Hooray! Silent Judgement, the best kind of Judgement!
My Idea was along the lines of a very martially focused clan culture with lots of more disciplined tactics and army and group focused rather than individual focused. With Extra elected dictatorship for Life!'for Life' may be short given a large portion of life must be spent in military service to be eligible.
Very necessary as well as I wish them to be somewhere relatively dangerous preferably on the lower levels. In addition to a fortification focused tactical doctrine. Generally, they have little time for such things as 'mechanics' 'mining' 'literacy' or other such useless things. I had also considered the idea of being not the worst in the treatment of smalls, for there must be common cause among the greater Rodent-folk!
1. Government - Absolute Monarchy; parliamentary "Diet" exists to speak on the whims of provincial ideology, but possesses no meaningful legislative power. Tuğrul II has an heir, aged twenty-four years old. - Three major political ideologies in the Diet.
2. Population - 21,500,000
3. Culture - Primary culture makes up 57.1% of the entire population. - Three minor cultures, one of which is Oppressed make up the reminder. - Believe in a Polytheistic Religion.
4. Economics - Economic Growth: irregular, but mostly slow growth - Mostly agrarian, caste system that exists as an evolution of feudalistic tendencies - Treasury: -$211 (millions). - Yearly Change: -$4 (millions).
5. Resources - Foodstuffs: 24.1 million tons/yearly - Lumber: 2.9 million tons/yearly - Iron: 0.9 million tons/yearly - Coffee: 0.9 million tons/yearly - Tea: 0.8 million tons/yearly - Opium: 0.1 million tons/yearly
7. Uzgurian Navy: - 16 Ships of the Line [First Rate] - 30 Ships of the Line [Second Rate] - 21 Clippers - 44 Transport Ships
8. Colonies - None
9. Infrastructure - Province 1 (Capital): 5/5 - Province 2: 3/5 - Province 3: 1/5 - Province 4: 2/5 - Province 5: 1/5 - Province 6: 1/5 - Province 7: 1/5 - Province 8: 1/5 - Province 9: 1/5
10. Agendas - Currently none.
12. National Check - Government Stability: 61 / 100 - War Support: 91 / 100 - Dissent: 11 / 100 - Army Support: 90 / 100 - Navy Support: 19 / 100
12. Current Situation - At War: Currently embroiled in the Tuğrullian Wars (1791-) against [Pending] - Riots: Riots are ongoing in [Province 4], currently.
13. State of the Army: - Army Training: 81% - Navy Training: 4%
EDIT: As for my faction I was thinking of a cabal of lesser of officers from the Conqueror banded together with their men to stake out an area and set up oil pump camps in a motor-vehicle centered theocracy.
The Interstellar Union of Collectives is a relatively new nation, having risen from less fortunate circumstances to become a veritable power in the region. Although a naturally individualistic species they have become collectivist in their political and ideological thought, almost entirely unaccepting of foreign political ideas. The Union is a partially hidden society, although there is no real attempt to close their society to foreign peoples, they are not opening it to them either.
Official Name: The Interstellar Union of Collectives Common Name: The Union or the Ysh Union Government: Syndicated Union of Communes Dominant Species: ‘Ysh’ Capital: Administrative Habitat Panic with Extreme Prejudice, [Variable Star System Location]
History
Agricultural societies developed on the ‘Ysh’ homeworld roughly thirty thousand years ago, this is a much longer time than most current spacefaring civilizations from such a condensing point to the advent of interstellar travel and interstellar expansion. This is primarily not caused by any significant psychological or resource availability problems but instead was of their own creation. A little more than twenty-two thousand years ago there was a nuclear war, while not on the magnitude necessary to completely destroy life, it did cause significant damage to its ability to recover. Little is known by the current ‘Ysh’ as to what was the cause, or even much about those early ‘Ysh’ however what is known is that those ‘Ysh’ had achieved limited spaceflight, at least into orbit from later analysis of debris.
What would follow for the next fifteen thousand years was a gradual trend towards barbarism and collapse. Initially, after the war there was a large amount of dirt and dust thrown into the atmosphere, causing general crop failure globally, resulting in global famine and population reduction. In combination with a general collapse of operational industrial lines with and lack of food, most industrial processes and abilities were destroyed or damaged. Most if not all of the previously existing civilizations collapsed.
This was not, however, the only legacy of those civilizations. Although any sort of lasting nation had been dissolved by the harsh conditions successor states operating on smaller scales using local resources and what remaining industries were operational and supportable allowed for some semblance of civilization to survive in some areas after a few decades had passed from the war. Generally, these successor states failed at reversing the trend towards barbarism, slowly growing less and less able to meet the needs of their societies.
Two thousand years after the war a new glacial period began to ramp up and eventually met its peak three thousand years after that, gradually wearing back down over the next three thousand years. After the end of this glacial period, there would be another five thousand years before agricultural communities would re-emerge after their destruction. After agricultural civilization was reestablished it would be a little more than six thousand years before the ‘Ysh’ would return to space.
Jumping forward to modern history, six hundred years ago the ‘Ysh’ reached space. Only interplanetary this period was one of relative stability and peace for the ‘Ysh’ primarily united by discovering their past and general global prosperity for most powerful nations. A large amount of nuclear disarmament proceeded during this period and it saw a very large centralization of the populations of many nations on the world. Research colonies on other worlds were established and space-born habitats were constructed. Also during this period was a trend towards individualism, ultimate freedoms and questioning the roles of society and government. Moving slowly towards a merging of the two. This period lasted a century before it ended.
