Current
Repping a brand new NRP that might seem familiar to the regulars: That's right folks, Gateways is back! roleplayerguild.com/topics/…
1
like
8 mos ago
As someone who lost a parent before their time... It's never a bad time to give your folks a call and see how they're doing. One day you're going to say goodbye for the last time.
5
likes
9 mos ago
NRPs are also usually advanced level with tons of writing per post. I co-GM'd one that ended up being the length of one and a half LotR books. That not only takes time, but also makes them fragile.
2
likes
11 mos ago
Bought Helldivers 2 because of the online hype, didn't expect that much. Ended up putting 5 hours into it on my first session. For Super-Earth and Managed Democracy! Oorah!
The People of the Qinglong Accord Now March Into The Future:
A New Input for the Machine
A solar system recalibrates itself around an Anomaly. Featuring Executive Optimiser-Cog Dai Yi
Executive Optimiser-Cog Dai Yi had been having an impossibly busy past few days, but sat as he was- eyes slightly glazed as he stared out the window from a small foyer of the Harmonious Engine, it was hard to tell that was the case. He saw, without really seeing - the glittering lights of Xiwang, the towering skyscrapers, their interior stories dim now that the working day had ended, the steady gleam of streetlights interspersed by darts of light from EVs or mag-trams... And above, blotting almost any of the natural light from the sky, the twinkling clusters on Mingxian's surface, the moon itself thrumming with energy and innovation.
And past even Mingxian... A light which had not been there for centuries, if the reports were proving to be accurate. An artificial star that refused to be dimmed out by five hundred years of history, beaming its strange light out over a system that had only begun to comprehend its true meaning.
The appearance of the Anomaly in the space just outside of the Accord's defensive perimeter had sent shockwaves out across the entire system. Initial reports from the QIDF implied that it certainly hadn't been anything they'd done, nor did it seem to have a direct correlation to anything the invaders were up to. Their vessels hadn't even been near the area of space where it emerged. Sighing, Dai Yi took another small sip of the soda water in his tumbler.
It just didn't fit with anything they knew about Shenjian tech. Bright and flashy - sure, but sustained? And so large, so impressive, so far away from their deep-space holdouts? None of it had made sense at first. The timing was auspicious too, to say the least. 500 years, if you counted them as old Earth had, since CoB day. The turn of a new century - Qingyuan was still getting over the collective hangover from the Arrival Day festivities and had already refocused its efforts towards the Spring Festival, due in just under a month now - Xiwang's stationary shops were churning through hongbao at their usual rate. Surely, with all of this together, it couldn't be an accident of some kind. Such an idea was near-anathema to the organised minds of the Executive Machine, which had had to scramble to release an initial press-statement on the Anomaly to allay early concerns while they tried to figure out what exactly was going on.
He was roused from his contemplation by the appearance of a new figure poking her head through the open doorway to the foyer. Clearing his throat, Yi addressed her, the full weight of his role crashing back down on him as he spoke. "Do we have a proper report on the Anomaly? Can we confirm what the Shenjian had to do with it?"
"Well, we do have new information on the Anomaly, yes, and we can safely state that the Shenjian aren't what caused this." The aide - a young bureaucrat who'd only really just begun their career among the halls of the Machine, glanced up from their Omnilink. "Would you like a digital transmission, or-"
"Just... Tell me the relevant datapoints." Yi hissed out, before slowly pulling himself back together. "Apologies, it's unfair of me to take this out on you. Please, just give me the overview. Unless we've scheduled another emergency meeting, I'm not really on the clo-"
His own Omnilink - currently wrapped around his arm and concealed beneath the sleeve of his jacket, vibrated, but he didn't bother to check it. His suite already told him all he needed to know. He'd spoke of Cao Cao, and here Cao Cao was. Another emergency meeting of the Machine's biological intelligences. Setting down the tumbler with an uncomfortably loud clink, he rose up to his full height, smoothed the edges of his suit down, and gave a curt nod towards the aide. "Scratch that, we're on the clock again. Give me the full sitrep while we walk, I process things better when I can hear them, instead of just getting everything beamed into my head. You know how many notifications I get each minute? Even with the secretaries and the admin NCMs going through the majority of them?"
The woman gave a chuckle. "I can imagine it'd be a little overwhelming, certainly Optimiser-Cog. The uh... Main thrust of the matter is that the Anomaly isn't 'an Anomaly.' I know we didn't want to think it was the Gateway at first because that would have been 'too easy,' but that's what all the data suggests. The IDF has been able to interface with it, it matches all the old records on its appearance and location from the Megaconglomerate era..." She had to take two steps to keep up with each one of Yi's, but the man couldn't exactly slow down with the meeting already called. "This very much seems to be the 'real deal' if you will. The return of the system that let us traverse the stars."
Dai Yi chewed these facts over slowly in his mind. If that was true, if this was the Gateway that Qinglong Megaconglomerate had used... The pair turned a corner and nearly ran headfirst into another group of functionaries, also trailed by aides, likely also being brought up to date before the meeting. Slotting neatly into the crowd, the group continued deeper into the building, the aide rattling off the more specific details of the Anomaly... No, no, it was the Gateway, Dai Yi's mind could accept that, even if it was implausible. Reason told him that when one excluded the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, must be the truth. Minds greater than him had determined it was the Gateway, many minds greater than his, in fact, and he was ultimately a functionary, not a scientist - his Merits could attest to that. Now what was left was not to bicker about fine details but instead take the defined input and carry out the processes of statecraft, to determine what the appropriate output was.
And that process began as the group emerged out into the Crisis Centre, already bustling with a wide variety of the Executive Machine's hierarchy. Many of the holographic projectors installed beneath the seats representing those from Mingxian or further afield had already sprung to life, a wide variety of different faces flickering slightly as they mimicked the pacing and twitching of a real person eager for the full scale of what was going on to be revealed. Of course, they weren't literally here with them, nor would the information be processed immediately by the actual people these proxies represented - they were engrams - extremely good proxies, but proxies nonetheless.
The chaircog cleared their throat and began. "My thanks to all of the Qinglongren currently present here, and to those being represented outside of these halls. As we will soon be hosting a maximum secrecy meeting, I must request that everyone who lacks the relevant clearance levels please leave the Crisis Centre. Oversight-Coordinator-Cog, could you kindly disable the Engrams, in line with the usual procedures? Thank you." A few murmurs came from the group within the Crisis Center, and the aide gave an easy-going bow to Dai Yi, returning the way she came. As the Engrams flickered out and people began to move towards their tiered seats, Yi settled down, feeling an uncomfortable quietness settle in as the Crisis Centre's doors closed and wireless communications were shut off.
"Fellow Cogs. This meeting has been called because we have received undeniable confirmation that the Anomaly is the Gateway, reopened almost exactly 500 years after it once shut. Full details of the report have been transmitted to the slates before you. While the last of our colleagues filter in, can you please inform yourself of the facts. Once everyone is present..."
"We will begin."
The Voice of the People Speaks Across the Stars
The Accord calls on one of its retired heroes, and tentatively reaches out. Featuring Cog-Ace Guan Liang, Cog-Envoy Xue Bao and Wellness-Harmoniser Zhang Zan
It was a cold and bitter day in northern Qingyuan, and in a small veteran's community, an old soldier stared out at the ice and slushy remnants of last night's snowfall, its colour startlingly like their own flint-grey eyes. Their name was Guan Liang, they were rapidly approaching their eighty-third birthday, and although they may not look to have aged gracefully by the standards of many within the Accord, they were no less keen or able despite that. Still roped with muscle, their speckled hand rested on the silvery handle of a walking cane, the only real outward sign of vulnerability from an otherwise steel wall. They twirled the thing back and forth idly, one hand reaching up to stroke their chin in an archetypally contemplative pose - appropriate, perhaps, for someone who had taken their leave of the military and sought a quiet community for their retirement.
For that was what Guan Liang was - retired. For over forty years they had served the Accord with all the harmony and strength expected of them and more, and now that they were older and slower they had been rewarded with a comfortable pension and the Gratitude of the Machine Merit, a feat that not many could claim to have achieved. Of course, they still worked - eighty two was a venerable age, but no excuse to let idleness seep into their bones... But it was simple, gentle stuff these days. Talks and speeches, PR appointments... And here, in their adopted community, gardening. Oh, so much gardening.
All that was to end today though. The door behind Guan Liang whirred open, and the veteran stiffened their back. They'd suspected this was coming ever since they'd noticed the new light in the sky, and they'd had confirmation for a full day now. They might have the Executive Machine's gratitude, but... "When I stepped out of my Baihu that last time, I thought my service was over with." They turned, fixing their gaze onto the trio that had entered the building. "So how am I to reconcile that with this new request?" They raised an eyebrow, shifting the cane from left to right and back to left.
"Gracious Cog-Ace, I-" The first of the three - a Yin Zholou, bulky and squat with mottled grey-beige skin began to talk, but the veteran raised their hand up, a small smile splitting their face.
"I reconcile it easily. I know how this conversation will go - you will apologise profusely, and say that I am not being called upon, but requested. That I will be treated with respect and dignity, and that if it is my final decision to not take on the role you've brought for me to fill, the Machine understands, and it will find another cog who will accept the position. That I am free to spend my days as I have done for many years, here in this community." They chuckled at the slightly startled reactions they'd received, but pressed on nonetheless. "I shall shortcut this for all our benefit. There is only one task that you would suddenly call upon me for in light of what has happened, and I will accept the position, regardless of its finer details."
He raised an eyebrow. "What, you thought I didn't know the news? Couldn't put two and two together? Come now, this may be a remote place, but I still have the news. I saw the official statement the Executive Machine released. The Gateway is back, and you need the right people to go through the Gateway. I am here. I am ready. I have said my goodbyes and packed my bags, broken the cauldrons and sunk the boats. Let's not dither when a galaxy awaits us, no?"
How many times had Liang been into space? The first time they remembered well: barely eighteen years, when their ticket had first been punched in an exercise to familiarise fresh conscripts with transport procedures. The time after that had been their first deployment... but the next? And all the hundreds of times after? But certainly, in all their many trips, they'd never been on a shuttle quite like this one.
It was... Quaint. Smooth and slightly stylised, with pleasant flowing lines in its design and clean paintwork, the Seal of the Executive Machine imprinted into its loading door. Turning away from it, Liang refocused on the soldier who had escorted them here.
"I appreciate the escort cog."
"On the contrary, the pleasure is mine. My thanks for your service." His salute was quickly waved off.
"You needn't salute an old soldier like me, I don't hold a rank over you. May you serve with harmony." With a nod of their head Liang finally turned and headed into the shuttle, its door sliding shut shortly after they'd made it inside. Already strapped in were two others, dressed formally in civilian wear much like Liang was.
"Good morning. I hope I haven't kept you long?" They broke the initial silence easily and moved towards one of the seats. Before the battlesuit veteran sat, they gave their walking stick a firm strike against the ground, causing it to spring up and collapse down into just its slender silver handle - small enough to be slipped into a pocket.
"Cog-Ace Guan Liang?" The first to speak was a young, confident looking man, wearing the lapel pin of a harmoniser. "I've just been reading through your file, and it's a great honour. I'm looking forward to supporting you!" Liang took the opportunity to size him up, and found... Very little to comment on, in truth. He was the archetype of the young harmoniser - neat, short-cropped hair, a friendly smile to put those around him at ease... And if the ace had to guess, they'd say he was no more than twenty-six or twenty seven - barely out of active reserve duty. He must have been training for this role for quite some time then... But hardly enough time to become a truly meritous cog. Still, every part must be machined before it could perform.
"Indeed. And who am I speaking to, aside from a harmoniser?" The ace's tone was polite, if a little perplexed.
"My deepest apologies. Wellness Harmoniser Zhang Zan, He/Him. I'm assisting those who may need extra care aboard the Voice of the People." He gestured over towards the final passenger, a slender woman sitting stock-straight in her seat, fingers slightly tense across the armrests. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"
"Yes." She gave a quick nod. "Xue Bao, She/Her. I'm part of the envoy's diplomatic staff." Her suit, neatly trimmed to fit her figure without overly accentuating her figure, the neat, clipped and precise yet even-handed words, and the unfailingly polite movements that accompanied them... Liang could certainly believe she was a diplomat. Her almost shining black hair was pulled back into a neat bun and fixed into place and she was bereft of any makeup bar a little mascara, if the veteran's eyes weren't failing them already.
