[OOC] What Remains - a freeform Sci-Fi Fantasy NRP

[Ozerath]

Working on an IC post, partially some internal politics, partially a free trader who'll serve as a sort of neutral plot inducing character for my faction. Just wanted to ask @Arawak, is Persephone station free for anyone to use, or do you have specific plot restrictions in mind there?

[TheSovereignGrave]

I've been looking at this RP for a while, but I didn't want to say anything until I had an NS done. Well, I do (at least mostly; just have to finish the History section) and I was wondering if I should post it here in the OOC first to be looked at or just stick it in the Character page.

[Alfhedil]

@TheSovereignGrave Post it up here first, and then myself or Duck will give it a review.

[TheSovereignGrave]

@TheSovereignGrave Post it up here first, and then myself or Duck will give it a review.

@Alfhedil

Alright, here it is.

The Rim

Name of Nation:
The Rim

Description of Species:
The race of the Rim's languages are difficult to transcribe and so are usually translated, which can make it difficult to refer to their race as most of their words for themselves translate to "People". And so for convenience, they are usually referred to as Rimworlders. The Rimworlders as a race are tall, thin, spindly humanoids. Averaging about ten feet in height with their backs fully extended, their natural posture is hunched over so that they're closer to seven feet tall. Their limbs are proportionally much longe than a human, and each ends in four long digits; their hands have two finger and two thumbs, while their four toes are spread out equally around their feet. The skin of the Rimworlders is usually varying shades of yellow and indredibly dry with a texture that has been likened to leather, in addition to a complete lack of anything resembling hair. Their spines are normally so curved that a Rimworlder's neck is horizontal, with their head sticking out from the front of their body rather than sitting on top. Said head is longer than a human's and contains six eyes arranged in a hexagon shape, and each covered by a thin half-sphere of protective tissue which functions like the lens of goggles. The lower half of their face contains a multitude of small, circular orifices, through which they breathe and speak. And below that is the Rimworlder's mouth: a long proboscis of bone that functions much like a spider's fang, and is usually laid flat against the bottom of the head with a hinge along the Rimworlder's 'chin'.

Description of Government:
The Rim is a region governed by a small government, but a centralized one. The Rimworlders are loathe to give up any independence they don't need to and as a result the government controls only that which is viewed as necessary for the protection and security of the Rim and its people.

The Central Administration is the government that controls the entire Rim; it is incredibly small and minarchist, with the only major government institutions being the Central Legislature and the Rim Admiralty. The Central Legislature itself is the body that creates the laws of the Rim, with each inhabitated Rimworld providing 3 Representatives to serve. The Rim Admiralty is the body which is in charge of controlling and coordinating the Rim Fleets, and is headed by a Council of retired Admirals from the various Rimworlds.

The rest of the government is headed by the World Administrations of each individual Rimworld. The Judiciary and Police are the main institutions, with the Police enforcing the laws of the Central Legislature and the Judiciary interpreting that law and trying those accused of committing a crime in the Rim.

Description of Culture:
The Rim has been described as the "Land of a Thousand Peoples", and while hyperbole it is not far from the truth. There are numerous tongues and beliefs spread out among the various Rimworlds. And while there are numerous cultures, they all share among them a strong sense of freedom, individualism, and independence. Rimworlders hate being told what to do in most situations, and are sometimes considered stubborn as a result.

Within the Rim, almost anything that doesn't involve the harming of others is permitted. All sorts of recreational drugs and other activities that are often banned in other places, but don't harm anyone other than the user, are quite easy to come by in the Rim as the Central Administration sees no reason in banning them. This has given the Rim a reputation as the place where one can come to acquire whatever their heart's desire without pesky things like regulations or law getting in the way. Natural this also makes the Rim a common stop for smugglers, as much of what would be considered 'contraband' elsewhere is perfectly legal in the Rim.

Description of Technology:
The Rim is a technologically advanced region of space, with even the poorest of their worlds having access to advanced, if outdated, technology.Activities such as manufacturing and agriculture are left to automated systems, though overseen by Rimworlders. The Rim is not home to any AIs advanced enough to oversee such major operations unaided by a biological mind. Though advanced in many ways, the Rim is generally lacking in the development of artificial intelligence when compared to other advanced galactic powers.

However, in other branches they are sufficiently advanced. Nearly all power in the Rim is provided by fusion reactors, breeder fission reactors, or large arrays of orbital solar panels. Smaller handheld devices are powered by high capacity and rechargeable energy cells. The most common weaponry found within the Rim are laser weapons. This includes anything from small handheld sidearms, to the massive superlasers mounted on Rimworlder capital ships.

In terms of biotechnology the Rimworlders have several advanced technolgies as well. They have numerous advanced medical technologies and are able to grow and attach biological replacements for any damaged portions of the body, provided their doctors are unable to use their advanced medicine to repair the damage itself. They are no slouches in genetic research as well, with its most common usage being in the agricultural sector.