This period is generally considered over by ‘Ysh’ historians by a civil war in one of the primary industrial powers that would break the peace among them. The previous trend of individualism became much more militant and extreme, exemplifying less of individualistic ideals and more of sectarian differences. It would be a Fifty years after that they would unify finally into one complete nation-state. General destabilization of previous nations resulted in either takeover of the state by extremist groups or the radicalization of those States in opposition to extremist groups resulting in the same outcomes. Authoritarian regimes began to dominate their world which began fighting slowly larger and larger conflicts amongst themselves. Eventually, accords were broken and even in cases of nuclear conflict, even if almost all nuclear devices had been disarmed, many were then rearmed and used although this process took time, they were still used, this largely brought down much of the order of the planet.
However, the space habitats managed to remove themselves from this conflict and once warfare had died down, returned to the planet eventually managing to retake portions of the globe from various warlord states and generally begin to restore order into a new union of the ‘Ysh’ species. This union’s society would be based on the collective units used on the space habitats, and their now greatly expanded space-based industry. This union would of course eventually grow to be the Union. It would slowly expand through their solar system consolidating and re-expanding the greatly reduced ‘Ysh’ population, assisted greatly by new methods of population growth and increasing number of offspring. Generally, the largest single work of this period after Unification is the gradual terraforming of their homeworld back to being increasingly habitable for the ‘Ysh’. Other accomplishments are the general cementing of the structure of Union society and the necessary institutions to maintain that.
Over the next fifty years as consolidation continued scientific progress began to take off once more resulting in the end of this period and the beginning of the text with the invention of the ‘Ysh’ slipspace drive. Following this was a period of extensive expansion and consolidation, which ended with their first known contact with an alien species, Humans of the Kre’allar Kingdom. A series of misunderstandings eventually led to their first interstellar war as well. The Kre’allar were not a much for the Union, although they did have roughly equivalent tech bases the Kre’allar were unable to compete on the same scale though they did do significant damage to infrastructure in many systems they generally failed to damage vital infrastructure to the war effort. This conflict was relatively early in Union history taking place several centuries before the present time.
The Kre’allar were defeated and it was attempted to integrate them into the Union, this failed horrendously. A decade of intermittent conflict in attempting to subdue the previous subjects and forced conformation with the Union society largely failed to achieve any lasting integration. After ten years of effort, the council decided to give a region partial autonomy and simply move the Kre’allar population there. This region including the Kre’allar Kingdom’s previous Capital largely settled down after this decision. Although this had been a large sink of resources it did provide the Union with very important technologies notably Hyperdrive and the basics of shielding technologies. After the matter of the Kre’allar had been reasonably settled, the Union began a new period of rapid expansion, primarily through the establishment and spread of Union habitats throughout large areas of space and then the colonization or conquest of inhabitable systems.
This expansion began to slow over the course of time partially due to running into civilizations of comparable or greater power but also due to administrative concerns. This has descended to the current time in which the entire Northern direction is cut off forcing expansion only in other directions.
Today the Union is a power in the region and seeks to expand its power, although now they may be more in line with worries of the Daisan.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
Major Holdings
WIP
Social Information
Demographics
‘Ysh’: The primary and majority species of the Union, ‘Ysh’ is simply an adaption of an attention-demanding sound that was used during first contact with the Empire of Astrana. When using their lower limbs as other species have legs the average ‘Ysh’ stands at 7’4” although a bell curve can usually match deviation, a standard deviation being roughly 3”. They are a hairless species and are generally lithe of figure in comparison to other similar species. They have four limbs, two at the top of their torso near their head and two on the opposite lower side. Both sets of limbs have degrees of motion and movement in joints and sockets that is sometimes disquieting to other species, as well these limbs both come to prehensile hands with fully opposable digits.
The skin of the ‘Ysh’ is greatly controllable in color, this is particularly present in specialized regions near their eyes which they have excessive control over very minute changes in pigment cells very similar to chromatophores if not classifying as them. This is, in fact, their primary communication medium through a language of color and patterns. However, they do have attention demanding sounds that they have some variance over using their lips over their tongueless mouths or secondary breathy orifice. They have eyes similar to many of species in terms of acuity although they do not have eyelids, they rely upon a thick film that constantly covers their eyes.
One very important piece of information about the ‘Ysh’ is that they are hermaphrodites although they cannot self-fertilize. Another important factor is that they do not bear live young, specifically they lay eggs which hatch into maggots. Ancestors to the ‘Ysh’ and the ‘Ysh’ themselves in more primitive times have laid these into recently deceased animals although now more efficient means of providing protein are used for the maggots. After the maggots reach a certain size, and usually after they have eaten some of the other maggots in a body they will form a cocoon in which they will eventually develop into an ‘adult’ ‘Ysh’. ‘Adult’ because they are not fully grown but are then taken and cared for by ‘Ysh’ in creches, previously in their history with little supervision besides safety and feeding, learning when they are older but more recently there is a large amount effort to begin to integrate young ‘Ysh’ much sooner. This can be unsettling to learn for other species so they often do not speak of it in the presence of foreign species.