"Nervous?" Liang's seatbelt finally clicked into place and they settled down properly, watching as the light above the door clunked from red to amber.
A thin smile split Bao's face. "Never a fan of the shuttle flight. I'll be fine once we're in orbit. Well... Better. We're going through the Gateway after all."
The quiet conversation was interrupted by a clipped sentence over the shuttle's intercom. "All aboard, preflight checks complete. Liftoff in one minute, please make sure you're secure in your seats."
"Worried about the Gateway, or what's through it? I'm sure the IDF has made sure the crossing's safe, and we can't do anything about the latter, so." They gave a small shrug. "No use worrying either way. We must take the current when it serves."
"Sage wisdom," the diplomat responded without a hint of sarcasm. "Where does that spring from?"
"Couldn't tell you if I wanted. Saw it on a dorm wall, a long time ago, but I'm sure they didn't come up with it." Before they could continue any further, the engines ended the conversation for them. They rapidly grew from a soft, barely audible whine to a thrumming crescendo, Bao's fingers digging harder into the armrests. Liang simply settled his head back and waited, feeling out the vibrations of this new shuttle as it the ground pulled away, and they were surrounded by the swirling of the wind as it tried to stop their ascent.
As the atmosphere thinned, so did the volume of their ascent, until finally all that was left was a soft hum and a slowly growing feeling of weightlessness, the sensation bringing a slight smile to Liang's face. "Smoothest ride I've ever had."
"I'll agree once we're in gravity again," Zan attempted to make a joke, but the slight paleness to his skin undercut the attempt at sureness. "This is only my fourth time up here, if you'd believe it. Training, Jingyu, and then back to Qingyuan."
"Only a dozen or so," Bao added, seemingly feeling much more comfortable now that the bumpiest part of the ride was over. "But they've been long deployments. I've served with the Voice before, was on shore leave just a few days ago. I'll miss the Spring Festival I suppose, but I caught Arrival Day so I can't complain too much."
"I'm sure we'll be able to mark the occasion aboard." The harmoniser offered a grimace trying its best to be a smile.
"Pilot speaking: We've fully left the atmosphere now and our space thrusters are on. We'll be arriving aboard in five minutes. Thank you for your attention."
Five long days. Five days of the humdrum reality of life aboard a smoothly operating vessel like the Voice of the People, interspersed only by the ever-constant companion of the regular meetings to keep the envoys up to date on the latest information. The QIDF had sent several craft through the Gateway to both intentionally and randomly selected systems to test if it was functioning properly, every single one had managed its brief excursion without issue. Some had even picked up strange signals and broadcasts, in languages that Qinglong linguists could recognise, but often wildly different from what their old, pre-CoB language banks told them. Oddly however, Sol had been silent, its secrets locked away until something more than a probe could make a jaunt through.
Finally, though, the announcement that Liang had been waiting for echoed out across the ship. "Attention. Attention. Attention. IPC Voice of the People is approaching QGL-* 'Gateway.' All hands prepare for instantaneous transmission. This is not a drill. Repeat, all hands prepare for instantaneous transmission." Unfolding a seat from the wall, Liang settled down and placed their cane across their legs, and waited, expecting... Something? Anything? It seemed peculiar that after decades of spaceflight, the most momentous journey they had ever taken - a stride across a gap so vast it was quite literally incomprehensible to the human mind, could be carried out between two heartbeats, imperceptible without a view to the outside world.
So, Guan Liang waited patiently, fingers running across the handle of their cane. Their hand drifted slowly, up past their cuff, across the strap that held their Omnilink in place, to where the muscle of their arm gave way to an unnatural divot, its edges firmer and tougher than the surrounding skin, and within the divot, protecting their body from the outside world that would so gleefully take the open neural port as an opportunity, the thin, fragile membrane, spider-webbed with scars from where it had been pierced and re-healed a thousand times on a hundred deployments. The undeniable and irreversible consequence of serving the Accord in a battlesuit.
"Attention. Attention. Attention. IPC Voice of the People has completed instantaneous transmission to Sol System. You may now move freely throughout the vessel."
A shaman experiences the Universe's splendour. Featuring: Zenith Shamanka
Zenith's chest heaved as she finished the steps she had been carefully practicing for three long months now. Bands of brightly coloured fabric fluttered about her arms and legs, and she could feel her sweat soaking in to the heavy underclothes donned for the occasion. Her head spun - it had already been light from fasting and now exacerbated by the exercise... But there was one more step left before she was ready to properly step into her role as shamanka of Uzay.
She must experience Its majesty for herself, once properly acclimatised to see the spirits.
Her mentor approached now, holding a bowl of murky brown liquid that even at a distance nearly caused her eyes to water. Seer's Broth: tincture of hashish and poppy, ayahuasca brew, shaman's sage and a metabolic reactant to speed the absorbtion of the mixture. Reaching out, hands shaky, Zenith grasped the bowl with both hands, locked eyes with her mentor, then brought the plastic to her lips, gulping the foul smelling and worse tasting concotion down quickly so as to minimise the amount of time it spent on her tongue. She could feel its passage down into her stomach - scorching her throat and immediately throwing her body to alarm. Bile began to rise and it took every ounce of her self-control to not project the mixture back up and all across the floor of the airlock... But she managed it, just about, returning the bowl to her mentor's hands and affixing the air intake she'd require for an hour-long EVA over her mouth.
There was a soft clink as her mentor affixed the tether she'd require to her harness, and then with a bow he departed, airlock doors slamming shut behind him. Already she could feel a strange numbness begin to spread across her body, a warm flush rising to her cheeks as she exhaled fully and braced herself for the moment of jettison.
But no amount of bracing could possibly prepare her for what the feeling was actually like. Her only warning was a brief flash of red and the opening blare of a klaxon before a collossal gust of wind blew her off her feet and sent her careening out of the warm embrace of the vessel and out into the void. She spun wildly for a few moments, lost in total and utter free-fall until with a bang the tether jerked her to a halt, body too numb and limbs too slow to really process the pain that she no doubt would have been in under normal circumstances.
Her secondary eyelids shaded her eyes as she cautiously opened them, and despite having seen the sight of the system stretching out before her thousands of times, she could only gasp at what she now percieved. The stars twinkled before her, each one haloed by colours that had no right being there. Light squirmed and flowed around her like liquid, rushing past her deadened body in rivers that streamed out from the system's lonely star, a solar gale that swept across every body that orbited the burning core, binding them tight in the star's embrace. She felt herself extend an arm out before her and was dully surprised to see her hand now covered in crimson spirals, highlighted fingers piercing the wind that buffeted her body but left the fabric swirling around her to spill out in every direction.
The stars and colours before her swam. Her mind began to slowly close in on itself, darkness seeping in from the edges of her consciousness. She should have been terrified but she seemed incapable of such an emotion right now, mouth agape inside the breathing apparatus as the edges pressed in, deeper and deeper, further and further...
The winds before her began to coalesce together. Brightly coloured sparks flared to life before her eyes, exploding outwards into infinitely tesselating sets of fractals, none of which could seem to stay still for a single moment, so filled with life and energy were they. The sparks flickered, slow at first, and then firing in patterns, the wind drawn to this single inexorable spot in otherwise empty space in which what was left of her entire mind, no her very spirit was fixated upon.
She held her breath without realising it, eyes perceiving but brain numb as she witnessed the patterns begin to pulse and the wind rushed back past her, towards the star from which they had came. She stared unblinking as the patterns finally shattered and an incomprehensible brightness filled space, blasting the darkness from every crevice and recess of her mind, the image searing itself into her brain.
A great, shining kaleidescopic vortex had been birthed before her, a new center for the universe to revolve around, and the tiny spark of her mind was nothing in comparison to its glory. Zenith - no not Zenith, because the figure suspended alone in Uzay's embrace was no longer confined to the single body in which it had found itself for almost exactly eighteen years, was finally, truly conscious of the truth.
Everything - not every person, not every planet, not every star or animal or rock or plant but everything, the whole universe itself, was a single tapestry, woven from an ever-expanding thread that had burst into life so long ago. There was no difference between the iron that carried oxygen through one's veins and that which floated through space, no difference betwixt the gases tightly compressed into planets on the Far System and that which the vessel that had borne the form that she identified with was even now steadily exhaling to stabilise its position.
The human form was the universe, was Uzay, and contained within it was the universe. Carbon from those that had come before, to be shared with those that came after. All of it was the same.
Zenith's consciousness slowly contracted back into her body, and never before had the shamanka felt so small, yet at the same time part of something so incomprehensibly large. As sensation slowly returned to her fingers and her eyes began to refocus, she jolted a little, startled to see that the explosion of colour and light, the kalaidescope which she had thought was merely a particularly vivid hallucination remained steadfast before her, even as the winds that were still pulled into it faded from view. Gripping her tether, she turned about, confirming that yes, her vessel was still there... and yes, when she turned back, that strange portal was also still there, defiantly resisting even her new understanding of her place in the universe.
Perhaps her mentor might know. Her pressure gauge informed her she only had another five or ten minutes of non-reserve air and the freezing sensation that had crept into her fingers only further confirmed that she'd been out here for a while, even if it hadn't felt that long at all. Giving her tether three firm tugs, she was relieved when she felt the reassuring vibrations of the winch at the other end reeling her back in, still staring at the portal, at the...
Gateway
Hail to the Khagan
The Great Khagan sets forth the most important decree of his reign. Featuring: Ögedei II Khagan
It had been less than twenty minutes since Ögedei was awoken with news that one of the most momentous events in his people's history had occured in the hour and a half since his head had hit his pillow. While most people would have grumbled at this, there was no time for him to be lax in his duty, and instead he'd hurried to don clothes suitable enough for him to make an appearance on the bridge of the Bai-Ülgen. Now, his footfalls sounded heavy even on the carpeted floor, while behind him tromped two Kheshigs, stiff plumes quivering with each movement they made.
He emerged out onto the bridge to a scene of absolute chaos. The High Shaman was bickering with the chief navigator, his Cherbi and Grand General were stood before a rapidly blinking holographic display, frantically gesturing at icons of vessels and diagrams of horde structures, one of his wives was trying to corral her daughter away from all the chaos... But all of it was dwarfed by the display out of the Bai-Ülgen's main screen.
It sat just outside of the middle asteroid belt, a glowing... disc of swirling light and colour that none living on the system had ever seen, yet all knew exactly what it meant. For a moment, even the Khagan was caught up in the wonder of the situation, only for one of the two Kheshigs trailing him to bellow out an introduction.
"HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, GREAT KHAGAN OF TENGRI AND THE ENDLESS BLACK SKY, ÖGEDEI, SECOND OF HIS NAME, IS ON THE BRIDGE."
Instantly, a hush descended across the crowded court. Squabbling figures disentangled themselves from one another, the various kheshigs and soldiers snapped to attention aiming crisp salutes towards their liege, while his daughter clapped loudly, golden eyes glittering in the artificial light.
"Initial report please, beyond the blatantly obvious." He gestured towards the view before them, raising an eyebrow. Immediately a long-fingered shinjar had scurried forwards, nervously clearing his throat.
"T-the Gateway opened itself approximately t-thirty five minutes ago, sire, and immediately began interfacing with the flagship's systems." The man took another deep breath before continuing. "We have a full list of systems that correspond with what little was preserved from the original databanks, while reports from other members of the Golden Horde suggest that their navigational computers are also able to interface with it."
Ögedei tugged at the end of his moustache and contemplated his immediate moves. He hadn't formalised his power enough over the Colour-Hordes, and there was no way he could stop all his siblings from deciding to take their fleets where they wished... So it was best to direct their energy into places where it could do the most good for the Khaganate. Shuddering a little, he pointed to his chief communicator and strode forward towards his command throne, the bridge crew that had been left standing around when he entered now scurrying to their places.
"The Obsidian and Silver Hordes are to keep an eye on the Gateway at all times. Anyone, anything that comes through needs to be immediately relayed to this ship as soon as possible. Halt any intruders, but do so without killing them unless absolutely necessary. We cannot afford to re-enter the galaxy with blood on ours hands." As soon as the words were said, they were already being relayed across to the other flagships dotted throughout the system, his scribe's fingers flying across the screen of a datapad to record everything as soon as it left his lips. "The Steel Horde will need to increase production of warships to allow us to maintain our watch properly. The Golden Horde will cover the cost, ship them enough Altun to get them to agree. We'll extract some of the value back one way or another." He sighed deeply.
