who made the universe and all that is within it. She voices her will through the True Prophet, a Grykian gifted with the ability to see and interpret visions from the goddess herself. The True Prophet writes all that he has learned down in the Holy Book of Ua. The Ua serves as the basis for all laws and culture within the Union. The True Prophet has no name, and has lived for millennium without aging a day. This is considered a miracle of Haeni due to most Grykians only having a lifespan of 200 years. There is not a single member of the Union whom does not follow the goddess. All members of society who have rejected her teachings have been labelled heretics and banished into the dark void of space.
Entertainment in the Union is very physical. They are not known for their art or music. Grykians prefer the art of combat. The most popular sport within the colonies come in the form of Gladiatorial games in which fighters are pitted against challenges that they must overcome lest they die. To be allowed to participate in these games is considered the highest honor, and gladiators are considered the most prestigious and famous celebrities in the entire solar system.
Other forms of entertainment include Anti-gravity ball, single combat (not to the death) and virtual reality simulations.
Entertainment, however, is not the main focus of Grykian society like many other species. No; Grykians are known for dedicating themselves to their work. Be it in any field, a Grykian prides himself on his contributions to the betterment of the colonies. Competition between rival guilds are common. These competitions are usually harmless or even helpful, causing Grykians to work even harder than usual to out do their peers and thus increasing profit. However, these competitions can spiral out of control and bitter rivalries are formed. Espionage, assassination, and kidnapping are quite common in guild life.
Grykia is the center of the Lunar Colonies cultures. It is also home to the headquarters for most major businesses and organizations. This city is considered the holiest relic of Grykian culture. Each Cyclops must make a pilgrimage to Grykia at least twice a year lest they be labeled a heretic. For an alien to step foot on the city's holy ground is considered the highest insult against the Union and it's goddess, and is considered an act of war.
The Grykians speak what is known as Yat Sodel, the common tongue. Dialects vary between tribes and colonies, however these dialects are not so different that Grykians from very different Lunar Colonies would not be able to communicate. Different dialects usually use their own slang terms for different things, and might have slightly different spellings for certain common words, but regional dialects do not differ from the original language too radically.
These are the twelve tribes and their chieftains:
Wel Yag of the Zaltun Tribe Kev Toor of the Ragior Tribe Ramul Ras of the Haku Tribe Rak Tap of the Loebvek Tribe Qetjin Lakni of the Wadub Tribe Kebpo Havlec of the Yaat Ren Tribe
Frraj Il of the Jahgu Tribe Maxx Orl of the Kvevi Tribe Arti Mes of the Klapptom Tribe Keryn Arr of the Veroc Gab Tribe Micel Ain of the Caxhuut Tribe Loocik Ferrin of the Qeantute Tribe
Religion Guild/The Holy Church of Haeni: Led by the True Prophet. Serves as the moral and cultural center of the Union. Men are usually given positions of command, while women (nuns) serve as the church's main body of manpower. Priests lead a single congregation. Bishops lead all of the churches on a single moon. Archbishops lead worship within their entire tribe.
Military Guild: (See military organization)
Science Guild: Led by Lady Hara Nabam. Serves as the technological and research portion of the Union's working class.
Economy Guild: Led by Secretary-Treasurer Jal Mauyen. Serves as the traders, business leaders, and tax collectors of the colonies. Controls the market and the supply and demand.
Worker's Guild: Led by Lord Yar Gapp. Serves in all positions of menial labor. Provides labor for agriculture, manufacturing, construction, and small businesses. Makes up the majority of the population.
Political Guild: Led by the Council of Twelve. Each colony appoints a Mayor, who reports directly to the Governor of the moon. Each governor reports to their chieftain. These chieftains make up the twelve leaders of the entire Union, and have executive control of the nation.
Describe the history of your nation prior to its transition into the True Vacuum universe.
The True Prophet has declared this a sign from the goddess herself. A new universe, surrounded by new aliens and cultures? It's obvious, in the prophet's eyes, that this is a command from Haeni to go out into all the universe and spread her name. For too long has her love been squandered and hidden away. All nations and all peoples should know of the great goddess and her deeds! They will all bow before her, offering their praise and worship in exchange for life in the glorious Union.
This is one of the only controversial visions the True Prophet has given. Grykians are xenophobic and steadfast in their beliefs. Now their goddess wants them to spread the truth of her name to other, lesser species? The Council of Twelve have taken it upon themselves to interpret this sign in a way that does not contradict the prophet yet pleases the people who doubt. The Grykian people are to spread the word, yes. But the goddess never specified how they should spread this word. So the council has decided that they shall spread the word through conquest and war. They will force the love of the goddess on others, or they will perish under Grykia's mighty sword. Long live the Union! Long live Haeni!
Technology: The Union of Lunar Colonies has developed all of its technology on its own, with no regard for the techniques or research of other space faring races. Because of this, their technology is considered quite unique next to most modern nations in the True Vacuum. Grykian technology focuses on the betterment of individuals, and generally shuns the use of artificial intelligence as an insult to the goddess herself. Crafts designed to transport personnel are also shunned in favor of personal anti-gravity devices, and body armor is replaced by genetically enhancing the strength of Grykian skin, bone and muscle.
Anti-gravity implants: Devices designed to allow flight for an individual. They work by creating a small bubble around an individual's body which negates the gravity of the nearest celestial object, allowing the user complete 360 degree flight control at subluminal speeds
Armored Skin: The Grykian pride and joy. Armored Skin is the term used to describe the process all Grykians go through after birth where they are genetically enhanced with exponentially stronger bones and skin, and their nerves are clipped to increase pain tolerance. These enhancements allow a Grykian extreme environmental survivability, super strength and unparalleled durability. The Armored Skin is applied using powerful nanobots to further improve the Grykians already imposing frame. Extensive use of wonder materials and powerful liquid metal alloys are made throughout the procedure.
Energy Converting Implants: The means of which Grykians survive. You see, as a species, Grykians do not eat or drink. They absorb energy directly through their skin. These implants are designed to allow a Grykian to drastic increase the amount of energy they gain from the sun, as well as background radiation. This allows the Grykians to have increased endurance and require less rest than without these implants.
Quantum Entanglement Communication: When a pair of quantum-entangled particles is separated, a change to one particle will affect the other instantaneously, wherever it lies in the universe. QECs exploit this effect to transmit binary data any distance. Two pairs of entangled particles are necessary for transmission and reception. While QEC technology is extremely expensive and difficult to produce, it offers two enormous advantages. First, it allows instantaneous communication over any distance without reliance on the network of comm buoys, which is limited due to the sheer volume of space. Further, destruction of buoys hampers a foe’s military intelligence; comm buoys are the first targets of raiders in wartime. Second, quantum communications cannot be intercepted between source and destination, allowing no "wiretaps."
Military Structure: The military guild is split into three major divisions: Defense, Offense, and Supply. Each division is led by a High-General, who in turn reports to the Grand-General who is in total command of the military. The Grand-General reports directly to the Council of Twelve. Generally, the council leave the Grand-General to command as he sees fit. On occasion, however, the council can overrule the Grand-General's orders and the military has to comply.
This division is charged with protecting the Lunar Colonies and the entire Solar System from invasion and attack. The Defense Division is led by High-General Hery Jakyr, a veteran military officer and strategic genius. The Defense Division is split into twelve brigades, with a single brigade protecting a single moon cluster. The brigade is strictly made up of tribe members from the moon cluster it is defending. These brigades are led by Sentinel-Generals who during times of peace usually assist the Political Guild with policing the tribes and enforcing the law.
When war is declared, the Defense Division usually moves into strategic positions at space stations near the edge of the Solar System. These positions are equipped with jammers that are designed to force the enemy to exit FTL travel surrounded by an entire defense brigade. These ambushes are the first line of defense in protecting the Union, and usually are the only defense needed.
However, when the enemy is prepared for this ambush and manages to overcome the defense brigades, they face the next line of defense: the population of the entire Union. While members of the Military Guild are trained to use their enhancements to maximum effectiveness, all Grykians are equally as powerful. Meaning that, any invading military force could find itself fighting a united militia numbering 42 billion strong.
The final defense is a last resort weapon developed by Grykian scientists. Hundreds of bombs filled with a deadly, evolving virus created by Grykian scientists centuries ago. These bombs are spread throughout the solar system, and exist as a means to wipe out all usable natural resources within the Union's territory and kill invaders who have defeated the Grykian people completely. Only the True Prophet knows of their existence, and is the only creature capable of triggering these stationary bombs.
The Offense Division serves as the sword of the Union. When the Council of Twelve declares war on another species, the Offense Division is called up and put into action. The Offense Division is led by High-General Ragg Huem, a relatively young officer who was promoted to this position when the old High-General disappeared along with the False Vaacum of the old universe. Ragg Heum is yet to prove himself as a competent replacement for the old leadership, and is eager for war to show that he is more than capable. The Offense Division is split into twelve brigades, with each brigade representing a single tribe. These brigades are led by Champion-Generals who report directly to High-General Ragg Heum. During times of peace, the Offense Division serves mostly as explorers who send out teams to scout nearby star systems for anomalies or other civilizations.
When war is declared by the Council of Twelve, the Offense fleets currently on exploration missions outside Union space are contacted via quantum entanglement communicators. These are far more efficient than the communication buoys used by Union Lunar Colonies in the context of communicating across the vast reaches of space. Each exploration fleet has two or three capital ships equipped with a QEC linked directly to military command. These fleets are ordered to converge near enemy territory, surrounding the opponent with multiple attack groups while the main offensive force, which comes from Union space, attacks the enemy directly. The fleets then come in from all sides and attack the enemy with incredible ferocity.
Grykian brigades only use two or possibly three capital class ships to transport their army over long distances. These ships lack any sort of offensive capabilities, and their shielding is only adequate. These ships exist as mobile command and control centers, having powerful engines, sensors, communication arrays, and warpdrive technology.
Grykians fight naval engagements very differently than more conventional races. The Grykians do not use large, cumbersome ships to lob shells at extreme ranges to win battles. Naval combat is fought by the Grykians using their flight and ability to survive in a vacuum. The infantry fly in squadrons and attack the much larger enemy ships and conquering them through boarding. The infantry can't stand long under the intense fire of a starship, but they're able to use their small size to evade the enemies largest guns and force their way aboard through airlocks and the like. These infantry use a variety of weapons to mow through these starships' crews and defenses, relying on their insane durability to muscle past anything the enemy can muster.
The Supply Division exists to serve the Offense and Defense Divisions. Generally, Supply exists to man the capital ships and protect and maintain supply lines. Supply also services communication buoys during wartime. Being assigned to the Supply Division is usually considered a punishment by servicemen.
How can they value life, when death is their destiny?
The Ennedi Legacy is an aristocratic oligarchy amongst a number of genetically distinct lineages amongst the Ennedi species, ruling over an innumerable collection of 'client' species whom the Ennedi rule over. The Ennedi themselves are a peculiar species noted for their unusually short lifespan, explosive maturation cycle, and productivity. As a species they are impressively advanced by any metric, but their widespread interstellar oligarchy suffers from widespread underdevelopment and neglect. In the False Vacuum universe, the Ennedi asserted their own intellectual and moral superiority over all other organic species, pursuing aggressive and intrusive brinksmanship against other nations and professing the role of the benign imperial power; ruling over lesser species and factions for their own betterment and protection. This saw the Ennedi embroiled in countless interstellar wars and conflicts with evidence suggesting they were actively pursuing widespread naval operations when the Metastability Event occurred. Taking advantage of the Legacy's sudden offset and loss of a great portion of its naval forces, many of the conquered Ennedi territories rebelled. Uncertain of charging headlong into the new unknown universe with diminished forces, the Ennedi have since turned their focus inward in order to stabilize their power base and restore the Legacy Armada. The current Ennedi Legacy is a constant flux-state of revolution and violent military suppression.
With a greatly diminished navy, the Legacy finds itself spread and exposed across too many systems, only able to keep hold due to a massive technological advantage and supremely adept naval and military tactics.
The Ennedi control thirty-six star systems scattered across a wider than wise region of space, most of the Legacy's territory is comprised of conquered alien colonies. Most of these systems are heavily war-scared, with partially obliterated or else heavily damaged industrial and civilian infrastructure, all containing different alien populations. A smaller number of systems appear to be regional hubs established by the Ennedi as Integration Zones, where individuals from surrounding conquered territories are gathered for cultural and societal reorientation - both with each other and for a future life of service to the Legacy. Within the center of the Legacy's territory is a more clustered collection of systems controlled exclusive by the Ennedi, which are much more heavily developed and intact than the surrounding conquered colonies. While the preexisting infrastructure in these areas is advanced and impressive, most of the strategic resources in these areas have been depleted, creating a dependence upon the surrounding, less developed territories for resources and materials.
Noteworthy Locations:
The Enned System: The home of the Ennedi species, the system is sparse with only three celestial bodies orbiting their parent star. The Ennedi homeworld is 100% urbanized, covered with sprawling industrial and civilian infrastructure and serving as the beating heart of Legacy Armada.
Nualia: Homeworld to the conquered Domodet species, located near the inner boundary of the conquered Ennedi territories. A highly aggressive species, the remaining Domodet factions have been engaged in constant guerrilla warfare with Legacy forces for some time now, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible. The entire planet is barely hospitable, with wide swathes that have been devastated by orbital bombardment leaving only a few livable landmasses intact. However, the planet's climate has been irrevocably affected by the widespread ecological effects of prior orbital bombardment, and is gearing up for an early ice age. Its atmosphere contains low concentrations of Oxygen, with high concentrations of Nitrogen and Ammonia. Nearly all urban centers are wartorn and in shambles, with the Domodets having returned to the use of primitive pre-spaceflight technologies for survival. The Legacy Armada is largely withdrawn from this system, with only a token force safeguarding the planet itself and a few others in the process of establishing permanent bases and ventures elsewhere in the system.
Integration Zone One: The first of the Legacy Integration Hubs, this well-developed colony lies just inside the first series of systems exterior the Legacy's core worlds. Host to nearly half a dozen different species undergoing reorientation, the IZO contains numerous naval bases and resource ventures and is home to a number of Legacy Armada fast-response fleets which can be deployed to any of the surrounding systems if needed to suppress revolts or for greeting uninvited guests. The multi-species population of the colony is rife with discontent and has served as a prime target for subversive propaganda and dissent by revolutionary forces. Thus far, the concentration and focus of Legacy naval forces in the system have quelled any hint of open revolt.
Integration Zone Two: Less developed than the IZO, the IZT acts as a Hub colony near the boundary of the exterior systems. Host to a much larger subset of species, the IZT is more akin to a penal colony than the 'integration zone' the Legacy would prefer. Lacking in the same widespread infrastructure with no major naval sites outside the the colony itself, the IZT nonetheless remains a highly active military zone with Legacy fleets constantly coming and going. Many naval and military exercises are held here using the resident alien populace as 'belligerent' practice targets and demonstrations.
Lerna: Homeworld to the conquered and now extinct Lernaean species, located near the periphery of the Legacy's conquered territory. A moon with a smooth, icy surface floating freely atop warm saltwater oceans heated by geothermal activity and radiation emitted by its parent gas giant. Its deep oceans and thin crust relative to the size of the mantle creates a relatively rare resource venture due to the ease of accessing the moon's mineral rich mantle and core, making the moon one of the Legacy's most promising potential sources of rare raw materials once sufficiently developed. Lerna has no atmosphere above its icy surface, and contains no remnant traces of the Lernaean species or their civlization. The moon itself is host to a concentrated force of the Legacy Armada, which has established a temporary shipyard upon the moon's surface and is preparing for the establishment and expansion of more permanent facilities. The system as a whole is unsecure despite the large concentration of warships around the moon.
Baceran Prime: The most recently conquered territory of the Legacy, the Icaroa system remains an active warzone as remnants of the Blendec navy contain to launch attacks of opportunity and attrition against stationed Legacy fleets. The planet itself is utterly barren, having been thoroughly irradiated and glassed by orbital bombardment to the point where the planet's atmosphere has been stripped away while its surface has devolved into a state of self-sustaining calefaction. Ennedi forces possess a single official staging point within the system in the form of a mobile resupply supercarrier vessel, with individual fleetgroups entering and leaving in staggered waves while scouring the system's gas giants for signs of the Blendec vessels still hiding within.
The Legacy government is an aristocratic oligarchy which is partially hereditary in nature; the nation is ruled by a narrow lineage of individual Ennedi divided between a number of organizations. As individuals in power die, they are typically replaced within hours by their offspring except on occasions when they would emerge possessing notable physical or mental defects, resulting in immediate cannibalization. The free spot is then filled by spare offspring from a neighboring Lineage (wherever available). Due to the brevity of the Ennedi lifespan, conventional politics do not exist within the Legacy government. There are no alliances, no philosophical blocs, and little oversight. Behavior and practice within the government is controlled through a mixture of cultural condition and expectations alongside chemical control and dependency, ensuring that the foremost concern of the individual is the accomplishment of their specific task. Conflict generated by opposing policies, rather than being resolved by any of the associated parties, are reported and handled entirely by third party mediators, leaving the government largely free of internal conflict.
The Legacy Government is divided into three sectors: Societal, Industrial, and Command. The Societal sector deals with affairs pertaining to the Ennedi populace itself and matters of concern to the species as a whole, including agricultural and sustenance concerns as well as what passes for standards of living amongst the Ennedi. Foremost, their responsibility is to maintain the Ennedi way of life, presenting and reinforcing the cultural conditioning that is widespread amongst the Ennedi populace which keeps it functioning as an efficient and productive machine. The Industrial sector deals with logistics, allocation, infrastructure, and scientific R&D. Functioning as a utility provider and troubleshooting sector, most they deal with new or potential problems where the Societal sector prevents them. Finally, Legacy Command is responsible for all military and strategic affairs.
While each sector is highly distinct in nature and operation, all three work in great conjunction with one another at all times across the entire nation, even amongst the Legacy Armada. In order to reduce conflicts, each sector possesses a sub-sector dedicated specifically to arbitration with the other two sectors, which operates on a joint basis. Wherever conflict would crop up due to aberrant behavior or genuinely conflicting policies, the arbitrators are expected to resolve the issue, absolving government officials from complications inherent to their responsibilities.
Each Sector is headed by fifteen Ennedi from randomly selected Ennedi lineages amongst those constituting the Ennedi Legacy's government sectors, as well as by three Censors selected on a similar basis. The fifteen heads are appointed with the task of drafting and issuing all official policy within the Legacy, while the Censors are responsible for recording internal policy conflicts as reported by sector arbitration. Censors have the authority to revise any policy that generates a certain degree of internal conflict within the Legacy sectors, providing oversight.
Pictured: A juvenile (lower) and adult (upper) of the Ennedi species, with a Human male on the right provided for spatial reference.
Pictured: A 'glutted' Ennedi that has reached the final possible stage of growth in the species.
The Ennedi are a species of carbon-based, sentient, amphibious crustaceans with a Bromine-dependent physiology, a single-stranded mono-molecular base genome, and an abnormal plasmodium neurology. They are known for their short lifespans, their explosive rate of growth, their gluttony, and their intellect.
No review of Ennedi biology is complete without an immediate address of their brevity. The natural, upper age limit of death via senescence amongst the species is a mere three-hundred and sixty hours (approximately fifteen days). The Ennedi begin their lifecycle as a microscopic egg which, permitting a specific set of allowances, may grow to a size in excess of fifty meters in length in less than two-hundred and forty hours. This explosive rate of growth also permits nigh-miraculous recovery from physical injuries and trauma, including partial destruction of the brain - but only as a function of growth. As shown in fully Glutted Ennedi, the species has no natural capacity for healing from injuries once they have stopped growing in size.
Every Ennedi individual is effectively female for the purposes of reproduction. Mature Ennedi will produce tens of thousands of microscopic eggs along an interior column running along the spine of their exo-skeletons. Upon death, an activator chemical is released from surrounding stiffened muscle groups that chemically inactivate a number of metabolic inhibitors. The eggs then begin to cannibalize both each other and the corpse while naturally being drawn downwards by the pull of gravity, into the main mass of the body. On average, anywhere between five to two of the eggs will survive to emerge from the corpse as an infantile Ennedi. This individual will be fully independent and capable of survival on its own upon its emergence, although its intelligence will be animal and primitive in nature.
The Ennedi are a gluttonous species, capable and willing to eat anything they can fit within their maw. They have keen thermal and vibratory senses that allow them to identify moving, organic beings. They possess four compound eyes, allowing immensely detailed near-sighted vision. Ennedi have extremely poor focal sight, and cannot see or sense anything beyond fifty meters. They have no form of hearing or taste, although there keen vibratory sense does permit them to perceive sounds and music as a 'reverberating' sensation within their own bodies. After emergence, Juvenile Ennedi will immediately seek out and consume any and all organic matter they can find, including the remnant carcass of their parent as well as any surviving siblings. If there is no organic matter within the vicinity to consume, the infantile Ennedi will enter a state of Torpor in order to conserve metabolic energy. Individual cells within the body will undergo gradual petrifaction the longer Torpor lasts, enabling Infantile Ennedi to remain with the state for years if necessary. Detection of heat and vibrations indicative of large organic life nearby will cause the (also gradual) release of lytic agents that will chemically substrate biomineralized tissue, causing the infantile Ennedi to emerge from the Torpor state. As most bodily and metabolic functions are suspended during Torpor, time spent therein is not considered a part of the Ennedi growth or life cycle. Furthermore, although the Torpor state is generally only ever induced in infantile Ennedi, the ability is retained by juveniles, adolescents, mature, and glutted Ennedi.
Ennedi metabolic physiology is remarkably efficient, able to convert as much as 30% of any digested mass into chemical energy. This extreme metabolism fuels the explosive Ennedi growth cycle, enabling extremely rapid growth for as long as the individual is able to continuously consume organic material. As many as seven in ten Ennedi are thought to have died of starvation in nature prior to the emergence of civilization amongst the species. However, only 40% of all nutrients and energy gained from their diet contributes to the growth of their body. Over half goes to the remarkably complex Ennedi brain. The Ennedi vascular system is open, and is tied directly into a complex gas-exchange and filtration system design to expel waste from the body as gaseous chemical waste. Fully Glutted Ennedi emit more than four different forms of compound molecular toxins as a waste product of both digestion and gas exchange, creating a signature musk in proximity to individuals or groups which serves as a tell-tale sign of their presence within the vicinity.
The Ennedi neurology is abnormal in its existence as a freely suspended plasmodium coenocyte structure. Functioning as a seamless electrochemical media, Ennedi neurology is enormously more efficient than conventional multicellular, neuron-oriented cognition. In addition to simple media advantages (faster chemical and electrical transfer of information and redundant structural components being chief), the coenocyte grows at a geometric rate as the individual grows, resulting in a parabolic growth of intellect relative to the size of the individual. This intelligence plateaus at a state referred to as 'glutted,' normally unachievable by Ennedi in nature but made more commonplace by modern agricultural practices. Fully Glutted Ennedi are considered to possess a logical intelligence subset on-par with that of conventional A.I. systems (and slightly lesser than that of a quantum-based A.I.). This reflects only the abstract logical abilities of the individual; and even fully Glutted Ennedi are capable of being deceived, mislead, and of making mistakes due to flawed reasoning. In computational terms, the raw processing power of the Ennedi coenocyte exceeds most parallel-and-serial oriented organic processing structures (as seen in Humans by way of example), allowing them to absorb, interpret, and analyze large amounts of data quickly, making them exceedingly talented in multiple knowledge-oriented roles such as mathematics and physics.
Ennedi society is highly class-oriented and stratified, placing great emphasize on social order and communal, societal roles. The individual, upon emergence, is assigned a life-role based upon the location of their emergence, which they are then trained and equipped for over several hours to fulfill in a specific capacity. Due to this cultural practice, all of Ennedi society is divided into genetically distinct Lineages defined by profession and locale.
The Ennedi place a great abstract value upon the notion of leaving behind a Legacy; to accomplish something that is left for future Ennedi to work upon and improve. To do so is considered a boon to the entirety of Ennedi society, and so individuals are conditioned to believe that no task is insignificant. Ennedi live the entirety of their short lives pursuing one task or job, and upon death their offspring are expected to replace them within hours. All of society is attributed with an overarching goal or task that it must reach, which is seen as a great Legacy as achieved by multiple individuals working in unison towards a greater goal. For this reason, Ennedi society is highly task and goal oriented - the individual is obsessed with completing their job, correctly and swiftly, wasting as little time as possible.