Description of Military:
There is no single, centralized military in the Rim; in its place there are the numerous Rim Fleets kept by individual Rimworlds. Each of the Rim Fleets are both Army and Navy, and vary widely in composition and organization. On the poorest of worlds the Rim Fleet is composed mostly of outdated designs and with their fighting force composed almost entirely of militiamen. By comparison, the richest Rimworlds can field massive fleets of the most cutting-edge ships and professional full-time soldiers. It is the Central Admiralty's headache to coordinate all of the disparate Rim Fleets in times of war or national crisis.

History:
The homeworld of the Rimworlders is a dry and massive planet known as Dryhome. While geographic evidence has shown that in the ancient past the planet was home to numerous shallow oceans, the only world that the Rimworlders have ever known was one of endless deserts punctuated only by the occasional oasis or small sea. The earliest ancestor of the Rimworlders to have a society were nomadic bands that wandered from oasis to oasis until eventually over the millennia they had spread over the entire planet. Trading posts would eventually spring up around these oasises, which would eventually grow into the towns and cities of the first sedentary Rimworlders.

Over the millennia states would rise and fall over the planet, though city-states predominated throughout much of Dryhome's history. This was a simple consequence of the terrain; it was near impossible to create or maintain a sprawling empire when traveling to the next city over involved crossing a massive desert. That is not to say that there were no empire, just that they were rare and collapsed after the death of the one who united them. Up until the modern age, the only to get word from one city-state to another was through the nomads who wandered from settlement to settlement. They would, however, eventually be rendered obsolete in this regard by more modern technology. But even after that the isolation one state had from the other lead to them retaining their distinct cultures.

But despite this, the unity brought by ever advancing technology eventually lead to a central government for Dryhome. It was, however, a very loose confederation of states on the planet. And then when the Rimworlders began to spread out among their solar system, it was like their early history all over again. Early space travel took months to reach other colonies in the system, and so their colonies were like oasises in the endless desert of space. Though colonies were not the correct word, as the Rimworlders there had no desire to be ruled from Dryhome and those back on their homeworld eventually realized that it'd be prohibitive to try and force them to. And then came the discovery of the FTL Gate the Precursors had left behind, out on the fringes of their home system.

Absolute proof of alien life within the galaxy was astounding, and lead to considerable upheaval in Rimworlder society. The major result of this being the worlds uniting themselves under a single governing body that would be the direct predecessor of the Central Administation of today's Rim, though even more decentralized with the worlds united in almost nothing but name. And then the Rimworlders began to travel through the Gate, settling on other worlds and founding their own states on them. Though nominally part of the government based on Dryhome, they were just as de facto independent as the rest of the Rimworlders worlds.

(To be Continued)

Other:

[null123]

Ur good.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Sweet. So does anyone want to have any kind of shared history? I was planning on there being a war or invasion or something like that in the past that lead to their relatively centralized (by Rimworlder standards) government they have now.

[KremeSupreme]

@TheSovereignGrave

I think the Sauru'u could fit. They're basically predators with no ethics towards hunting, and could work as a good danger to convince the Rim to unite a under a centralized government to defend against.

[Ozerath]

@TheSovereignGrave

The ultra-expansionist Commonwealth might work for your history as well. They're always nosing around trying to entice, coerce, or outright force independent worlds and smaller factions into joining them.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Hmmm, well to be honest they'd both work. So why not both? The Rimworlders would despise the idea of joining an organization like the Commonwealth (even without realizing the drawbacks of them not being citizens they'd hate for how controlling it is) and the Sauru'u, well, being invaded isn't exactly something anyone desires.

How old are the Sauru'u, though? Just to get out a rough timeline; since the conflicts between the Sauru'u and Commonwealth with the Rim don't necessarily need to be around the same time.

[Ozerath]

@TheSovereignGrave

Alright, how bout something along the lines of this. 5 years ago, the Commonwealth sent a fleet task group to one of the Rimworlds with the intent of convincing or coercing it to join the Commonwealth. However, they severely misunderstood The Rim as a whole, and when a sizeable Rim fleet showed up a few days later, the Commonwealth forces backed down.

Something like that. Timeline is also flexible.

[TheSovereignGrave]

@TheSovereignGrave

Alright, how bout something along the lines of this. 5 years ago, the Commonwealth sent a fleet task group to one of the Rimworlds with the intent of convincing or coercing it to join the Commonwealth. However, they severely misunderstood The Rim as a whole, and when a sizeable Rim fleet showed up a few days later, the Commonwealth forces backed down.

Something like that. Timeline is also flexible.

@Ozerath

Well it wouldn't do much good when it comes to providing a reason why the Rim would become centralized, since I imagined that happening longer ago than that. But I can just have an invasion by the Sauru'u provide impetuous for that. I do like your idea though; it sets up some possible conflict and distrust between our nations. Plus I find it amusing that a more centralized state would pop in and so badly misunderstand how the governance of the Rim worked that they assumed trying to convince some Rimworlds to defect wouldn't provoke a sizable military response. Though 5 years seems a tad recent; maybe 10 or 15?

[Arawak]

Working on an IC post, partially some internal politics, partially a free trader who'll serve as a sort of neutral plot inducing character for my faction. Just wanted to ask @Arawak, is Persephone station free for anyone to use, or do you have specific plot restrictions in mind there?