"The Khaantus should be as informed as I am about all of these goings on. Any report regarding the Gateways that comes to me also goes to her. Make sure the news is dispersed, safely, through the populace. We can't hide this, and any attempt to do so would be folly. I'll leave the exact hows to her best judgement, she knows the people of Itügen better than I."
"As for my siblings... The Red Horde should take detachemnt fleets as required and venture to Sol. Khulan will be responsible for negotiation with any other branches of humanity that make their way to our home, and needs to be prepared for a long stay there. Double her detachment of Kheshigs and reinforce with House Guards if required... Actually, scratch 'detachment fleets.' Send the Tömör Chadal through with her, and make sure she knows that such a thing is not negotiable. The rest of the Colour-Hordes need to communicate with each other before they set off. I do not want to hear of any squabbling between them over scraps of prestige." The Cherbi began barking out orders once the Khagan finished, and Ögedei knew that within the hour the detachment of soldiers aboard the Bai-Ülgen would drop significantly. It didn't exactly please him to do such a thing, especially since there was no doubt the system would come under the kind of pressure it had never experienced before, but it would be far worse to lose Khulan and her loyalists.
"I expect constant communication from all of them as soon as they leave Tengri. Any sustained lapse or failure to report in should be met with the highest suspicion." More salutes and called out orders followed, until at last his chief navigator turned and asked the question that no doubt all aboard the Bai-Ülgen were waiting for:
"And what of us, Great Khagan?"
"What of us? We remain here. The Golden Horde is the bedrock of the Khaganate. The Bai-Ülgen is her lynchpin. If the way is made clear by Khulan, we may forge ahead to Sol ourselves, but otherwise we hold here - our power is needed at home."
"Of course Emperor." A floor-scrapingly deep bow followed, and Ögedei finally allowed himself the small privalige of slumping down in his throne.
All he could do now was wait.
Wait, and pray.
Red Horde over Paradise
The Crimson Khatun leads her people home Featuring: Khulan Khatun-Khuu
A true armada had assembled at the Gateway over the course of almost half a week, all spearheaded by the Konrul Ülzii - The flagship of the Red Horde and personal throne of Khulan Khatun. Assembled around it were representatives of the other Hordes joining the expedition to Sol - the Tömör Chadal of the Iron Horde, the personal trade-fleet of a Sapphire Horde Khan and a seemingly endless number of smaller clan-ship, jostling for a more prestigious position closer to the wormhole itself. With the last few stragglers having finally arrived, Khulan Khatun could take up her position in the command throne of her flagship, transmission lines opened wide so all could hear her words.
"Glory to the Great Khagan of Tengri, and greetings to all those that have asssembled upon his decrees. We have been given a chance to not only serve our sovereign and our clan, but to do what none before us, not even the great Chinggis Khagan himself, have. Almighty Uzay, its reach beyond knowing, its designs beyond reproach, has given our spirits an opportunity we must not cast aside." The High Shaman offered her an approving nod as she pressed on.
"We have been chosen, by the universe and by the Emperor, to be the vanguard of our people. To walk, as our ancestors did, across the grand vastness that is Uzay, to feel the strength of our ancestor's star across our faces, and to walk upon hallowed ground once thought lost forevermore." A quick glance across the bridge told her that the words were having their intended effect. Her brother had always been the stern, practical kind; deft with administration, confident in a war-room and efficient in business... But she had always been the orator, ever since they were young.
Perhaps that was another one of Ögedai's strengths: Strong delegation skills.
A wry smile crossed her face as she continued her speech.
"To those who join us from other Hordes, know that you serve among equals beneath the Khagan. It is through all of our skills and knowledge that we will chart this path for our people. To our soldiers, know that it will be your blades and your bows, sheathed or drawn, which will ensure our safety and prosperity in the times to come. To those who serve in my Horde, know that your Khatun is with you. Carry the Konrul high, and know that whenever one of you prospers, so do we all. Let my brothers scatter themselves among the stars to reap an unknown bounty. We will serve in the Cradle of Mankind, and we will show that them the Red Horde's glory." A small cheer went up among the bridge staff, and she had the faintest suspicion that a similar scene would be playing itself out across the armada.
"Let Uzay's wisdom guide our steps as we pass through our finest creation. I will see you all, blessed subjects, on the other side of the galaxy."
She chopped her hand forwards to punctuate her final sentence to her staff, and before she had even had a chance to let it fall the bridge staff began to brace themselves as the Konrul Ülzii's colossal engines fired. A collection of the court's spiritual leaders made slow circles around the holographic command table that dominated the majority of the bridge, voices undulating over the sonorous rhythm of ceremonial drums and the soft jingles of bells and clappers attached to their uniforms. One of their number - a dervish, no doubt, was perhaps the most eye-catching of all the priests. He had no drum and no bells, yet with each twist and turn of their form, great ribbons of brightly-coloured synth silk whirled about, colours bleeding across them with each gust of movement to create a prismatic halo of movement.
The Gateway was now the only thing visible from the bridge display. The holographic display flickered through options incomprehensibly fast, the chief navigator's hands a blur as they acquainted themselves with the greatest of Earth's technological marvels... But it wasn't hard to find what they were looking for.
Eight planets, four of them giant. A single G-type main-sequence star... And there, third from the star was a blue marble, streams of text from a language long since left behind on Tengri swirling around it. Humanity's home. Their home. Once, at least.
The Gateway enveloped the flagship and vanished from sight. The hairs on the back of Khulan's neck shot up, the display flickered, the ceremony's momentum faltered for a moment and it seemed even her Cherbi had felt something in that briefest of seconds... But then the feed resumed, and as the voices and drums reached their climax a gasp slowly went up from across the bridge. Now, instead of the portal, there was instead a large, airless... Moon? It had to be a moon, for close to it, far too close for it to not have been ensnared, was a planet, the third from its star.
What is Humanity?: One more machine, to be brought into harmony.
---
System Name and Description: Located in the Centaurus arms of the Milky Way, the population overseen by the Executive Machine is split across the inner core of the Qinglong system, although largely centred around the capital and most populated world of Qingyuan. Qingyuan is a relatively Earth-sized planet rotating a single k-type main-sequence star, joined by its natural satellite of Mingxian. More recent developments has led to a small but stable population on the planet of Wuhua, while the human-inhabited portions of the system end at the frontier world of Jingyu, the border between the inner and outer system. A small proportion of Xuzhuren or 'void people' exist in between these planets, serving to connect these bodies together.
The Qinglong system was highly unusual in many ways: Not only did it contain a planet already home to early life - Qingyuan, designated as a 'biocompatible world' but quickly adjusted to 'habitable world,' but also a second that was viable for terraforming and colonisation - Jingyu, classified as an 'easily terraformable planet.' Furthermore, Qingyuan's biospheres was comparatively young and homogenous when the Gateway opened, featuring only simple multicellular plant and microbial life that had yet to emerge out onto land. During the decade when the system was still connected to Sol, the Shennong Initiative was able to rapidly build upon this primordial ecosystem, work that was continued after the Gateway sealed to transform Qingyuan into a true 'Garden World,' home to a host of Earth life, including species long since rendered extinct, yet born again thanks to advances in genetics and cloning. A curious quirk of this dramatic upending of the planet's normal evolutionary processes is that fossil fuels are almost completely absent and are unlikely to ever emerge with 24th-century life now inhabiting it.
While Qingyuan was heavily terraformed and developed, Mingxian and Jingyu received slightly different treatments. Mingxian is simply too small to allow for the conditions for life to emerge naturally or for meaningful terraforming efforts - it cannot sustain an atmosphere, its regolith is hazardous and toxic, while its slightly eccentric orbit causes strong seasonal differences that would dramatically challenge life. Instead, Qinglong used the moon to set up both heavy industries to support the ongoing effort and as a new home for their low-gravity R&D departments, a legacy which has held firm throughout Qinglong's history. Without an early ecosystem to use as a base, Jingyu's potential was unable to be fully unlocked within the first ten years, although automated terraforming facilities with minimal human oversight were set up to begin the effort. True colonisation was projected to occur with a second stage of the Shennong Initiative estimated to begin some 30-50 years after Qingyuan had been 'finished.' After Qinglong's failure, various governments in the system have made attempts at turning the frontier world into yet another vibrant home for humanity, although the current success of such projects is questionable, and unlikely to change in the near future.
Crucially to modern Qinglong technology, Qingyuan and Mingxian are home to a seemingly physics-defying metal colloquially known as ‘lodestones,’ with the elemental name of Tàishǐum. Lodestones are remarkably unreactive except for their natural magnetism, which is so powerful and violent that lodestone deposits are often found not in the ground, but instead hovering in the planet’s sky in gravity defying ‘islands.’ Although it is possible to create minerals with a similar composition to lodestones artificially, only true Tàishǐum has the specific magnetic power that makes it so highly prized. Naturally found only on Qingyuan and its moon, the leading explanation for this is that originally the planet was much larger, before being struck by another celestial object, which fused with it into the current planet of Qingyuan, while the ejecta was captured and accreted to form Mingxian.
Demographics: There are three main species from two distinct cultures that exist peacefully on Qinglong:
Homo Sapiens Sapiens ~93% (~4.56 billion): Humanity makes up the overwhelming majority of the population, the legacy of Qinglong Frontier Development's aggressive push to populate its personal fief. Canxing Zholou: ~7% (~344 million): More recent arrivals to the system, the Canxing Zholou, or 'Voyagers of the Broken Stars,' are a refugee population of sapient aliens, split into two distinct sub-populations: Sky Zholouren: ~4% (~196 million) Earth Zholouren: ~3% (~148 million)
Arriving in the Qinglong system around halfway through its isolation from its Gateway, two alien species, united under a single banner, arrived as refugees from between the stars. Although their relationship with humanity started rough, in the time since the Canxing have come to be seen as fellow sapient species, and many of them have integrated into Qinglong society. Although strict Taoism has faded in the modern Accord, the two species, who symbiotically evolved alongside one another as sister-species on their home world, have long been culturally tied to the symbolism of yin and yang, and the dualist taijitu is often used by more heavily humanicised Zholouren as a marker of integration, but also a way of asserting their uniqueness onto an alien society.
Sky, or Yang Zholou were originally gliding omnivores, their heightened senses and enlarged craniums helping them to search for food across long distances. Their early interactions with the Earth, or Yin Zholou is believed to be as hunting partners, with the non-obligate carnivorous Yins bringing down large prey and protecting Yang dens. Despite early assumptions, both species are highly intelligent and capable of tool use, a factor that has helped ensure both of them developed alongside one another, rather than dominating over the other.
Many centuries of specialisation have turned the Yin into true-born spacers, still capable of gliding, but now well adapted to zero-g living, while their mental capacity is particularly suited to abstract thinking and decision making. The Yang, meanwhile, retained much of their original abilities, forming the bulk of their great fleet's mechanics, engineers and life scientists. They share several traits, including ultrasonic vocalisation and infrared chromatophores on their skin developed to allow them to communicate remotely - wearing clothes is seen as the ultimate sign of assimilation.
Zholouren have brought many technological and cultural changes with them to Qinglong. The great Ship Minds that carried them between the stars are the foundation for modern Non-Biological Intelligences (and subsequent system of Networked Computational Minds,) while their expertise with genetics has led to a revival in a formerly under-explored area of Qinglong science. Perhaps some might find the strange bond they have with a truly alien species peculiar... but humanity has shed blood against the same Shenjian that once destroyed their home for nearly two centuries, and such a thing makes their many differences far more palatable.
History:
"Qinglong Megaconglomerate is proud to announce their ascension to the ranks of Gateways Colonial Administrator with formal settlement of the Qinglong system. Already, efforts are hard at work to forge the Twin Planets into paradises befitting of Earth's majesty - a haven for those seeking to leave our home for a better life. Endless potential is waiting to be grasped, and it needs you! Inquire today about securing your place among the stars!"
Qinglong Frontier Developments: Building Better WorldsTM - An advertisement dated 2291 CE, from the Qinglong Frontier Developments Subsidiary
Qinglong ('Q-L' 'The Azure Dragon' 'QingCon') was a titan of Earth... And some might argue one of the many, many nails hammered into its coffin during the 24th century. A true megacorporation in each and every sense of the world, the Azure Dragon might have been born in China, but its reach soon grew to encompass the globe. A de-facto superpower by the time the Gateways hummed to life and humanity was able to expand their reach across the galaxy. Already at the cutting edge of 24th century technology and eager to plant their logo anywhere they could, the company recognised the Gateways for what they were:
The opportunity to cement the Q-L name in the history books, forever.