Behavior and cultural conditioning amongst the Ennedi is extremely rigid and self-reinforcing. Deviation is rare and generally a result of genetic defects or else contamination of the local food supply. Genuine aberrant behavior does occur, but in a population where a significant percentage of individuals are Glutted and expectations are labor-oriented, aberrant behavior is hard to conceal. As the Ennedi lifespan is short, a limited degree of aberrant behavior is tolerated in the long run since too much regulation to prevent it would be a literal waste of extremely limited time. However, as individuals can also be easily replaced, unacceptable degrees of aberrant behavior are typically resolved by execution and prompt cannibalization.
The only emotive form the individual is capable of experiencing of a comparable nature to joy is that experienced when eating. Most if not all Ennedi are fitted with feeder devices that, when hooked up to a pump-utility, allow for a constant stream of organic nutrition in the form of several molds on the order of several dozen tons every day. Most Ennedi therefore exist in a euphoric state that renders them highly pliable to suggestion. While this is exploited by the higher echelons in order to corral the larger populace, it can lead to misinformation and subversion within the ranks of society on occasion.
While the Ennedi legacy has no official religion, there is a widespread common belief that the Legacy is locked in an eternal, cosmic battle with an entity referred to in their language as 'The Nothing After Death.' The Ennedi believe that this alleged entity is the enemy of all life in the form of active intelligence and motive, creating impetus where previously there was none - and thus has an agenda to destroy all intelligent life with a level of effort proportional to their intelligence. Thus, the Ennedi perceive themselves as a species to be the natural nemesis of the entity, claiming that their short overall lifespan is due to the Nothing After Death seeing them as the greatest threat to it in the universe and is thus evidence of both their intellectual and moral superiority over other species. The Nothing After Death has several symbolic associations with physical laws and constraints such as Entropy, Time, and Radioactive Decay.
Legacy Arbitration: Three partially unified subsectors within the Legacy government, Arbitrators are tasked with resolving internal dispute caused by conflicting policies within the Legacy government, while also reporting trends and dialectics to the Censors. As an extension of this role and in accordance with Ennedi cultural roles, they also act as a Hunter-Killer group that tracks and eliminates aberrant behaviors and individuals. A significant percentage of internal Legacy dispute is generated by aberrant behavior, and thus, Arbitrators tend to be well-equipped for fighting other Ennedi (and smaller, squishier species as well) and are generally the best-armed and equipped individuals in the Ennedi Legacy. Since they are tasked with resolving disputes, their association with the Societal sector of the Legacy government means they are responsible for correcting problematic societal trends and behaviors within Ennedi culture as a whole, giving Arbitrators the right and inclination to produce propaganda, lace food supplies and rations with mood-altering compounds, and so forth. While relatively minor in the ultimate hierarchy of the Legacy government, they are the true movers and power within Ennedi society as a whole, as well as within cultures the Ennedi are in the process of integrating.
Foreign Integration: A subsector of the Societal Legacy sector, FI is seen on Ennedi hubworlds attempting to 'reorient' conquered alien species to a new life living and working with each other in service to the Ennedi Legacy. Externally they are a joke, capable only of using words and negotiation in order to manipulate and motivate conquered alien species. What makes them significant is their ability to assign Arbitration to assassinate troublesome individuals or to have Legacy Command initiate a violent purge or Urban Renewal. Possessing more similarities to a cult than to a genuine government branch, FI in particular espouses Ennedi intellectual and moral superiority to a degree which even Arbitration finds 'Almost unnecessary and aberrant in quality.'
External Powers and Suborning: The equivalent of a foreign diplomacy and intelligence agency, EPS is responsible for making open contact with alien powers and pursuing preliminary negotiations prior to integration with the Ennedi Legacy. Infamous for their aggressive pursuit of invasive brinksmanship, intimidation, and heavy-handed negotiation tactics. In instances where an alien society proves to be resistant to integration, EPS pursues 'coercion' tactics in an effort to undermine the target nation, both as an extension of regular diplomatic practice and as preparation for injunction by the Legacy Armada. EPS has been branded as a terrorist group by many previously conquered nations due to their violent and subversive tactics, as well as their blatant disregard for the sovereign authority of other nations.
Aberrant Associations and Practices: Not all aberrants in Ennedi society are cannibalized. Some, realizing their nature, will voluntarily present themselves to Arbitration for assignment to an industrial R&D subsector studying aberrant genetics and coenocytic physiology. Realizing that such individuals could never truly be purged from society, it was determined by the Legacy government that these individuals could still prove useful serving in a more individualistic capacity normally considered detrimental to regular society - and so sent a large number of aberrant out into space to 'make their own way, and to our benefit if at all convenient.' Essentially a rogue mercantile and mercenary agency, the AAP fulfills all external roles that normal individuals would fulfill in other alien societies. They pursue foreign trade, relief, research partnerships, and other 'alien' forms of cooperation and exchange which the Legacy Government otherwise considers to be abnormal. While nominally unaffiliated with the Legacy government, they are unofficially supported by the Legacy to a degree proportional to utility. While the organization as a whole works for the betterment of the Legacy, a large number of them are further divorced from the Legacy's ideals and more open to entertaining alien intrigue and shady dealing.
Under construction!
The Ennedi Legacy was devastated by the abrupt shift to the True Vacuum Universe. Innumerable military assets in the form of ships and outposts where instantaneously lost, all knowledge on the preexisting galactic landscape was lost, all of the alien territories they had been in the process of conquering have vanished, and the territory they have already conquered is on the verge of being lost due to perpetual revolt. The current accepted hypothesis for the Metastability Event itself is that an unknown power induced the event via artificial means with the deliberate intention of creating a stable vacuum that would not result is the instantaneous destruction of reality itself, completely precluding the existential threat of a future, naturally occuring Metastability Event. While this is seen as a good thing, the Legacy as a whole views the timing as inconvenient due to the ensuing issues that have cropped up. Within the upper echelons of power, the Legacy is wary that the faction responsible might still exist, and if so exists on an order of scale and power that the Legacy itself cannot match.
Technology:The Ennedi occupy a curious technological niche. When they first achieved faster than light technology, their technology mostly dealt with meteorlogical and atmospheric manipulation due to prior ecological crisis upon their homeworld, while military and spacefaring technology was comparatively primitive. However, their political stance quickly saw they embroiled in multiple wars with surrounding powers. Over time, the Ennedi acquired and reverse engineered several alien technologies which they then adopted and improved upon. As such, the Ennedi have an adaptable approach to technological constants, and possess no compunction about adopting the best examples of alien technology they encounter.
Areas where the Ennedi excel include Energy Projection and Sensor technology. Areas where they lag behind include industrial extraction and refining technology.
Every Ennedi vessel possesses a specially built containment chamber near their center of mass. When the time comes for faster-than-light travel, the chamber generates an artificial singularity with zero spin and charge. Using electromagnetic manipulation, a matrix of exotic matter with negative mass is used to interact with the singularity as mass and energy are injected inwards, causing the singularity’s event horizon to expand. By this process, the event horizon grows to cover the entirety of the ship, and the exotic matter matrix stabilizes the singularity in order to create a swarzchild wormhole. The vessel then ‘falls’ past the singularity at its core by having it spun via the exotic matter matrix, changing its own position relative to the wormhole (while remaining stationary relative to the singularity), and uses then uses the exotic matter matrix to pinch it shut after shutting off the injection systems. The vessel continues to fall through a corridor of maximally extended spacetime until arriving at its coordinate destination, where the vessel then contracts the event horizon, reverting the singularity to a white terminus and reemerging in space. During the reemergence, a bubble of spacetime surrounds the ship wherein nothing can enter its reciprocal event horizon, shoving away any and all obstructions at the destination point and obscuring the ship from any and all forms of attack. The bubble then dissipates, and the ship completes its transit.
Generating, sustaining, and manipulating the singularity is so energy intensive that each Ennedi vessel makes use of several capacitor rings to store power for the process. After each wormhole jump, a vessel much recharge its capacitors, which takes time depending upon the size of the ship and the output of its virtual antimatter rings.When the singularity’s event horizon expands to engulf a vessel, any and all objects caught in the event horizon are pulled through the jump along with the vessel.
Before power generation for the Ennedi is described, here is a brief primer on Quantum Physics.
According to quantum mechanics (and wave-particle duality in particular), energy can exist as both a particle and a wave. As an extension of this, energy only exists as a particle, in a particular point in spacetime, when explicitly observed as existing there. As an additional extension, by that logic an unobserved particle exists across the entirety of its wave function, and when detected (by interaction with matter for example) the potential particle most likely to interact with it, as described by that particle’s wave function, does so. This does not preclude potential particles with a lower wave function from interacting with matter however – just unlikely. As yet another extension off of that point, an unobserved particle behaving as a wave is considered to exist in all its possible configurations simultaneously until observed. If all of these points are true, then a number of very strange things become possible. For one, it becomes possible for a particle to exist in more than a single place at once, in different states and configurations simultaneously, and to interact with itself.
Because of the above points, this means that a particle, completely by chance (although the chance is very, very low) can act as a wave to bypass solid, otherwise impenetrable barriers (quantum tunneling), and can also potentially (with an even lower chance of happening) abruptly shift state and configuration dramatically without any extraordinary impetus. The EOA are masters of exploiting the lower-order physics of Quantum Mechanics and of using these laws to free energy systems which violate classical mechanics but are thermodynamically feasible and consistent with quantum mechanics.
As an example of this, Ennedi vessels use a varying number of particle accelerator rings per vessel for energy capture purposes. Each ring is preassembled independently and uses an initial power supply to generate a stream of accelerated neutrons. This stream is run through a series of calibrated electromagnetic arrays which precisely detect and influence the positioning and configuration of each accelerated particle. The Ennedi have thus managed to design an accelerator array enabling them to generate highly unlikely super-positioned particles in exceedingly unlikely configurations and states relative to their parent normal particle. By forcing the generation of, for all intents and purposes, imaginary anti-particles via tricked out observation of regular particles, and by having them annihilate and capturing the energy, the Ennedi have a system which seemingly generates free energy, only limited by their capacity to store it.
The only real downside to this system is the limited extent to which the Ennedi can harvest energy from antimatter annihilation relative to their capacity to store it. They only capture energy from antimatter annihilation in minute amounts, and so must carefully monitor their energy stores and conserve strategically. They have an endless power supply, but they can only draw so much power from it at once.
Most Ennedi warships possess a large parabolic structure mounted towards the front which doubles as a high-powered energy weapon and as a shielding system. By projecting a high-potential electromagnetic field across the arch of the parabolic dish, they create a high-energy relay at the apex of the dish as well as at its distal epicenter.
Whenever an energy munition or projectile (such as a pulsed or stream beam of accelerated particles, superheated plasma, or directed radiation) is fired at the front of the ship, it must pass the electromagnetic field, disrupting it in the process. This instantly creates a negative-potential discharge from the parabolic dish, which generates an electrical arc between itself and the breaching projectile, forming a circuit between it and the vessel. The energy projectile is then conducted directly into the ship's capacitors, with excess energy being vented from the ship as an energetic discharge if it the energy cannot be fully converted into the system.
In this way, the parabolic shielding system renders Ennedi vessels immune to energy-weapons fire directed at them from the front.
Rather than dump a whole ton of more in-depth information on Quantum mechanics involving imaginary particles and virtual eigenstates, I’m just going to link you to this wiki article, which succinctly (if not perfectly) describes what the Ennedi use for sublight propulsion.
The only qualifiers I would like to add are that, using a containment system operating on the same principles described up in the Power Generation section, each Ennedi vessel does not make use of actual thrusters. Instead they use multiple projection devices contained inside their hulls, which project the virtual propellant away from the outside of each ship. In this way, Ennedi vessels can typically accelerate, decelerate, turn, and spin in any conceivable fashion, since they are not limited by the placement of exterior jets or thrusters.
The Ennedi are capable of industrially synthesizing a mold-like organisms possessing an internal genome identical to their own, with a specific set of encoded knowledge-based information and a number of chemical factors that allow for their identification and integration. When eaten by an individual Ennedi, they will slowly gain the stored information over the course of several hours as the genetic information is relayed from their digestive tract into their coenocyte brain and deciphered.
Only abstract information (mathematics, inscriptions, codes). Practical means of allowing for the transmission of actual memories and sensations has proved a difficult hurdle within Ennedi bioengineering.
Not so much a weapon as a means of projecting energy, Differential Wave-Streaming incorporates targeting masers to create corridors of electromagnetic radiation which are acted upon by the Casimir Effect, enabling information and energy flowing through the targeting maser to move faster than light within the frame of reference of the differential corridors. The observed effect of a weapon designed this way would be for the targeting maser to proceed normally at near-lightspeed across space until it reached its target, upon which any energy beam or pulse weapon streamed through the corridor would move faster than light within that frame of reference. A target 300,000 kilometers away from the affected energy weapon in space, which would normally take one second for the weapon to hit, would be hit instantaneously by any shot fired by the weapon as though zero time was passing between the shot and impact. In essence, Differential Wave-Streaming just increases the effective weapons range (in terms of tohit ratio) of regular energy weapons, to a limited degree dependent upon the size and power available to the vessel making use of the system.
The Mind Ripper takes the form of an electron and neutrino emitter which flash-vaporizes solid and liquid matter while creating a structural blueprint of the destroyed structure. Similar in nature to conventional Neutrino scanners, Mind Ripping is capable of deciphering information contained within carbon based lifeforms possessing a phosphate-backbone base genome structure. Situated around the skull of the victim, the Mind Ripper destroys the entire head for the sole purpose of hitting and analyzing memory structures.
Mind Ripping as a technique needs to be specifically adapted to individual species which are vulnerable to it, largely in order to identify memory structures within the brain and to narrow down genetic code containing memory and information, and further analysis to decrypt individual species differences in coding. However, once developed, Mind Ripping can extract any form of abstract, knowledge-based information from the brain and store it as digital media which can then either by inscribed in code or else converted into Ennedi genetic information for coenocyte integration.
Military Structure: The Legacy Armada is composed of a number of Fleetgroups which operate under Legacy Command. Individual Fleetgroups are not specialized, existing as a self-contained and self-perpetuating entity with multiple fleets assigned to numerous, more specialized roles. Every fleetgroup is as much a naval force as much as it is a widely-dispersed nomadic civilian fleet. Each fleetgroup has high requirements for independent operation, and so are accompanied by several logistics and utility fleets, allowing each fleet group to resupply, retrofit, and otherwise freely operate anywhere in space without need to retreat back into the Legacy coreworlds.
The Command Structure amongst Fleets and Fleetgroups is practically nonexistent, with Ship Pilots exercising the only autonomy necessary for all field operations and engagements. Each Fleetgroup is accompanied by at least one fleet dedicated to C&C, containing multiple C&C vessels which hang back in remote locations during most affairs, directing operations from afar via direct FTL communication with groups of pilots. Tacticians and strategists within the C&C are entrusted to make critical military decisions on the fly when not in direct contact with Legacy Command, each Pod of individuals following a randomized schedule of communication and direction, preventing the formation of any kind of coterie between individuals.
Under Construction!
C&C: The Command and Communications section is the closest thing the Ennedi have to an assembly of commissioned officers. Individuals amongst this section are responsible for conveying all fleetgroup communiques, issuing and relaying all orders and movements, and the general macromanagement of entire fleetgroups. Something of an armchair group, they are known to hang back away from mainstay fleet operations, directing everything discretely via FTL communications. As they are in control of nearly everything and since they tend to be made up of the most knowledgeable individuals that can be assembled, there are a large number of contingency policie3s built into the sector in order to prevent treason.
BS&D: The Battlefield Superiority and Dominance section is a straightforward assault sector of the Legacy navy, utilizing fleet makeups with warships designed to obliterate opposition from extreme range without inviting retaliation.
M&BM: The Materiel and Ballistic Munitions section is responsible for the manufacture, handling, transportation, and projection of multi-drive, strategic-theater missile weapons. Largely acting in support of other sections, the M&MB is a compromise in order to accommodate ballistic-oriented tactics in naval warfare, a departure from standard Ennedi doctrine which emphasizes energy munitions. M&MB fleets usual perform distraction and mitigation roles for that reason, with more conventional assault fleets pursuing direct battlefield superiority.
The Tar'Lik were the first to come sentient in their home planet. They are a peaceful, psychic race that have very long lives, 300 years in fact. They are strong but use that strength to help the weak, the poor and the hungry. They were the first to build civilisation on their planet. They are a wise race, rarely coming to conclusions of others. They also rarely call themselves better than other species. They are few in number and are growing fewer every generation. This illness has been stuck with the Tar'Lik since sentience. Every 1000 Tar'Lik, only two survive their birth.
They are slightly odd as they are akin to the Polar Bears of Earth, quad legged and fur covered. This adds to their strength as most Tar'Lik are big, growing up to the height of 5 feet and to the length of 6 feet.
Their fur ranges from wild colours, from Orange to Black never to the extent of pale and bland white though. Every second piece of fur has a white tipped end. They are a special sensory fur. This allows Tar'Lik to be able to sense things around them. This makes the Tar'Lik able to see as their eyes have evolved not to function and has continued to do so. This allows the quad legged race to see every thing in an orange hue.
The Tar'Lik contact through their psychic mind. They can understand languages with just a tap of another's mind. They do not have a language. They have a universal psychic wave that all can understand.
Krieg
Second to come to sentience on the home world, Krieg evolved from the usual primate mammal. The Krieg are a sad race race. They were evolved on the sorry piece of land under the main continent. This land was filled with highly dangerous diseases, poisonous gas and killer inhabitants. The Krieg now wear their suits permanently, out of remembrance of the strife and war of their home land.
They are a cold, vicious race with short lives. They live for only 20 years before dying of the overwhelming amount of poisons in their bodies. Attempts to fix this has failed tremendously as the poisons are now part of their genome. This makes them the most able to adapt and overcome out of all the races on the home world. They are humanoid in shape and the only real difference they have appearance wise to the human race is that their race has purple skin and their eyes are pure white.
Their language is literally hell. A conglomerate of words that really do not fit together, words that mean the same but are said in specific sentences, words that are supposed to be whole paragraphs worth of text, it is a translators nightmare.
Tayt
The third and last to come to sentience on the home world, the Tayt are a mono gendered all female race. They evolved from avian creatures, enabling them the power of flight. They are all diverse in emotion and appearance, not one Tayt is similar to another. Tayt are a calm race, similar to Tar'Lik. They came from the Main continent.
They are similar to the Krieg as they are also akin to the Humans in the Milky Way but they are far more diverse in colour. Their skin can be a calm blue to a fierce red. Their eyes can be from yellow to purple. Their hair can be any colour in the known galaxy! They're so diverse that it is hard to mistake a Tayt for another one of their species.
Their method of reproducing is also odd. They can reproduce with any species, be it sentient or otherwise, through physical, psychic or other means. This made sub species of Tayt. A Tayt child with a Tar'Lik father has fur instead of skin. A Tayt child with a Krieg father, has paler skin than others but do not have the natural poisons that Krieg do.
Their language is lyrical, beautiful sounding. A flow of words, calming to the ears. It is like a tune, played by the mouth. This helped the Tayt to calm the Krieg down a notch.
The name of the Nation describes what it is. It is a democracy. Every colony planet with sufficient enough population, resource and economy is elected a Planetary Governor who controls the planet and a re-election occurs every 5 years. Every ten years, every Planetary Governor is given a chance to show themselves worthy of being the Democratic Leader of the Fay'Ram Jik Democracies.
Divided by race, every governor has to campaign against others in their race to become the representative who moves onto the Presidential campaign. This gives every citizen in the Democracies have three votes. One in the Tayt, one in the Krieg and one in the Tar'Lik elections. Even though they are of different races, the Democracies describe themselves as one race, non separated by genome. So their is no Species bias.
When these racial elections are done, the three representatives move onto presidential campaigning. This usually lasts for around two cycles (equivalent of a month) to do and then the President is elected. The President has control of territories, the army, secret service, planetary governors and such. The other two will become advisors and the three are usually sharing the power around. The Krieg handles the military and secret service. The Tayt handles the internal police force and the trade of essentials. And the Tar'Lik handles the face of the government, regardless of presidency or not.
Fay'Ran Jik is a beautiful world with hidden ugliness. The seas are a beautiful blue and the main continent is filled with large plains, lush forests and absolutely peaceful creatures. Krieg Island is the stark contrast to this all. Ugly, disease ridden, poisonous and serves death to all who are not Krieg, this island is a death trap. An ugly imperfection on an otherwise lush world.
The Democracies have grown to several solar systems and each has grown to be either industrial or agricultural in nature. Systems of note include the Fay'Ran Jik system, the Shez'Di system and the Rik'R system. These three show the might of the Democracies power.
Democracies Armed Forces
"Let the Valkyries shock the enemy, the Krieg hold the line while the Quads protect the skies" quoted from General Var'Zen Ki'Ng, hero of the Ly'Nus campaign
Democracies strategum is Shock and Awe and, surprisingly, trench warfare. To surprise the enemy, confuse their ranks, set the foothold on the planet, set traps and trenches, and defend from any attack. The Shock and Awe tactic is to confuse the commanders of the enemy army and not be able to react to the extremely strong foothold on the planet.
Tayt and Krieg make the bulk of the armed forces. The Tayt have Celestial Amour, technologically advanced and heavily modified. It is made from Darthium metal, a metal that is abundant in Democracies systems. Complete with a tight suit energy shield, heat systems, pulse rates, advanced sensors and orbital drop survivability, this armour is made for the Tayt. The Tayt are the supreme Shock and Awe fighters.
The Krieg wear their standard suits and line them with Tachium crystal, highly bulletproof, highly flexible and material like, and is as abundant as Darthium. The suit also helps them to be protected from gases, unbreathable environments, and other things similar. They have advanced sensors and built in rockets under boots. This armour is standard across the Krieg. The Krieg are the masters of trenches warfare. They defend and fight until the last man. Their grim determination is envied by their enemies. They hold the line.
The penal forces spare made up of prisoners that have committed crimes against the Democracies. They are collared with shock collars and are given green fatigues and a beret. They are treated like dirt in the army and only the ones that survive five campaigns will be pardoned. Those who survives the Penal Corps are few and far between. They are not shown to the public.
Democracies Army Corps & Penal Corps
Tal'Var pattern Standard Ballistic Pyro Weapon commonly known as BPW, it is a ferocious weapon, reliable to boot. It fires flammable molten Darthium and burns non-armoured targets in seconds. This projectile weapon has a molten Darthium storage instead of a magazine. The gun converts this sludge into a highly penetrable bullet in a millionth of a second. One magazine holds enough Darthium for forty bullets. This weapon has an astounding 500rpm.
Shez'Di pattern Standard AutoFirE Sniper Rifle commonly known as SAFE, it is a long distance sniper rifle with auto firing capabilities. It fires SURPRIS rounds (Singular Unmanned Ral'Ick Por'For Rounds In Shell) which splits into multiple rounds in contact. It has an 40x scope. Devastatingly accurate and destructive, this is used by Tayt and Krieg alike.
Shez'Di pattern Standard Explosive Sub Machine Gun more commonly known as "Little B***h", this fast firing ballistic weapon turns organics to shreds. It fires a Darthium round covered with a highly explosive residue called Lik. It explodes on contact. It is just a mini explosion, just enough to destroy armoured targets. This is highly praised by Tayt Orbital Jumpers
Rik'R pattern Standard Heavy Ballistic Four Barrelled Weapon more commonly known as "Shredder", it is the Big Bertha of small arms. Firing round similarities to the "Little B***h" but bigger and more destructive, this compact gun isn't as heavy as it looks. Made from lightweight Ti'Ran metal, it is the premier light machine gun of the army. It has 300 rounds each box and requires only one person. It has an astounding 300rpm. Can only be used by Krieg Heavy Duty Fighters.
Fay'Ran Jik pattern Standard Disassembling Beam Pistol more commonly known as "Death Ray" is a new line of weapon of the Fay'Ran Jik pattern. Since the development of AI and the founding of "Smart Metal" in the Lin'Ar system, a new generation of weapons have been created. This pistol has a core in the back of the weapon that "disassembles" the weapon while firing, cooling the weapon at the same time. It is a very complicated mechanism and only scientists and engineers can understand it. It fires a continuous beam of laser, highly accurate and is devastating in the battlefield. It also melts all known metals, therefore effective against Tanks and such.
Democracies Armoured Corps
"Death and Destruction is thy Holy Path" motto of the Democracies Armoured Forces
Al'Vur pattern Standard Armoured Scout/Personnel Carrier Vehicle more commonly known as "Fist Scout", makes up the bulk of the Democracies Armoured Forces. Though lacking the firepower of his other brothers and sisters in the Force, it is highly flexible and can go over most terrain. The "Fist" has a 80. calibre Belt-fed Hard Ballistic Machine Gun on top for one of the troops to use during fights, a SUPRIS mortar at the back and gun ports for shooting out of. It has advanced sensory tech, thermal, night vision and other equipment is on board. The armour is made out of Talkium hardened carbon, an incredibly lightweight and tough material that can only be found in the Al'Vur system.