Kre’allar: The ‘Ysh’ are not the only species in the Union, but they are by far the most populous, many other species being only very small components of the population. This is in part because the ‘Ysh’ often seek to stabilize the populations of other species while continuing to grow their own. For some of the species at the time of their control by the Union, they may have been almost as populous as the ‘Ysh’ but have since grown very little in comparison. By far the largest of the super minorities are the Kre’allar, a subset of Humans that once had their own interstellar nation before it was overrun by the Union. They were integrated into the Union and although partially successful, resource and time costs have changed the decision on integrated further species in any other form than semi-autonomous functions. Biologically the Kre’allar are not significantly different than other major Human populations although they have some differences that maybe be of cosmetic significance.
The Kre’allar are a super-minority in the Union but they are by far the largest minority species, the Kre’allar make up roughly 3% of total Union population and this percentage is decreasing every year.
Government/Society
Union politics and ideology are mostly focused on core values and obedience to those values. The foremost being duty, not only the state, the species, personal collectives, greater collectives and other material organizations but also duty in terms of applying oneself most effectively to assist others. Indoctrination into this is required to be part of Union society, notably in the form of subsuming will into duty to a greater whole and not the individual.
Union society is focused on the collective unit. While there is no set size for each collective the base unit is roughly in the range of ten individuals with a standard deviation of three individuals. Mostly the collective base unit is a support group for individuals both in terms of helping them to succeed at jobs and tasks, but also emotionally and socially, they can be seen an analogous to families in some cultures. As well when laws are broken the usual reaction is rehabilitation or relocation, direct punish usually comes in as a threat more than a fact besides rehabilitation and relocation.
In part the job one does and the reward for that is much of the time different than in other societies. In Union society there is a certain amount of time required to do a task, that is set forth by governing collectives, and to accomplish that task to a given standard, examples vary from military reserves training to janitorial duties. However, there is also a previously agreed upon tasks that an individual has some discretion in. Besides work individuals, and more specifically base collective units have a certain amount of leisure time to be used and make use of services. Primarily this is focused upon entertainment and some specialty experiences, particularly in food and other things, easily provided in low amounts to high quality. Generally, this work is little different from other societies except in the fact that in the Union there is not a middle ground of payment for task, it is provided but you must provide to standard.
Which is not to say that there is no competition, not just in games in such as those do exist but there is competition just not in a direct economic sphere. Most competition is that of social status, commendations and rank. This competition is mostly restrained to acceptable frameworks particularly because ranks and commendations are separated both from direct economics, indirectly some researchers may gain more grants for research if they are particularly useful, and also actual occupation.
The Union’s governmental structure can be fuzzy at the best of times to outsiders, this is primarily because there usually isn’t a permanent or semi-permanent head of state or legislative body. There is, however, a semi-elected council. Essentially the union has a structure of collectives rising from lowly masses to high commands, however, individuals and collective units are placed primarily according to many tests and reviews over the course of their lives as in addition to their work and partially to the desires of the said individuals and collectives. These tests and reviews are ongoing and designed to be meritocratic although no system is perfect.
Resulting from this is a collective council, usually of several base collective units, which most common task is finding which groups to delegate work and knowledge of necessary changes to and then deciding upon the result in consideration of other concerns. This is similar to other legislative bodies in other nations except that its membership often changes by this delegation. Essentially collectives are split off from the council to work with other collectives on the subject before rejoining the council to decide. This means that the council is constantly fluctuating in current membership to deal with new issues, especially not helped by collectives stepping down from councilship entirely primarily because of strain caused by council work.
This fluctuating structure is mirrored to a much lesser extent in the rest of Union society, largely excluding the military and police forces. The Military because they have their own much more rigid structure that bleeds into greater Union society especially during times of national or societal stress. The Police force because while it does have a much more rigid structure it also has to interact with broad portions of greater Union society in relatively peaceful extent.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
WIP
Major Techs
Anti-Psionic technology: Since the ‘Ysh’ do not have any Psionic abilities, and large segments of the population seem to have large amount of weakness and aversion to it, the ‘Ysh’ have put effort into and successfully developed technology to limit and stop Psionic powers, as well as detecting their use. This has sometimes said to be painful for some Psions, however, the ‘Ysh’ are very enthusiastic in its use.
Bomb-Pumped Grasers: Unable to generate gamma ray lasers using more conventional methods a weapon designed for much shorter ranges than other energy weapons Union Bomb-Pumped Grasers are normally mounted either as payloads of torpedoes or in a few specially designed craft utilizing a nuclear device and a chamber to direct gamma rays as a coherent beam towards a target. Significant control issues have limited their range as well as deployment.
Gravitic Sublight Drive: The only mentionable Union sublight drive system, it provides reasonable acceleration and max speed on vessels however it's primary advantage is its ability to allow vessels to quickly change the orientation of their craft.
Industry
The Union’s primary focus in heavy industry has generally been in space. Smaller industries such as various goods for planetary populations are generally produced on planet to reduce shipping needs for those goods. In space, most heavy industry has been handled by Union Habitats and their associated construction yards. Generally, habitats are in the business of mining and refining material from asteroids, comets, and other astronomical bodies so as to use those refined materials in construction from either habitat based small crafts or for transfer to larger construction yards and the production of large spaceborne designs.