The system they lay claim to was matched appropriately to the egos of everyone involved. A primordial, life-bearing world, perfectly suited as a testing ground for terraforming technologies that could hopefully prove their worth and be taken back to repair Earth itself. Qinglong's Frontier Developments Subsidiary thus began the Shennong Initiative- a 'ground up' terraforming project that would use the newly named Qingyuan's unsophisticated biosphere as a blank canvas on which to paint a new Earth.
Resources flooded into the system over the next decade. Although the Initiative was estimated to take almost 30 years, the Conglomerate pre-shipped almost all of the sophisticated terraforming equipment required for its conclusion to the system ahead of time. Taking advantage of the fact that it had virtually no financial oversight, the Q-L gambled that by eating a higher up-front cost, the Megaconglomerate would appear to turn a profit long before the Frontier Development actually paid for itself, massively enriching its shareholders in the process.
These early days were full of completely unwarranted optimism in just how well the whole affair would turn out. Grand, sweeping megaprojects were planned across the system, and the discovery of Tàishǐum only fuelled the fires of corporate greed. Talks quickly began regarding the construction of colossal space stations, or mass drivers on Mingxian to launch goods down to Qingyuan and across to installations on Wuhua, all accompanied by an advertising blitz to put any tinpot dictator rewriting history to shame.
As the atmosphere of Qingyuan stabilised enough for people to descend to the surface, the media frenzy only grew. Workers on Earth were offered ludicrously generous packages to tempt them to a star system entirely under the control of QingCon, complete with wage-garnished travel, cradle-to-grave 'loyalty contracts,' and subsidised parcels of land after service milestones. Company healthcare promised genetic screening and early model cybernetics not only for workers themselves but also their descendants, while every child born in the system was proudly displayed on adverts back home, along with new parents gleefully thanking the company for the chance to raise a family away from a failing Earth.
With such a colossal effort behind it, it was no surprise that the Qinglong system soon became home to a huge number of people drawn from every stratum of society. The common worker could find themselves setting up domes on Mingxian and Jingyu, planting trees across the rugged surface of Qingyuan or stripping it's massive lodestone islands, their every effort carried out under the auspices of a small army of scientists and researchers concerned with everything from food webs to astro-engineering to semi-autonomous drone swarms. Of course, all of this was done beneath the watchful gaze of QingCon and their leagues of administrators, middle-managers, division departments and of course the head office of Frontier Development itself, the first skyscraper to grace Qingyuan's virgin city of Xiwang, an impossible to miss beacon lit up with the company's comforting Azure Dragon logo.
Qinglong's 2300 New Year's party was said to be truly legendary; despite the now critical state that Earth was in, the sheer success of Frontier Developments was impossible to deny. Competitors like Morgan-Lott may have grumbled at the Azure Dragon's creative financing, but with everyone sweeping their own shady practices under the rug even they had to admit that the plan was working. The system was set to be the shining example of what a Gateways colony could look like when given appropriate funding and attention, and even as the Earth crumbled the Conglomerate's finances only climbed higher.
But their success was a bubble, mired in over-ambition and hubris, its share prices riding high on hype and vapour... And it only took a single day for it all to come crashing down.
"A common urban legend regarding 'CoB day' is that upon realising what had happened the COO of Q-L Frontier Developments jumped from the roof of Head Office. It's wrong, he shot himself, but I think it's too late for us to ever shake that old 'what falls faster, a man or his shares?' phrase." - Debate on the Urban Legends Reference Intranet Forums, dated 2678CE
"CoB Day ended Q-L's monopoly as quick as that." The interviewee snapped his fingers together. "You'd think their big flagship effort would manage better, but it just wasn't set up to endure such a catastrophic shock to the system, and it's not like the early colony was economically profitable enough to function as a corporatocracy even had they been... But Shennong had to continue. We were all dead without it." - Archival record interview of first-generation colonial administrator dated 2346CE, used in 'Our Qinglong, our Home,' documentary published 2789 CE.
January 1st, 2301, T+24 from the Gateways closing and the Azure Dragon was already collapsing underneath its own weight. Head Office had entered a state of complete anarchy, far-flung ships and systems suffered communication breakdowns and an atmosphere of absolute panic soon gripped the system. In an instant the very foundations of the New Corporate Ethic that Qinglong Megaconglomerate had championed were stripped bare to reveal them to be both completely rotten and woefully inadequate for the survival situation that Frontier Developments now found itself in.
With the vertical relationship the company had maintained crumbling overnight, the horizontal connections between workers at every level would quickly replace them. When middle management failed, their lower-level subordinates, much more connected to the people that Qinglong had seen only as bank accounts to carefully husband rapidly stepped up, and smaller-scale local organisations soon took shape, intensely reliant on each other to survive.
It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the very organisations that QingCon had so successfully quashed under their tenure - Unions, were what would salvage their flagship project from the brink of collapse. Elected industrial forepeople, research oversight committees and even security force sergeants that should have enforced the hierarchy instead came together, working over the head of the flailing bureaucracy.
What followed was a massive paring down of unrealistic ambitions. Half-finished space stations were scrapped for every spare bolt and lightbulb, lodestone shipments bound for Earth were pulled back to Xiwang to be used in first-generation fusion plasma plants, while the bones of skyscrapers were left forever unfinished as their steel and concrete was turned into fit-for-purpose urban expansion projects.
The one project that could not be abandoned was Shennong. Qingyuan had shown remarkable progress already, and was certainly capable of sustaining human life... But ultimately badly underprepared for full self-sufficiency. Although Qinglong had never prepared for this eventuality, in their drive to bamboozle the markets they'd managed to leave the colonists with enough in-system to press on. Even so, the dreams of an intricately designed and carefully monitored prestige ecosystem would now never be achieved. Plants and animals were unleashed to settle into equilibrium on their own, while targeted defoliants were deployed in order to destroy 'wilderness gardens' and replace them with more practical habitats.
As months turned to years the new order of the system began to settle into place underneath a government that called itself the People's Syndicates of Qingyuan. Their efforts, starting from the ground and growing to encompass the entire inhabited system, culminated in the elections of a Presidium and its leading Director for Qingyuan, along with Vice Directors for both Mingxian and Jingyu. The new order would be signed into law with the ratification of the Qinglong People's Constitution in 2303, and the system was to be re-organised along syndicalist lines, with a market socialist economy replacing the hyper capitalist script-driven structure of the megacorporation. Former middle managers and administrators who had only ever attended meetings and stared at spreadsheets now drove combine harvests or organised union accounts, and as the years ticked over into decades, the system appeared to have succeeded perfectly. To defend frontier settlements and fend off early interplanetary criminal elements the Syndicates would restructure the old corporate security force into a citizen's militia known as the Joint Frontier Force, and this way of life seemed to have established itself as the new normal.
But, just like the NCE it had taken over from, the Syndicates were built on shoddy foundations. Although claiming to be a clean break from the old hierarchy, the ad-hoc nature of the government's founding had meant that many of its bad habits had been held over, including its legendary 'Merit Exam' system. As industries, markets and syndicates grew larger and more complicated, cracks began to form - first at the edges, then snaking all the way through society as the system raced back towards the knife's edge it had navigated itself away from following CoB Day.
The biggest issue was the Presidium itself. Although it had worked well in its earlier days, many of its byzantine systems were hodge-podged together over time rather than cleanly designed from the ground up, and there was increasing stratification between a bureaucratic literati class and the rest of the populace. Compounding matters was the moon of Mingxian, still a major industrial center and badly underrepresented in governance, while Jingyu's steadily growing population increasingly wanted more representation for itself.
Although historically the JFF had served as the colony's de-facto police force, poor oversight and weak control had led to increasingly more radical elements emerging within its society, and the demoralised forces couldn't be counted on to properly fend off interplanetary banditry or even maintain order on the capital. Capping off this potent blend of issues was the steady loss of a unified survivalist culture, as memories of CoB day waned and the first and second generations gave way to children to whom Earth was nothing more than cautionary tale relegated to the pages of a history textbook.
It all came to a head in 2374.
"You should have seen the capital in the 70s. I'd like to say 'good times,' but they really were anything but. Seemed every day there was another strike, protest or demonstration, and it wasn't the damn syndics who were stuck dealing with angry workers hurling brickwork. They let us take the crowd's fury, then promised trite concessions that did nothing but bring them back a month later before turning around and condemning us for not solving the problem." - A JFF NCO recounting the events leading up to the Xiwang Coup dated 2372CE. Archival footage used with permission, 2763CE
"The tragedy of Earth is not that so many died. Death is an inevitable part of life. The tragedy is that so many died as victims. When the crisis came, they were helpless, unable to use their deaths to buy anything of value. Billions of otherwise intelligent people had been tricked into ignoring a fundamental truth: that no man has any rights if he is unable to personally defend them." Excerpt from Zhou Yīnuò's debut treatise 'The Lessons of Old Earth,' dated 2366CE
It is impossible to understand the Accord as it exists today without understanding Yinuo Zhou. History may not have been kind to her, but it certainly does remember her even four centuries after she passed away. No doubt, knowing such a thing would have brought a trademark wry smile to her lips even as she lay on her deathbed.
Zhou Yīnuò, (July 13th, 2326 - September 22nd 2412) was a Qingyuanren military officer, political theorist and politician who would rule as the unified Director of the Qinglong System from 2375 to her death in 2412. Although popular during her reign, Yinuo’s legacy is complex - equally praised for her decisive action at a time of intense instability and condemned as the herald of the tyranny to come during the period of Supreme Directors. She is nonetheless credited with laying the cultural and political groundwork for what would later become the Combine Council and finally the Executive Machine. She was responsible for widescale economic, social, military and political reforms, while her theories have only become more popular and studied following the Arrival.
Zhou was born in Xiwang City during the early colonial period: At the time, Xiwang was Qingyuan's only major city, its founding the culmination of the early successes of the Shennong Initiative. Her father, Yang Sheng-Ji, was the chairman of the city’s only microprocessor factory, while her mother, Dr Yang Wen (née Xiao) was a researcher and lecturer at the Xiwang Polytechnic Institute. Zhou joined the Qingyuan branch of the Joint Frontier Force in 2344, becoming a commissioned officer at the age of 18, taking advantage of the Force’s low service time requirement to complete two degrees - Human, Social and Political Science and Exoplanetary Studies within 4 years.
Her upbringing gave her an insider's view of the Syndicate's internal levers of power, which combined with her sterling service and a finely-honed mind meant that she saw a steady and uninterrupted rise through the ranks of the QJFF. Zhou served several tours of duty as part of the JFF's space force, directed marine engagements around Mingxian and cleared several additional levels of Merit Examinations, with her rising stardom finally recognised in 2362 when she won a landslide JFF election to take the position of Military Chairwoman (a civilian advisory role.) She would use this position to consistently pressure the various directorships to strengthen pan-system administration, expand outwards across the Twin Planets and increase spending on the JFF's navy to better enforce order in space.
In 2366, she would publish the first of several treaties- 'The Lessons of Old Earth,' in which she put forward the concept of regime in which only those who had directly contributed to the ‘security or betterment of the nation’ would be allowed to participate in its political sphere. While previously tolerated among career politicians in the Syndicates, this controversial publication led to a rare moment of agreement between members of the Presidium, culminating in Zhou being forced to abdicate her position as chairwoman in 2368. Rather than ease tension, this move caused resentment in the JFF to boil over, and they announced a massive series of strikes across both Qingyuan and its moon. With the army refusing to leave their bases, previously controlled demonstrations and protests became emboldened, with a grovelling Director forced to reinstate her before the year was out. She used this opportunity to discredit her opponents and massively increase the remit and power of the JFF, causing a boom in various feeder military industries who would covertly pledge themselves to support her most ambitious moves yet.
[See: Autumn Crisis, Mingxian Crisis]
In September of 2373, the Vice-Director of Mingxian threatened to withdraw the planet's support for the current government, citing the ongoing social unrest and precipitated by a growing feeling of competitiveness between the two bodies over both food from Qingyuan and industrial goods from Mingxian. The following turmoil would unseat the Director of Qingyuan - Chen Tanqiu, in October of the same year, shortly followed by the resignations of many other high-ranking members of the planet's Presidium, in an event that would be dubbed the Autumn Crisis.
The remaining political apparatus hastily scheduled an election for November 13th, but lacking much of its organisational strength the affair was marred with controversy over voting access and irregularities over counts, and there was a near-complete lack of faith that the new Director Zhu De could carry out his duties.