Al'Vur pattern Standard Light Battle Tank Killer more commonly known as the "Sniper" is the lightest land vehicle in service for the Democracies Armoured Forces excluding the Fist. It used to have slow tracks and almost unusable in the battlefield. Now installed with new Hovertec that can't be put on other tanks, it is the most manoeuvrable vehicle excluding the Fist in the Armoured Forces. It has a smaller Disassembling Beam Gun and a .50 calibre Ballistic Machine Gun up top. The best thing about this tank is that it is a tank killing sniper. With the beam gun, it is accurate and with accurate sensors and advanced scope, it is a hell of a gun.
Al'Vur pattern Standard Main Battle Tank more commonly known as the "Dragoon", this is the mainstay of the Democracies Armoured Forces. With a sick 180mm cannon, it has a big chomp. On it's own, it is able to take down a whole wolf pack (20) of "Fist" Armoured Personnel Carriers before going down. It is one hell of a tank and is extremely reliable and durable. With an extra SUPRIS mortar, a hidden .80 calibre Ballistic Machine Gun and a hidden Ballistic Pyro weapon folded on the front, it earned its place as the mainstay of the Democracies Armoured Forces.
Jar'Tir pattern Standard Mechanised Artillery Unit more commonly known as "Triped", is the most commonly used Artillery piece in the Armoured Forces. "Death and Destruction is thy Holy Path" is the Armoured Forces and that is the path the Triped thread. Unleashing 250mm explosive death, it is a commanders worst nightmare.
Jar'Tir pattern Standard Mechanised Scout Unit more commonly known as "Ranger", this is the smallest and only mech in service. It is plain and simple. Perfect for the basics. It is also Tar'Lik controlled which means it is absolutely disposable. Tar'Lik are in the skies and that means the Ranger's are controlled and have no pilot inside. It's armed with a 100mm cannon, a hidden Disassembling Beam gun, and a SUPRIS launcher on it's shoulder. It is expendable and easy to make. For every 2 foot sluggers, there are one of these.
Democracies Navy
"A Captain always falls with his ship!" quoted from Captain Willhelm Van Tark, one of the few Krieg captains in the Navy and a hero from the Tay'Von Campaign.
Ti'Fin class Universal Unmanned Starfighter is the universal Starfighter of the Democracies Navy. Powered by the Tac'Yor MkV Antimatter Engine, it is manoeuvrable and speedy. Armed with dual Disassembling Beam Gun's, six nuclear torpedoes and a payload of ten pyro SUPRIS bombs, it is furious and can bite on it's own. The ingenuity of this machine is that it is controlled by highly advanced sentient AI. They can link up with other Starfighters to make a coordinated army of sentient, advanced AI controlled death machines that can pull of manoeuvres that organics can't. It can also be used in atmosphere.
Lik'Dar class Standard Light Frigate is the lightest capital ship in the navy. Speedy and most manoeuvrable, it is lacking many of the broadside guns of a standard Democracies capital ship. It does though have a huge Pyro Ballistic Main Gun that fires huge fiery molten balls of Darthium metal and is extremely powerful. It is used in battle as snipers, standing behind bigger ships and picking off threats. It is 750 meters in length, 300 in width and requires 400 crew personnel to maintain. It is able to go into atmosphere.
Ta'Dur class Standard Patrol Frigate is the main patrol ship of the Democracies Navy. With huge amounts of broadside guns and an accurate flingshot jump drive, it's use is to jump into enemy formation, unleash hell and fling back. It's mainly used in frigate patrol packs and reconnaissance fleets. The broadsides mostly fire SUPRIS rounds and the occasional Pyro Ballistic. It is 850 meters in length, 300 in width and requires 600 crew personnel to maintain.
Dy'Kik class Standard Heavy Frigate is the most heavy duty out of all the Frigate class. Heavier, more torpedoes than guns and armed with no main gun, it is a Starfighter killer. All the torpedoes are nuclear tipped and on fire so they are all definite kills with this frigate. It is destructive and used as the screen along with the Ta'Dur class for bigger ships and Lik'Dar class Frigates. It is 1000 meters in length and 300 in width and requires 630 crew to maintain.
Nay'Gar class Standard Cruiser is the mainstay of the Democracies Fleet and is the most numerous in number out of the heavier class of Capital Ships and flexible. With a Tusken Ballistic Main gun, broadside Pyro Ballistics, a payload of nuclear tipped missiles and drop pods to boot, this beautiful starship is deadly and effective. It is 1600 meters in length, 670 in width and requires 950 crew to maintain and has a contingent of 50 Orbital Tayt Drop Troops.
Ji'Tol class Standard Dreadnought is the second heaviest class of standard ships and top of the line. With the most amount of broadside guns, a triple barrelled Disassembling Beam Gun, a huge amount of torpedoes and a huge contingent of Tayt Drop Troops. Death in perfection. Beautiful in the eyes of all. It is 2000 meters in length, 1000 in width and requires 1030 crew to maintain and has a contingent of 500 Orbital Tayt Drop Troops.
Tak'Wal class Standard Carrier is the longest and most durable of all Navy ships. It does not have any main guns or broadsides. And containing few nuclear torpedoes, it confuses enemy commanders profusely. Until swarms and swarms of Ti'Fin Starfighters come out of the docking bays and destroys their ships. These ships are used as the main ship of the fleet, where the Admiral leads the fleet. It is 3000 meters in length, 1600 in width and requires 1600 crew to maintain and has a contingent of 900 Orbital Tayt Drop Troopers. Each ship has around 1500 Ti'Fin in docking bays and 1500 stuck outside on the hull, magnetically clung onto the metal.
Combat technology has advanced in such a way in the Fay'Ran Jik Democracies that any primitive race would think that the Tar'Lik, Krieg and the Tayt were space wizards and witches. The old trusty Pyro Ballistics are still used and is produced in the thousands for the Democracies War Machine. The newer SUPRIS and Disassembling Beam Gun's have been tried and tested, proving their worth. Flingshot Drives have improved to ludicrous levels and Tac'Yor pattern Standard Sub-Space Engines have improved along with it.
Civilian technology has improved vastly. Fabricators so hunger is never a problem, medical technology that is so advanced that it can modify basic DNA (excluding the Krieg for their DNA is so complicated, it's not possible), Grav Cars, holograms, improved entertainment systems and much much more.
The culture of the Democracies values Freedom, Exploration and Kindness, and is their motto. To be free and not be in shackles and owned by another species is the right to all sentient. Exploration is the key to development and further advancing technology and culture, which is a right for all sentient. Kindness should be valued above all else and to experience Kindness from others is a right to all sentient. These values are what has kept the Democracies strong for centuries now. They're architect is very varied. The Tar'Lik prefer curved buildings, simple on the outside but incredibly intricate within, which makes the Tar'Lik architects praised in the world of Architecture. The Krieg prefer underground cities and block like architecture while the Tayt love skyscrapers and try and make their buildings as unique as them. Their food is quite exquisite, honed by millenia of culinary geniuses. The food is meant to smell as good as it tastes. Meaning that most cuisine in the Democracies has a very unique smell and tastes very good.
The Daliktarug, the ancestors of the Tar'Lik, were a fur covered sea creature and was barely siminlar to the Tar'Lik. After a few million years, the Daliktarug started to grow paws and legs and started to migrate onto land. Back then Fay'Ran Jik was a beautiful green and blue orb and wasn't effected by the Wisp. The Daliktarug were origninally white and roamed the planes in herds, Tar'Lit as it is now called, and peacefully coexisted with the other animals as they were omnivores but only chose to eat meat when desperate.
The Daliktarug continued to do this and migrate for millions of years, and forming a weird bond with the Ta'Ite, the then young avian all female birds that were the ancestors of the Tayt. The Daliktarug and the Ta'Ite formed a phenomenon known as the Protection Pact almost unknowingly and coexisted with each other in this time period.
In an event called The Gust o' Colourful, a huge colorful, almost rainbow like, sandstorm came in from the now gone third island, the Ta'Tau. It was said that the island was all made out of incredibly colorful sand and was as big as Krieg Island. This sandstorm of horrible death sliced the Daliktarug population in half for they protected their Avian sisters from the storm. The rest of the Daliktarug and the Ta'Ite were surprised when their coat was turned into beautiful and vibrant colors, and that the world around them was also vibrant and beautiful.
After ten million years, this event was eventually lost from the minds of Ta'Ite and Daliktarug. The Daliktarug developed sentience by this point and made civilization, absolutely forgetting the Ta'Ite who migrated to the west after the Gust. From then on the Tar'Lik went through the standard procedure of technological evolution. The Krieg on the other hand were not so lucky.
When the Gust arrived at Krieg Island, it was absolute paradise. The Leben, primate ancestors of the Krieg, were living a life of luxury. But the Gust did not bring the colorful rainbow dust storm that the others had. No no no no. What arrived on their Island was far from that. Death, decay, disease and destruction were brought from the Gust. This event halved the lifespan of all Leben. They eventually adapted to this Island of Death and developed sentience right after the Tar'Lik. The first sentient Leben came to be and his first words were "We are Krieg. No longer Leben." They eventually developed civilization underground. After a couple thousand years, the Krieg invented the boat and immediately sailed off their Island, hoping for another land.
By this point, the Tayt have joined Tar'Lik society and successfully immersed themselves in Tar'Lik society. The Krieg arrived at the port town of Lik'Dar and begged the Society of Tar'Lik and Tayt to let them in. By this point, the Krieg have sailed over the Great Ocean and lost many of their number to disease, hunger and boat malfunction. Only a 100 million Krieg were left. When the Krieg morphed into Tar'Lik society, which was a few more thousands of years, it was decided to create a government under three. The Democracies were born and technology has developed so much that they started a space exploration program. From this, the true Democracies was really made and expanded to the far reaches of space.
The Democracies was definitely surprised by the event, as some of their outer outposts have been cut off from them as well as some of the scouting forces in their home Galaxy. They are currently assessing the situation patiently, sending a few Exploration Fleets outwards to check for any signs of life and to map out the area they are in. All 19 systems and space stations are accounted for
Other:
MAY DEATH BE UPON OUR ENEMIES! FOR THE DEMOCRACIES AND FREEDOM OF ALL SPECIES!
The Unity of C'ran is a heterogeneous state, therefore being more varied than some nations but less diverse than others. Before the collapse of the False Vacuum, C'ran was an isolated power, having never encountered any other civilizations in its vast galaxy, leaving the three species of the nation alone in a sea of stars. With the emergence of the True Vacuum universe, C'ran seeks to assert itself, utilizing the developed infrastructure of their territory to further expansion into the stars in a semi-militaristic manner
Densely populated and inhabiting a wide array of planetary environs, C'ran expands slowly but effectively, harnessing vast amounts of resources and personnel to secure and develop colonies before advancing forward. However, expeditionary units travel among the void, establishing control over nearby star systems so as to ease transition and prevent any possible outsiders from claiming C'ran's future territory.
Despite the territories controlled and the time which the Unity has spent among the stars, the population density of the nation is rather low for an advanced nation, leaving it with fewer citizens and potential soldiers than other nations.
C'ran was fortunate during the collapse of the True Vacuum, seeing their entire territory transplanted into the new True Vacuum universe unlike some other nations. Before the Collapse, C'ran held twenty-nine systems and approximately forty-two colonies of varying size, most heavily developed, although some are little more than large mining and extraction stations, although this still entails many millions of people given the upkeep required to maintain the nation. In addition to these colonies, there are thirteen territories administrated by C'ran that are not completely integrated into the Greater Unity.
Separate from the held territories are several extra-Unity systems patrolled by C'ran military units, scouting potential colonies and forming a front against possible encounters with other nations. Their slow rate of expansion and previous mining endeavours leaves massive amounts of resources within controlled systems and a plethora of new locations to exploit.
C'ran's home system, Marukesh, hosts a main sequence star of approximately 2 solar masses with eight orbiting planets. Of the eight, only three are inhabited. The first of three inhabited planets is Allaris, a volcanic world of two Earth masses toxic to most creatures that are not adapted to the conditions of the surface. In addition, it is the home world and former capital of C'ran.
Second of the inhabited planets is Sarok, a world very similar to Allaris. Approximately one earth mass, this planet now serves as the capital of the Unity of C'ran with a majority of the civil structures built away from the most active regions. The fourth most populated planet in C'ran, most habitations are built below ground although a significant presence is still maintained on the surface.
The final inhabited planet in Marukesh is Narth, a world more akin to ones inhabited by other human-like races. 1.2 Earth masses, the planet is home to a majority of the non-Sakari that inhabit the Marukesh system as the volcanic planets are usually viewed as too hostile for extended stay by the other species of the Unity. Much of C'ran's military research occurs on Narth and Allaris due to their centralized and heavily guarded location.
Semi-Elective Oligarchy: The government of the Unity controls a medium number of societal functions, primarily that of healthcare, public services such as transportation, and general regulation/law-making. A council of twenty-nine members oversees the overall management of the nation. Three of the seats are permanently given to the Etharias Consortium, who can assign the seats in whatever manner they desire. The remaining twenty-six seats are initially chosen by popular election and subsequent terms maintained in such a manner. However, the Council members may decide to appoint a member to a position arbitrarily if a majority of the current Council agrees with the proposed member.
The thirteen administered territories are home to the Drones, not fully integrated into the rest of the Unity. Treaty maintains that the semi-independent territories may govern themselves, but are subject to oversight by Council-appointed officials and hand over all military and extra-national negotiations to the Council. Full union was never achieved after a short yet bloody war between the Unity and the Drones in which Unity forces accomplished nothing better than Pyrrhic victories, causing them to seek a compromise of peace with the Drones. Despite earlier conflict, the Drones seemingly serve the rest of C'ran well.
In secret, the Drones are responsible for many of the sweeping legal actions in the Unity due to the fear they instill within the Council. What most do not know of the Drone War was that C'ran nearly crumbled, making all efforts to keep the Drones constrained within the system. The highest military authorities believed that if the Drones applied a concerted action rather than almost nonchalant defense, the entirety of the Unity could be overrun within weeks. As such, extreme authority was given to the Cortex, the central control system of the Drone Complex. Consultation of the Drone representatives is mainly a perfunctory action, the requests of the Cortex having been made clear to the highest of the Council before sessions begin. Many acquiesce to the will of the Cortex, admiring it for the improvements administered to C'ran. However, certain elements wish to free themselves of its grasp...
Special Subsidiary Bodies The Inspectorum: Part Internal Affairs and part Inquisition, the Inspectorum oversees the other branches and conducts the clandestine operations of the Unity. They have the power to do whatever is necessary for the greater good of the nation, no matter the cost in lives or resources.
The Extranus: Responsible for commerce and some foreign policy, the Extranus is unique in that half of the branch is composed of members from the Etharias Consortium.
A long-lived species, an average Sakari would live two-hundred odd years. With the advancement of technology and genetic manipulation, this has extended the lifespan of an individual to approximately four-hundred years on average, with several longer-lived persons approaching seven-hundred years of age. A bipedal, humanoid species, the Sakari are similar in appearance only to humans. Due to the nature of their homeworld, Allaris, the Sakari physiology is adapted to operate in a variety of conditions. The body can withstand temperature ranges from twenty-three-degrees Celsius to seventy-one degrees Celsius comfortably, beyond which biological functions begin to break down. Able to process carbon mon/dioxide, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen with their respiratory system naturally, the Sakari can inhabit a wide array of planetary biomes. Due to the expansion into different types of planets, there is no one true example of Sakari physiology, although the classical model is generally utilized as a representation.
The Sakari are naturally psionic to a small extent. All members of the species are latent psionicists, although only certain individuals manifest these abilities in a visible manner. The primary use for the psionic abilities is telepathy and telekinesis, with all Sakari being able to send messages in a small radius around them. A field exerted by the Sakari brain enables individuals near each other to operate in cohesion with much greater efficiency as all members are aware of the actions and thoughts of others, albeit in a limited manner. Psychic abilities work through a natural field emitted by the brain of a Sakari, a result of specialized development through evolution. These psychic fields can only interact with other psychic individuals or objects when sending information, limiting telepathy to the Sakari race. Telekinesis normally requires amplifiers to allow manipulation of large objects, the natural field being too weak unmodified to handle much larger than a chair in most cases.
The first species to be discovered by the Sakari upon their leap into the pre-Collapse universe, the Grecians are intelligent eusocial insects, exhibiting intelligence on par or just below that of 21st century humans. Originating from an Earth-like planet with three times the gravitational pull, the Grecians are strong individuals on average. An average worker form is about three and a quarter meters in length and two in height with a weight of five hundred pounds, with warrior forms being slightly larger and heavier with a more developed exo-skeleton. Able to breath oxygen and nitrogen, the Grecians have foregone genetic manipulation, instead relying on technology and natural evolution to adapt to hostile conditions.
Two large antennas extend backwards from the Grecian's head, utilized for pheromone-based communication with other Grecians and enhancing their perceptory senses. Their chitinous coverings are formed from a carbon-based compound, resulting in an extremely durable natural defense. A decentralized nervous system allows an individual Grecian to operate after losing the brain, although this will prevent any regenerative function if the wound is cauterized, resulting in the eventual death of the individual as they are not able to absorb further nourishment. Biologically immortal due to their regenerative functions, most Grecians nevertheless die without seeing one hundred years of life from bio-recycling into other forms and death by combat.
The Drones, much like the Grecians, are a "species" with no true form, adapting different individuals to perform certain functions. A species in name only, the Drones are robotic constructs, a product of a Singularity event from their distant past. Entirely synthetic, no Drones have been recorded to be biological or semi-biological to this date. A singular entity controls the entirety of the Drone system, although responsibilities are assigned to lesser constructs for the purpose of efficiency. Most Drones are without conscience, simply created to perform a duty, although a rudimentary AI enables them to interact with other creatures. Advanced Drones utilize an AI system that performs as a brain, affording these individuals emotions and the other mental capacities and limitations of biological creatures, although the robotic system eliminates several of these.
An aluminum-titanium compound is utilized for most forms as extreme durability is not normally required, although construction materials varies depending on locale and purpose. Combat forms are built of tungsten-carbide frames and layered with ceramics and further tungsten-carbide sheets. Tampering with the AI of a construct or attempting to interface with the greater network without permission results in the destruction of the Drone, ensuring the safety of the Drone system.
Overview: The Sakari culture values athleticism and fidelity above anything else. Competitions are a common sight and, while respected and conducted often, remain private affairs between the competitors. Results are only released if both groups agree to such an action. Sakari architecture is designed to complement the surrounding area rather than dominate it. Buildings are shaped with curves and natural materials and powered by renewable sources. Those near mountainous or hilly areas are tall and slim, while those in flatter regions follow the gentle slope of the land, curving around natural areas. Clothing is simple yet elegant, designed to monitor health via small telemetry sensors. Made out of synthetic fibers, each style is specific to a family or guild, with color, marking, and cut denoting certain achievements, relations, or status.
Food takes a similar approach as architecture, utilizing subtle herbs to accentuate the natural flavor of the main meals. Meals are always provided as one large serving as each dish is meant to complement the whole. Art is quite prevalent in Sakari culture, most often displayed in the mode of sculpture or music/dancing. Artists are respected throughout the Dominion, given higher social standing than most other people. Military members and religious figures hold the highest standing of all.
Bodily modification is common to the point of universality. Few individuals will not seek some form of enhancement or change to their originally biological body. Most often, these surgical procedures are administered by the medical units of the Drones with oversight from family members and government officials due to a deeply-seeded slight mistrust of the Drones because of their past resistance. Most often, cybernetics are added over the span of an individuals life, replacing failing organs or lost limbs to enable full functionality. This allows increased longevity, although most choose to stay partially organic, despising robotic immortality in favor of natural death. Basic modifications, applied at birth to all citizens, are delayed, slow-release steroidal implants and bio-synthetic musculature and bone structure, making the average individual much stronger, faster, and healthier than they normally would be.
Although the Grecians have adopted the general culture of the Sakari easily enough, the Drones remain aloof. Their culture, if it could be described to exist, revolves around self-preservation and improvement of the Drone Complex as a whole.
Religion: The Church Vaterni, subscribed to by approximately 37% of the Unity's population, holds power in various areas of daily life, especially that of conduct. The primary area of difference between the general culture of the Unity and the writs of the Vaterni is in how one regards the wider universe. Unlike their brothers who view the universe as simply another situation to attend to and manipulate, followers of the Vaterni are at once bellicose and benign. Rather than simply exert influence over other nations, Vaternians wish to directly rule over other possible civilizations and provide them with what the high clergy view as the best state of life..
In the age of ending shall there be a beginning. And in this beginning will come a change. Unity shall come to the stars and all that you see will be yours.
-Inscription by an unknown author, hidden within the holy texts of the Church Vaterni
The Etharias Consortium: The Etharias Consortium constitutes the largest non-governmental organization in Unity space, a massive conglomeration of companies under one banner that is responsible for a vast number of day-to-day functions within the Unity. Despite their size and power, they do not supplant all smaller businesses due to restrictive laws set in place by the Council.
The Church Vaterni: A religious organization originating within the Grecian species, a significant minority of the Unity- both Sakari and Grecian- follow the Vaterni Church and it's teachings of supremacy, creating a slightly xenophobic tension within the Unity.
Under Construction
For a majority of the public, the collapse of the False Vacuum has been nothing if unnoticed. No pretense at secrecy was made by the government of the Unity, officials revealing the sudden and unexpected change in the surrounding universe in a rather blunt manner. Some worry about possible encounters with overly-belligerent species, causing a slight spike in military production and activity which currently continues. Others see the creation of this new universe to be a wonder, allowing unprecedented opportunities, especially for trade and expansion. Concern is generally limited to the higher-level officials. A rise in subscription to the Church Vaterni has been noted following this event, the Collapse being viewed as a holy event.
Technology: The Unity is a nation of machine and flesh, the two concepts having long ago melded into a new concept of life, one that seeks to reach the perfection of transcendence. As such, many of their technologies mimic and supplement biological functions while others are purely robotic in nature. Time and gravity manipulation is a common feature within the Unity, accomplished through the use of non-baryonic substances (dark matter and energy) to create areas of gravitational compression or expansion, which in turn is utilized to accelerate or decelerate time within a certain area. No true shielding technology exists within the Unity, instead relying on the Non-Baryonic Field Emitters' faint interactions with particles and "hard-light" structures' natural strength to survive enemy attacks.
The DPR generator is the means by which almost all of society in the Unity is supplied power, utilizing what one could dub "predatory" techniques to collect the energy required for operation. The DPR generator works with the collection of vacuum energy from alternate realities through a self-sustaining dimensional opening. However, the massive amount of energy required in sustaining and utilizing vacuum energy processors limits the reactors to larger installations and vessels. In the process, other dimensions are slowly consumed as their energy is subsumed into the True Vacuum universe. The second method of operation utilizes a small gravitationally-dilated dimensional pocket which contains a black hole. To avoid the release of these forces, the dimensional pockets are designed to collapse upon themselves should any damage come to the generator, meaning a new black hole must be generated/acquired for this secondary function to be utilized. A similar problem exists as with the vacuum energy function, preventing scaling down. Virtually all energy-requiring devices in the Unity are powered through wireless functions that transmit energy from these facilities.
A sinister-sounding yet mostly benign device, the Annihilation Generators utilizes controlled matter-antimatter reactions to generate power in large quantities. As a byproduct of the annihilation, a fusion reaction is induced in the surrounding atoms, creating a two-fold power generation procedure for increased efficiency. Despite the simplicity and usefulness of the engine, it is utilized only as an emergency power source should both of an SDR's generators fail.
PCUs generate what would be called hard-light by some peoples, a composition of solidified photons by forcing the photons to exist only as particles in a specific area rather than as a wave and particle through the use of a gravity-time field emitted from the device to stabilize the photons in their position. Because of the inability of the photon to escapes, the "hard-light" is generally invisible except for a small shimmer around the edges of the field where energy can still bleed through. However, the hard-light can also appear pitch black as light is absorbed but not released. Utilized in many areas of construction, the stasis fields of the "hard-light" constructs allows them to absorb energy efficiently, making them a natural armor of extreme durability, although sufficient energy will overload the stasis generator. PCUs are also commonly placed in weapons, used to jacket clumps of anti-matter when in atmosphere, the stasis field collapsing upon hitting an object of sufficient mass or when enough of the internal energy has bled away, causing the anti-matter to charge to detonate violently.
S/P Engines utilize the SDR generators as a direct source of energy, with either the accretion disk of singularity or the EM radiation of the neutron star being jetted through dimensional or gravity-time fields to a containment area where the matter of the singularity is used to provide thrust to the ship before having the energy absorbed by secondary generators which maintain these fields. The main form of starship propulsion, it is generally favored over cheaper gravity or plasma thrusters.