These Habitats generally are mobile in system and out, even if they are not used generally to transport between systems. These mobile habitats contain a large portion of the Union’s population, a testament to their sheer number. Most habitats are relatively specialized towards mining, refining, research or a multitude of other pursuits. This is mostly allowed by the fact that only rarely are there not a surplus other habitats in the system that either are specialized in other tasks or are more generalist in design.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Union’s military primarily focuses not on numbers at all cost or quality at all cost, but a mix in between. Primarily focusing on relatively high-quality equipment and training to the largest group possible. This has actually separated out into three major groups.
The First is the professional collectives, they are generally in military circles for life or at least as a primary job and task. In times of peace, they are the primary military outfits and they proceed as the only outfits when larger mobilization is not necessary. The Professionals are highly disciplined and have relatively good equipment although it would not stand up to equipment for special forces or other elite groups of other nations.
Second are the reserve collectives, they generally are in military circles occasionally while having non-vital or surplus tasks in addition. They are trained to handle the same equipment as the professional collectives but generally will either be retirees from the professional collectives, volunteers not vitally needed, or they are civilians performing a non-vital task and trained as part of a service duty towards society as a whole. Typically in times of need, they will be temporarily raised to professional levels of workload and be used as such.
Third are the mass mobilization super-collectives, these draw from the able of the civilian population and are not drawn up all at once unless the need is exceedingly great. Instead, they are drawn up slowly or only proportionally to need, common to find these units that receive only very basic familiarity with military equipment used in organized non-combat roles when military units are needed elsewhere. Most commonly drawn are civilians in roles that provide familiarity with military equipment or advanced civilian models.
In truth, there is sometimes little difference between a Union civilian and a soldier not yet called to duty. There are generally known directives, for example, of resistance to occupation where in cases of calling up the whole number of units would simply cause for massacre, it is the majority of those units duties to resist at later times. This is considered a duty transferable by hereditary succession.
Space Forces
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It is important to note that the Union, and specifically the ‘Ysh’ do not generally put much weight on names, not they don’t consider them important just that they do not have much a concept of gravitas in reference to naming it would seem. Primarily this is the result in a dichotomy, classes and types of ships are named by administration collectives, specific ships are named by their crews and reported back to the administration collectives.
The Union has had its naval doctrine influenced by a multitude of factors but the most important is its collectivist culture, territorial realities as well as a large degree of contact with the Empire of Astrana. These factors have resulted in a naval doctrine that so far has done them well in their expansion and defense. This doctrine, commonly called “Battlefront-Operations”, calls for large amounts of ships to be able to maintain strategic maneuverability and frontlines against superior forces. This has resulted in production of lesser units rather than heavy front-line combatants and the subsequent complete lack of dreadnought class vessels with their largest current design a battleship that barely exceeds nine hundred meters in diameter.
0-50 meters classified as strike craft or shuttles depending on purpose 50-150 meters in length are Corvettes, primarily for anti-fighter and anti-missile roles, escort roles 100-250 meters in length are Frigates, primarily anti-corvette/small vessel, and escort roles 200-350 meters in length are Destroyers, primarily anti-cruiser and capital ship, heavy use of powerful short range weapons 300-500 meters in length are Cruisers, primarily patrol and chase-craft, not often used in Union Battlegroups, comparatively fast 300-600 in length are Carriers, strike and shuttlecraft carriers, lack of heavy armaments 500-900 in length are Battlecruisers, very fast for their size, heavy weaponry while skimping on lighter weapons and defenses, core of most Attack Groups 600-1000 meters in length are Battleships, slow but heavily armed and defended, the core of most Union fleets, largest current Union warship 800+ meters in length are Union Habitats, which actually are mobile structures that primarily serve as living and refining stations for many mining operations as well as having some construction capabilities, rarely are habitats of this type built larger than 2km
Ground Forces
WIP
The Union focuses greatly on generalist forces, to such an extent that specialization of equipment and single purpose craft are not that common. They have craft and equipment that may serve a role, but it is often also designed to serve more than just that one. While this does mean that they have some issue matching other nation’s designs in specific purposes, but this does also mean that they rarely ever don’t have something that can do the job. In addition, the simplification that comes to training operators, and the ease of production for a variety of crafts means that they often field large numbers of craft and relatively well equipped, if un-specialized, troops.
This is part of a doctrine called Mass Warfare Doctrine, focusing like their space forces on maintaining strategic mobility through use of superior force. Often using equalizing forces to hold enemies while reserves can be used to stretch the enemy ability to defend their own territory or lines.
The Interstellar Union of Collectives is a relatively new nation, having risen from less fortunate circumstances to become a veritable power in the region. Although a naturally individualistic species they have become collectivist in their political and ideological thought, almost entirely unaccepting of foreign political ideas. The Union is a partially hidden society, although there is no real attempt to close their society to foreign peoples, they are not opening it to them either.