This weakness was what many in the nation had been waiting for, and Zhou was now excellently placed to carry out her plans. Having remained in her position throughout the crisis, she was able to leverage her influence with industrial interests and the JFF to make the fateful declaration that she and the military had lost all faith in the government. Her proposition to the crisis was simple and to the point: The JFF would step in to manage what the government could not. The state would be headed by an 'interim government' centralised under a single Directorship of the Qinglong System, and she nominated herself for the position. With the JFF and (now believed to be astroturfed) series of public protests supporting her ascension, Zhu De reluctantly stepped down in January of 2374. Although no formal election was held, she was appointed in a hastily assembled meeting of the Presidium to thunderous applause.
What followed was a sweeping set of reforms that aimed to rapidly bring a conclusion to the many different issues plaguing the nation. The power of the Directors had been limited both by the need for unity between the various positions and subsequent agreement by the Presidium - with the former no longer an issue and the latter powerless in the face of her support, she had effectively unlimited control over the system. Immediately, she worked to purge the growing literati out of government bureaucracy, crush the system of unions and councils and sweeping aside the many organically developed layers of bureaucracy in order to centralise power in the state. Once complete, many of these assets were then privatised in a gold rush that saw a class of wealthy business oligarchs emerge, some of whom could still trace their fortunes to the days of QingCon.
These oligarchs would go on to form powerful cliques that owed much of their success directly to Zhou, whose backing she could count on to form her largest powerbase throughout her rule. Such an arrangement did have downsides however, and a significant portion of her time would be spent mediating disputes between rival factions within the cloques.
With political and economic power centralised and the government flush with funds from its asset sell-offs, Zhou continued her reforms by widening the state's social nets while simultaneously cracking down on the 'four evils:' unemployment, homelessness, famine, and unrest. The JFF was reorganised into two branches for planetary and interplanetary operations underneath a combined command structure, founding the modern QJDF. The QJDF's role as civilian law enforcement was finally broken off to form separate law enforcement and state security apparatuses, while formalised training and deployment broke the close links militia groups had to their communities. To combat the lawlessness in space she had fought against during her time in the field she instituted new border control regulations and laid the groundworks for a proper Interplanetary Navy, finally succeeding in temporarily crushing banditry. [See Beltway Bandits and New Guangdong]
The rest of her life was spent developing and maintaining the system she had forged, holding it together through political acumen and sheer force of will even after she survived several bouts with cancer and entered her eighties. She would only show noticeable signs of slowing in her final two years, slowly delegating more and more power to her Deputy Director as she retreated from public life. Her final treatise was completed in 2411 and published posthumously, to massive success.
Some expected that the system of rule-by-one would collapse after the 'Iron Director's' nearly forty-year reign... But such hopes were quickly dashed by the new system's surprising flexibility after her departure. Although her designated successor Qi Zheng had several political and personal weaknesses, he was able to ride out the waves of succession without everything collapsing around him. With the dangerous years of succession over and three years of largely controlled rule over the system behind him, many expected that the Joint Directorship would remain for centuries to come, and indeed while externally all seemed well, internally growing disputes among the oligarchal cliques began to cause serious issues for Qi's power.
Unable to control the cliques like his forerunner had, Zheng's weakness was exploited by a cabal of powerful apparatchiks nicknamed the Gang of Five, who although nominally subservient, in practice held most of the keys to power within government. With their influence consolidated the Joint Director was inexorably sidelined, his power cut out under him piece-by-piece. Zheng was allowed to remain in his position continued to be the formal head of state, but in practice this became a figurehead position with all true power consolidated under the newly formed position of Executor.
The Gang of Five implemented a series of slow reforms from Yinuo's autocracy, including token citizen representation in all levels of government (although in reality many of the newly founded or revived bodies were merely rubber-stamps for the will of the Executor and the cliques that backed them.) Fading from the political limelight, Zheng would quietly step down in 2420 citing health issues, retiring to live out the rest of his days managing a tobacco plantation and caring for his family. His funeral was attended to by a large number of both the remaining Zhouist loyalists and the rising powers within the cliques, including the four surviving members of the original Gang of Five. With his death, Qinglong had completed its subtle shift from total autocracy into hidden oligarchy, an age that would come to be defined by the Gang of Five's largest contribution: The Office of Executor.
"The greatest threat to any autocrat is themselves. An autocrat must, if they wish to rule properly and prosperously, be adequately suited for the position that they ascend to. The ever-famous quote is the death-knell of an autocrat - to be corrupt is to undercut one's own authority, and thus guarantee one's fall." - Excerpt from Yinuo Zhou's final treatise 'On Power and Rule,' dated 2413 CE
"A single mind is like the leaf of a tree - only when working in concert do they sustain the whole."
Or, to use the formal title, Quotations from the Joint Director: The Words of Yinuo Zhou is one of, if not the most published book in Qinglong's history, placing it on par with religious scripture and some of the most popular works of fiction produced in the system or surviving from Earth. Impossibly influential, it presents the Joint Director's political theories in an easy-to-digest format and accompanies them with quotes both attic and laconic, designed to be endlessly relevant across societal and planetary boundaries.
Conceived of in a publishing committee beneath Qi Zheng, the first printing of the book was a rough compilation of excerpts from many of her most famous speeches along with a few new additions she'd provided from various drafts and the better parts of scrapped speeches. Early drafts were perused by apparatchiks, military elites, and Zhou's inner circle, leading to several stages of refinement before it finally reached its first open publication in 2399. Records from the time suggest that a little under a billion copies of this first edition were published and distributed, part of a concerted effort to center Zhou and her cult of personality in the psyche of the Qinglong Joint Directorate.
The book went through further refinement and printings over the course of Zhou's life and new editions and compilations, often featuring forewords that ground it within the context and history of its first editions or featuring margin annotations for classroom analysis are still published to this day. Indeed, this constant cycle of reappraisal and re-examination have ensured that it still sells very well, placing it among works like The Prince and The Art of War as a cultural touchstone. Several quotes from the book have become common aphorisms, and it is required reading in any academic course that touches upon history or society in the modern republic.
"Harmony is not silence, - it is a drumbeat, to be marched to in lockstep."
The story behind its nickname of 'the Iron Pocketbook' has been the topic of debate since its inception. Some argue that it simply stems from Zhou's customary nickname of the 'Iron Director' while others point to its early publication history among the QJDF, with a plain grey cover, form small enough to be slipped into the breast pocket of a service uniform and mythical ruggedness. This version of the book was issued to every soldier when they finished basic training and even hundreds of years later modern officers may garner a few suspicious squints if they can't muster a basic argument or two on its merit one way or another.
Modern Qinglongren have a peculiar view on the book. For some, it is a key example of Qinglong literature, for most, a nostalgic curiosity. Tourist shops in Xiwang, including the gift shop of the museum established over her former mausoleum offer gaudy modern printings, while its quotability has earned it a permanent place in online meme culture.
Despite the reputation of Zhou and Zhouist thought in the modern Accord, the Iron Pocketbook has never truly left military circles. Graduating officer cadets commonly receive modernised grey-cover printings as gifts, and the QJDF's dress uniform still includes the same breast pocket as its Zhouist counterpart once did, still perfectly sized to slip Zhou's timeless wisdom into.
"I like to think that we have achieved the impossible here. The Megacorporation may be dead, but we have built a better world. The Iron Director rests in her mausoleum, but our nation remains whole, undivided by syndicalist weakness. So ganbei! A toast to our accomplishments!" - Recording from a private political dinner dated 2456 CE, made public in 2597 CE during the Rectification Campaigns.
With the role of Director successfully sidelined, the Executorship had a strong foundation to grow and develop from. Unfortunately for the Executors though, little of this was thanks to the efforts of any of the people to actually take up the position. The now-distant legacy of Qinglong Megaconglomerate had always been one of top-down rule, while Zhou's grand upturning of society and keen political acumen had steered the nation towards minority governance in a far more effective way than mere cultural attitudes. The early Executors enjoyed the favour of cliques relatively unified behind them and widespread popular support thanks to the Gang of Five's careful reforms... But by the late 2440s, the final member of the Gang of Five had passed, and with them the last vestiges of the oligarchal clique's strong collaboration between each other.
With the cliques increasingly at each other's throats and factionalism becoming widespread, the unofficial checks on the Executor's de jure nearly unlimited power rapidly began to break down. Despite the many successes of the 25th century, dissent from Mingxian and Jingyu was never fully eliminated, and with the Executor best placed to try to mediate disputes between the bickering cliques, power began to be brought back under a single position once more. Although its often difficult to exactly pinpoint when one era ends and another begins, most point to the formal dissolution of the office of Joint Director in 2511 to make way for the position of Supreme Executor to be the end of the political legacy that Yinuo had started. Further Executors would rely on increasingly authoritarian measures both to control the population and to stabilise their influence against the Byzantine deep state of clique politics that had emerged.
Despite this political climate, the 25th century is usually seen as a time of progress for Qinglong as a whole. Yinuo's military reforms meant that the issue of interplanetary banditry and secessionist movements continued to be controlled, while a proliferation of genetic and cybernetic enhancements across society improved the length and quality of the average life. Many Executors saw the further terraforming and settlement of Jingyu to be a useful prestige project to refocus attention from their weaker areas of leadership, and the planet saw more investment into it than it ever had before, especially since Yinuo's reign had largely concentrated on expanding settlements across Qingyuan. Continued bread and games policies ensure that the populace remained, if not fully happy, at least content with the way that the system was managed, and the easing of migration controls led to a boom in economic activity and frontier settlement.
To say that this was an unstable tightrope to walk would be a gross understatement, and it didn't take long at all before the cracks were once again worming their way through Qinglong society. The increasing desperation of Supreme Executors led to more social unrest, while having a single powerful opponent to rally against meant that cliques were more often than not willing to work together to re-assert their power. With the position of Executor assailed on all sides, the deathblow to the autocratic regime arrived in a very unusual form in the year 2509.
"We'd known that the galaxy harboured intelligent life aside from ourselves ever since the original days of QingCon, but after CoB day nobody ever thought they'd be relevant again, short of the Gateway opening itself back up. I mean, what, were aliens going to cross a few hundred trillion kilometres in slower-than-light spaceships just to say hello?" - Archival internal interview of a naval deep-space monitoring officer dated 2511 CE, used in 'Our Qinglong, our Home' documentary published 2789 CE
"Put yourself in our shoes. We had an unidentified fleet of xeno rapidly approaching the inner system. There were no protocols for this. There were no previous experiences to fall back to. A decision had to be made and there wasn't time to wait three hours for communication from Q-Y. You ask if I can sleep soundly knowing I fired upon refugees? I sleep just fine, your honour." - Court room recording of the trial of Rear Admiral Mao Zhelan , then 121, during the Rectification Campaigns, dated 2598 CE.
In late June 2509, the Qinglong Navy's much neglected deep-space monitoring systems picked up a large number of highly unusual signatures approaching the systems at a significant c-fraction and slowing, in contradiction to all usual logic regarding interstellar material. Having spent the vast majority of its existence ever since the end of Zhou's reign as a brief pass-through deployment for up-and-coming personnel and a dumping ground for washed-up or politically disenfranchised officers, the initial response to this phenomenon was not adequately communicated back to the central government, and it soon became clear that this was no wandering asteroid or collection of deep-space detritus, but instead an honest-to-God alien fleet, rapidly approaching the system.
Some 200 years of total isolation had left the existence of intelligent alien life as somewhat of a footnote in the history of pre-CoB Qinglong Conglomerate. Because of this, naval doctrine was far more concerned about the day-to-day management of interstellar logistics, routine peacekeeping patrols and ceremonial displays than it was about the potential need to defend the nation against a literally alien threat. This lack of preparation came back to haunt the nation as the fleet approached, and while it clearly recognised attempts at communication and even responded to hails, no actual communication could occur. By the time the deep-system report was finally sent, the fleet had reached the outer system and had begun to disperse, although its core shifted to a collision course with Jingyu.
The vast span of space meant that, in the absence of clearly countervailing orders, flag officers were empowered to take strategic decisions with the backing of assigned political officers. While the Supreme Executor froze and the deep state bickered among themselves, rear admiral (or Haijun shao jiang) Mao Zhelan made the fateful decision to prepare his wing for full scale conflict and issued the order to fire. When the weapons struck home the fleet would rapidly scatter and although several increasingly long and incensed-sounding messages were sent out the ships did indeed begin to retreat back to the far system.