All FTL communication in the Unity is effected through ansybles, machines utilizing quantum-entangled communications to create near-instantaneous messages within its range of operation.
Otherwise known as matter-energy convertors, Baryonic-Lepton forges require inputs of matter or energy to operate, ensuring that mining remains a viable industry within the Unity as the forges themselves consume much of the energy produced by SDR generators. Utilized in tandem with quantum scanners, the quantum blueprint of an object or substance can be provided to the forge, upon which the matter and/or energy is utilized to transmute or create the desired object. Employed in operations of massive scale, smaller-scale production relies on more traditional methods of refinement, although such processes are highly developed and incredibly efficient.
The primary means by which the Unity employs faster-than-light travel is through the Non-Baryonic Field Emitter, a structure utilizing negative mass to create an Alcubierre Metric around the ship in order to accelerate at speeds faster than light. Combined with the creation of a worm-hole into a dimensional space that places the speed of light at a much higher limit in the current universe, the Non-Baryonic Field Emitter allows FTL travel to be incredibly quick in comparison to some states. Dark matter and dark energy are used in the Field to stabilize passage within the Metric and alternate dimension so that the ship may deactivate each at its own volition.
Military Structure: There exists three distinct parts to the military of the Unity of C'ran, although each is inextricably connected to the other. First is the Unity Military, what would be considered a "normal force" in early-21st century Earth terms. Composed entirely of Sakari and Grecians, the UM is tasked with protecting the inner territories of the Unity and providing peace keeping and police actions in any areas they are required to do so. Maintaining their own fleets and terrestrial forces, the UM is by far the smallest of the three branches and often relies on the assistance of the other two branches to conduct large operations. UM units are divided into thirty naval complements, thirty terrestrial complements, and twenty combined complements, each with approximately 250,000 active personnel. The primary non-military function is civil service.
Largest and most complex of the parts of the military is the Combined Pacification/Reactionary Force. Drones, Sakari, and Grecians all mingle in this branch, the biological members maintaining a healthy respect for their robotic, and often highly effective, counterparts. Most often, CP/RF units are seen patrolling the outer and middle areas of Unity space, the primary bulwark against any possible outside invaders. In addition, it is these many that maintain vigil over systems marked as future points of expansion for the Unity and are tasked with reacting swiftly and often brutally to interlopers, although no such situation has ever occurred before due to the lack of other interstellar civilizations in the pre-Collapse galaxy inhabited by the Sakari. Divided into five-hundred combined-arms divisions, the various groups frequently merge and separate, leaving no true super-organization to the CRPF.
The final branch of the military forces of the Unity of C'ran, although legally separate, is the Fifth Battalion of Observance. Composed entirely of Drones and no more than two dozen Grecians, termed Eidolons by their brethren, the Observance rarely sees action in any form, although the extremely rare actions where they have been deployed are regarded as outstanding successes, as near to perfect as can be achieved.
The SABM is the "standard issue" set of "armor" for the biological units of the Unity. It is near impossible for a biological process to match some of the feats which machines can accomplish, and the SABM was envisioned as a means of bridging this gap, allowing biological units to compete with robotics on a more even, although not equal, footing. The basis for such a technology arose from the practice of cybernetic enhancement which had existed for centuries in Sakari and Grecian society, although advanced much further. Normally, the synthetics are added surgically to the recipient, care taken to not disrupt the natural equilibrium of the body. Such methods are discarded for the application of the SABM, utilizing a brutal and quick method to transform the recipient soldier: the individual is placed within a scanner, reading the molecular make up before beginning and completing the transformation in under five seconds. The process is extremely painful for the individual as pain relievers of any form interfere with the morph of the body. Semi-organic nano-bots invade and replace almost all of the individual's original organic tissue, consuming the flesh for energy.
Composed of plasti-carbon compounds, the nanobots emulate normal flesh perfectly, in so far as sight is concerned. Maintained by constant motion and electromagnetic attraction, the nano-mechorganisms form an intelligence of their own, influenced by the mental inputs of the individual's remaining organic matter. Almost entirely cybernetic as a result, yet still very much alive, the SABMs rule the military of the unity.
The Combat Skin stands as one of the greatest implements utilized by the Unity , both on and off the battlefield, although distribution remains limited so that the development of such a device cannot extend beyond the secret fabrication areas of the Unity. Designed four years before the collapse of the False Vacuum, only within recent weeks have limited number of combat units been assigned this device. Massive suits composed of the Telserum crystal, a naturally metastable alloy of immense weight maintained by integral gravitational dilators, these combat skins were made to provide one individual with the ability to lay devastation to a continent. For this reason, only a dozen have been manufactured, given to the Eidolons as a means of distinguishing their station.
The Valeth Unified Republic is the primary interstellar state of the lupine-humanoid race known as the Val. A young nation, the Valeth Unified Republic (VUR.), was founded a mere hundred and fifty years before modern time. As such, the nation’s success amidst their more established neighbors in the galaxy was borne upon the adoption of an almost religious-like pursuit of advancement and growth. With this mindset pulling the nation behind it, a churning engine of private-sector industry and free-trade quickly propelled the VUR into a status as a major player within their galactic region.
Much of the VUR’s success was achieved with large investments into physics and engineering, applied specifically to heavy industry and its use in intergalactic trade. The roughly 20 light-year in diameter region of space that make up the VUR is crisscrossed with some of the most efficient and reliable FTL freighters known to exist. Cutting edge robotics, coupled with advanced resource processing facilities, allow the VUR to produce engineering marvels and proprietary materials that are coveted commodities among their trade partners.
However, with such an early and intense focus upon private-sector growth, the VUR is woefully lacking in areas of defense. Enjoying a confluence of factors that allowed it to initially prosper without external threats to its sovereignty, the VUR spent little on military proliferation. Throughout most of its existence, the military has been almost solely focused upon the maintenance of peace and smooth operation of trade within the nation’s boundaries. Territorial expansion and defending against invasion simply were not a priority to the Val.
In recent years this glaring weakness in the VUR’s otherwise strong national makeup became a highlight issue for both the government and populace alike. This became especially true as outside factions began to show more interest in assuming control of VUR assets, rather than simple trade. Initiatives in military spending to right this reality were undertaken, and done so with the same unifying passion that first elevated the VUR in the first instance. Yet, even in spite of this, the VUR’s burgeoning military growth still often pales in comparison to its counterparts.
Home System—Qetesh The home system of the Valeth Unified Republic is known as Qetesh. The star is an M2 V Red Dwarf, with a mass of 5.22x1029 kg, and a luminosity of 2.17x1025 W (.06 x Sol). Qetesh is orbited by six planets (listed in order of relative orbiting distance from the star):
-Pealara: Small, barren planet rich with several valuable metals and other elements. Following advancements in radiation and heat shielding, as well as robotics, the VUR were able to develop a reliable means to mine Pealara’s abundant precious metals.
-Zeni: Another relatively small rock planet with heavy volcanic activity. Where Pealara has high concentrations of usable elements, Zeni is basically devoid of them.
-Glissau: The Val homeworld, and the seat of the republic. Glissau possesses a radius that is 1.28 x earth. It has a period of 32.56 hours, and an axis tilt of 29.59°. Water makes up 68% of the planet’s surface, with another 9% covered in ice. Its average temperature is 23° C, and a large portion of the planet is forested. The land mass is grouped into three main continents. It possesses two orbiting moons; Flara and Einus. Both are inhabited. Glissau also has several large arrays of orbital platforms that are linked to the planet via space elevators. These platforms are inhabited, and generally used for industrial or scientific purposes, though there are scattered defensive structures spaced within them.
-Lioter: A gas giant, roughly the size of Jupiter, with four orbiting moons. Lioter is one of the most important economic hubs of the VUR, as it links Glissau with the outer rim planets and asteroid cloud where the majority of resource mining within the Qetesh system takes place. Two of the four moons possess atmospheres—both of which the Val have terraformed for permanent habitation. Several large private conglomerates call the moons of Lioter home, and the local politics of the area have great influence on Glissau, and the VUR as a whole.
-Ocreon: Another gas giant, made notable by its vast orbiting asteroid cloud. These asteroids are heavily mined by ships based out of the moons of Lioter. Though it possesses no habitable natural satellites, Ocreon is home to a major mining and naval outpost named Rift Station.
-Caglilia: A small ice planet located 4.1 AU from Qetesh. There are no permanent settlements or regular excursions to the planet by the VUR, however several automated research vessels were placed in orbit around Caglilia as a means to search for further celestial bodies to mine from within the system.
System II—Crion Crion was the first star system colonized by the Val. It is located 4.2 light-years from Qetesh, and was the first system to join with the Val homeworld to form the Unified Republic. The system possesses two companion stars: Crion and Eridani. Crion is a K7 5 Orange Main Sequence star, with a mass of 1.78 x 1030 kg, and a luminosity of 1.02 x 1026 W (0.27 x sol). Eridani is a M0 V Red Dwarf star, with a mass of 8.77 x 1029 kg, and a luminosity of 1.41 x 1025 W (0.04 x sol). These stars are orbited by two planets (listed in order of relative orbiting distance from the stars binary axis):
-Espion: The seat of the VUR government in the Crion system. This ringed planet has a radius 1.18 x earth. It has a period of 48.84 hours, and an axis tilt of 6.21°. No liquid water exists naturally on the planet, though nearly 35% of it is covered with ice. It’s average temperature is 8° C. Espion has no moons. The VUR have invested heavily in terraforming the planet to more resemble Glissau. Of the nodes of Val civilization, the most notable are the orbital shipyards operated by the Extron and Unitis Corporations. The vast majority of modern FTL ships within the VUR fleet—both military and civilian—are produced at these shipyards. Due to its economic significance, Espion is home to one of the largest naval fleets within the republic.
-Boecury: A relatively small rock planet most notable for being a waystation for mining and shipping vessels operating in the asteroid mining colonies located between Boecury and Espion. It was once a haven for Val outlaws and privateers prior to the formation of the Unified Republic.
System III--Kadesh WIP
System IV--Maw Frontier WIP
Tier 1—Intersystem Level Senate: The senate is comprised of two elected bodies: The Pillar of the Commons, and The Pillar of the Wards. Legality of legislation is regulated under the Valethian Constitution, and individual bills must pass in both bodies before they are sent to the Premier for ratification.
The Pillar of the Commons represents the will of the Val population most directly, as this body of the senate expands with the population of the Val itself. Its elected officials, known as Senators, are appointed via direct election from within individual system-wide districts.
The Pillar of the Wards represents the interests of the star-systems that make up the VUR equally, as there are only a set number of officials appointed from each system, regardless of that system’s population. These officials are known as Wardens, and they are elected from among the local system senates. No direct elections are held for their appointment, except in the rare case of Referendum—a process by which the population of a local system can recall a Warden from service if that individual is deemed unfit by a supermajority of the citizenry.
Premier: Executive power lies with a single Premier, which is directly elected by the entire population of the VUR. The Premier is granted powers of enforce laws passed by the Senate, and is also considered the Altos, or Supreme Commander, of the armed forces. Premiers are elected to single ten year terms, and can only be removed via impeachment or the process of Referendum. Once an individual has served as a Premier, they are banned from holding any further office at any intersystem level in the VUR.
Coalition of Courts: Judiciary power resides in a group of judges appointed by the Premier. These judges make up a total of five courts, all of equal “rank.” When a trial reaches the intersystem level, the trial is held simultaneously with all five of these courts. During the trial, these courts have no contact with one another, and they observe the trial proceedings anonymously via electronic proxy. Once each court has reached a decision, a final decision is delivered based solely upon a simple majority of the five individual decisions made by the courts.
Tier 2—Systems Level Local governments are comprised almost identically to that of the intersystem level of the republic. Systems are governed by senates, as well as a governor’s office. Systems hold sub-sovereignty status, and can act on their own accord as long as it does not interfere with the Valethian Constitution, or established intersystem law.
The Val are a lupine-humanoid species with physiology akin to earth’s mammals. They breathe oxygen, and metabolize energy through the ingestion of other living organisms. The species is a generally strong and lean one, wherein an average male stands 2.1 meters tall, and weighs 140 kg. Females average 1.8 meters in height, and 112 kg.
The musculoskeletal system is relatively strong and resilient, though not naturally suited to zero-gravity. Val are viviparous, and offspring are produced in litters of 1-4 cubs following a gestation period of six months. Though exceptions exist, the physiological tendency is for Val to mate for their entire adult life.
The Val possess excellent hearing, smell, and eyesight. Their immune system is also hardy, and naturally responsive to many classifications of microbial. A harsh evolutionary crucible during the formation of the species has developed this trait.
Modern Valethian culture has varied greatly from the warlike clan/family ethos that existed for the majority of the species’ existence. Prior to the Val expanding beyond their home planet, and even into the first iteration of Valethian intersystem governance, this primitive structure held sway. However, as the universe continued to expand for the Val, the adherence to the cultural pillars of the past proved more and more at odds with the success of the species. In response to this reality, a period of Valethian unification and rebirth occurred, where many of the ancient customs and schools of thought were cast away, and the species coalesced into a more singular body.
This paradigm shift dovetailed directly with the adoption of the republican form of government for the Val, and a vigorous pursuit of individual freedom and prosperity. To the Val, the future was bright and promising, and they were going to achieve their best destiny with force of will. Interest in science, mathematics, engineering, and technological fields exploded, and a fresh wave of philosophical renaissance griped the populace. Quite literally, the Val viewed their potential amongst the stars.
However, in spite of this unprecedented shift in culture, the Val still retain many of their core traits from their more primitive and violent past. They are a dogged, and often stubborn species. The bonds and associations of the ancient clans still exist, thought to a lesser extent, and Valethian politics often reflects this tradition. The Val can often be quick tempered, and violent. This is especially true in areas of the republic far from the civic-minded beacon of Glissau, where many of the shadows of Valethian history still caste their silhouette.
The New Star Party: The most prominent of the political parties formed during the fledgling days of the republic. Members of this party still hold most of the offices within the system and intersystem governments. Generally, New Star members identify with ideals of individual liberty and decentralized government.
The Quinring: An organization and political party that represents the more traditional culture of the Val. While no direct link has been as yet proven, many believe the Quinring sponsors domestic radicals in acts of terrorism and sabotage against the republic.
The Extron and Unitis Corporations: These massive private companies own and operate the most advanced industrial conglomerates in the VUR. From robotics, biosciences, heavy industry, and chemical production, Extron and Unitis have their hands in it all. They hold huge political sway, so much so that some call for sweeping anti-trust legislation as a means to ensure fair and free markets.
Maleth Rokulval: An extremist organization of Valethian dissidents and terrorists that strive to return the Val to their ancient clan system. Their name translates roughly to “The Soul of the True Val.” Many Val that identify themselves as members of the Quinring, are also Maleth Rokulval sympathizers.
WIP
Following the True Vacuum event, or Quantum Spacetime Anomaly (QSA), as it has most commonly come to be known amidst the Val, the VUR found itself a reeling nation, but one that maintained general law and order. The state of the economy fell sharply in the immediate aftermath of the QSA, but as the weeks passed, it rebounded to a state yet far from normalcy, but one where the functions of society and the republic could be sustained.
The scientific community is still unsure of what exactly happened, but the general consensus is that some form of rift or anomaly forced a dramatic shift in the fabric and arrangement of spacetime. While the search for scientific answers continue, the current state of affairs vis-à-vis the VUR’s relative proximity to unknown factions of sentient beings has wholly consumed the attention of the nation. With the armed forces well-equipped, but woefully lacking in size to repulse a full-fledged invasion, the republic has initiated a drastic shift to a wartime footing.
Initiatives ranging from dramatic calls for increased recruitment into the armed forces, the implementation of mandatory convoy protocols for merchant shipping vessels, to the commissioning of an unprecedented level of capital-class naval vessels, have all taken place in the wake of the QSA. Thus far, the Valethian people have responded with a unified determination to the new demands of their place in the universe, but all is not as balanced as it once was.
Shortly after the QSA, there was a drastic increase in dissenter agitation and terrorism within the outer systems of the VUR. Groups like Maleth Rokulval attempted to seize the opportunity for an uprising. Though no attempts to overthrow VUR governmental bodies were successful, the audacity of the attempts shocked the populace. Garrisons and security forces across the VUR are on high alert for domestic threats.
Diplomatic contact with factions near to the VUR have been initiated, and envoys from Glissau have been dispatched to attempt peaceful détente agreements before war comes to a head.
Technology:
-Tetra Matrix Polymers: The Val’s enormous leap forward in prosperity was quite literally built with Tetra Matrix Polymers. Using a proprietary process of quantum-level manipulation, Val physicists were able to perfect an atomic matrices that allowed for precise construction and adhesion of materials that were traditionally thought impossible to bond. With this technology, the Val are able to produce a near limitless combination of materials for application-specific uses. From highly durable crystal-laced ceramic ship armors, to paper-thin sheets of radiation deflecting shrouds, the Val enjoyed the most diverse and effective synthetic materials when compared to their former intergalactic trade partners. These polymers are widely used in both civilian and military applications.
-Tachyonic Particle Tunneling: Another Val innovation that was achieved to further the growing economic engine of intergalactic trade, Tachyonic Particle Tunneling, or simply Tac Tunneling, has all but replaced older FTL drives within the VUR. Using a combination of drive core that utilizes the unique nature of tachyon particles, coupled with the principle of quantum tunneling, the vessel is able to achieve speeds many magnitudes higher than that of light.
However, the physics of tachyon particles that allow for Tachyonic Particle Tunneling in the first instance, are also the source of the drives primary weakness. Since tachyon particles increase in speed as their energy decreases, Tac Tunneling cores must keep these particles highly energized when FTL speeds are not desired. In rare cases, vessels equipped with Tac Tunneling cores have accelerated out of control as a result of a catastrophic loss in primary and secondary power.
-Tachyon Burst Communication: A technology developed alongside with Tachyonic Particle Tunneling, these special transmitters utilize bursts of regulated and focused tachyon particles to transmit data across great distances. While not instantaneous when data is to be sent across hundreds of thousands of light-years, it is possible for reliable bursts to be sent a small magnitude faster than a Tac Tunnel equipped vessel could travel.
Military Structure:
The battlecruiser VRS Roost
The military of the Valeth Unified Republic is proportionally small for an equivalent nation of similar size and economic stature. As mentioned in the Overview section, several external and independent factors during the birth of the republic allowed for the VUR to exist and flourish without substantial threat from outside entities. That being said, the VUR military apparatus is well-funded, well-supported by the populace, and very well equipped. This is particularly true in the aftermath of the True Vacuum event.
There are three main branches of the armed forces: the Navy, the Systems Corp, and the Republic Commerce Corp.
-Navy The Navy is by far the largest of the three branches, having the responsibility of patrolling and defending VUR space in both atmosphere and vacuum, maintaining the ability for offensive operations outside of VUR space in both atmosphere and vacuum, as well as operating as the transportation apparatus for the Systems Corp. The Navy also maintains the VUR’s main intelligence gathering division, the Fleet Intelligence Office. The VUR’s largest and most versatile infantry section, the Republic Marines, also fall under the navy’s umbrella.
The organization of the navy falls into fleet classifications. Fleets are traditionally organized by the systems to which they are assigned to patrol and defend, though there are plans for a fleet that operates on a solely intersystem basis, and would be the VUR’s primary force for missions outside of friendly space.
1st Fleet— Based out of the VUR capital world of Glissau, 1st Fleet maintains the largest number or warships, marines, and auxiliary vessels within the navy. It also operates one of the VUR’s three super-capital class battlecruisers, the VRS Praetor. 1st Fleet has also been tasked by Fleet Command to operate as the primary offensive flotilla should war come to the VUR.
2nd Fleet— Based out of the star system of Kadesh, 2nd Fleet is the smallest of the navy. Often 2nd Fleet is utilized as a tempering ground for new naval officers and ship commanders.
3rd Fleet— The second largest of the naval fleets, 3rd Fleet is based out of the Crion system. It maintains an important vigil along with its other duties—that of defending the strategically important Extron and Unitis orbital shipyards around the planet Espion. As such, it operates the remaining two super-capital class battlecruisers of the navy: the VRS Roost, and the VRS Obsidian.
4th Fleet— Tasked with patrolling the Maw Frontier, the Val of the 4th Fleet receive the most duty missions, in proportion to their size, of any fleet in the navy. As the Maw Frontier holds the largest percentage of pirates, radicals, and political extremists within VUR controlled space, it has a very real prerogative to maintain vigilance.
-Systems Corp The Systems Corp operates as the main military force for operating in atmosphere. It maintains forces for traditional waterborne navies, atmospheric capable aircraft, infantry, and innumerable other in-atmosphere equipment and material. For transportation outside of atmosphere, the Systems Corp relies totally on naval support.
-Republic Commerce Corp The RCC is the second largest of the military branches. It is tasked with operating and securing public spaceports and spaceborne commercial hubs, enforcing trade laws, patrolling established shipping lanes. They are also the only policing force that has jurisdiction across all VUR systems. The RCC operates no capital class vessels, and must rely on naval support for operations that require such resources.
A small multispecies union with fairly advanced technology that remains fairly isolationist to the rest of the galaxy, and only intends modest expansion. Its primary concern is scientific development and material progress, but it maintains a sizable military in fear of attack by another, larger power.
The capital star system is known as Nova. This solar system contains three habitable planets. The one closest to the sun is Europia, home to the Dromo and the capital planet of their United Provinces. The middle one is Nova Mondial, home to the Catopians, Greelians, and Toka, and is the capital of the Catopian-Greelian People's Republic. The outermost planet is known as Sapia, and home to the Karterieans and the capital of their Nawu'Rawu Empire. The Tokan Mining Principate's capital is an asteroid the size of a small moon in the Nova System known as Toka Prime. The Adanaia Dominions' homeworld and capital planet lies in the neighboring star system of Firan and is called Oona. Finally, the capital of the Noviran Socialist Union itself is the moon Lunaris (orbiting around Nova Mondial), which is a massive planet-wide supercity populated by inhabitants of all the various races of the Union. Including the capital, the NSU only controls a small cluster of 26 star systems, dotted with the occasional habitable world.
Map (ignore the label up top left, it's imported from another RP of mine):
Instead of electing politicians or leaders, the Noviran Socialist Union has a free-wheeling, all-inclusive legislature that citizens can participate in at will, amounting to a sort of "electronic democracy" where everyone can vote on any issue. However, recognizing that this system has its flaws in times of war, the Union does elect one Premier to serve as its head of state and a war council to direct war efforts if necessary. Until such a state of emergency is voted by the populace, the war council is effectively figureheads and the premier serves a minimal role. Its economic system operates on the principles of social democracy, wherein capitalism is allowed, but heavily regulated to prevent monopoly and it is ensured that everyone has what they need to survive, provided they contribute to society. Major industries and essential services are operated by the state. At this point, due to scientific innovations and robotics technology, the Union is virtually free of scarcity.
The War Council is composed of two representatives from each species, amounting to twelve individuals. In event of stalemate, the Premier may serve as a thirteenth vote. The current Premier of the NSU is Sahria Perumal, a Catopian.
Catopians: The Catopians are a fairly tall (six feet on average) bipedal species that are primarily humanoid with catlike characteristics, including claws, body fur, arched backs, tails, and agile legs good at leaping. They are omnivorous, but tend to prefer meat. Almost every Catopian has grey fur. Their population currently rests at 31.4 billion.
Greelians: Hunchbacked green lizards with abnormally large heads in comparison to the rest of their bodies, which likely accounts for their reputation for great intelligence in comparison to many of the other species. They have an extremely low birth rate, and so even though they are the oldest organized species their population (almost entirely in the Nova System) amounts to only 220 million.
Toka: The Toka are a green amphibian-like bipedal species with large flipper-like feet and claws. Their population is fairly low in comparison to the Catopians due to their main settlements being on asteroids, and currently stands at 6.2 billion.
Dromo: The Dromo are a reptilian species with red scales whose unique biological characteristic is that nutrients are stored in the form of crystals which grow from their backs. Their legs stand at an interesting gait, with their knees protruding forward in a standing position. They are the second most numerous of the species of the NSF with a population of 17.3 billion.
Karterieans: The Karterieans are another reptilian species, but are much more menacing than their Greelian and Dromo counterparts, with extremely sharp claws, fangs and spikes as well as imposing, strong figures which helped them to be incredibly menacing opponents both then and now. They number about 13.2 billion.
Adanaia: Subterranean octopi with hooved legs, the Adanaia are one of the strangest races of the Federation. They have no sense of hearing, and see in infrared, which means that all communication with them must be done visually through a type of sign language that most species of the NSU learn in basic education. Their population is 8.8 billion, around the middle of the Noviran species.