@Ozerath

I'd rather not have someone interrupt the actions going on there, but reference is fine. Just note the station's pretty much a human station.

[Dinh AaronMk]

@Arawak

I'm only quietly allowing it.

I'll probably work on a post shortly, I got to get my shit running. But I have to write a Precipice of War post done and get it out first.

[KremeSupreme]

The Sauru'u could be considered fairly "New", since they've only had space travel for 300 years. However, as they were highly advanced compared to the other races in their home system, they quickly seized it. Due to the fast Sauru'u reproduction rate, they managed to build a sizable population throughout their system.

That's another thing about the Sauru'u I'll need to throw on. The planets surrounding their homeworld had a dozen races of intelligent lifeforms, though due to the Sauru'u predatory nature, they were either driven to extinction or critical endangerment months after their initial contact.

[Ozerath]

@Everyone, IC post is up. The post ended up getting absurdly long, so I posted the internal politicky exposition stuff now, and I'll post the dashing rogue stuff later.

@TheSovereignGrave

We could push it back as far as 100 years if you like. I suppose the Commonwealth is less of a single, sudden threat like the Sauru'u, and more of a lingering danger, a constant reminder to the Rimworlders that there's safety in numbers.

@Arawak

Ok, I'll bear that in mind, just thought I'd use an established neutral location for my dashing rogue trader character.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Nah, I think a relatively recent incident would be better. The Sauru'u would probably serve better, since I was thinking of it being about 200 or so years ago, which fits with the emergence of the Sauru'u. Though perhaps even 15 is too recent; we could go 50 or so years ago.

And also, quick question. {Would anyone object to actual dialogue from Rimworlders being in braces like this instead of parentheses? Just as kind of differentiate them on account of their language being pretty much unrepeatable by most species (and vice versa). I may have forgotten to mention it, but their voices kind of sound like the piping of a woodwind instrument.}

[Dinh AaronMk]

Nah, I think a relatively recent incident would be better. The Sauru'u would probably serve better, since I was thinking of it being about 200 or so years ago, which fits with the emergence of the Sauru'u. Though perhaps even 15 is too recent; we could go 50 or so years ago.

And also, quick question. {Would anyone object to actual dialogue from Rimworlders being in braces like this instead of parentheses? Just as kind of differentiate them on account of their language being pretty much unrepeatable by most species (and vice versa). I may have forgotten to mention it, but their voices kind of sound like the piping of a woodwind instrument.}

@TheSovereignGrave

It's sort of meaningless to do that tbh. It's like saying you won't ever explore inner monologue because such-and-such creature has a different thinking pattern than any other race.

Ultimately what one is responsible for when writing is to convey the emotions and actions of a character or race in a relatable manner. And if they're any different than the norm (English) then it's expected it gets translated to English, which if you're going to do than anything but the standard will be unnecessary.

Besides, brackets and parenthesis have their own grammatical uses that might seem lost when used out of place.

[TheSovereignGrave]

Yeah, fair enough. And it's not like I'll need to mention what language they're speaking most of the time anyway. Since, well, they're pretty much physically incapable of speaking English or any language that requires a mouth-like structure.

[Arawak]

So Soverign, how would Zedevic activity be looked upon in Rimspace?

I'm only quietly allowing it.

@Dinh AaronMk

I read your app before making that station and placed it far away from sol, not even touching upon any inner colonies. Persephone Station is a commercial space station with a human population on the fringe of Humanity.

If you need me to follow any specific rules (be it IC or OOC) regarding commercial space stations in the fringes of human space, please state them. If they're IC rules, I might deliberately violate a couple.

Ok, I'll bear that in mind, just thought I'd use an established neutral location for my dashing rogue trader character.

@Ozerath

They're almost neutral, basically Persephone's a space station in a region with relatively low oversight from the Republic of Humanity, being in a fringe system and all.

Despite the discrimination the manager of that creatively named restaurant, the difficulty in enforcing some of the regulations Humanity may have for commercial stations makes it still a decent place to go since less people are watching you there. The insular nature of the people who live there (who don't record shit) and the discreet nature of the people who go there also help restrict information flow out from the station.

[TheSovereignGrave]

The Sauru'u could be considered fairly "New", since they've only had space travel for 300 years. However, as they were highly advanced compared to the other races in their home system, they quickly seized it. Due to the fast Sauru'u reproduction rate, they managed to build a sizable population throughout their system.

That's another thing about the Sauru'u I'll need to throw on. The planets surrounding their homeworld had a dozen races of intelligent lifeforms, though due to the Sauru'u predatory nature, they were either driven to extinction or critical endangerment months after their initial contact.

@wxps350

That works out pretty well timeline-wise for me. I planned on the centralization of the Rim to have occurred a century or two ago. So it could've easily been an incursion into the Rim by the Sauru'u that lead to the Rimworlders realizing a central government that actually does things would be necessary for their safety.

So Sovereign, how would Zedevic activity be looked upon in Rimspace?

@Arawak

Same as anyone else, really. So long as they don't go breaking any laws or being assholes they're welcome in the Rim. I do have a question; how exactly do they speak? To other species, I mean. I can't find it in your NS (though I may just be overlooking it).