Official Name: The Interstellar Union of Collectives Common Name: The Union or the Ysh Union Government: Syndicated Union of Communes Dominant Species: ‘Ysh’ Capital: Administrative Habitat Panic with Extreme Prejudice, [Variable Star System Location]
History
Agricultural societies developed on the ‘Ysh’ homeworld roughly thirty thousand years ago, this is a much longer time than most current spacefaring civilizations from such a condensing point to the advent of interstellar travel and interstellar expansion. This is primarily not caused by any significant psychological or resource availability problems but instead was of their own creation. A little more than twenty-two thousand years ago there was a nuclear war, while not on the magnitude necessary to completely destroy life, it did cause significant damage to its ability to recover. Little is known by the current ‘Ysh’ as to what was the cause, or even much about those early ‘Ysh’ however what is known is that those ‘Ysh’ had achieved limited spaceflight, at least into orbit from later analysis of debris.
What would follow for the next fifteen thousand years was a gradual trend towards barbarism and collapse. Initially, after the war there was a large amount of dirt and dust thrown into the atmosphere, causing general crop failure globally, resulting in global famine and population reduction. In combination with a general collapse of operational industrial lines with and lack of food, most industrial processes and abilities were destroyed or damaged. Most if not all of the previously existing civilizations collapsed.
This was not, however, the only legacy of those civilizations. Although any sort of lasting nation had been dissolved by the harsh conditions successor states operating on smaller scales using local resources and what remaining industries were operational and supportable allowed for some semblance of civilization to survive in some areas after a few decades had passed from the war. Generally, these successor states failed at reversing the trend towards barbarism, slowly growing less and less able to meet the needs of their societies.
Two thousand years after the war a new glacial period began to ramp up and eventually met its peak three thousand years after that, gradually wearing back down over the next three thousand years. After the end of this glacial period, there would be another five thousand years before agricultural communities would re-emerge after their destruction. After agricultural civilization was reestablished it would be a little more than six thousand years before the ‘Ysh’ would return to space.
Jumping forward to modern history, six hundred years ago the ‘Ysh’ reached space. Only interplanetary this period was one of relative stability and peace for the ‘Ysh’ primarily united by discovering their past and general global prosperity for most powerful nations. A large amount of nuclear disarmament proceeded during this period and it saw a very large centralization of the populations of many nations on the world. Research colonies on other worlds were established and space-born habitats were constructed. Also during this period was a trend towards individualism, ultimate freedoms and questioning the roles of society and government. Moving slowly towards a merging of the two. This period lasted a century before it ended.
This period is generally considered over by ‘Ysh’ historians by a civil war in one of the primary industrial powers that would break the peace among them. The previous trend of individualism became much more militant and extreme, exemplifying less of individualistic ideals and more of sectarian differences. It would be a Fifty years after that they would unify finally into one complete nation-state. General destabilization of previous nations resulted in either takeover of the state by extremist groups or the radicalization of those States in opposition to extremist groups resulting in the same outcomes. Authoritarian regimes began to dominate their world which began fighting slowly larger and larger conflicts amongst themselves. Eventually, accords were broken and even in cases of nuclear conflict, even if almost all nuclear devices had been disarmed, many were then rearmed and used although this process took time, they were still used, this largely brought down much of the order of the planet.
However, the space habitats managed to remove themselves from this conflict and once warfare had died down, returned to the planet eventually managing to retake portions of the globe from various warlord states and generally begin to restore order into a new union of the ‘Ysh’ species. This union’s society would be based on the collective units used on the space habitats, and their now greatly expanded space-based industry. This union would of course eventually grow to be the Union. It would slowly expand through their solar system consolidating and re-expanding the greatly reduced ‘Ysh’ population, assisted greatly by new methods of population growth and increasing number of offspring. Generally, the largest single work of this period after Unification is the gradual terraforming of their homeworld back to being increasingly habitable for the ‘Ysh’. Other accomplishments are the general cementing of the structure of Union society and the necessary institutions to maintain that.
Over the next fifty years as consolidation continued scientific progress began to take off once more resulting in the end of this period and the beginning of the text with the invention of the ‘Ysh’ slipspace drive. Following this was a period of extensive expansion and consolidation, which ended with their first known contact with an alien species, Humans of the Kre’allar Kingdom. A series of misunderstandings eventually led to their first interstellar war as well. The Kre’allar were not a much for the Union, although they did have roughly equivalent tech bases the Kre’allar were unable to compete on the same scale though they did do significant damage to infrastructure in many systems they generally failed to damage vital infrastructure to the war effort.
The Kre’allar were defeated and it was attempted to integrate them into the Union, this failed horrendously. A decade of intermittent conflict in attempting to subdue the previous subjects and forced conformation with the Union society largely failed to achieve any lasting integration. After ten years of effort, the council decided to give a region partial autonomy and simply move the Kre’allar population there. This region including the Kre’allar Kingdom’s previous Capital largely settled down after this decision. Although this had been a large sink of resources it did provide the Union with very important technologies notably Hyperdrive and the basics of shielding technologies. After the matter of the Kre’allar had been reasonably settled, the Union began a new period of rapid expansion, primarily through the establishment and spread of Union habitats throughout large areas of space and then the colonization or conquest of inhabitable systems.
This expansion began to slow over the course of time partially due to running into civilizations of comparable or greater power but also due to administrative concerns. This has descended to the current time in which the entire Northern direction is cut off forcing expansion only in other directions.