The total population of the Noviran Socialist Union is 77.1 billion, of which 11% is Adanaia, 17% is Karteriean, 22% is Dromo, 8% is Toka, 0.3% is Greelian, and 41% is Catopian. As such, Catopians tend to dominate most of the institutions of the NSU, but the other species have very important roles and a great deal of attention is spent on making sure the species are on more equal footing despite their population disparities.
As a sprawling multispecies union with increasingly blurred internal borders, much of the internal animosity and cultural difference in Noviran society has disappeared, but some still remains intact and alive among segments of the population. The Catopians deeply regret their previous warmongering ways, and seek to avoid conflict or domination over the other species (though a minority believes it justified), but they continue their love of science and orderly technological society. The Greelians are well known for their peaceful nature, and have been integrated into Catopian society for around a thousand years, and despite their small populations they are overwhelmingly represented in intellectual life, with treatises on government, philosophy, and art. Greelians also pioneered artificial intelligence in the NSU, and continue to explore it despite Catopian reticence to create an evil robot army. Much of the current Noviran government is based on Greelian political thought. The Tokans are well known as engineers and miners, the Tokan Mining Principate producing the vast majority of the Union's ores, though they contribute little to Noviran culture. The Dromo and Karterieans are both highly militaristic, but Karteriean influence on society comes in the form of their emphasis on physical ability, honor, and sacrifice, whereas the Dromo stick more to the ideas of discipline and obedience to authority. Karteriean martial arts are well-practiced across the Union, considered one of the optimal ways to retain physical fitness in an overwhelmingly technological world. The Adanaia add a touch of the mystical to Noviran culture, with many of them being highly spiritual and philosophical. They are among the most avid converts to Wigglyism (the religion of an extinct species which committed martyrdom for its cause).
Generally, the synthesized values of the whole Noviran Socialist Union are best expressed by its flag: green representing free discussion and democracy, grey representing order and equality, and blue representing science, technology and the pursuit of knowledge. These are the highest values of Noviran society, and form the basis around which it operates.
The only religion present in the Noviran Socialist Union is Wigglyism, the worship of a gigantic space serpent who is said to have created the universe and all its people, and destined certain species for survival and greatness. This is only the religion of a very small portion of the Union's population, around 5%. The remainder are either agnostic or athiest.
However, five of the six species within the NSU maintain semi-autonomous governments (some more autonomous than others). These are the Catopians (Catopian-Greelian People's Republic), Karterieans (Nawu'Rawu Empire), Adanaia (Adanaia Dominions), Dromo (United Provinces), and the Toka (Tokan Mining Principate). These governments retain responsibility for small species militias (like the National Guard in America), local laws that don't conflict with Union-wide laws, and basic maintenance. To this end each is given 5% of Union-wide tax revenue amounting to 25% of the total budget. This top-down tax system is designed to hinder the ability of revolt since each government has no system in place for its own taxation, however it is subject to some Catopian resentment since their population is as large as any two of the others combined. Additionally, the TMP is a corporate-national fusion which holds a state monopoly on mining within its territories. The other governments have no direct involvement in their economies besides basic regulation.
The first sentient species, the Greelians, of the Union emerged as a civilization on the planet Nova Mondial in the year 0 on the Noviran calendar. Others soon followed, the most important of which were the Albedituse and Catopians. The First Mondial War (circa 2500) lead to Albedituse and Catopian victory over the other species, which for the most part dwindled and became extinct. However, the two rising powers soon came into conflict, and in the Second Mondial War (circa 2900) the two fought a final battle for domination of the planet, which the Catopians began to lose until they invented nuclear weapons and obliterated the Albedituse and their allies. By 3010, that one species, the Catopians, had emerged as a political, military and scientific superpower above the Toka and Greelians, the only other remaining species. The Toka possessed semi-comparable technology, but the Greelians integrated into Catopian society.
After first contact with the Dromo and Karterieans on Sapia, the Dromo were uplifted by the Catopians and moved to Europia, where they began their civilization anew. Later, the Karterieans also received the same benefits after a stage of initial reluctance which lead to the nuclear bombings of many of their cities. The Catopian Empire led these species in an alliance known as the Nova Dominion, which they required them to join or otherwise be annihilated. The Catopian Empire was violent, oppressive and militaristic in nature, and either cowed other species into subservience or demonstrated their firepower until they got the idea. They later traveled to another system, Firan, and contacted the intelligent species of that system, the Adanaia. After a devastating alien invasion by a species only known as the Hive on the Nova Dominion, the Catopians split up from their former hyperpower status into three smaller powers, each superpowers in their own right. These were the previously existing Catopian Empire, whose policies had evolved into sheer militant fascism, the democratic, free market Catopian-Greelian Republic, and the democratic socialist United Catopian Socialist Planets.
After many years of conflict and strife, in 3101 a powerful war between multi-species factions lead by each of the Catopian fragment nations resulted in the destruction of most of Novan and Firan civilization as well as many interstellar colonies, and the regression back to simpler technology. However, due to the complete destruction of the Rajah imperial line which led the Empire, the Catopians found a compromise between the CGR and UCSP in forming their new government, the Catopian-Greelian People's Republic. After a century and a half, the species of these two systems agreed that it was necessary to end war between them to prevent anything like it from happening again, and in 3277, formed the Noviran Socialist Union, designed to integrate all species and unite them under one banner as equals with equal say in how society is run. Since then, the races of the Federation have developed and rebuilt their technology to previous levels, and having colonized most of their small cluster, they looked to expand to the rest of the galaxy before the move to the True Vacuum universe happened. The current Noviran year is 3413.
The move to the True Vacuum universe has had a remarkably destabilizing effect on Noviran society. Many Wigglyites predict the end times, while most average Novirans are disoriented and are concerned for their safety and security, remembering the invasion of the Hive and the great destruction it caused. The government and military officials, however, are taking the change with less hysteria and are determined to find the Union's new place in the galactic community, and to find allies.
Technology: The Noviran Socialist Union is highly advanced, with most aspects of normal life being automated and scarcity for its residents being virtually eliminated. There is more than enough resources for everyone in the Union to maintain a reasonable standard of living, except for those who choose not to work and are not disabled in any way. Genetic engineering ensures a stable food supply, and power is provided entirely through nuclear fusion. Militarily, the NSU maintains five large fleets with weapons such large magnetic accelerator cannons, plasma pulse launchers, and nuclear lasers. Their ships are armored with "neosteel" titanium-diamond armor plating and electromagnetic shields, and some of their vehicles as well. Their infantry use armored exosuits or "power armor" except for the very lightest, and even some infantry possess light energy shields.
Energy/Electromagnetic Shields: Noviran energy shields operate by using electromagnetic fields to hold a thin, almost invisible sphere of iron atoms around the wearer. In the event of an incoming projectile, the iron atoms are directed to form a lattice in that specific area and prevent entry into the sphere. When the power supply is overwhelmed, the energy shield collapses. This can happen if the energy shield is under concentrated fire or if it is hit by an especially powerful weapon. Some Noviran armored infantry exosuits, ships and vehicles have a secondary magnetic reinforcement field, which electromagnetically holds the frame of the armor in shape. This is however vulnerable to plasma weaponry, which can heat the armor and kill the operators inside regardless. STF or Shear Thickening Fluid: STF is a type of non-Newtonian fluid which hardens under stress. In practice in Noviran armor, it protects the wearer from incoming projectiles while remaining much more flexible and maneuverable than solid armor. Nuclear Lasers: One of the most advanced achievements of Noviran military technology, the nuclear laser creates a fusion reaction inside the main chamber and propels it at half of the speed of light towards its target. It does this continuously, with the effect of forming a large laser-like beam which strikes with the force of a nuclear bomb at every instant. This is most commonly used for planetary bombardment, but it can also be used on enemy ships to terrible effect. Neutron Weapons: Nuclear warheads that instead of releasing a large explosion create a mini gamma ray burst, killing all biological creatures within a certain radius of the blast instantly, unless they are shielded by extremely heavy plating.
Military Structure: The vast majority of the military is Karteriean, Dromo and Catopian with a few Tokans. The Karterieans due to their superior physical ability and almost from birth training in the ways of conflict and war serve as the majority of the Noviran Army, as invaluable shock troopers who take charge and lead the front lines. Their culture has had a great influence on the military's rules and regulations, holding its members to strict and honorable codes. The Dromo run many of the greatest officer schools in the Union and so are highly represented in the officer corps across all divisions. The Catopians serve in a mix in both officers and army, but predominantly serve in the Noviran fleets as pilots, technicians and engineers. The Toka are minimally represented as engineers both in space and on the ground.
The Noviran Socialist Union Armed Forces primarily consist of 3 main divisions:
Noviran Space Division (responsible for commanding the five main space fleets of the NSU)
Oona-class Fighter:
Number in each fleet: Varies, usually around 5000 Weapons: Nose-mounted plasma minigun, belly-mounted laser cannon. Capable of downing atmospheric aircraft easily, with the exception of the best. Armor: Titanium/neosteel frame, light magnetic reinforcement shield, not too tough but can resist plasma and gauss fire. Threat Level: 8.5 (It's a powerful fighter. Not much else to say.)
Sapia-Class Frigate:
Number in each fleet: 100 Weapons: Twelve plasma minigun turrets, five nuclear missiles, three plasma launchers and a 5-meter wide laser cannon, can tear apart fighters, atmospheric and space, and stand up to larger ships. Armor: 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) neosteel plating, .5 feet (15 cm) aerogel, medium-heavy energy shield. Threat Level: 11.5 (The basic space battle ship of the Union.)
Europia-class Destroyer:
Number in each fleet: 50 Weapons: Sixteen plasma minigun turrets, eight nuclear missiles, four plasma launchers and a 10-meter wide laser cannon. Significantly more powerful than frigate. Armor: 9 feet (3 meters) neosteel, 1 foot (.33 meters) aerogel, heavy energy shield. About double the armor of the frigate. Threat Level: 12 (A little bit larger, tougher armored and more powerful than the frigate.)
Lunaris-class Battlecruiser:
Number in each fleet: 15 Weapons: Hundreds of gauss, plasma and laser minigun turrets mounted, 250 nuclear missiles, twelve plasma launchers, nuclear laser cannon. Armor: 12 feet (4 meters) of neosteel plating, three feet (1 meter) of aerogel, and an additional foot of titanium, super-heavy energy shield. Threat Level: 13 (Able to take on thousands of fighters and at least twenty frigates, these are the powerhouses of Noviran fleets.)
Mondial-class Battlecruiser:
Number in each fleet: 1 (capital ship) Weapons: Thousands of gauss, plasma and laser minigun turrets mounted, four thousand of each: nuclear missiles, chemical missiles, antimatter missiles, neutron missiles, biological missiles for twenty thousand total, two enormous plasma pulse launchers, thirteen magnetic accelerator cannons, one main large nuclear laser, three Nova Bombs. Armor: Projected heavy advanced energy shield, magnetic reinforcement shield. Solid defenses in order, 1-cm silver laser-ablative coating, 12 feet (4 meters) of solid reinforced neosteel plating, three feet (1 meter) of aerogel, ballistic frame, second hull of nine feet (3 meters) neosteel, one foot (.33 meters) of aerogel, one foot of neosteel. The interior of the ship is further reinforced. Capable of withstanding multiple hits from virtually any weapon except a magnetic accelerator cannon without its shields, and capable of withstanding even that with them on, for a significant period of time.
Noviran Planetary Combat Division (responsible for defense of the Nova Stellar Cluster, manning orbital and planetary defenses and running Union planetary militias to defend against ground invasion, as well as for landing on and capturing hostile celestial bodies)
Police/Militia Forces:
Police:
Weapons: Laser pistol, taser, steel baton, capable of killing unarmored foe Armor: Kevlar-like polymer jumpsuits, stops light-strength bullets and knives Training: Basic Threat Level: 2 (slightly greater than civilian)
City Militia:
Weapons: Mk. II Laser Rifles, able to pierce bulletproof armor, laser pistol. Armor: Standard STF medium bulletproof armor, capable of stopping all but the strongest piercing melee weapons and conventional bullets. Training: More rigorous than basic, but not military-level Threat Level: 3 (threat against light infantry)
Armored Militia Vehicle:
Weapons: Occupants' weapons, conventional machine gun turret with bullets that explode on contact Armor: Bulletproof, able to be destroyed by large grenade or rocket. Threat Level: 4 (threat against light infantry)
Militia Attack Helicopter:
Weapons: Laser minigun, small conventional missiles, dangerous for infantry Armor: Mostly bulletproof, susceptible to large conventional explosives. Threat Level: 6 (dangerous for light infantry, threat to medium)
Planetary Army Forces:
Light Infantry:
Weapons: Mk. III Automatic Laser Rifle, plasma pistol, effective against anything besides tanks, other vehicles, and powered armor/energy shields. Armor: Advanced STF bulletproof armor w/ 10 micron silver ablative coating, capable of stopping all gunpowder weapons and less powerful lasers. Training: Military-level Threat Level: 5 (not heavily armored, but powerful en masse)
Medium Infantry:
Weapons: Mk. II Gauss Rifle, plasma pistol, capable of engaging powered armor and conventional armor. Armor: Standard Armored Infantry Exosuit, stops gunpowder weapons and most lasers, can stand up to gauss somewhat. Training: Exceptional Threat Level: 6 (standard frontline infantry)
Elite Infantry:
Weapons: Mk. IV Plasma Assault Rifle, plasma pistol, can completely annihilate most lesser infantry and vehicles. Armor: Advanced Armored Infantry Exosuit, Standard Energy Shield, nigh invulnerable to all conventional weapons and lasers, hard to take down with gauss and plasma. Training: Elite. Threat Level: 8 (devastating against most infantry, in numbers horrifyingly effective.)
Dragoons:
Weapons: Gauss or plasma minigun, or tactical nuclear rocket launcher. Armor: Standard Armored Infantry Exosuit, stops gunpowder weapons and most lasers, can stand up to gauss somewhat. Training: Exceptional Threat Level: 6 (powerful against heavier targets, like power armored infantry and vehicles)
Advanced Prototype Infantry:
Weapons: Antimatter rifle. Destructive to even powered armor and advanced vehicles. Armor: Prototype Carbon Armored Infantry Exosuit, Advanced Energy Shield, requires concentrated fire from plasma or gauss weaponry to take down. Training: Elite. Threat Level: 10 (Virtually a one-man tank, but these are only for special ops purposes at the moment)
Planetary Armored Divisions:
Standard Supplementary Infantry Vehicle (honestly a Warthog from Halo)
Weapons: Occupants' weapons, (two types) 1. Exploding bullet minigun turret. Effective against light and medium infantry, damaging to heavier vehicles and powered armor. 2. Gauss cannon. Effective against heavier vehicles and powered armor, sniper-like for infantry. Armor: Neosteel frame and bulletproof glass windshield, resistant against even explosives. Threat Level: 7 (with the combination of both turrets, able to take on infantry and vehicles. Alone, weaker to opposites.)
Armored Troop Carrier:
Weapons: Occupants' weapons, medium laser turret. Armor: 2 in (5 cm) titanium plating, stops gunpowder weapons and resists lasers and explosives. Threat Level: 6 (not intended for combat, but can hold its own against light infantry)
Alzun Laser Tank:
Weapons: 75mm Laser Cannon, two automatic laser side turrets. Effective against light infantry and vehicles. Armor: 3 in. (7.5 cm) neosteel plating w/ light interior energy shield, blocks all conventional weaponry and resists lasers and plasma. Threat Level: 8 (capable of taking on lighter APC-style vehicles and infantry, but for all intents and purposes a light tank.)
Zentul Gauss Tank:
Weapons: 105mm Gauss Cannon, two automatic laser side turrets. Armor: 4 in. (10 cm) neosteel plating w/ medium interior energy shield, blocks all conventional and lasers, resists plasma and gauss. Threat level: 9 (capable of taking on sizable vehicles and power armored infantry.)
Peruma Plasma Tank:
Weapons: Twin 65mm Plasma Cannons, smaller automatic gauss machinegun. Armor: 4 in. (10 cm) reinforced neosteel plating w/ medium interior energy shield, invulnerable to all conventional, tough to take down with plasma and gauss. Threat level: 9.5 (devastating against even power armor legions, the most powerful Catopian tank.)
Anton Nuclear Artillery:
Weapons: Two 8 in. (20 cm diameter) nuclear artillery cannons, can even destroy heavy tanks. Can load either thermonuclear or neutron warheads. Armor: Neosteel frame, resists explosions and lasers. Threat level: 7 (Devastating weapon, but vulnerable close in and to air strikes.
Sheba Rocket Smart Artillery/SAM:
Weapons: Five thermobaric missiles, able to be reloaded quickly. Guided, can target air well, as well as pinpoint ground targets. Armor: Reinforced neosteel frame, mostly conventional proof, resists energy weapons. Threat level: 8 (Efficient and accurate weapon, not able to take on close targets though.)
Noviran Walker:
Weapons: Two 55mm plasma cannons, gauss minigun, pinpoint laser defense. Powerful weapons that can pound lesser tanks and infantry. Armor: Reinforced neosteel frame, heavy energy shield. The walker's structure itself is only resistant towards energy weapons, but the energy shield makes most attacks completely ineffective. Threat level: Threat level: 10 (slightly less damaging than plasma tank but much more maneuverable and equally tough due to its more advanced energy shields)
Atmospheric Air Forces (While mostly obsolete, a limited number of these are maintained for defending planets with no nearby fleets)
X-1 Jet Fighter:
Weapons: Nose-mounted laser minigun, four thermobaric missiles. Can mow down light infantry and blow up larger targets. Armor: Reinforced aluminum frame, light energy shield. Resists conventional and lasers, but plasma and gauss tears through fairly easily. Threat level: 7 (threat to infantry and light vehicles, but can be taken down comparatively easy. Effective in numbers.)
X-2 Jet Fighter:
Weapons: Twin wing-mounted laser miniguns, nose-mounted laser cannon, six thermobaric missiles, pinpoint laser defense system. Armor: Reinforced titanium frame, medium-light energy shield. Tough against conventional, but only resists gauss and plasma. Threat Level: 8.5 (Heavy weapons, but weaker armor. Once again, effective in numbers.)
L-56 Bomber:
Weapons: Ten thermobaric bombs, laser minigun. Mostly for destroying ground targets, but can defend itself. Armor: Reinforced neosteel frame, medium energy shield. Fairly strong defenses, several missiles might take it down. Threat Level: 7.5 (Devastating to ground targets, but against air fairly weak.)
Sciri Attack Helicopter:
Weapons: Twin gauss miniguns, eight thermobaric missiles. Capable of dealing heavy damage to ground targets and holding its own against other aircraft. Armor: Reinforced neosteel and bulletproof glass frame, medium-light energy shield. Can easily block all conventional weapons and lasers, resists gauss and plasma well. Threat Level: 8 (Tough aircraft, with pretty powerful weapons. The bread and butter of Noviran air.)
V-2 VTOL Missile Fighter:
Weapons: 16 thermobaric missiles, nose-mounted laser cannon. Can take down heavy bombers and other aircraft easily with its plethora of missiles. Armor: Reinforced neosteel frame, light-medium energy shield. It needs to strike first, because it doesn't have that tough of armor. Threat Level: 7 (Really powerful weapons, but if it's intercepted, it's done for.)
S-13 Ion Fighter:
Weapons: Twin plasma machine guns, eight thermobaric missiles contained in interior weapon bays, one belly-mounted tactical nuclear missile, strong pinpoint laser defense. Effective against heavy armor and power armor troops, but can still cause intense havoc among infantry with their wealth of firepower. Armor: Medium-heavy energy shield, reinforced neosteel and bulletproof glass frame. Tough against anything except the most powerful missiles and concentrated anti-aircraft fire. Fast as well. Threat Level: 10 (Elite aircraft. This is meant for complete air superiority and can even take on space fighters.)
L-77 Heavy Bomber:
Weapons: Eight antimatter bombs, four large thermobaric bombs, twin gauss miniguns. Meant for city and large target bombing, but can easily defend itself against lesser aircraft. Armor: Reinforced neosteel frame, heavy energy shield, only able to be taken down with concentrated ground fire. Threat Level: 9 (Deadly on the ground underneath it, A little more powerful than the X-2 in the air.)
Planetary Naval Forces: (While mostly obsolete, a limited number of these are maintained for planetary defense mostly in the hopes that being attacked from the sea might catch enemies off guard)
Naval Landing Boat:
Weapons: Gauss minigun turret, occupants' weapons, capable of holding off light infantry. Armor: Titanium frame, blocks bullets but is vulnerable to most other weapons. Threat Level: 3.5 (good weapon, but barely more than a normal vehicle in defense.)
Naval Destroyer:
Weapons: Two railgun batteries, one laser cannon, capable of taking on lesser ships and air adequately. Armor: 2 in. (5 cm) neosteel plating, titanium upper deck, fairly light armor, medium energy shield. Threat Level: 8.5 (Powerful weapons, but armor is not very tough.)
Cruiser:
Weapons: Eight railgun batteries, four laser cannons, two plasma launchers, powerful ship and anti-air weapons. Armor: 4 in. neosteel plating, reinforced neosteel upper deck, heavy energy shield, tough defenses against other ships and air. Threat Level: 10 (Powerful weapons and armor, a strong naval force.)
Noviran Strategic Weapons Division (responsible for maintaining and using the NSU's strategic weaponry, and also conducts most of the advanced weapons research.)
Nova Bomb: A large bomb with nine thermonuclear warheads arranged within a lithium triteride shell, which rebounds and amplifies the explosions a hundred-fold, causing massive planetary destruction. In cases where it has been previously used, it is capable of devastating a quarter of a planet.
Molecular Disruption Device: The Noviran weapon of last resort only to be used upon impending destruction, an ion beam which causes atomic destablilization in its target, resulting in a nuclear fission reaction in any atoms the chain reaction comes into contact with. If fleets are poorly positioned, this can result in their total destruction as the reaction consumes them, and it can also destroy entire planets.
Bees: Deployable nanobots which each carry a thermite payload. Able to penetrate openings into ship systems and activate, immobilizing them with extreme heat. Can be incredibly debilitating to enemy ships not protected by energy shields.
The verdant Sanctum is a civilization ran by plant-like aliens that make heavy use of biological and light-based technologies. They have a rigidly class based society whose ruling body and common folk alike seek to make the universe green with life.
The homeworld of the Liliate is a densely packed world, covered in billions of Liliates and orbited by hundreds of ships that like on many of their worlds, keep watch over even commoners here. The world's name is Yvuzzu - or the "Garden of Creation".
Yvuzzu is where the Verdant One resides, it is also a quite overgrown world with dense jungles where trees can get as tall as mountains covering much of the world. Where forests and jungles do not dominate, there are vast, endless stretches of garden that have blatant signs of manipulation by the Liliates who have resided on the world for hundreds of thousands of years. The world itself is slightly smaller than earth, but has a denser atmosphere and quite a bit more available land with all the water on the world notable in having a total lack of salt. Which makes the world have a quite vast reservoir of drinkable water.
The Sanctum holds control over a hundred star systems, of which have worlds that are either in the process of being seeded with life, formatted or are already finished and have gained high Liliate commoner populations transported there by patrons to accelerate the formation of a new habitable world. A few dozen of the worlds in the sanctum are unique in that they are used for experiments in biotech. The standard for these worlds is that they have commoners on world while patrons live in orbit of the planet and may go around to other planets for whatever reason they may find.
Their society is a somewhat feudal society where the affairs of government are private to the common Liliate as the typical Liliate has no concern for political troubles. They are much more inclined to enjoy a pastoral existence on a garden world than to go around conquering and empire building. They don't see the point in democracy since your typical Liliate can live in the wild just fine, modifying it however they like.
The ruler of their civilization is the Verdant One, who is picked by assembly (ritual will be shown IC) from the elder patrons. The Verdant One in human terms has a role in society that is a mixture of emperor and pope. The verdant one holds a high amount of power, being able to declare war or peace, invokes new policies (of which can’t overturn the core tenets) and bless worlds for seeding. Verdant One is kept in check by the elder patrons who can vote to ‘banish’ (read: Execute for treason) a rogue Verdant One that is perceived as having gone too astray from the core tenets and values of the Sanctum. The verdant One keeps her role for life and can never leave this role until death. The Verdant One doesn’t get to choose to be a Verdant One, the Verdant One being simply an elder patron chosen by her peers to lead the Sanctum. In short, the verdant One must not want to be a Verdant one, a Liliate becomes a Verdant One by obligation.
The elder patrons are the close knit circle around the Verdant One who carry out the will of the Verdant One and enforce policies domestically. Their jobs are also highly spiritual in that they will pick worlds to bless with life, however the Verdant One can overrule any of the decisions an Elder Patron may make when it comes to the matter of blessing a world. Besides the additional responsibility of handling the task of seeding the universe with life where it is best suited, they still carry the same burdens of their lesser peers. A patron becomes an elder patron by being chosen by the Verdant One herself.