At the time Mao's decisive actions were celebrated for ensuring the safety of not just Jingyu but even Qingyuan itself, briefly making him one of the most famous people in the nation. Such attention ended up being a double-edged blade however, as political interests dogged his military career desperate to use his reputation and influence for their own ends. Making matters worse, not just for Mao but also for the government, was the breaking down of the communication barrier between Qinglongren and the alien fleet, with the true details of their arrival and their intentions becoming clear.
The flotilla was a splinter from a nation located in a system some three dozen lightyears away, comprised of an ad-hoc assembly of 'Ark' ships designed to carry them away from their home system. Although there have been many different names for the refugees over the years and they call themselves a word that quite simply translates to 'the people,' the common 'human' name they've accepted is 'Canxing Zholou (残星舟旅),' or 'Voyagers of the Broken Stars' They had not come as invaders or colonists, but instead refugees desperately trying to keep ahead of the system-spanning advance of a what would quickly be dubbed the Shenjian Empire (神姦帝国), due to its alien name being impossible to adequately translate. (Even the best attempts by modern, integrated Zhouluren have rendered something along the lines of [Untranslatable Proper Noun] Greater Star-Integration Hegemon, thanks to the difficulties of translating an already alien language through a different alien language and finally to Mandarin.)
The result was, to put it mildly, explosive. With Qinglong already having approached a crossroad prior to the Arrival, any last remnants of stability were shattered at this news. Unrest and panic unseen since the days of the Autumn Crisis spread across the system like wildfire, and no amount of desperate authoritarian measures could quell this level of social disturbances. No matter who you sided with - pro-Zhouluren integrationists, hardline militarists only caring for the approaching Shenjian, radical populists or extreme Zhouists, the chorus of voices all agreed on one thing: The Supreme Executor had to go.
Seizing the opportunity, the re-organised cliques made their move against the position. Stepping out of the shadows that they had disguised their political power in for well over a century, they unseated the last Executor in a move oddly reminiscent of Zhou's own bloodless coup, announcing that until a proper solution to the crisis could be found, an interim council had taken charge to better manage the state's affairs.
Disbanding the position of Supreme Executor and reigning without a single authority figure bought the Council enough goodwill to ease the immediate unrest, but their margin was still slight, and once again the oligarchs had put themselves in a position where success could only come from the ever-fractious cliques putting aside their differences to work together. Scepticism was high as they re-asserted authority, and afraid to rock the boat many of the Executorship era mechanisms were kept on, although with their worst excesses toned down and the dispersed authority of the Council forcing them to act more collaboratively.
The first issue was, naturally, that of the Zhouluren and the approaching Shenjian, which the immediately revived deep space monitoring systems set about scouring the darkness between the stars to find. Rejecting the calls of those who saw the Zholouren as nothing more than a fifth column in the making, smaller portions of Zholouren were reluctantly permitted entrance to Jingyu and Mingxian, while elements of their surviving fleet combined with new building projects created a segregated area of space around the barren fourth planet of Wuhua for them to inhabit.
With this issue 'handled,' at least for the time being, deep space scans finally bore fruit: although still some light years away, the Shenjian were indeed real, and although the vastness between the stars has always been difficult to glean information from, what did come through was all bad news. The approaching fleet was large, organised, and worse, appeared to have a second, much smaller fragmentary fleet hot on its heels, of similar but distinctly different design.
Although the Council attempted to suppress this, the once formidable security apparatus that earlier Supreme Executors had used to their advantage was powerless in the face of a population well aware that something was coming, and as soon as early rumours broke, the Council realised that it was best to be open about the trials to come, hoping that honesty would be the best defence against further chaos. They were mistaken.
Despite the necessity for singular, strong leadership behind a dramatic restructuring and expansion of the military, the Council lacked the political capital, and the trust of the population required to push these through. To unite the system fully against the invaders and perhaps finally bring something approximating order to the political chaos that once again racked Qinglong, the Council took a decision many saw as ludicrous given the situation: Reform.
Specifically, they launched the first of what would be several 'Rectification Campaigns,' aimed at righting some of the wrongs of the past and allowing the people into a government that had for centuries systematically removed their power in decision making. The cliques were reformed into a series of 'Combines,' corporatist institutions whose goals were no longer simply to empower their leaders, but instead ensure that those who made up their membership were properly represented across social boundaries, while drawing upon old Zhouist ideals to sell them as a fundamental part of ensuring the state's survival.
The Combines would hold regular, internal elections to nominate members of the Unified Combine Council, a legislative and executive body that would navigate the reformed government through the trials that were yet to come... And they succeeded. Against all odds, against what the cyclical failure of government in Qinglong's history suggested would be the natural outcome of this desperate roll of the dice, the UCC was able to scrape together enough good will, not only from industrial interests now formally represented in power, but also by the population of a system that began to see the first glimmerings of representative government take shape that the UCC was finally able to begin turning the gears of power once more.
For several decades, the UCC held the ship of state steady despite the ticking clock of the Shenjian fleet. Whenever internal pressure began to build up, a new round of Rectification Campaigns would be launched to release the strain, and bit by bit more and more of the clique's legacy were chipped away by a people who increasingly saw themselves as those who would spend the most in the defence of their way of life.
Exactly when the 'hard,' oligarchal Councilship truly ended is difficult to truly determine, but most place it somewhere within the third wave of Rectification Campaigns occurring at the end of the 26th century. These were primarily focused on two areas: stripping the newly reformed Qinglong Interplanetary Defence Force of its 'old guard,' largely consisting of admirals and officers who had made their name during the period of Supreme Executor that still held influence. Simultaneously, it also aimed to finally bring proper reform to the Merit Examination system, which still hadn't seen proper, systemic changes since Zhou had gutted the literati class in the aftermath of the Xiwang Coup.
Perhaps the Combine Council expected that this would be the final adjustment needed before they were ready to face the Shenjian, now estimated to be a mere decade away from arriving in the system, or simply didn't realise exactly how much influence the Merit Examinations still held within ensuring the Combines were dominated by the remnants of the cliques, but regardless of their intention, the outcome was simple: A new force had been birthed into the system, right as it was about to face its greatest trial.
Its name? Héxié Zhǔyì.
"For centuries, we have struggled to answer the great questions that a society must tackle. For too long we have been Qingyuanren or Mingxianren, clique or combine or syndicate or soldier. We have picked apart the Lessons of Old Earth, and in so doing we stared at trees but not the forest. Now, as we stare destruction in its eye, we finally realise one thing: We are all Qinglongren, and we will live or die on how we react to that truth." - Remarks from pre-electoral meeting of the UCC by Chairperson Jia Jin - Dated 2299 CE
"Why do the Shenjian fight? For what reason have they purged the Canxing Zholou from their homes, and now seek to do the same to us? More importantly, do such things truly matter now? Does the anvil question the hammer's motives? Does the mountain wonder why the waves batter it? Or do they endure, unendingly and resolutely, until only one remains?" - Excerpt from Ruminations on the Second Arrival an independent micro-news intranet site, 2304 CE.
In late 2301 the Shenjian finally arrived and the QJDF rallied to meet them. The goal was simple - to hold the fleet at the edge of the system for as long as it was possible to do so, and bleed them for every mile of space they intended to take. Across planetary systems, crowds tuned into news broadcasts and live feeds with bated breath, while more and more soldiers were funnelled across to Jingyu in case the worse were to happen.
And slowly, as information filtered in from the front, it seemed that the worst had indeed happened. Initial skirmishes had gone in favour of Qinglong, but as soon as the Shenjian armada had closed the gap the battle had turned into a bloodbath. Footage from the front showed space turned into a vast junk field, with projectiles, lasers and missiles streaking across the void. Interplanetary wings desperately wheeled and juked to try to shake off weapon locks, while the hardened core of the defence fleet gave ground inch by inch, layered laser systems desperately intercepting anything and everything they could find... But giving ground nonetheless.
This period saw the true flourishing of Héxié Zhǔyì, and the societal movement that accompanied it - The Harmonious Progress Front, an ideology forged in the crucible of the system's darkest hours. The movement's actual form was still confusing - it wasn't a political party - not really, the UCC already had bodies arguing for competing ideological vision that fit this concept better, nor did it have a single unified ideological vanguard to centralise and promote its message. Its symbols were diverse and varied; springing out of repurposed Zhouist imagery, taken from long-since archived megacorporate propaganda or blending Zholou and Human messaging together. Its adherents were decentralised and chaotic, and yet still managed to agree on its core principles, drawn from centuries of political and cultural synthesis in the system. Perhaps this was why its message, summed up best in the three-part slogan, was so effective at rallying the disparate groups within Qinglong together against their existential foe.
Through Unity, Harmony. Through Harmony, De.
"Totalitarianism is not a dirty word. It is the truest realisation of what all states should be: A system encompassing all, to work for all." - The Iron Pocketbook.
The movement's momentum grew like tsunami's approach... Or more accurately like the Shenjian, who had already begun to sink their teeth into the dwarf planets and scattered asteroids that lay at the very edges of the Qinglong system. The more ground the navy gave, the more the armada pressed and harried them, driving the Interplanetary Defence Force back past the system's ice giants, and then to the orbital defences arrayed around Jingyu itself, where many of the reserve fleets intended for further defence had assembled. The UCC's plan was clear - if the Shenjian managed to take the planet, no defence-in-depth would be able to bleed the momentum away from an army with a whole planet to call their own.
Conscripts were hurriedly shuttled to the front, terraforming devices ground to a halt, and long-range rail cannons tried to pick away at the armada with mixed results. As the fleet reached the planet itself and drop-ships streaked down towards its surface, Qinglong held its breath, watching as the full weight of an unknown foe pressed down on the fragile shield arrayed around Jingyu. The defences buckled, bowed under the sheer weight of the force they opposed... But then, bit by bloody bit, the space war began to be won. Many of the Shenjian's support craft, along with significant portions of its naval reserves had been redirected to establish new bases in the outer system, and the rearguard actions had done their job at bleeding the armada during their approach. On the planet itself, Qinglongren stormed across muddy swamps churned by Shenjian war machines, the sky pinpricked by the flash of artillery pieces roaring their defiance at the alien invaders. As reinforcements for the Shenjian slowed, and the armada made its fateful decision to pull back from Shenjian, the human-occupied planets roared in jubilation - they would not perish today.
But it was clear the war was not over. The Shenjian had dug into the outer system and the tattered reinforcing fleet was only a few years away from providing them a fresh glut of ships and personnel. The battle for Jingyu had ended the armada's first push, but now the UCC was faced with an even less palatable outcome - a potentially unwinnable war of attrition.
The next years saw society begin to shift and adjust itself to this new order, and Héxié Zhǔyì thought become the largest grassroots movement to ever grace the system. As even the upper ranks of the Combine began to be swayed by the siren song of harmony and unity, the fourth Rectification Campaign saw the birth of what so many had considered impossible within Qinglong: Democracy.
Initial voting for the Planetary Delegation saw a broad spectrum of candidates elevated to the halls of government, but contrary to the expectation of sceptics, the vast majority were willing to put aside their more ideological divides in order to work for the common good of Qinglong, forming a cross-Delegation agreement that took the name of the popular movement that had inspired it - The Harmonious Progress Front.
Within twenty years, the system had sifted out inefficiencies and chaos like a prospector searching for nuggets of gold. The end of the period of synthesis came with the formal declaration that the Harmonious Progress Front would be the representation of the people's will within Qinglong's government, and in 2530 a new constitution was formally ratified declaring the foundation of the Qinglong Accord, a modern government for a modern solar system, strengthened against both the chaos of autocracy and the disorder of populism. In honour of the agreement, the Planetary Delegation would be renamed the Harmonious Delegation, and the Executive Machine hummed to life.
<"For hundreds of years, my people have lived in fear of what has chased us. When we arrived here, we thought that we had met our end, and that our long journey would be for nothing. Today, as I open this memorial to those lost in the Great Defence of Jingyu, my heart may be heavy with sorrow, but for the first time I, as do all Zholouren, feel something greater. Hope."> - Ren Xuefeng, Humanicised Sky Zholouren, and first non-human member of the Planetary Delegation, closing comments from a speech inaugurating the Qingyuan "Great Struggle" Memorial Wall, 2513 CE. Used in 'Our Qinglong, our Home' documentary published 2789 CE.
"No flame is fiercer than conflict, no crucible tempers like war. Mark my words, the day that Qinglong burns is the day that it truly shakes the shackles of Earth and takes its own shape. I know not why, I know not when, but I know that one day it must happen. What I have done is merely the groundwork for the struggle that will come." - Zhou Yinuo, private correspondence to her inner circle in a discussion about the QJDF's recent reorganisation, 2380 CE.