Today the Union is a power in the region and seeks to expand its power, although now they may be more in line with worries of the Daisan.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
Major Holdings
WIP
Social Information
Demographics
‘Ysh’: The primary and majority species of the Union, ‘Ysh’ is simply an adaption of an attention-demanding sound that was used during first contact with the Empire of Astrana. When using their lower limbs as other species have legs the average ‘Ysh’ stands at 7’4” although a bell curve can usually match deviation, a standard deviation being roughly 3”. They are a hairless species and are generally lithe of figure in comparison to other similar species. They have four limbs, two at the top of their torso near their head and two on the opposite lower side. Both sets of limbs have degrees of motion and movement in joints and sockets that is sometimes disquieting to other species, as well these limbs both come to prehensile hands with fully opposable digits.
The skin of the ‘Ysh’ is greatly controllable in color, this is particularly present in specialized regions near their eyes which they have excessive control over very minute changes in pigment cells very similar to chromatophores if not classifying as them. This is, in fact, their primary communication medium through a language of color and patterns. However, they do have attention demanding sounds that they have some variance over using their lips over their tongueless mouths or secondary breathy orifice. They have eyes similar to many of species in terms of acuity although they do not have eyelids, they rely upon a thick film that constantly covers their eyes.
One very important piece of information about the ‘Ysh’ is that they are hermaphrodites although they cannot self-fertilize. Another important factor is that they do not bear live young, specifically they lay eggs which hatch into maggots. Ancestors to the ‘Ysh’ and the ‘Ysh’ themselves in more primitive times have laid these into recently deceased animals although now more efficient means of providing protein are used for the maggots. After the maggots reach a certain size, and usually after they have eaten some of the other maggots in a body they will form a cocoon in which they will eventually develop into an ‘adult’ ‘Ysh’. ‘Adult’ because they are not fully grown but are then taken and cared for by ‘Ysh’ in creches, previously in their history with little supervision besides safety and feeding, learning when they are older but more recently there is a large amount effort to begin to integrate young ‘Ysh’ much sooner. This can be unsettling to learn for other species so they often do not speak of it in the presence of foreign species.
Kre’allar: The ‘Ysh’ are not the only species in the Union, but they are by far the most populous, many other species being only very small components of the population. This is in part because the ‘Ysh’ often seek to stabilize the populations of other species while continuing to grow their own. For some of the species at the time of their control by the Union, they may have been almost as populous as the ‘Ysh’ but have since grown very little in comparison. By far the largest of the super minorities are the Kre’allar, a subset of Humans that once had their own interstellar nation before it was overrun by the Union. They were integrated into the Union and although partially successful, resource and time costs have changed the decision on integrated further species in any other form than semi-autonomous functions. Biologically the Kre’allar are not significantly different than other major Human populations although they have some differences that maybe be of cosmetic significance.
The Kre’allar are a super-minority in the Union but they are by far the largest minority species, the Kre’allar make up roughly 3% of total Union population and this percentage is decreasing every year.
Government/Society
Union politics and ideology are mostly focused on core values and obedience to those values. The foremost being duty, not only the state, the species, personal collectives, greater collectives and other material organizations but also duty in terms of applying oneself most effectively to assist others. Indoctrination into this is required to be part of Union society, notably in the form of subsuming will into duty to a greater whole and not the individual.
Union society is focused on the collective unit. While there is no set size for each collective the base unit is roughly in the range of ten individuals with a standard deviation of three individuals. Mostly the collective base unit is a support group for individuals both in terms of helping them to succeed at jobs and tasks, but also emotionally and socially, they can be seen an analogous to families in some cultures. As well when laws are broken the usual reaction is rehabilitation or relocation, direct punish usually comes in as a threat more than a fact besides rehabilitation and relocation.
In part the job one does and the reward for that is much of the time different than in other societies. In Union society there is a certain amount of time required to do a task, that is set forth by governing collectives, and to accomplish that task to a given standard, examples vary from military reserves training to janitorial duties. However, there is also a previously agreed upon tasks that an individual has some discretion in. Besides work individuals, and more specifically base collective units have a certain amount of leisure time to be used and make use of services. Primarily this is focused upon entertainment and some specialty experiences, particularly in food and other things, easily provided in low amounts to high quality. Generally, this work is little different from other societies except in the fact that in the Union there is not a middle ground of payment for task, it is provided but you must provide to standard.
Which is not to say that there is no competition, not just in games in such as those do exist but there is competition just not in a direct economic sphere. Most competition is that of social status, commendations and rank. This competition is mostly restrained to acceptable frameworks particularly because ranks and commendations are separated both from direct economics, indirectly some researchers may gain more grants for research if they are particularly useful, and also actual occupation.
The Union’s governmental structure can be fuzzy at the best of times to outsiders, this is primarily because there usually isn’t a permanent or semi-permanent head of state or legislative body. There is, however, a semi-elected council. Essentially the union has a structure of collectives rising from lowly masses to high commands, however, individuals and collective units are placed primarily according to many tests and reviews over the course of their lives as in addition to their work and partially to the desires of the said individuals and collectives. These tests and reviews are ongoing and designed to be meritocratic although no system is perfect.
Resulting from this is a collective council, usually of several base collective units, which most common task is finding which groups to delegate work and knowledge of necessary changes to and then deciding upon the result in consideration of other concerns. This is similar to other legislative bodies in other nations except that its membership often changes by this delegation. Essentially collectives are split off from the council to work with other collectives on the subject before rejoining the council to decide. This means that the council is constantly fluctuating in current membership to deal with new issues, especially not helped by collectives stepping down from councilship entirely primarily because of strain caused by council work.