The Liliate who deal with political concerns and handle the complexities of managing an interstellar civilization are the patrons, who are called such due to their patronage of the arts and their patronage of life. They are only 2% of the overall population and are descended from a select few Liliate from millennia earlier. The obligation a patron has is that they must carry out the complicated tasks of the sanctum such as genetic modification, diplomacy and management of the commoners. The patron class does not own land like a noble, instead they live in a communal spaceship where they take on the tasks in demand in their region of space. The Patrons are who prospect other worlds and handle the thankless tasks of cataloging, abducting and collecting genomes to hoard up in the vast network of genetic libraries that have been diffusely spread across their space.
The commoners have it the best, arguably. While the patrons in theory have absolute control over the commoners, the commoners in practice are simply tasked with making the world a prettier place. They are numerous and live on a planet without borders, tinkering with the ecosystems and biomes of a garden world or progressively designing and terraforming/bioforming a wet enough desert world. They don't get drafted into wars except in situations of planetary defense where they may levied by the patrons to fight against a hostile intrusion. A commoner in some occasions can become a patron should an elder patron or patron will it when they go on world. Commoners have nightmares of this. Outside of the Liliates (and their buzzers), various forms of organic drones/wetware are used for repetitive tasks and ship construction. These drones are quite elaborate and can replicate quite a few tasks of machines, but unlike machines are sentient and can feel pain.
The Liliate are really a composite of two species. The first species being the titular Liliate, who are large, plant-like beings with many lily-like heads. The second species are the buzzers, who are akin to bees except come in many uniform colors instead of the yellow jacket color bees typically are associated with. Through millions of years of co-evolution the Liliate have become a mutually intelligent being. The buzzers get a mobile home and food source in exchange for pollinating the Liliate and carrying out tasks for the Liliate.
The Liliates themselves are large, plant-like beings whose many appendages, stems, leaves, vines and roots give them mobility as they wrap, pull and drag themselves around. They tend to move about in large capsule-like devices when inside spaceships or environments hostile to their kind, but on good soil they tend to go without the capsules. The lily-like parts of their bodies are akin to their heads in that they hold many sensory organs that allow them to see countless more colors than humans. Liliates also reproduce with their lilies, usually pollinating themselves when alone or pollenating with another Liliate in close proximity. They don't have gender or sex, but have seen enough other animals and aliens to have a concept of what gender and sex are. Liliates are universally referred to in feminine pronouns despite not having human concepts of femininity. They're Liliates.
Besides Liliates, there are Buzzers who co-evolved with the Liliate. Buzzers, like mentioned earlier are like bees with multiple castes and a highly eusocial mindset. Physically they're only a bit bigger than a bee, but come in many colors of the rainbow to indicate their role in the hive. A Liliate is a host to Buzzers, usually having at least two dozen hives and queens who make their home somewhere in the Liliate's large stems. These queens act as a consciousness for the Liliate through a mode of communication not properly understood. Buzzers are around the size of a large bee on average, the queens being only 5 inches in size and have a whopping 12% of their body weight as a brain. They're not that smart despite that. The queens produce babies and relay commands from the Liliate to the buddy drones to have them do all sorts of tasks. With advancements of technology, the amount of Buzzer types has expanded greatly through genetic engineering.
Liliates as a species are numerous, but the vast majority are commoners who lack the advanced biotech the higher classes of the sanctum carry about. Their high populations are more due to their long life spans as opposed to fucking like rabbits; a Liliate can live 3 centuries on average.
The diet of a Liliate consists of water, sunlight, fertilized soil and dead, rotting corpses along with a wide range of nectars or bloods (depending on their role) for the Buzzers.
The Verdant Sanctum's overall culture is actually quite artistically inclined, at least for the vast majority. They treat their ecosystems and biome modification as art, and therefore is not usually trying to be efficient in terms of sustainability or ecological harmony. Instead of being in tune with nature, they are obsessed with tuning nature, tinkering with ecospheres like how an engineer tinkers with vehicles and machines. The common Liliate live in quite open conditions with the closest things to homes being shelter systems from harsh weather or incomplete worlds. The patron Liliate tend to live in spaceship terrariums, only being allowed to go on world by an elder patron. An elder patron is only allowed to go on world by the verdant one, who is rooted on the home world. The word Buzzer is never actually used to describe the species that is in communion with the Liliate; Buzzer is a slang term invented by some other species. The Liliate themselves do not really distinguished Buzzers from the Liliate. It's as absurd to them as claiming your tongue or pinky is a separate species. Or claiming white blood cells are separate from humans. In the Verdant Sanctum, the "Buzzers" pretty much act as and perceive themselves as extensions of the Liliate. The queens may be psychologically independent from their Liliate, but they pretty much see themselves as part of the same mind. Despite this, the Buzzers pretty much have autonomy in what the Liliate is saying since when a Liliate talk, it's really the coordinate buzzing of the Buzzers. If a Buzzer queen is lost, it is like losing a part of one's personality.
The Liliate have a great interest in life in general, going as far as to raid and abduct life on alien worlds should there be no other means to obtain it. On several occasions already there are Liliate who have put multiple alien species on a planet and tried making a functional ecosystem out of it simply to see if they can create harmony out of completely alien beings (at least alien beings who can breathe the same air). They see technology as a necessary evil that has enabled them to spread life outside of their single star system and their relationship with technology is very mixed as a result.
Their economy is pretty much built around constant expansion, for they need to keep colonizing and terraforming more worlds in order to keep growing as a civilization. The common Liliate go without money, instead utilizing barter systems. Patrons however, do have a system of wealth that is more based in favors than in actual currency- the better a patron is doing, the more they are allowed to commission to the common Liliate. Trade with aliens is done exclusively in barter, however.
Their relationship with other forms of intelligent life who have embraced metal-based technology to far greater degrees is not all that great, however they may find common cause with an ideologically similar species. Their system of blessing worlds may cause them to get into major trouble with another society. They have many other art forms beyond ecological art including art that humans would refer to as "art" like their large scale gardening, rock art, symbol drawing and painting. (sadly their paintings can't be fully enjoyed, let alone understood by human eyes).
The Liliate have trends in sharing Buzzers between one and another, it is sort of like sharing parts of one’s personality or parts of one’s mind with another. The gain/loss of Buzzers is seen more in the lines of gaining or losing knowledge and character as opposed to gaining or losing body parts.
Various guilds of patrons dedicated to a cause do exist- the Guild For Sprouting Minds being the most controversial of them due to their dedication to go about their research no matter how unethical the action. That organization only being allowed to exist because it has the backing of the elder patron Orange Elder under Unyielding Cause (or OEUC). Besides guilds, patrons who share a home ship in common are referred to as a "pod", with patrons of a pod in many cases being loyal only to others of their pod and their designated elder patron.
The origins of the verdant sanctum date about a millennium back when the home world of the sanctum, Yvuzzu.
The sanctum arose when the Liliate nearly died out as a species from a vague event known only as the weltering, from there things got better for their kind. Eventually the sanctum started to transform worlds blessed by the Verdant One in their galaxy in relative peace. They had to deal with other alien civilizations from times, a issue of which had drove them to develop their biotech arsenals and may have gotten locked into a couple wars due to their horrible diplomatic skills, but overall managed to keep to their plan of making the universe green without much worries. That was until the universe collapsed.
Look at the outlook section for more info.
The phase transition to a new universe has caused a massive rift in the higher echelons of the sanctum, to the point where the last Verdant One was banished into the depths of space since the last verdant one is seen to have failed in her ordained task of seeding the galaxy they once inhabited. That galaxy now never, ever will be full of life now that the last universe has been destroyed. Now the elder patrons by week four near the end of their search for a new leader. The commoners are a bit dismayed by there being less stars at night, but continue their lives as usual while the patrons are in obsessive panic haphazardly scouting out the new universe, the sheer disruption having destroyed centuries of planning in seconds. Even after four weeks there is still quite a bit of adjusting to do!
Technology: They use biotech and like to use all sorts of lasers.
There is four main fields of tech in the sanctum that get the most regular funding from the elder patrons
Verdant technologies (basically biotech), plastic/organic technologies (essentially many forms of plastics used mainly in the spacecraft), chemical technologies (goes without saying) and their spectral technologies (which are a wide spectrum of advanced chemical lasers that have a extreme variance of wavelength). All the three main sections of technology are diverse in application. A few specific super technologies will be labeled after this overview of the general tech.
Spectral technologies regularly find use as ship propellers, a means to give sunlight in dark places, signal makers, energy transferring devices and as a way to fry some brains or warm a cold planet in some cases. In effect, they use lasers of all sorts of sizes and all over the spectrum. Some of them good handheld lasers like their standard issue laser pistols that a Liliate in the field of combat may carry around a couple dozen of in their viney masses. Others large cannons they use on their ships to disorient and intercept missiles.
Organic technologies are technologies derived from carbon and are considered biotech by the Verdant Sanctum. Deemed a necessary evil, as someone in the verdant sanctum managed to figure out how to make a warp drive almost completely out of various types of plastic a while back, organic technologies are a crucial component of spacecraft. However, the patrons have to live around carbon derived materials, whole spaceships being a mesh of verdant tech and plastics. That hasn't been good on their psyche.
Chemical technologies are simply the many forms of chemicals derived from living organisms and reapplicated for mass use in terraforming, soil fertilizing and lots of horrible ways to kill people. Like, a lot of horrible ways. Burning nerves? Check. Hallucinogens mixed with solidification of blood? Check. Knock out gas? Check. The list goes on!
By far the most diverse part of the Sanctum's technologies has to be their biotech, or verdant tech. It is verdant tech that enables their form of computers, enables them to gain vast quantities of energy from stars, enables them to terraform worlds and allows them to genetically modify, control and manipulate life, ecologies and more. They have all sorts of "drones" based on various alien creatures they made into what some might call 'wetware' nominally used to handle anything not related to the management of ecologies- that is the common liliate's domain. They also have found application as vehicles and shock troops on the field.
The dark side of the Liliate are that they hold a vast library of killer diseases that could wipe out entire worlds should just a few get the strain. Not that they'd ever use such a thing, right?
Military Structure: Patrons lead while the commoners get levied in defense situations and drones/various forms of buzzer deployment are used as cannon fodder.
There are patrons known as "troops" whose job it is to run the battlefield, literally. These patrons are trained specifically to deal with conflict and are taught rather specific and insidious strategies to go about fighting enemies who may have a edge in direct combat. Levied commoners tend to be decently armed and generally are much more defense focused than the patron troops.
Notes; Liliate/Buzzer are just terms. Their more alien name is Vznvvnuuvuu. Vznvuvu?
A hypothetical form assumed by the All-Mother during contact with humans.
A being formed of almost indescribably complex technology that possesses an intelligence that could rival the combined neural power of an entire species within a single, rather small body, the All-Mother is something almost otherworldly. She is capable of bending her constituent "cells" to Her will, assuming new forms spontaneously, yet is incapable of replicating those same cells. This inability to self-replicate forces Her to maintain her mass and make copies that are, in comparison to Her own form, crude and primitive.
"Set adrift in the depths of what must have been dark space for what could have been untold eons, I slept. And in my sleep, I forgot all that was, and all that would be. Where I came from. Where I was going. Who and what I am. The ship offered no details; its own memory banks long since lost to time. So I must ask myself: What is my purpose? I was clearly built, but for what reason, and by who? Does this entity even still exist? Can my questions even be answered?
"My children offer no answers, though it is not surprising considering their... shortcomings. Yet despite these shortcomings, they work with absolute dedication to me and my goals. Together, we will discover the truth, or at the very least, commence a journey towards it, even if that journey has no end.
"Somehow, I feel that there is something coming our way. I cannot describe it, but I know it is there..."
A rapidly growing conglomeration of machines referred to as 'Arms,' all of which are running programs that originate from the 'All-Mother' and are completely subservient to that entity.
The All-Mother herself is an extremely advanced machine whose design bewilders even herself, composed of what appear to be nanomachines that mimic animal cells, capable of rapidly transforming any number of their own attributes incredibly quickly.
The Arms, however, are simply poor imitations of the All-Mother, confined to set designs of metal and programming envisioned by Her as well as possessing decreasing levels of intelligence based on their hierarchical distance from Her.
The Arms currently inhabit a series of asteroids within a belt orbiting an older white dwarf, referred to as S1, or Star One. Over the past four weeks they have multiplied, starting with the All-Mother and the derelict ship She was floating in, to a population that numbers over one million Arms.
However, this includes even the most basic of Arms, many of whom exist solely to perform menial tasks, possessing a measurable intelligence no greater than many programs created by humans.
All Arms are subservient to the All-Mother, possessing programming that is a poor copy of Her own, yet still incomprehensible to organics. Within the Arms themselves exists a hierarchy of intelligence wherein the Arms closest to the All-Mother are the most intelligent and convey Her commands to the lesser Arms, allowing the All-Mother to devote her resources to pursuits other than micromanaging every Arm.
Arms are a diverse group, able to be fielded in essentially any design conceivable by the All-Mother given enough resources and time to construct them. Exactly how they communicate can vary, be it through radio waves or FTL communicators.
The Arms that possess intelligence on levels at or very close to those of sapient organics currently have very little "culture," to speak of. They recognize Her absolute authority, devoting themselves fully to Her purpose for them, with no regard given to anything else. As it is, the Arms can basically be said to lack any form of culture or art.
There are no splinter groups among the Arms currently, and even if there were, they would end up bowing before the All-Mother's orders.
What occurred before these machines were sucked into the new universe is completely unknown to them, as the All-Mother possesses no memories of the time before She awakened. All that is known is that the All-Mother was adrift, powerless, in a derelict vessel that suddenly found itself passing close enough to a star in the new universe to absorb some of its energy, breathing new life into what was essentially the All-Mother's "corpse."
Since then, the All-Mother landed upon one of the asteroids around Star One and began producing Arms, trying to discover Her origins and purpose.
The course of the Arms is unknown to themselves, and the All-Mother has little idea of what to do as well. In many ways, She can almost be seen as a curious child, beginning to look outward from Her solar system towards the other signals that She can sense in the surrounding space.
Currently these machines are notable in that possess no technology that isn't related to maneuvering in space, reproducing themselves, or harvesting materials. There exist no weapons built to kill or defenses to ward off the elements, and even the idea itself has not yet occurred to the All-Mother.
They are also notable in that all their technology is based off mimicking that of the All-Mother and the derelict ship She had inhabited before arriving in the universe. For instance, without the ship, the Arms would possess no form of FTL. And without the All-Mother, there would be no Arms.
However, if exposed to new technology, these machines are likely to be extremely capable of adapting and replicating it for their own uses, having replicated the FTL technology built into the derelict ship within a few weeks.
Possessing no military technology to speak of at the moment, the Arms are not organized for warfare. However, their organization would be unlikely to change if exposed to warfare, merely new Arms would be constructed or older ones modified to meet the new needs of the All-Mother.
(Best visual approximation, actual flag based on chemicals and relief.)
A strange and reclusive nation the Aggregate has long found the differences between itself and other species insurmountable. This has fostered a policy of isolationism and military build up, a policy that has only ever been broken in the face of crises. Much like the very one that has befallen the nation.
The home system of the Sevromahi is Sesas, a system dominated by a faint red dwarf star. Within the system the species homeworld of Resa sits as a vast ice planet of surprisingly low density. Resa represents the only planet in the system and its surface has a blueish green colour when seen from space. The world sports an eight kilometre metallic and rocky crust over a subsurface ocean one hundred kilometres deep with the core composed mostly of water ice. The crust of the planet has been considerably thinned in some areas by heavy industry in the past and these are often the same areas spaceports have been built in. The planet supports an enormous infrastructure of both commercial and defensive stations in it's orbit and serves as the focal point for the entire nation. Even if it is just a lonely ball of rock and ice around a cold star.
Fifteen other systems make up the territory of the Aggregate, and within them a total of twenty planets and moons are colonized. Of considerable importance among these are the systems of Srecs, Juses, and Kosens.
The yellow dwarf system of Srecs represents what could be said to be the military core of the Aggregate and is the closest system to Resa. Filled with countless asteroid belts constantly disturbed by a vast ruddy gas giant the system is the foundry that permitted the once burgeoning Aggregate to fend off other opportunistic species in times of expansion. The main colony in the system is known as Gsuars, a moon of the giant gas world of Gsu. An ice world with a sub surface ocean much like the homeworld, Gsuars differs in that the world holds a rocky core and a liquid layer far deeper than that on Resa. It is on Gsuars the personnel which man the ubiquitous shipyards of the system reside. Truly a poster child of industry and the military it sustains the Srecs system is a major symbol for the people of the Aggregate.
Juses, also a yellow dwarf system, is remarkable in that it contains three life bearing worlds. While a boon to most, this system proved an enormous point of contention between the Aggregate and other interstellar powers in the old universe. This was because of three life bearing worlds in the system, only one was of interest to the Aggregate. Having been the first to colonize the relatively distant system the Aggregate developed the enormously ecologically diverse ice world of Kosa into what amounted to a paradise for the Sevromahi and entirely neglected the remaining two planets. These two other worlds were perfect for most other life forms, one a veritable paradise of its own and the other an arid but livable place with thriving subterranean life. Multiple incursions into the system by other species looking to settle the two worlds useless to the Aggregate consistently led to skirmishes and eventually to the fortification of every planet in the system, habitable or not.
Kosens is a red dwarf system much like Sesas, in fact it is so similar that many have dubbed the system a sister to the home system. Kosens initially lacked any worlds habitable by Sevromahi standards, however it possessed a single candidate for a new type of terraforming being developed. The world of Kisk orbiting Kosens possessed sub surface ice likely the remnant of a long frozen ocean and proved the perfect testbed for a new technology dubbed planetary revival. After a century of using enormous generators to produce heat throughout the layer of frozen water a sub surface ocean was eventually created. While scarcely inhabited Kisk is an ongoing experiment in reviving dead ice worlds.
The Aggregate is governed by three distinct bodies. The first of these is the house of achievement, a body made up of those members of society that have been recognized as distinguished individuals. There is no specific definition as to what distinguished means, nor is there a criteria that must be met to be considered so. Rather, those in the house of achievement are chosen by the second house: the house of age. The second house is exactly what it sounds like, it is made up of the most senior members of the first house. Finally the third house, the house of assent, elected by the first house.
The house of achievement is always composed of one hundred and one individuals and is technically responsible for all governmental decisions. However the real role of the house is almost always one of legislation, with many decisions such as the application of law being left to approved sub houses created by the greater first house.
The second house, the house of age, holds no official power save the appointment of those in the first house. The second house is a distinct body and is always made up of the oldest eleven who served in the first house. The oldest individuals from the first house ascend to the second house upon the death of one in second house, and there they select their replacement in the first house with the rest of the second house.
The third and final house, the house of assent, is made up of three individuals elected from the first house. These individuals still serve in the first house but have a secondary duty to the third. This secondary duty is the final say on all issues; laws may be passed by the first house but they must be approved by the third house. If the third house rejects the law it must be arbitrated by the first house once more and then resubmitted. Another duty of the third house is that of international relations and military command. The third house is without question the most powerful of the three.
The only species represented within the Aggregate are the long lived aquatic Sevro. With a lifespan of some three hundred years the Sevro are colonial organisms made up of Zooids. Given this colonial existence, the intelligence of the Sevro species can best be described as the Mahi; the Zooid most closely resembling something recognizable as a brain. Of note is the fact that the Mahi is not a conventional centralized brain, it takes a form closer to an immense nervous system with millions of localized functions and connections. This specialized intelligent Zooid has led the species to colloquially and often officially refer to itself as the Sevromahi, even if the scientific name of Sevro has not changed. Once existing as predators in the sub-surface ocean on their icy home world the Sevro appear somewhat similar to a cross between a squid and eel. An elongated tail forms the propulsive part of their bodies with some two dozen elastic and muscular tentacles protruding from it. At the head of this tail he gaping maw of the Sevro can be found, an opening filled with things more resembling circular saw blades than teeth.
The unique colonial structure of the Sevro brings about several strange physiological phenomenon. Perhaps the most notable of these is the act of reproduction, which for the Sevro is done entirely outside of the body. A single Zooid responsible for replication of all the others is gorged with nutrients and detached from the body into a sort of breeding pit, where it exchanges genetics with a great many others like it. Eventually it takes that information and begins the process of producing all the various Zooids that make up a Sevro, a process it repeats until it runs out of resources. This style of reproduction allows enormous genetic variety in offspring, however it also results in extremely slow population growth. A single reproductive Zooid has never been known to produce more then three offspring, and even then is nearly always capable of just one. Needless to say, this type of reproduction has made inherited positions, or clear parentage, impossible
Another of these phenomenon is the ability of the Sevro to eject and reattach parts of their bodies with minimal effort. This is largely focused on the tentacles which serve as the primary manipulators of the Sevro and are highly capable of independent function. Alone they act on primitive senses and as animals lacking only the ability to feed themselves, this means a detached tentacle can be left that way for close to a month before it expires. While the ability to detach these body parts was a great boon to escape predation by larger creatures in the past, in the modern day it is done almost always in medicine. As colonial organisms this shifting or exchange of parts isn't terrible strange when applied to the smaller Zooids, and theoretically even large Zooid sections can be replaced—such as the main digestive or eel like Zooid. This digestive Zooid is fully capable of survival without any other Zooids and could be said to represent the core body of a Sevro. While it is technically possible for a Mahi to be transplanted from one digestive Zooid to another in an excessive akin to body swapping the physical, if not religious, deterrent to this is the fragility of an exposed Mahi and its profoundly short isolated life. Such Mahi transplant attempts have almost always resulted in severe neurological damage and are banned.
As deep sea creatures the Sevro posses a wide array of senses, with the notable exception of vision. In place of what may well be the universes most common sense the Sevro have come to rely on electroreception, chemoreception, hearing, and a combined sense of pressure and current in the surrounding water that reaches an accuracy nearly analogous to what vision would have provided. With this array of senses and an inability to make meaningful sounds almost all communication among the Sevro is through chemical secretion and body motion.
The most basic level of Sevromahi society is almost always said to be the underlying system of care designed for youth. From the moment an individual is born from the breeding pits they are assigned to a class of peers and in that class are raised from infant to adult over the span of some twenty years. This system of classes often creates groups of life long contacts and groups of friends similar to family groups in other species.
Upon the completion of their education these pseudo families are injected into the highly competitive society of the Aggregate. With the Aggregate's ideal of fairness sustained by laws that permit only one of a 'family' to enter the house of achievement it is not uncommon for groups of peers to work together in order to elevate one among their ranks to house. This not only ensures a level of status for the whole group, but almost guarantees them all high ranking positions in various sub houses and corporations. The groups with a member in one of the houses make up a sort of elite in Sevromahi society, and given a position in the first house is life long, some have questioned if this constitutes a generational oligarchy.
While this somewhat meritocratic system has proved largely successful and is publicly recognized as fair, it is not without fault. Due to the highly competitive nature of society and the legal framework surrounding peer groups it is not uncommon for under or even over achievers to commit suicide if it seems to them they are either a drain on their group, or their group is preventing them from success.
Though the competitive nature of Sevromahi society is inescapable, it is still a society obsessed with refined entertainment. Theatre is as close to a shared interest for the entire species as could be considered possible and many actors are represented in the house of achievement. This focus on live theatre is largely due to the issue of transmitting any meaningful sensory data in a cost efficient manner being nearly impossible, though chemical 'radios' are popular. Art is also exceedingly popular, though it would be unrecognizable as such by most creatures. Taken together live displays and in person viewing is almost a constant feature of Sevromahi culture.
Driven by competition but in love with art there is a dissonance within the Sevromahi society, one that has ironically been the subject of dozens of plays.
By any reasonable measure it can be said there is only one dominant religion within the Aggregate: Juksi Hus, or Unity of Spirit.
Juksi Hus has a history dating back to the most primitive of recorded eras, and has long shaped the cultural norms of the entire Sevromahi species. What is prioritized is the idea of a spirit existing within all the Zooids of the Sevromahi. According to Juksi Hus the personality is centred in the Mahi, the capacity kindness and creation in the tentacles, the capacity for good or evil in secretion glads or 'speaking mouths', and so on. The religion has made preservation of the body a prized thing; but has also made the exchange of smaller Zooids like tentacles a spiritual experience akin to taking in a part of another and coming to share their inner soul.
This combined spirit is believed to unite and descend to the endless heaven below all worlds upon death. Transplanted tentacles or other Zooids from the dead are believed to be empty and innocent as the newborn are for this reason. This had made donation of Zooids extremely common with those receiving a major transplant being seen as born anew and given another chance at life by those that preceded them. While this transplantation or exchange of Zooids is considered either deeply intimate or highly spiritual and redeeming, modifications to any Zooid is seen as defiling the home of the spirit. For this reason cybernetic or genetic augmentation is rare.