The Shenjian Armada had been deflected, but not decisively beaten in the Great Defence of Jingyu. As both sides licked their wounds and prepared for the conflict to reach another bloody apex, the power of the Executive Machine began to make itself apparent, the twin mechanisms of democratic representation and corporatist collaboration unified with the increasingly sophisticated aid of Non-Biological Intelligences, a technology only possible through cooperation with the Canxing Zholou.
The centuries of the Great Struggle have seen Qinglong society entirely remade in the image of Unitarian Harmonism. State, people and ideology are bound together in a way that might come off as dystopic to some from old Earth, but they proudly declare themselves to be the 'perfected system,' having avoided the excesses of the past in order to forge a brighter, better future for not just humanity, but all sapient and peaceable species willing to work together. With the Gateways reopening, only time will tell how well the Accord can weather such a radical shift in situation.
Culture and Society: The easiest way to get a glimpse into the Accord's culture is found within the requirements of their first and most important Merit Examination, appropriately named 'the First Merit.' Taking place over some six years between the ages of 12-18 for humans, receiving the First Merit is an important rite of passage, marking one as a legal adult, able to vote in Delegation elections, provide meaningful consent and to serve their initial two-year conscription ticket. Broken down into separate parts, it aims to ensure that every member of the Accord:
- Is of sound body and mind, to the maximum of the person's ability. - Has received a fundamental education in literacy, numeracy, analytical and logical thinking, and the basic principles of science and philosophy. - Is capable of mature social and ethical decision making, including conflict resolution, and working within a group. - Is aware of 'practical and necessary skills with universal application to life,' including first aid, fire and food safety, domestic science, and an understanding of how to react to a varying set of natural and sapient-made disasters. - Has basic technological literacy. - Understands how to safely operate and maintain a firearm. - Understands the history, politics, and planetary dynamics of the Qinglong Accord, including the structure of its government and the unique environmental conditions on the various inhabited bodies. Special focus is placed on the planetary body (or lack thereof) the individual comes from. - Beliefs are suitable within the overarching framework of Héxié Zhǔyì thought. - Is aware of their rights, duties, and obligations under the state, including but not limited to conscription, Universal Basic Access to life-sustaining goods and services and what legal culpability as an adult means.
Adjustments to the First Merit are allowed, but typically only within the framework necessary to ensure that no discrimination occurs on the basis of disability.
First Merit graduation is also an opportunity for a citizen to receive their first implant - the Neural Interface Suite, key to not only being able to talk with Canxing Zholou citizens directly verbally but also allowing them to interface with many fundamental elements of the nation's digital infrastructure. Indeed, the Neural Enhancement Suite is so crucial that it forms the foundation upon which every other one of the Accord's many, many implants are built upon, with further implants typically restricted behind higher or more specialised Merit Examinations.
"Merit Examination" is a term that comes with heavy connotations to those unaware of how it is used within the Accord. To most, it conjures imagery of cramming schools, examination halls filled with students being scrutinised by invigilators and moments of relief or despair as the results arrive. While typed and invigilated examinations do make up aspects of almost all Merit Examinations, they're perhaps more accurately equated to apprenticeships or qualification programs that can take many years to finally complete and receive their associated Merit.
The average Accord citizen will undergo potentially dozens of Merit Examinations throughout their life, receiving Merits that cover everything from battlesuit piloting to high-level Non-Biological Mind programming and anything in between. Almost every job is associated with at least one required Merit, and while it is generally preferred that people take on Merit Exams in their free time, many different societies and training courses exist both in and outside of Combines to ensure a person is constantly developing themselves across their lives. Some are near mandatory - vehicle handling Merits, the 'Boot Merit' awarded upon completing one's basic training and the Digital Infrastructure Merit that confirms a deepened technological literacy and allows a citizen permission to own and maintain their own intranet website. But many more are extremely limited in scope and scale, such as the Battlesuit Ace or Interplanetary Management Merits. These may often take the vast majority of a person's professional life to acquire and mark standout individuals worthy of respect and celebration for their accomplishments.
But, of course, the duties expected of a citizen are only one part of a multiplanetary tapestry. As with most everything when it comes to the Accord, their culture and society are highly collectivist. Even non-immersive schooling involves a boarding element and 'Civic Engines' (or, as any other nation would call them, community centres,) form a core nexus of any settlement on Qinglong, being so central that one's local Engine is often referred to literally as Zhōngxīn - 'The Centre.' Indeed, their collectivist nature can be seen even through how they refer to each other, with 'cog' becoming a common species and gender-neutral way of referring to a fellow citizen.
This, naturally, radiates out to every facet of their society. Universal Basic Access policies ensure that citizens have, if nothing else, a roof above their head, food on a plate for them at an Engine's communal kitchen, comprehensive medical care and access to education and schooling. Community groups organised around specific activities or events, like the ever-popular Shooting and Virtual Entertainment Societies bring people together both at a local and pan-planetary level, while sponsorships and adoptive groups ensure that even those without a family like the Legacy Kin are able to enjoy these most primal bonds.
In a broader cultural sense, the Qinglong system obviously takes much from its origins as a Chinese Megaconglomerate. Many different Eastern spiritual and philosophical concepts have had a deep impact on Héxié Zhǔyì thought, Qinglong Dialect Mandarin forms the bulk of the human population's primary language and modernised cheongsam and changshan remain commonplace for formal or special events. The continued access to authentic ingredients has kept traditional 'Eight Cuisines' alive and well, although five hundred years of time to brew and a much wider range of ingredients has seen a truly dizzying variety emerge outside of 'Earth-Tradition Cooking.'
Four planets and three species have all provided their own contribution to the cause as well, of course, with the end result being a tapestry that while distinctly coloured by their origins, has a proudly unique Qinglong flair to each and every thread.
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Governance and Politics: The Qinglong Accord is not merely the name of the nation, but is in fact the formal title for an agreement made between the then-recently flowered democratic bodies across the system and the Combines in order to form a single, unified government that could lead the state into war against the Shenjian, built on the foundations of Héxié Zhǔyì thought. This agreement laid out the mechanisms of government as follows:
The Executive Machine: The executive branch and highest ruling body in Qinglong system. Consisting of members drawn from both the Unified Commission of Combines and Harmonious Delegation, it is assisted in its decision making by a series of networked Computational Minds, used to ensure that not only is the body acting appropriately, but also is as well-informed as physically possible when taking any decisions. Having seen the issues that can arise when a single individual gains too much power, the Executive Machine uses a system of rotating chairpeople, with strict term limits and extensive scrutiny.
Unified Commission of Combines: One of the two legislative branches of government, the UCC draws its members directly from the Combines - massive overarching corporate bodies that organise, advocate for and represent their interests within Qinglong. High-ranking positions within the Combines is limited by gruelling merit examinations, exemplary service and extensive assessment by both humans and computational minds and as such are not decided by election.
The Harmonious Delegation: The elected body of the legislature, the Harmonious Delegation is formed of elected officials from each of the system's inhabited bodies. This has earned it a reputation for being much more chaotic than either the EM or UCC, but equally, the body is known for its deeply human side and is the battlefield where the many variants of Héxié Zhǔyì thought compete to show their potential.
The Harmonious Progress Front: The idea of a 'political party' is somewhat strange within the Accord thanks to its unique system of government, but nonetheless one does exist, and is considered the only legitimate political organisation within Qinglong. As the party is entirely synonymous with the system as a whole, exactly where the state begins and the party ends is up for debate, but its most crucial function when it comes to running the nation is its system of Harmonisers and Optimisers.
Both have completed specialised Merit Examinations to receive their role and distinctions, but it would be a mistake to assume that they are 'classes' or 'strata' and Qinglongren do not see them as such. Any citizen may join their ranks, assuming they are fit for the role, and these roles are held alongside other jobs, duties or positions.
Harmonisers are individuals dedicated to the overarching ideals of Héxié Zhǔyì thought and are found in every part of society. A Harmoniser might be one's designated first-aiders at work, serve in an equivalent position to chaplain in the armed forces or as the head of safeguarding in a crèche. Military harmonisers are sometimes referred to as 'commissars,' but in truth such a role is actually more accurately applied to:
Optimisers are select individuals who work to ensure smooth societal functioning and while a great number make up the career civil service, they have a wide variety of duties. They ensure that Combines work alongside one another without issue, that quotas are met and act as watchdogs against corruption and other criminal activity, among other roles. Military optimisers do indeed make up significant portions of the commissariat and are responsible for ensuring that conscription quotas are both fairly applied and actually draft the required number of soldiers, alongside duties such as the maintenance of military news broadcasts and ensuring proper ideological loyalty among the troops.
Technology Overview: Technology has improved steadily across much of Qinglong's history, in many ways thanks to the influence of Mingxian. At once part of Qingyuan and very distinct, its industries and research centres have been protected from many of the more dramatic swings in governance and rule that have occurred on Qingyuan.
Tàishǐum forms a core part of a significant portion of the Accord's infrastructure, with its unique magnetic qualities making it vital for high-temperature fusion reactors, while lower qualities are more than suitable for mag lev vehicles both civilian and military. Their success at reaching the Mohorovičić discontinuity on Wuhua has proven themselves able and capable at massive engineering projects, while the QIDF demonstrates their capacity at aerospace engineering in each and every engagement.
The use of cybernetic and genetic augmentation has been a consistent throughline even since the earliest days of Qinglong Megaconglomerate, and modern cybernetics within the Accord are incredibly advanced, although typically limited behind requirement and the completion of a merit examination deeming one's suitability for the modification. Zholouren influence provided a boost to their otherwise flagging genetic engineering projects, whose benefits have made themselves known through fewer and fewer rates of heritable genetic conditions, improved lifespans, and a longer biological peak, and it is uncommon but not unheard of for citizens to reach their second century.
Perhaps more critically are their advancements in artificial intelligence, or as they're known, Non-Biological Intelligences. Prior to the First Arrival, genuine 'thinking machines' were out of reach for the Qinglong, but extremely advanced ANNs were able to carry out a wide variety of functions. With the help of the Zholou and their 'shipminds' though, these have evolved to become genuinely autonomous sapient brains. NBIs within the Accord are odd - The actual 'spark of consciousness' that brings them to life is somewhat of a black box and they fundamentally do not consider themselves 'people,' something which perhaps makes more sense when one realises just how divergent the experience of a mind without any of the typical influences a biological one has. Instead, NBIs working together to form Networked Computational Minds are a cornerstone of the QA's digital and real-world infrastructure, able to process vast amounts of input data into coherent and actionable plans and intelligence outputs, a task which also brings them a great deal of pleasure. Because of this, the creation, training, and coordination of the efforts of NBIs is of paramount importance to the long-term security and prosperity of the Accord.
Military Overview: To call the Accords 'militarised' would be an understatement. The two centuries of total war that have followed the Shenjian arrival have been dubbed the 'Great Struggle:' an endless defence against an inhuman threat that expresses no desires other than domination. While this was key in the formation of a unified society, it also transformed the military from what has historically been an agent of oppression and enforcement into a core, intrinsic pillar of society around which much of the state is organised. The Qinglong Joint Defence Force is split into two components: the Planetary Defence Force, concerned with any and all in-atmosphere operation, and the Interplanetary Defence Force, which focuses entirely on space-borne operations.
The ranks of the QJDF are filled by both volunteers and conscripts. All citizens of the Accord are intended to serve at least two years in active service after they complete their First Merit, before spending a further five years in 'active reserve,' with an expectation that they will be the first reactivated should it be necessary. In practice, this all-encompassing military service requirement has required practical carveouts for individuals unsuitable or otherwise ineligible for frontline service, including those entering essential war or civilian industries or those with medical issues outside of the ability of the Accord to treat. Because of their physiologies and heavy incorporation into Qinglong's research sector, Sky Canxing Zholou are the demographic group with the highest rate of draft exemption, although regardless of demographics, military exemption is not an exemption from service to the state, and individuals may find themselves tasked with civic duty such as community construction efforts, mandatory merit training, work within civic engines or as part of the emergency services.
A large body of the military consists of long-term volunteer soldiers - those who either entered conscription with the intent to continue their service there and those who found themselves more suited to service than they expected during their two years. Forming the professional core of both branches of the QJDF, they spend significant periods of time away from their home communities in an extremely hazardous environment, with their sacrifice to the nation being heavily emphasised within Accord media.