This fluctuating structure is mirrored to a much lesser extent in the rest of Union society, largely excluding the military and police forces. The Military because they have their own much more rigid structure that bleeds into greater Union society especially during times of national or societal stress. The Police force because while it does have a much more rigid structure it also has to interact with broad portions of greater Union society in relatively peaceful extent.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
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Major Techs
Anti-Psionic technology: Since the ‘Ysh’ do not have any Psionic abilities, and large segments of the population seem to have large amount of weakness and aversion to it, the ‘Ysh’ have put effort into and successfully developed technology to limit and stop Psionic powers, as well as detecting their use. This has sometimes said to be painful for some Psions, however, the ‘Ysh’ are very enthusiastic in its use.
Bomb-Pumped Grasers: Unable to generate gamma ray lasers using more conventional methods a weapon designed for much shorter ranges than other energy weapons Union Bomb-Pumped Grasers are normally mounted either as payloads of torpedoes or in a few specially designed craft utilizing a nuclear device and a chamber to direct gamma rays as a coherent beam towards a target. Significant control issues have limited their range as well as deployment.
Gravitic Sublight Drive: The only mentionable Union sublight drive system, it provides reasonable acceleration and max speed on vessels however it's primary advantage is its ability to allow vessels to quickly change the orientation of their craft.
Industry
The Union’s primary focus in heavy industry has generally been in space. Smaller industries such as various goods for planetary populations are generally produced on planet to reduce shipping needs for those goods. In space, most heavy industry has been handled by Union Habitats and their associated construction yards. Generally, habitats are in the business of mining and refining material from asteroids, comets, and other astronomical bodies so as to use those refined materials in construction from either habitat based small crafts or for transfer to larger construction yards and the production of large spaceborne designs.
These Habitats generally are mobile in system and out, even if they are not used generally to transport between systems. These mobile habitats contain a large portion of the Union’s population, a testament to their sheer number. Most habitats are relatively specialized towards mining, refining, research or a multitude of other pursuits. This is mostly allowed by the fact that only rarely are there not a surplus other habitats in the system that either are specialized in other tasks or are more generalist in design.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Union’s military primarily focuses not on numbers at all cost or quality at all cost, but a mix in between. Primarily focusing on relatively high-quality equipment and training to the largest group possible. This has actually separated out into three major groups.
The First is the professional collectives, they are generally in military circles for life or at least as a primary job and task. In times of peace, they are the primary military outfits and they proceed as the only outfits when larger mobilization is not necessary. The Professionals are highly disciplined and have relatively good equipment although it would not stand up to equipment for special forces or other elite groups of other nations.
Second are the reserve collectives, they generally are in military circles occasionally while having non-vital or surplus tasks in addition. They are trained to handle the same equipment as the professional collectives but generally will either be retirees from the professional collectives, volunteers not vitally needed, or they are civilians performing a non-vital task and trained as part of a service duty towards society as a whole. Typically in times of need, they will be temporarily raised to professional levels of workload and be used as such.
Third are the mass mobilization super-collectives, these draw from the able of the civilian population and are not drawn up all at once unless the need is exceedingly great. Instead, they are drawn up slowly or only proportionally to need, common to find these units that receive only very basic familiarity with military equipment used in organized non-combat roles when military units are needed elsewhere. Most commonly drawn are civilians in roles that provide familiarity with military equipment or advanced civilian models.
In truth, there is sometimes little difference between a Union civilian and a soldier not yet called to duty. There are generally known directives, for example, of resistance to occupation where in cases of calling up the whole number of units would simply cause for massacre, it is the majority of those units duties to resist at later times. This is considered a duty transferable by hereditary succession.
Space Forces
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It is important to note that the Union, and specifically the ‘Ysh’ do not generally put much weight on names, not they don’t consider them important just that they do not have much a concept of gravitas in reference to naming it would seem. Primarily this is the result in a dichotomy, classes and types of ships are named by administration collectives, specific ships are named by their crews and reported back to the administration collectives.
The Union has had its naval doctrine influenced by a multitude of factors but the most important is its collectivist culture, territorial realities as well as a large degree of contact with the Empire of Astrana. These factors have resulted in a naval doctrine that so far has done them well in their expansion and defense. This doctrine, commonly called “Battlefront-Operations”, calls for large amounts of ships to be able to maintain strategic maneuverability and frontlines against superior forces. This has resulted in production of lesser units rather than heavy front-line combatants and the subsequent complete lack of dreadnought class vessels with their largest current design a battleship that barely exceeds nine hundred meters in diameter.