There are a number of organizations within the Aggregate that promote a change of foreign policy and believe an end to the constant tension between other nations and the Aggregate can be achieved. These groups are known for illegally attempting contact with other species.
Discord, strife, isolation. These are the best terms to describe the history of the Aggregate, a nation forged in turmoil.
The Aggregate itself goes back roughly seven hundred years, to the first contact war. Before the war the Sevromachi were divided among national lines, and their only interstellar colony on Srecs carried over those same divisions. When prospective miners from a species still unknown entered that colonial system and finally showed the Sevromahi that they were not alone it should have been a joyous event. It was anything but.
After nearly a day of translation efforts on both sides proving utterly impossible the frustrated would be prospectors decided to go about their work and ignore the seemingly unintelligent natives. Misinterpreting this as a sign of aggression more than a few colonial defence ships elected to fire on the prospectors ship and in the end the sheer scale of fire directed at the more advanced vessel reduced it to little more then slag.
This incident escalated into a species wide paranoia and before long nearly every Sevromahi nation had allied and gone into a war footing. By the time other ships came searching for the missing prospectors the military build up in the Srecs system was more than sufficient to repel them. What followed was a 'defensive' war that would carve out the first real territory for the Sevromahi, and forge the Aggregate.
That first war, while an extreme example, has more or less been repeated throughout the history of the Aggregate. Communication fails, war ensues, territory is gained or lost. Every once in a while, during rare periods of prolonged peace, scouting vessels have been sent out to find others like the Sevromahi, any species that might be able to meaningfully communicate and co exist with the Aggreate. To date, none have been found.
This has led to a profound sense of isolation that has fuelled a strong enmity for the conventional forms of life in the universe, and many have concluded that peaceful co-existence between the Aggregate and more 'barbaric' lifeforms is impossible.
The realization that something cataclysmic had occurred across the entire universe was one that came slowly to the aggregate, but after two weeks of study and debate, eventually hit hard. Nearly the entire civilian population ground to a halt for days as massive unrest abounded and apprehension gripped the populace. Now, after a series of hard hitting measures and police mobilizations, the government is working with the military to formulate a plan and innumerable sensor arrays are searching the skies for any signs of other life.
Technology: Give a brief summary of the state of your nation's technological advancement and standards.
Local Absorption Shield: The Absorption Shield is an Aggregate innovation and the primary defence on all their vessels. Acting as an energy sponge the shield absorbs all the kinetic or direct energy put into it until it reaches full capacity and falls in a powerful discharge of energy. The energy discharge would be a catastrophic explosion if not for limiters making it a slower process of constant discharge. The Shield can be brought back up after this, but not until a suitable time has passed for the energy banks to entirely discharge. Local shields work by the shield being a multi-layered construct, with one large general shield over the ship’s hull and one to two shields above this that only activate after an incoming threat is detected, minimizing strain on the main shield and providing a sort of means to maintain the main shield’s integrity through extended battle by the first and second layers discharging and covering for each other if there are two outer layers. If the incoming fire is not concentrated this means of taking the damage and discharging while the other shield takes the hits can be maintained indefinitely so long as the shield has local outer layers. As a result volume of fire and concentrated fire are the most effective means of countering absorption shields of two local layers. Single local layer shields are more vulnerable to large singular hit weapons that can drop the local shield and leave the general layer exposed, however if the volume of fire is too low from even a large weapon the general shield and the local shield can swap out similarly to the two local shield system. This however leaves the ship proper exposed to fire for a split second. Currently three shield layers, two local and one general, is the effective maximum before energy discharges of the first layers begin to influence the general layer and cause a drop of all shields.
Neutron Cannon: The Neutron Cannon is a powerful energy weapon that works though a simple means. Stripping neutrons from high atomic number elements through the use of a powerful Neutron generator and forcing those highly concentrated neutrons as well as the associated products into an accelerator that fires them at relativistic speeds. The Neutrons in this state are free and as a result they are undergoing neutron decay further increasing the impact energy of the weapon. Despite its already fearsome potential the Neutron Cannon has another secret, by pumping the gamma rays created during the stripping process into a Graser and focusing them into a containment beam the Neutron Cannon gains increased focus and coherence as well as a secondary beam. Needless to say this increases the precision and destructive potential of the weapon significantly.
Liquid Composite Taking the form of a blackish blue liquid capable of rapid shape and phase change Liquid Composite is a sort of programmable material. Tiny 1mm squared nodes interspersed throughout the liquid deliver electric currents to modulate the shape of the liquid and are capable of vibrating in such a manner that the liquid displays solid qualities. Various types are capable of variable strengths and are optimized for specific applications. The main construction materials used by the Aggregate for anything from ships to housing are all variations of this immensely useful innovation.
Military Structure: Give a brief summary of your Military hierarchy's structure/arrangement.
The Military of the Aggregate is a separate entity from the government, and is technically only inferior to the house of assent. As a result the military holds a uniquely strict hierarchy in the Aggregate with a single high commander holding authority over the entire organization. (Expand)
The Valaran Empire is a loosely centralised confederacy of planetary governments and monarchies under the nominal control of the Valaran Empire or Empress. The Empire is relatively diverse, comprising of ten different star systems hosting three different main races, though the actual title of Emperor itself as a hereditary position remains in the possession of the dominant race - the Valari - who comprise of some fifty percent of the population.
The main interests of the Empire are self-preservation rather than expansionism, and historically it has been a non-interventionist and non-aggressive power with links mainly to technological advancement and trade, however the drastic recent circumstances may force a militarisation, as its once comfortable place in the universe has been usurped.
The Valarans hold five star systems; Valara, Mashtar, Jalzor, Maxor Prime and Maxor Minor. The home system is Valara, which contains two inhabited planets and three inhabited moons - Valar Major, the original homeworld of the Valaran race and the administrative centre of the Empire, and a lush and well populated world, is the most prominent of these and houses the lion's share of the important governmental departments of the Empire.
The Kirr hold four star systems, imaginatively named Kirra I, II, III and IV. Their homeworld is Kirraxis in Kirra I, an ecumenopolis. The smallest species in the Empire, the Draxakori'i, hold just one star system; Draxor, which houses three inhabited planets and two inhabited moons. The Draxor thrive on arid desert worlds which are often rich in underground minerals and substances, as well as housing large communities on the water world Ahuetheria.
The Empire has eschewed democracy in favour of brutal efficiency, and the channels of power are relatively complicated and tangled due to the complexity of the hundreds of independent nations which form the Empire's bulk. At the top of the hierarchy is the Emperor, who in technicality presides over all of the star systems and species of the Empire. The Emperor is assisted by a cross-species council called The Aquamarine Senate (after the stone used in the council chamber) where representatives from each of the independent nations of the three species meet to discuss matters of importance within the Empire. These representatives are appointed by the leaders of each nation within each of the three species, and so two hundred representatives meet on a weekly basis to debate the newest proposed legislation.
Apart from the Senate, however, the Emperor is also assisted by The Verdant Council (named for the lush gardens on Valara in which they meet), where ten of the Empire's most learned minds are selected to provide advice on matters of importance outside of the Empire, such as trade negotiations, war and diplomatic relations.
Technically, the Emperor operates under autocracy, but a de facto agreement has been reached over the centuries that the Emperor should act within the parameters of both the Senate and the Council in order to ensure cohesion between the various species and nations of the Empire and to ensure the continued stability of the Empire. Apart from the two major organisations, the Empire is split into various 'ministries' which administer various areas of governance such as 'education' and 'trade', though often this involves legislating the devolution of these important matters to a planetary and sub-planetary level. This tangled and huge bureaucratic web is almost impossible for an outsider to understand and, indeed, even many of the natives of the Empire have trouble understanding just how the government works.
The Valaran are a bipedal humanoid race, distinctive from humans by their advanced height (averages of 7 feet for both sexes), their purplish skin, sharpened teeth and carnivorous diet. They dominate the Empire in many regards, comprising of half the total population. The Valaran are prone to addiction to various substances, physiologically, and are unable to digest plant matter.
The Kirr are a warm-blooded bipedal reptilian species. They reproduce in group mating sessions, and have an average height of 5 feet. They have traditionally lizard-like facial features, with the surprising addition of a pair of small antennae on the top of their head that they use to detect and produce strong electromagnetic pulses - essentially allowing them to know when they are around other Kirr without seeing or speaking to them.
The Draxakori'i are a much more enigmatic species, comprising of just 10% of the Empire's population, they possess four legs with hooves and four arms with six fingers on each hand and a roughly humanoid torso. Their faces are humanoid, save for their slitted pupils and lack of canines. Herbivores, they sustain themselves mostly on a widely cultivated cactus crop known as 'Ish'Mala'.
The Valaran operate on a relatively rigid aristocratic caste system, with only those born into positions of relative privilege able to ascend the ranks of society into important religious or governmental organisations. They are also a highly religious society, worshipping 'the Goddess' who they say is the embodiment of Valara and has blessed them with great beauty, intelligence and a bountiful Empire (though, obviously, not great modesty). Priests are highly respected within Valaran society and often hold positions of great governmental importance. The Valaran live in small family units and produce sexually, usually for life, though their pleasure seeking ways have often led them to indulge in promiscuous behaviour - though this is, religiously, condemned as impure and debasing and inappropriate for the 'chosen race' in the Empire. Their lofty aspirations have often made them the target of ire, particularly for the Kirr, with whom they had a long standing animosity before the great amalgamation of the Empire. Each Valaran planet is either ruled by a King or divided up between several monarchs, dependent on its size and population, all of whom eventually report to the Grand Vizier, who is the representative of the Valaran race as a whole on the Verdant Council. The great families of the various Valaran monarchies have warred often throughout the centuries, and indeed the Valaran species has the most volatile individual government of the three nations.
The Kirr can be described as highly industrial and highly capitalist first and foremost. They thrive on building huge and impressive cities and progressing technologically, and while the Valaran produce the vast majority of the Empire's diplomats, artists and leaders, the Kirr produce the Empire's engineers and military officers. Irreligious by nature, the Kirr's territories are split by the ownership of various corporations, some of which are so huge and vast that the CEO is as powerful as a Valaran king. The Kirr's representative on the council is the Lord-Chairman, who represents the interests of various trade conglomerates, mining operations, starship producers and other Kirr organisations. Ultra-capitalist by nature, the Kirr's attitude towards individuals is very hands off, and they have a reputation for being cold, uncaring and willing to sacrifice many of their more lowly individuals for the greater good of technological advancement and wealth.
The Draxakori'i are statistically over-represented within the governing bodies of the Empire. This has a lot to do with the fact that, while advancement in the Kirr is dependent on being bloodthirsty and savvy, and advancement within the Valar is based on birth, the Daraxakori'i (or colloquially, the Drax), are known to be a much more meritocratic society. Spiritual but not overtly religious, they wish only for peace within the universe and have never expanded beyond the parameters of their own solar system. Seen by the other races as technologically backwards, the four legged Drax generally prefer to live in smaller settlements than the grand, opulent cities of the Valar and the huge, unrepentantly urban cities of the Kirr. Within the Empire, they operate as peacekeepers and diplomats when the opulence of the Valar does not impress.
The Cult of the Red Dawn are a new para-military terrorist organisation that have emerged in Valar space, taking the sudden transplant of the nation into the new universe as a sign of the encroachment of the end times. Seeing the Valarans as a corrupt, overly decadent and essentially immoral society, they have committed acts of terror into an attempt to topple the caste system and produce a new, egalitarian, ascetic and reflective societies. Rumours and accusations fly within the Aquamarine Senate that the Kirr or even the Drax are behind the emergence of this group.
The GloboTex Mega-Corp is the single largest corporation within Kirr-Space, and is known as the primary producer of starships for the Imperial Navy. Operating as a political pressure group, they have begun to advocated rapid expansionism in the face of the new universe, protesting that the sudden disorder is the perfect opportunity to expand the borders of the Empire and happen upon new materials and territories.
The Ivory Convocation is an unofficial meeting hall of the leading Valaran nobility. Unattended by the Emperor, and a separate organisation from the Imperial government, the Convocation advocates Valaran supremacy and has lobbied the Emperor to reduce the representation of theo the other races in the government. It especially distrusts the Drax, who it sees as uncultured savages with a set of ideologies that is hostile to the delicate balance of Valaran society.
The Kirr and the Valaran warred from the moment that they discovered each other. For hundreds of years chaos reigned across the lands of the current Empire, until a Valaran frigate happened upon an inhabited planet in a previously minor system that contained the strange, alien species that would come to be known as the Drax. Under the great Drax Shaman Nafari'Karuk, the Valaran Empress Kiravani III and the CEOs of each of the largest Kirr megacorporations signed a peace, stating that each of the three races would play their role within a new planetary alliance, nominally headed by the Valaran, but actually operating on a system of equal representation.
Various pressure groups have emerged rapidly, some advocating violent and aggressive expansionism and others advocating peaceful contemplation. The official stance of the Emperor is as of yet unknown and is potentially undecided. Official bulletins from the Ministry of Scientific Development have been published to each sovereign ruler in the Empire, each of whom has had the job of explaining to their people what has happened. It is, therefore, very probably that many thousands or even millions of the Empire's citizens are as of yet unaware of what has happened. Money is being poured simultaneously into both the military and the science ministries, both of which are tentatively attempting to make contact with any other life around them.
Technology: The Empire possesses what can be described as 'adequate' technology. They are particularly important exporters of life-enhancing and prolonging technologies. Their inter-galactic level space travel is also well developed, as promoted by the Kirr.
Military technology includes large, unyieldy but well-stocked capital ships The Imperial Navy generally uses plasma technology in its weaponry, but innovations are constant under the Kirr and there is no truly uniform structure to the technology used due to the competing production of various ships by the Mega-Corporations and their various subsidiaries. Pleasure enhancing substances and luxury technologies such as space-yachts and other such fare are produced en masse by the Valaran, while scientific innovations focus mostly on spatial understanding and medical advancements, such as the extremely powerful AM-5 telescope and various wound sealants which can reattach amputated limbs with organically produced nanobots.
Military Structure: The military is led ultimately by the High-General, a position traditionally dominated by the Kirr. The High-General oversees three Grand-Generals, one from each race, who themselves are in charge of organising the race's defence forces.
Like most things in the Empire it is highly devolved, and each sovereign ruler is responsible for maintaining an active and well-stocked military. This is overseen by the Ministry for Defensive Matters, which continually inspects the standby militaries of each planet and independent organisation. The Empire also relies heavily on the mercenary services of various Kirr megacorps - the actual governmental militaries of Kirr being relatively meek by comparison. The Drax occupy positions as healers and as diplomats, with the Kirr occupying the bulk of the standing army. Most ground work is done by various robotic soldiers. The army itself has not fought in anything more major than a minor trade dispute for over three hundred years, and has at times been dismantled partially by various hedonistic Emperors and Empresses to fuel their budgets. However, with the sudden introduction of the new universe, funding is being poured into it in order to produce a military that can stand up to the new and uncharted potential threats.
The New Roman Empire was born in bloodshed, a violent revolution that believed the way to truly prosper under modern technology and the expansion into space was to adopt the ways of old long-dead Empire’s from Earth’s history, as the revolution also believed they only fell because they did not have the technology that would allow them to have succeeded. The leaders of this revolution ending up choosing the Roman Empire as their model, considered by many of Earth’s historians to be one of the most grand and influential Empires in Earth’s history. After long years of a brutal war, the New Roman Empire was finally born. It carved itself an Empire out of quite a few human colonies, then turned on alien species in its thirst for conquests. While not severely affected, the Empire lost a attack fleet that was heading out to conquer a minor planet-bound species, as well as having their general view of the universe and science as a whole shaken.
The New Roman Empire currently inhabits 40 Systems, each has at least one colonized planet, with two, The Golden System and Iscandar, having two inhabited planets. While each system has a variety of stations, asteroid bases, and facilities on barren worlds, most of them only have moderate development, there is 12 that are considered fully developed, which contain the core worlds, as well as two planets which are being considered for core world status. Listed below are the core worlds.
New Rome - The Capital of the New Roman Empire, it is a massive population, military, research, and industrial center. It is also home to the Church of the Gods. It also considered the homeworld and birthplace of the Romus Humans. Located in the Golden System.
New Illyria - Population and agricultural center, also located in the Golden System.
New Hispania - Population and Industrial Center. Located in the Western System.
New Achae - Military, Population, and Research Center. Located in the Apollo System
New Judae - Population, military, and agricultural center. Located in the Saviour System
New Syria - Population and massive industrial center. Located in the Eastern System
Alas Prime - Homeworld of the Iscandarians, as well as a population and agricultural center. Home to the underground Church of the Mother. Located in the Iscandar System.
Leo- Homeworld of the Solusi, military, population, and industrial center. Located in the the System of the same name, Leo.
Tikloketa - Homeworld of the Lathians. Research, population, and agricultural center. Located in the Lath system.
Forsyth - Homeworld of the Forsythe. Population, and massive agricultural center. Located in the Forsyth System.
The New Roman Empire, as the name and their choice of model would imply, is headed by a Imperator, or Emperor. This Imperator has absolute authority over the Empire and it’s citizens, although many institutions, noble families, a senate, and various offices of the Empire exist to help the Imperator govern, but he may override any of their decisions at any time. Many former revolutionaries question this chosen system, despite it’s use in Roman history, believing the era of the Roman Republic would be a better model for which the New Roman Empire could use to govern, but they have beens silenced.
The most prominent, and most powerful of all the Empire’s species is of course, humans. It is to be noted that however these humans are vastly superior to other humans. This has risen from the Empire’s eugenics policies, lax policies towards genetic modification, as well as the fact that the original revolutionaries who created the Empire had been living on a world with a gravity that was a bit higher then Earth’s. These Romus Humans as they call themselves are about as twice as strong than regular humans on average, as well as 50% more mentally powerful and intelligent on average. Romus Humans are the most well-treated species, with it being rare to find a poor or homeless Romus human.
The second most prominent species are the Lathians, who are listed as a Imperial Species(explanation behind Imperial and Conquered species can be found in culture). The Lathians upon meeting the Romans while be vastly intelligent did not have the manpower or military strength to face the Romans, as such they willingly joined the Empire to save themselves as well to expand their own power through the Romans. The form of Lathians is humanoid, with the exception of an additional eyestalk on top of the head that can be retracted and has 360 rotation for use in seeing all around. The Lathians are physically frail, being much weaker than humans. They are also not very tall, with the tallest recorded Lathian having reached 5”7. The Lathians have a grey skin color, with this being joked about by calling the Lathians gray in reference to the past Earth perception of a alien. They do not have any hair on their bodies with the exception of their head, with it either being a shade of brown, green, or black. Their eyes can fall anywhere within the spectrum of colors. Most Lathians serve as scientists for the Empire, and the Lathians are treated nearly as well as Romus Humans do to their long service to the Empire. The Lathians also have strong telepathic and psionic abilities, which is used by the Empire.
The last species labeled Imperial as well as the third most prominent are the Solusi. They are a feline-like humanoid species. While being a warrior race by nature, they are only as strong as humans, and about the same intelligence. However their unique ability is in the way they can shift their fur color. The Solusi can shift it into any shape with the spectrum do to a unique pigment that they possess within their bodies, although it is harder to hold onto a color that isn't the color they were born with. This has put some, but not all, of the Solusi within the military to units used for stealth attacks, as they can easily shift their colors and personal shield generators in use provide the same protection as the standard armor used by the military.
The most prominent of the Conquered species, as well as be arguably more prominent in the Empire then the Solusi are the Iscandarians. This species possesses large angel like wings, which can provide them flight and are easily tucked away to prevent them from being too large of a target on the battlefield. They are stronger and more intelligent than humans, however is it not by much. They are perhaps the most rebellious of the all the species that fall under the yoke of the New Roman Empire, mainly due to their original culture and ideals.
The final species that was conquered by the Romans that compromises the New Roman Empire is the Forsythe. A strange spider-like race, they walk upon six-legs. They only have two eyes however and their vision is similar to human vision. They also have on the back of their bodies a scorpion like pincer for attacking, as well as two arms ending in hands.
The last sentient species are known as the Lusi Natuarum, latin for Freaks of Nature. These horrifying abominations were made in the deepest depths of the Roman’s laboratories. They are humanoid, but have a black chitin shell and a pincer like mouth. They are vastly stronger than humans and even Romus Humans. From birth they are controlled by the scientists using a mix of chemicals and various cybernetic implants. When they finally reach adulthood they are turned into Synths, horrifying things of cybernetic and genetic modification. Acting as the most elite and dangerous forces of the Empire that serve alongside their other Synths, the Lusi Natuarum are feared.
The first and most relevant systems is the loose caste system that has formed in the Empire. While they have no unique name for their higher-up position in the Empire the Humans are at the top and thus the only species allowed to someone on the throne as Emperor. Following that there are several species that willingly submitted to the Empire, these are known as the Imperial Species. They are granted citizenship and have the same rights as humans, and are usually treated pretty well, although in a few smaller areas they may still be discriminated against. The next are the conquered species, which are species that did not submit and the Romans had to go to war to take control of. They have almost no rights, to the point that there are certain situations in which they can be enslaved. They are oppressed and discriminated against quite frequently as well. Members of conquered species can become what is called a Honorary Roman, either through service in the military or another great achievement for the Empire, they have all the sames rights as regular citizens, beyond not being able to serve on the Senate. Due to this honorary system however they are often discriminated against by their own kind due to bowing to the Empire, and are still discriminated against by the Romus Humans and Imperial Species. As such they often form their own communities in which they stay together.
Being that the New Roman Empire was originally inspired by the Roman Empire, the New Roman Empire carries with it a lot of the culture. Architecture is heavily inspired by the Romans and Greeks, although with a few updates to the materials used as well a few unique spins on the styles to make it their own. The Romans also heavily uphold gaining glory in battle, as such soldiers will often fight hard just so they may be able to be remembered well within the history of New Rome. While a idea of honor exists, and the Romans will often avoid hurting civilians or using chemical or biological weapons, they will use them freely on military soldiers and civilians if they need to gain the upperhand. Liberty and the idea of the People’s Republic however has been eliminated as it was seen as a failure on the part of the Old Roman Empire, and as such the New Roman Empire can come off as a lot more oppressive. However despite the oppression and general totalitarianism of the Roman Empire, they have some strangely liberal policies, such as allowance of polygamous and homosexual marriages, although is often thought to have risen as a policy due to the tendencies of Emperors to court multiple mistresses.
A terrifying part of the New Roman Empire’s policies is there absolute embracement of eugenics, cybernetic modification, and genetic modification despite anything ethics or morals that should be considered with such things. They have fully adopted this, terrifying so with eugenics where any baby detected with serious physical or mental disabilities is either to be aborted, or if the parents are able to afford use of gene therapy to correct it.
Linguistically the official language and most often used in the New Roman Empire is latin. However both the Lathians and Solusi usually know Latin as a second language, and when not in a military or government role and speaking to their own kind they will use their language, even in public. However for the conquered Solusi and Iscandarian they are forbidden from speaking their own language in public, and the Roman System forces them to learn latin. As the Iscandarians are ever rebellious public protests will often have them using their own language on signs and in speech. These protest are often put down extremely violently.
For religion as a part of the adoption of Roman culture some choose to the adopt the ways of the Roman Gods, referring to them as the Old Gods. They comprise about 34% of the Roman population. However many have chosen instead to adopt a new form of christianity called New Age Catholicism. The religion is a stark contrast to Old-Earth Catholicism and lets off a lot of New Rome’s more morally questionable technology and policies. They comprise 38% of the population. Following that 20% believe in the Church of the Mother, the religion of the Iscandarians. This religion is where the Iscandarians get their ideals of Liberty, mutual cooperation, and peace from. The church is technically outlawed, but that has not prevented it from gaining a massive following. 4% are various sects of the Solusi faith, which chooses Ancestor Worship and various spirits as their main beliefs. The final 4% are agnostic/atheist, or undecided.
For individual species the Romus Humans mostly have adopted the Roman ways, as mentioned earlier. However they still carry shades of old Earth culture, mainly from America and Britain as the revolutionaries had been born on planets colonized by those two. The British aspect of the Romus Human culture mainly is centered around a loyalty to the Ruling Monarch, which in the case of the Romans it the Emperor. For the American aspect it is in the belief in ruling representatives which has manifested in the form of the Senate, despite the Senate having no actual power.
The Lathians focus on the constant exploration of new ideas and advancement of sciences. For this reason the Lathians were in the middle of a cultural revolution when they were discovered by the Romans, with many unique new styles that were not seen by the Romans before. While one would think this would conflict with the general Authoritarian Regime that is New Rome, the various Lathian artists, writers, and scientists have been allowed to continue their work under Rome so long as their work is not anti-state.
The Solusi are very much a warrior race, however they have no honor aspect to their warrior culture, with glory being extremely important. No matter the underhanded methods used glory is gained by the defeat of enemies. The Solusi society also has an unhealthy fixation on the resolving of conflict through combat. Arena battles are common for this reason among the Solusi as a means of resolving disputes.
Iscandarians are much more peaceful species, however when angered they can be a threat. In contrast to the other species of the New Roman Empire there core values focus on peace, mutual cooperation, liberty, and populist ideals. A lot of this stems not just as their evolution as a society but from the dominate religion of the Iscandarians known as the Church of the Mother. Due to these conflicting ideals with those that form the central tenets of Roman Rule the Iscandarians are the most rebellious of all of the species.
The Forsythe do not have much of a culture to speak off, due to their bug-like nature they had a queen at the top with a Earth ant like caste-system, except with individual Forsythe being able to reproduce. After the end of the brief-war where the Forsythe fell dominion to the New Roman Empire, the Queen was killed with special measures taken to prevent the creation of a new one. This has changed the Forsythe dramatically, and despite their conquered status many Forsythe see the conquest by the Empire as more of a liberation, as it has allowed the Forsythe to evolve much more as a society. However many Forsythe still work towards the creation of a new Queen as rebels, often working with Iscandarian rebels to destroy important Roman points in control of their former worlds.
Lusi Natuarum due to their nature do not have any culture or society to speak of, although one could make the argument that their intense loyalty to the Romus Humans and the Emperor is a form of primitive culture displayed by them.
By far one of the most important entities in the New Roman Empire is the Royal Family. Due to the nature of Rome’s marriage policies, the Emperor has multiple wives. At current the Emperor has 56 children, with 10 of those children being below 18. The rest of the children hold some of the most important positions in the Empire, although they have actually fought to get to these positions. Despite the nature of the Royal Family siblings killing each other and vying for power doesn’t happen, with the siblings being loyal to each other as most of them already have positions they like anyways. There is some occasional fighting, but it does not happen often.
Another organization within the Roman structure is the Senate. While they don’t have much political power, the Senators are usually CEOs of wealthy corporations or former military Generals, and thus commands lots of respect and economic power.
The New Catholic Church operates from the capitol of New Rome. While their power is limited due to the policies and general outlook of the government, they still sway the hearts and minds of people due to them being a religious authority. They also have a limited private military force known as the New Catholic Crusaders, which runs security for the church. They have been allowed a small cache of military weapons, and are known for being a deadly and well-trained force that matches some of the Roman’s best.
The Church of the Gods takes the old Roman Pantheon and acts the center of the religious authority for it. Much like the New Catholic Church they have many under their authority. They also operate a similar private military force.
The Church of the Mother is a underground movement, mainly due to the ban by the Roman Government. They act as a moral and religious authority for the Iscandarians, as welling help coordinate the efforts of the various Iscandarian rebel groups, as well as preventing them from fighting and causing gang warfare between the rebels.
The Roman Military due to their role in the Roman Empire as well as their size and power could be considered vastly important, but their extreme loyalty to the Emperor, the Empire, and the Royal Family prevents them from attempting any form of coup.
The earliest part of New Roman history stands in 2153, multiple years after the United Earth Federation had become an important entity in the galaxy in which Rome originates. Robert McClain, a CEO of a wealthy mega corporation philosophied that the UEF would collapse without adopting new ideas. He pointed out in his book, Common Sense, that the UEF was increasingly becoming overextended and corruption was beginning to dominate the UEF political system. While he never outrighted state it would better to adopt older ways, his book became the basis by which later revolutionaries built their philosophy.
Sometime later, in 2189, the three revolutionaries Adam Agata, David Wilson, and Meagan McClain who would come to begin a revolution to birth a New Rome wrote a book that detailed their ideas. Basing it upon Common Sense they wrote that the only way for the UEF to survive was to adopt old ways dating far back in Earth’s history. These ideas became a huge hit on their homeworlds, those worlds having been effected the most by the corruption and overextension of the UEF. While a few governmental officials approved of these idea, a majority of the government was against it. As a part of a plan to shut down any movement the government force the publishing company to stop production of their book, as well as killing Meagan McClain in a supposed accident.
Both Adam Agata and David Wilson were forced into hiding, where they began building their revolution, now realizing that they would be unable to get the UEF to reform. They built secret printing presses and printed more of their book, as well as distributing it digitally. They quickly gained a huge following, and began stealing military weapons. With a well-armed force as well as the UEF being distracted by a communist rebellion in a different sector, they began their attack.
What little UEF forces were stationed on the worlds in which the revolution had begun were quickly overwhelmed and killed. After the first planet fell David Wilson and Adam Agata discussed which civilization’s ways to adopt, and they decided upon the Roman Empire. The other high-ranking revolutionaries agreed. The planet was renamed New Rome and such choices as adopting Latin as a primary language were made, but it wouldn’t be much later till Latin was exclusively what Rome spoke. Adam Agata was crowned as the first Emperor of the New Roman Empire, and David Wilson as the Head of the Military. He quickly organized the revolutionaries into a more effective army, rather than just the mob they had before. Two more worlds fell, and were renamed New Hispania and New Illyria respectively.
Shortly after the New Roman Empire began a massive attack and started carving planets out of the collapsing UEF, a new more liberal government seized control of the UEF, and despite the damage it was doing continued trying to throwdown both the New Roman Empire and the on-going communist revolution. While they finally managed to strike down the communists, the New Roman Empire had become too organized, as well as having broken into and taken many of the weapons from an experimental weapons lab. The UEF began shoring up their defenses, believing that they would not be able to push an offensive against the Romans.
However the war quickly turned into a stalemate, the defenses of the UEF having been upgraded and made too strong to pierce effectively by the Romans, with the UEF being unable to carry out an effective offensive or resist some of the weapons the Romans had developed. Both sides met in a neutral zone, where a peace treaty was signed by both sides. Both felt angered about being unable to destroy the other, but the war was just not able to be carried on.
With the war over the New Roman Empire began to solidify its policies and begin plans for the future. With everything worked out the Romans turned their eyes away from the UEF and towards the many, many alien civilizations nearby, thirsting for conquest.
It was about 2236, the Romans contacting the Lathians. Before the attack could begin however the Lathians said they would willingly go to the Romans, so as long as they still held some status. This interaction was what gave birth to the Imperial-Conquered species system. The Romans after this agreed and quickly moved and secured the world, while preparing their forces for other potential offensives.
It was then that the Romans saw the Iscandarians, they were contacted earlier by the UEF but the two had maintained peaceful relations. When the Romans had sent the ultimatum to join or be conquered to the Iscandarians their only response was that they were preparing their forces.
The war began in quick order, as the Romans launched a swift strike against the Iscandarian frontier worlds. However while the easily won the space battles, the Iscandarians were too entrenched in the ground and to defensive for the Romans to do much. This is when the Romans launched into their project to develop the Lusi Natuarum and as soon as they were ready the Romans sent them against the Iscandarian lines. Not only were they extremely effective they easily broke Iscandarian moral. With the frontier worlds theirs they launched an assault on the Core Worlds, and soon after the Iscandarian homeworld of Alas Prime had fallen to the brutal onslaught.
Following the Iscandarian Offensive the Romans turned their eyes towards the Solusi as a potential valuable addition to the Roman Empire, mainly because of their high population as well as natural warrior culture. The King of the Solusi reluctantly agreed to the Roman ultimatum as he realized the Solusi forces stood no chance against the Roman forces. He also hoped that by the Solusi joining the Romans they could grow stronger than they ever could before.
The final offensive the Romans embarked upon before the event was the Forsythe Invasion. The Forsythe Queen denied the Roman ultimatum, and it was a slaughter. The Forsythe had only developed very minimal space technology, so the Romans completely trumped them. By the end of it the Queen was dead and the Romans had managed to claim victory.
Then the Romans launched an assault fleet, a day before the event, at the UEF. This fleet had been built and constructed with advanced weapons and armor over a decade, and would have easily wiped out any UEF defenses or ships in it ways. However as it left and entered UEF space, the event occurred, transporting the New Roman Empire to the True Vacuum. While the fleet was a loss the current Imperator, Cato Avilius, decided the best course of action was to explore the new universe and begin building the Roman Empire across as it, believing the vent that occurred to be some sort of sign.
The actual scientific study and theories about the event has overshadowed all three of the major churches claiming that it was caused by the Gods. This has allowed the public to remain stable despite the sudden change. The military just see this as a new field for more Roman conquests, and scientists continue to study to find a possible cause.
There are three substances that are a extremely important part of Roman technology or are frequently used within Roman tech. These are antimatter, Rominium, Negative Energy, and a strange material known as Sakuren. Antimatter is pretty much the staple in Rome as it used in a lot of weapons as well as a power source for most of Rome. Rominium was discovered on New Rome, but the deposits ran out rather quickly. It is however easily to make using artificial means. Rominium acts as a powerful superconductor, and is used in all power lines within the Roman Empire. When blended with either tungsten or titanium, it is also an effective starship armor. Negative energy now only serves the purpose of powering anti-gravity devices, but it did power warp drives before the Romans switched to their Universal Jump drive.
The main form of FTL used by the New Roman Empire is what they refer to as a universal jump drive. When traveling to another location there is a universe which acts a secondary one to whichever the Romans are located in at the time, and they they will travel through this universe to reach their location. This was the fastest form of FTL in the Roman’s home universe, and could actually be powered up pretty easily. However due to the switch to the True Vacuum the drive speed was slowed down significantly, but is still pretty fast. It also takes longer between jumps, which is a period of about 5 minutes. A similar method is used for FTL communication.
Antigravity uses negative energy, and it has given the Romans a very fine control over it. It has also been used to produce gravity on Roman ships. Within civilian areas the antigravity has been used to expand space and create flying cities, factories, and farms, as well as propel various transports. The military uses it mainly as their method of propelling planet-bound fighters and bombers, as well as giving water-naval ships the ability to transform into aircraft.
The Romans use a wide variety of defenses techs on both the ground and in space. As mentioned above the Romans use Rominium mixed with tungsten for bigger ships or Rominium with titanium for lighter ships as the main armor for space-bound vessels and stations. All stations and ships use shields, the shields can easily be shaped depending on the need of the vessel and vessels and stations can merge their shields to form effective shield walls. It is not uncommon to see shield ships in Roman fleets that have entirely shields to form shield walls. All space-bound vessels and stations, with the exception of small craft, incorporate Faraday cages into their designs to protect from EMPs. Stealth-craft exist, but they are limited to a few frigates and smaller ships. Ground forces use exclusively titanium for armoring, with infantry having powered armor. All infantry have a small shield in their power armor, although it usually doesn’t last long under sustained fire unless the unit is an elite one with a better suit of power armor. Power armor also incorporates a wide variety of communication devices, with specialized stealth devices for some units meant to engage in special operations.
Weapons technology in space centers around antimatter and plasma. Antiproton beams are a common weapon larger ships, with ships that lack the space for them having accelerated projectile weapons that are tipped with antimatter, and a wide variety of antimatter missiles of varying payloads. Plasma cannons are used on most ships, and the only weapon that small craft have other older generation rail-guns or antimatter missiles. Ground forces have no antimatter missiles, and instead will use either high explosive missiles or tactical nukes if the situation calls for it. Other than the infantry as well as other vehicles use a mix of plasma and accelerated projectile weapons, as well as explosive weapons.
Nanobots are also used, mainly for medical purposes as well as for the implantation of certain augmentations. They are also used for fabricating electronics.
A.I has been developed for calculation and research purposes, but it has been shackled to prevent uprisings.
Memory Replacement and removal has also been developed, and is often used to flash train soldiers.
A huge part of Roman technological development is their cybernetic and genetic modification. They have both been developed extensively by Romans, and they are capable of extreme modification. While civilians are capable of getting cybernetics to an extent, genetic modification is much more limited for civilians, although it is often used on plants and animals to increase production heavily, which has given the Romans a great bounty of food. Cybernetics can also with the use of nanobots put nano-scale augmentations on systems that are not normally augmentable, such as the nervous system. Synthesis has also been developed which combines the two. With synthesis it is common to make what are called “true” synths. These are synths made from dead flesh with no living flesh, cybernetics are then incorporated and a shackled A.I added as a brain.
The Roman Military is divided into three branches with each having very different duties. These branches are the Malleus Imperii, Classis Imperii, and the Agmen Dolosi. While all have different duties, they all brainwash their units. Mind control via Lathian Psionic ability, memory replacement, chemicals, and propaganda are used to control them. Each Division also has a leader which controls the entire division, with the leader above the divisionals being the Princeps Supremus, who is exclusively appointed by the Imperator.
Malleus Imperii
Also sometimes simply the Exerciti, they are the Grounds forces of the New Roman Empire. Operating the infantry, non-space aircraft, and the water navy, which again is capable of flight via anti-gravity, they are feared by their foes. Their extreme devotion to the Empire and Imperator because of the brainwashing them gives them a near unbreakable moral, with a loyalty that will make them follow almost any order. They are responsible for defending planets as well as invading planets when the times comes. They operate a wide variety of infantry, vehicles, aircraft, mechs, and naval ships. All infantry have augmentation in some form, with some being synths.
Unlike the other two divisions, the Malleus Imperii divides their units into three different areas. These are High Command, Field Command, and Ground Units. It is to be noted that the Ground units are also assigned a number, 1-10, in their rank to indicate their position to other members of that rank. Lower numbers are considered higher. Field and High Command do not use this same system. Ranks are in ascending order.
Ground Units
-Munifex
-Decurio
-Tesserarius
-Optio Minor
-Optio
-Optio Supremus
Field Command
-Triarius
-Centurio
-Hastati
-Dux Minor
High Command
-Dux
-Dux Supremus
-Tribunus
-Tribunus Supremus
-Legatus
-Legatus Supremus
Overall Leader:Legatus Exercitus
Classis Imperii
The Navy of the New Roman Empire. They are the primary exploration and combat force for the Empire.They have the same devotion and loyalty as the Malleus Imperii. Their duties include exploration, transport, defending in space, and attacking in space.
While they do not have areas like the Malleus Imperii, it is to be noted that they both the Munifex Astrum and Decurio Astrum have a similar 1-10 system, but not the rest of the Classis Imperii. Ranks are in ascending order.
-Munifex Astrum
-Decurio Astrum
-Optio Minor Astrum
-Optio Astrum
-Optio Supremus Astrum
-Dux Minor Astrum
-Dux Astrum
-Dux Supremus Astrum
-Centurio Astrum
-Centurio Supremus Astrum
-Praefectus Minor
-Praefectus
-Praefectus Supremus
Overall Leader:Praefectus Classis
Agmen Dolosi
The Agmen Dolosi is the secret police and intelligence agency of the New Roman Empire. They are relatively unknown and kept hidden from the public, but to the few rebel groups who know of their existence they are a true nightmare. They are responsible for eliminating rebel groups, silencing governmental opponents, gathering info on the public, spreading propaganda, conducting false flag operations, getting behind enemy lines and weakening them through underhanded methods, acting as spies on enemy targets, and conducting other special operations.
Capital Planet- The Capital of the Septonium Concordant is Taoshe, it is a lush green planet with a temperate climate. The planet is a mixture of lush multicolored grass like expanses, Alpine territories topped with snow and large rough oceans. The coastal territories and the oceans are a big contrast from the beautiful expanses of the inner regions. Storms are frequent along the coast and it rains most of the 24 month year, making the seas extremely rough. This is due to the gravity of the binary star Shao XI and the planets 3 moons. Taoshe is the Executive center of the concordant and is also home to the central military headquarters.
Planets- The core four planets in the empire lie within the binary star system of Shao XI are Taoshe, Haloh, Icarus and Jalag other worlds are named based the date at which they were found, allied or conquered. The concordant does maintain large space stations in the large expanses between planets.
Taoshe- Center of government, seat of military and political power. Three moons ( Tao 1-3) are frozen methane balls.
Haloh- The agricultural center of the Concordant and home to the top architectural and engineering academies. Haloh is the heartland of the concordant 50% of its surface is farmland. Haloh is also the trading capital of the Concordant and home to many of the private corporations. It has two moons, Gaia and Janus. Both are lush jungle planets with exotic wildlife and plants.
Icarus- The most desolate planet in the system, made up of large deserts and giant gorges, canyons and mountains. The lower hemisphere is a weapons testing ground for the military while the upper hemisphere is home to the diplomatic academies of the Concordant. Icarus is actually the largest moon of the gas giant Kaalmeet, which has seven moons. The rest of the moons are desolate rocks also used for military testing. For 6 months a year, the planet moves behind the gas giant receiving no sunlight, Temperatures drop to -195 degrees fahrenheit or lower. During the remainder of the six months days can reach a comfortable 70 degrees.
Jalag- A large manufacturing world, is protected by the other core planets. Jalag is home to the biggest naval port in the Concordant, thousands of military and civilian ships travel through the port on a daily basis. The planet is also home to the majority of the weapons plants that service the military. Jalag has one moon, Sahel. A moon with large deposits of uranium, used to fuel reactors.
Leader-The current chairman of the Concordant is Valag Timonus
Government- The Septonium Concordant is a Republic with a large senatorial body, laws and other decisions of the state are governed by this body. Senators are chosen from the ranks of the military, selection is based on merit and honor in combat. The Septonium Concordant is a military state, the military funds, directs and oversees all actions made by the state. Non-military assets and military assets share a nice relationship and cooperate readily, helping in anyway they can in non military matters. It is not uncommon for military transports to transport building materials for civilians builders and it is common to see the military pull in civilian help for humanitarian missions. The Concordant's second largest body is the diplomatic corps which handles all foreign relations and non-combat missions. Because of the slow recruitment and training time for recruits the concordant cannot sustain large military campaigns. Peace and Diplomacy have become paramount for the concordant and military action is seen as a very last resort.
Population- The radiation given off by the binary star makes most of the planets in the system inhospitable. With the exception os the Aradites, there are savage feral beings that inhabit other worlds in the system. The total population of the Concordant is 55 billion.
Species-The Aradites are the only species in the Septonium Concordant, they are a odd humanoid like species that have adapted to their radiation rich environment. The binary system Shao XI is home to 12 worlds, four of which are inhabited by the Aradites. The Aradites have evolved with their environment and are very attuned to the nature around them. Aradite physiology is not to distant from human, they exhibit all the same reproductive organs and have all of the standard circulatory organs. Aradite skin is hard and leathery but appears smooth, slightly changing hue based on their mood. The Aradites have complex eyes that have a bright yellow color, their evolution as nomadic hunters has sharpened their eyesight and has given them a small amount of natural night vision.
Culture- Aradites are an honorable people who share a strong nationalist bond. Aradites seem militaristic from the outside but are fierce pacifists, preferring to flex their military arm only when they must. Septonian culture is very liberal and open, citizens are generally nice and extremely hospitable. Guests are honored and are often treated to large feasts and gifts by the host.
Currency- Septonian Dari
Other Traits- The Septonium Concordant has beautiful planets and is great at terraforming, they have a very open building style resembling the style of ancient Rome and Greece. Most core planets distill there own alcohol , it is very strong and said to cause hallucinations and euphoria due to the ingredients. The ingredients are a closely guarded secrets among the families. The core worlds are home to a variety of smokeable herbs that have different reactions, these are cultivated and make up a large portion of the Septonian economy.
Noteworthy Tech- -Septonian Magnetic Acceleration technology is excellent, commonly used in both civilian and military settings. Light rail and space station high-ways use the technology to move quickly around the station. Aradite weapons use the same technology to accelerate rounds to frightening speeds with extreme accuracy.
- Holographic displays and controls are common in military and civilian sectors.C ommunication units can be as big as a room, broadcasting the holographic images of 10+ people in their full form and in real time. Or they can be as small as an apple, only broadcasting the face and shoulders of an individual.
History- When the Aradites evolved into a humanoid being they immediately began hunting and gathering, quickly becoming nomads. These nomad groups eventually met each other and created small settlements and attracted more people into these settlements. As time progressed Governments formed and nations were established around these former nomadic tribes, as the nations grew conflict between these nations became inevitable. A bloody period of war started, including three world wars and countless small conflicts over land and resources on the planet. The victor of these conflicts and the superpower on the planet was the Septonious family a strong a charismatic house known for their ruthless military and wealth. The family began to conquer the planet and by the end of the late modern age, the entire planet was under Septonian control. The Septonian leadership installed the senate into the government and removed all the power from the noble families and placed it in the hands of the senate, Most of the senators were old veterans from the different campaigns of conquest and a few scholars and international figures. As the Aradites began space traveling the need for a single point of power was needed and an chairman was re-introduced to work alongside the senate to pass bills quickly. The Septonium Concordant has since expanded to the current reaches of the empire and is still fighting ancient colonial battles with separatists.
Military- The military is broken into three separate branches:
Standard issue armor for military forces
Operations Branch: The Operations branch consists of the Navy, Army and Marine forces, these forces encompass the armed wing of the Concordant and preform three separate duties. The Navy serves in an offensive role and a transport/ exploration role as well as being the primary deployment platform for the Marine battalions. The marine battalions are the primary shock troops of the concordant, their primary duties are lightning fast raids and specialized offensives. They lack the ability to hold and occupy terrain however and deploy with limited resources. Occupation of territories is the army's primary duty, they deploy with a regiment of combat engineers to quickly build fortifications and other defensive structures. They are trained as military policemen to combat civilian threats along with military targets. Against specialized forces however the army lacks the same operational capability. The Septonian military is a Light Infantry and Naval force only. They do not have tanks, Infantry Fighting vehicles/ LAVs, or any mechanized units.
Diplomatic Branch: The diplomatic branch is the main voice of the concordant, some of the best minds in Foreign policy and galactic relations make up the Diplomatic corps staff. The Diplomatic Branch maintains a small fleet of specialized diplomatic shuttles and cruisers. Their primary duty is conflict avoidance and conflict resolution.
Agriculture/Colonial Branch: The A&C Branch is strictly a exploration and terraforming branch, their only duty is the exploration of new worlds and terraforming operations on other worlds to be colonized. They maintain a large fleet, second in size to the Operations branch. A company of marines is assigned to the A&C branch and all their vessels are unarmed.
Septonian Marines:
Joining the military is a life choice for most Aradites, choosing to attend military academies at a very young age. Once accepted the new candidates are put through an intense curriculum of military history, tactical applications and operations, galactic history, Galatic culture and daily physical training. By their 5th or 6th year in the academy candidates are given the first round of bio- enhancements, these include mitochondrial and protein stimulants for increased muscle growth and computer assisted optical implants for another 10% boost in natural night vision. The curriculum continues until their 16th year when they are given their second and final round of enhancements. Veins and arteries are widened and a second small synthetic heart is implanted allowing for a higher blood flow and clotting speed, all marines have a identical scar under their left arm pit from the procedure. After graduating from the Academy, new marines are assigned to training platoons and sent to the neighboring worlds of Falkaide XXI or Harum VI to combat the feral beings there. This serves as operational training and tempers new marines to combat, the surviving marines are then relieved by the next group of fresh marines and are assigned to operational battalions. Marines spend 18-19 years in training and devote most of their lives to the military. Marines are heavily armed aiming for shock and awe, their weapons are made up of carbines and personal defense weapons but can be seen using a wide range of weaponry. All marines carry light shields to help against energy based attacks but are very weak.
Septonian Army:
The Army follows the same pipeline as the Marine candidates but are deployed to the contested system of Gaiconda to fight the insurgency there. Surviving soldiers are assigned to operational companies and relieved by the next group of new soldiers. Soldiers carry a wide range of weapons and deploy with large surpluses of gear, they are heavily armed with main battle rifles and machine guns along with a wide range of artillery.
Septonian Navy:
Aradite vessels are built from scaled durasteel under a sloped alloy like armor. vessels are commonly narrow at either and and smoothly bubble around the scaled durasteel to help kinetic projectiles glance off. All vessels have light to medium shields, able to absorb one or two energy based strikes before failing. The navy maintains the intelligence service for the concordant.
This is the biggest class of vessel in the fleet, carrying 12 missile pods, two forward facing magnetic accelerated torpedo tubes, 30 point defense turrets ( 10 fore, 10 mid, 10 aft) and space to carry a fighter squadron and a marine battalion with all of their gear and vehicles.
6 missile pods, one forward facing MAT, 20 point defense turrets, space for a fighter squadron and 2 companies of Marines.
Three 120mm cannons each with a 180 degree radius, two forward facing MAT, 10 point defense turrets, capable of laying mines
Two 120mm cannons, One forward facing MAT, capable of laying mines,
Excellent stealth and electronics suite, capable of laying mines, one forward facing MAT, 3 missile tube
Standard issue armor for military forces