0-50 meters classified as strike craft or shuttles depending on purpose 50-150 meters in length are Corvettes, primarily for anti-fighter and anti-missile roles, escort roles 100-250 meters in length are Frigates, primarily anti-corvette/small vessel, and escort roles 200-350 meters in length are Destroyers, primarily anti-cruiser and capital ship, heavy use of powerful short range weapons 300-500 meters in length are Cruisers, primarily patrol and chase-craft, not often used in Union Battlegroups, comparatively fast 300-600 in length are Carriers, strike and shuttlecraft carriers, lack of heavy armaments 500-900 in length are Battlecruisers, very fast for their size, heavy weaponry while skimping on lighter weapons and defenses, core of most Attack Groups 600-1000 meters in length are Battleships, slow but heavily armed and defended, the core of most Union fleets, largest current Union warship 800+ meters in length are Union Habitats, which actually are mobile structures that primarily serve as living and refining stations for many mining operations as well as having some construction capabilities, rarely are habitats of this type built larger than 2km
Ground Forces
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The Union focuses greatly on generalist forces, to such an extent that specialization of equipment and single purpose craft are not that common. They have craft and equipment that may serve a role, but it is often also designed to serve more than just that one. While this does mean that they have some issue matching other nation’s designs in specific purposes, but this does also mean that they rarely ever don’t have something that can do the job. In addition, the simplification that comes to training operators, and the ease of production for a variety of crafts means that they often field large numbers of craft and relatively well equipped, if un-specialized, troops.
This is part of a doctrine called Mass Warfare Doctrine, focusing like their space forces on maintaining strategic mobility through use of superior force. Often using equalizing forces to hold enemies while reserves can be used to stretch the enemy ability to defend their own territory or lines.
- Population: 12,500,000 - Geographic Size: Small - Natural Resources: Precious Metals, Agriculture, - Urbanization: Mostly rural, a single large port city and the capital are the single large hubs of modern life. - Technological Standard: Standard of living and technology in this nation is equivalent to 1943. - Heavy Industry: Plentiful heavy industry in the cities, but no national arms industry. - Political Administration: Subverted democracy with at least a dozen political parties. Corruption is rampant from local and international sectors, but elections do occur. - National Legitimacy: Somewhat illegitimate, political administration is seen as "not ideal," though by keeping it's head in the sand has seen fit to remain independent and at peace. - Political Popularity: Very unpopular, current government is nearing the end of it's election cycle and peaceful protests are common. - Prevailing Religion: Majority of population is an offshot denomination of a major religion not considered the majority for the geographical region (think a Catholic nation in the Eastern Europe, for example). - Corruption: Corruption is widespread in the Army, Air Force, politics and common life. - Cultural Coherence: Approximately four major cultures and a single oppressed culture distributed throughout a single area of the country. - Political Allegiance(s): Current government is a puppet government installed by one of the two Superpowers. - Pressing Issues * Ethnic Cleansing: Oppressed cultural minorities being ethnically cleansed in rural areas. * Rampant Corruption: Corruption in the government and army is extremely widespread. - National Army: Large volunteer force with large number of tanks and artillery pieces from one of the two Superpowers. - Air Force: Ten squadrons of prop planes and a single squadron of bombers that are outdated 1940's variants. - Navy: 12 Destroyers and a handful of cruisers and submarines. No existing naval aviation branch.
Nation Description:
Vāssa is an ancient nation, one that has seen both periods of prosperity but also of deprivation. It is a nation that has changed much over the course of time, it has gained and suffered from its inception to the present. Although the days of supreme importance to the known world are millennia past, Vāssa may yet still rise to be of supreme regional importance once more, if it can navigate the dangerous waters of modern politics. Although not the most modern nation, it is not entirely without power either, it is yet to be seen whether Vāssa will continue or improve upon this given other issues.
Vāssa has in the past built itself upon its national riches and does the same now, even if much of these benefits are suffered upon the greedy of Vāssa. The government is no longer popular nor is it likely to become so, too conservative for the left wing parties of the cities with their international ties, and too left wing for the rural landowners and religious leaders. Many see it as simply a form of foreign dominance over Vāssa, something which has greatly hampered the ability to make alliances with different political groups.
Culturally Vāssa has been and is tied strongly to the national identity of the four cultures that are seen as naturally Vāssan. The Frenyi do not have such a luxury, seen as foreign they are often the target of pogroms from rural communities, often leaving their assets to be seized by those who support the massacres.
Those four cultures are tied tightly through Vāssa's long history, now they hold dear the music and songs of Vāssa, that along with the unique jewelry created has long been held up as something of a unifier. In most of all aspects of life from the fields even into the factories songs and music are had, something not many nations pursue. Musicians have been long a prestigious profession within Vāssa and now sing not only the traditional songs and the new songs of the current day but now work in ballads for and against things in politics. Jewelry, as may be unusual in other countries, is worn by almost everyone, young, old, men, and women. Extensively from piercings of modernity to traditional bracelets and necklaces.
The corruption of Vāssa is not a simple matter of a few bad apples, the entire system would have to be overhauled to accommodate a lack of it. Laws remain enforced as much as those who pay the police for them to enforce, the military is a pawn of political and financial maneuvers, and votes are bought and sold for individual benefit. Many political parties are separated not of ideology but instead of who wishes to use them to gain wealth and power. However many of the people would wish it to be different and it is yet to be seen whether their Will can be sufficient to overcome.
The single shining hope from within the officialities of government lies in the Navy. Partially of the necessity of effectiveness for protecting Vāssa's vital trade and partially of hardened resolve the Navy has remained relatively free of the infestation of corruption, and will no doubt be either a powerful ally to whichever force seeks to turn out the massive issue of corruption, or may grow to be a force in their own right. In any case whether the Power of the People or other Powers, it will be necessary if Vāssa is to be strong once more, a hope that may not come to pass.
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