The unique conditions of taking and engaging with the Shenjian on their terms - particularly when it came to attacking stations and disabled vessels, made new hardware designed for such a task essential. Early efforts led to models that were little more than heavily up-armoured EVA suits with simple powered systems, but these have since evolved and been adapted into a series of 'battlesuit' chassis being developed, the most famous being the all-environment Shishi Assault Suit, urban siege Xuanwu and top-of-the-line Baihu Elite Suits.
Piloting these suits requires an intense level of training and augmentation, including the implantation of a much more invasive set of neural implants to allow for seamless control over the suit, as if it were one's own skin. All battlesuits are also fitted with NBI Co-Processors, which graft onto the pilot, heightening autonomous reaction time and providing a much deeper level of information processing for better battlefield decision making. This interface is irreversible once implanted, while the constant use of co-processors can cause severe neurological and mental issues should a battlesuit pilot be parted from them. Because of this and the expense of producing the equipment, battlesuits form a tiny, but extremely well-known minority of the QJDF. Veterans often struggle to reacclimatise to civilian life, and many advancements in mental healthcare has been made in the effort of allowing these heroes of Qinglong to harmoniously rejoin the whole.
The military is further bolstered by volunteer reservists, a population that includes the overwhelming number of people between the ages of 25-50. Having already received basic military training and with the Accord's strong gun culture (further cultivated and formalised with the existence of shooting societies,) these reserves act as a national guard for the purpose of disaster response and, particularly on Jingyu, as an organised fighting force that can immediately respond to threats to the community.
Between planets, the QIDF is responsible for one of the most complex tasks ever put before humanity: successfully managing a frontline that includes tens of billions of square miles of dead space, defending an ever-shifting configuration of planets against a threat that can approach from an almost unlimited number of vectors, and, occasionally, pushing back against them, to reassert the Accord's control over Qinglong system. Because of this, their fleets have taken on a distinctive role as interdiction forces, ensuring stable supply lines and preventing incursion past Jingyu's orbit, utilising heavy artillery craft, capital command ships and heavy-duty frontline cruiser-destroyers protected by point-defence specialised escorts. Most combat occurs directly between ships, but marines are still necessary for when an enemy craft has been disabled, or when a station has been rendered defenceless and ready to capture.
Glad to be here once again folks, standing right beside (and slightly behind) our regularly scheduled reptilian overlord. If you're a little confused as to what a sheet should look like, both Tort and I have posted our CS' already over in that tab for some inspiration! Don't worry about the length, both of us are somewhat obsessive about this little project and you can have a much more streamlined sheet and still be accepted!
Various horse-hair banners wielded by Khaganate Representatives
(Note: The Khaganate uses a wide variety of different flags and symbols depending on location, primary allegiance, noble family and other factors. The closest to a single unifying 'flag' they have is the banner of the Golden Horde:)
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Government Form: Neo-Feudal Absolute Monarchy. All power is held by the Great Khagan himself, who delegates powers to various nobles such as the Khaantus of Itügen, military Boyans and Khan Kuus of other Hordes.
Population: Around 1.2 billion souls swear fealty to the Great Khagan.
What Is Humanity?: The cradle of sapience, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle.
Planet Name and Description: The Tengri system and its primary settlement target of Itügen (or ‘the Steppe,’) was marked as a potentially habitable exoplanet by early colonial charters, although eventually found itself at the bottom of the list as better prospects surfaced. During Earth’s death throes it had been left unclaimed, allowing a rag-tag collection of planet-born refugees and space colonists from the inner asteroid belt to flee there, hoping to find a warm and welcoming planet perfectly inside the goldilocks zone of a main sequence yellow dwarf star...
What they found was anything but. Even the best of telescopes can be tricked by hundreds of lightyears, and when the fleet arrived what they actually found was a blasted, ravaged and desertified rock, barely capable of sustaining a little hardy life. The atmosphere was severely damaged, water was scarce and everywhere the colonists turned there was another issue, from heavy metals polluting natural reservoirs to areas of unusually incongruent radiation levels. Its wide, flat landscape makes it susceptible to terrible sandstorms, dust devils and droughts and worst of all, a disastrous weather cycle that has come to be called the Huiten Dzhut - Cold Death. The result is that permanent habitation can only occur in small oases of comparative life, forcing the majority of the Steppe's population into a nomadic lifestyle.
There was some succor for the colonists however, because while the Itügen was harsh and unforgiving, the system was rich in other ways. Tengri is rather crowded for a solar system, with a wide variety of terrestrial planets, three dense asteroid belts and a chain of gas giants at the outer reaches, all of which could theoretically be exploited and colonised to give humanity a fighting chance. The modern Khaganate has taken to this concept with gusto, and takes advantage of as much of the system’s bounty as they can, leading to human settlements springing up all but the very furthest reaches of Tengri’s gravity well.
One planet drew attention like no other: Erleg, named for Turko-Mongolic god of Death. It is most remarkable because it is shattered, the very core of the planet itself exposed to the void, and has already taken the first steps along an inexorable process that will eventually see the remnants ripped apart and scattered into one of Tengri’s asteroid fields. Such things do not happen naturally, and it was in the depths of Itügen, buried beneath sand and crushed beneath mountains that answers to the mysteries the system held began to emerge.
The planet is littered with archeotech, fragments of technology from an extremely advanced precursor civilisation that once lived in the system. Vaults of archeotech can still be found deep in Itügen’s strata, and their discovery and exploration is one of the primary drivers behind the continued exploration of the Steppe.
As of yet, no physical remnants of the precursor have been recovered, but each new Vault both answers old questions while bringing forth a dozen new ones, and those with the know-how and tools are able to dredge long-forgotten technology up and breathe fresh life into it.
Demographics: The Khaganate would classify themselves as a wholly human nation, and could even put forth some very persuasive arguments as to why this is biologically, semantically or technically true… But if one was to stand the various groups that made the Khaganate next to one another in a line, it would be difficult to believe that they truly are all human.
While yes, they all share the same four-limbed bipedal body plan, and yes most are sexually compatible with one another and baseline humanity… Lanky, pale-skinned Dwellers cast polarised eyes out over the stars while shimmering, muscled Steppe-Riders use pheromones to communicate with their steeds. Imperial Soyulani gleam like living Gods, while thick-browed Zuraqchi workers sweat and toil in interplanetary forges. They may all think of themselves as ‘humans…’ But are they truly?
Centuries of genetic engineering built on a bedrock of recovered alien archeotechnology has seen massive overhauls to the building blocks of life itself in order to better adapt humanity for their new environment. Over time, the most successful of these adaptations have been templated, recreated and become genetically stable sub-species known as lineages, with the most impactful as follows:
"Baseline Human." Although Basers may look functionally unchanged from those that left Earth so long ago, and indeed are treated as the control group by which all other strands of humanity that live within the Tengri system are measured... They are not truly unmodified, as widespread genetic engineering is a foundational part of Khaganate culture and society.
Although lacking the extreme specialisation to either the void of space or Itügen’s danger, Basers remain the most versatile and adaptable of any lineage and find success in every part of Tengri. Basers form the majority of the population on planet-based örtöös, and their ability to easily move between environments makes them excellent administrators, officials and archeologists. Thus, they've become a common sight in the Steppe’s few permanent cities.
"Void-Dwellers." Humans that have been specifically modified to sustain the rigours of spaceflight. Dwellers are obvious from their great height, lithe, flexible bodies and lack of much hair at all - no Dweller can ever grow a beard, although a few are blessed with something approximating a full head of hair.
Dwellers are extremely well adapted for their new ecological niche. They are better able to resist the effects of radiation and their bones, joints and muscles degrade much slower in microgravity. Their inner ear is unidentifiable to those of Basers in order to prevent motion sickness and allow for rapid movement about a vessel. Their overall quality of vision has degraded somewhat, as they overwhelmingly live under purely artificial lights, however in exchange do feature a secondary polarising eyelid able to filter out harsh light, be it originating from screens or stars, and are able to focus without the assistance of a horizon line.
Dwellers have also benefited from numerous 'auxiliary' modifications over time, including elongated, hyperflexible fingers better for working in cramped spaces and the isolated genetic code for familial natural short sleep meaning they require a mere 4 hours of sleep each cycle. No editing is without consequence however, and Dwellers are prone to hypomania, neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, communication disorders and other 'low scale' complications not regarded as meaningfully detrimental to Dweller life.
These modifications continue, and indeed are so extensive that forming an exhaustive list would likely drive one to insanity, however attention must be drawn to one last set of adaptations: Their so called 'spacing countermeasures.' While most humans would simply perish in the event of an environmental breach, Dwellers are specifically designed to maximise their odds of short-term survival and allow them to be rescued. When experiencing the sudden shock of spacing without sufficient survival equipment, the following protective instincts activate:
- The Dweller's barotrauma reflex kicks in and they instinctively exhale, preventing overpressure buildup while minimising air waste. Once the lungs have equalised, valves seal off airways and trap the remaining air inside a dweller's body. This barotrauma response also triggers a controlled release of high-stress hormones, heightening awareness and physical capabilities without triggering flight-or-fight instincts. - Liquids boiling-off the skin cause bioluminescent proteins to activate, and distinctive glowing red patterns form across a Dweller’s body to highlight them to rescue teams. These patterns are as unique as a fingerprint, and it’s not uncommon for shamans to tattoo or scarify the areas surrounding them to highlight their presence even in-atmosphere. - Internal reserves of myoglobins flood the body, maximising the amount of time the Dweller can hold their breath. Simultaneously, the body enters an emergency anaerobic state, breaking down bicarbonate stores to increase blood PH and counteract acidosis, while enzymes convert nitrogen in the blood to harmless compounds and thus negate the risk of 'the bends.' - Finally, if applicable, the body will begin rapidly regenerating itself using a set of adaptations taken from reptiles, which aims to repair any critical damage caused by the spacing incident.
These adaptations provide a Dweller with a crucial 15-25 minute window of survival with which they can usually be recovered safely, although undergoing this process is extremely traumatic and will almost always result in the buildup of highly negative metabolic waste that must be safely purged. Because of this, Dwellers have highly specialised rescue and treatment protocols to maximise the chance of a full recovery.
All of these enhancements come at a cost: The greatest anathema to Dweller life is not being in the environment they've been carefully adapted to. Their limbs and joints struggle to maintain their own weight above 0.8Gs of force, requiring a g-suit should they ever descend to the Steppe's surface and its 1.3Gs. Their respiratory system, unused to dealing with unfiltered air, struggles with the sand, grit and pollution across Itügen causing asthma-like symptoms, while their short sleep schedule is filled with unexplainable nightmares and parasomnias that render them near-useless long-term when on the planet’s surface. Because of this, the overwhelming majority of Dwellers will never leave the confines of space habitats, rarely venturing into spin-gravity zones when necessary.
"Steppe-Riders." Humans that have been modified to better withstand the dangerous and violent world of Itügen are perhaps the polar opposite of Dwellers, although they share a similar level of aggressive genetic engineering to better adapt them for their new environment.
Physically, Riders are sturdy and sinewy, with muscles much more densely packed with both slow and fast-twitch fibers to vastly improve athletic performance. Their skin is tougher, thicker, and filled with glossy melanins that provide a shimmering, near-metallic look. During peak UV exposure, Riders will exude a natural sunblock that quickly dries to provide a physical shield against harmful rays. Their respiratory system has been hardened, with many auxiliary air filters to neutralise and remove air contaminants, while a secondary, redundant heart and modifications taken from high-altitude Earth populations allow them to transport blood much more efficiently across their body. This is especially needed as Riders have super-coagulating blood in order to maximise their chance of traumatic injury survival.
Their digestive and renal systems have received significant overhauls in order to extract and retain much more water, while simultaneously reducing the risk of food poisoning despite contaminants. Riders also produce an excess of metallothioneins which bind to and neutralise the heavy metals that commonly pollute Itügen. Amusingly, a side effect of their specialised gut flora and digestive enzymes is the ability for Riders to safely metabolise and process methanol as if it was ethanol, a quirk that has proven extremely useful given that the majority of alcohol produced on the Steppe would be otherwise undrinkable by humans.
All of these modifications are but peanuts compared to the dramatic and widespread changes made to a Rider’s mind and endocrine system. Riders are able to produce and receive pheromones that can cover surprising distances on the Steppe. These pheromones have also been engineered into their khulgars, or steeds, allowing an unparalleled level of non-verbal communication both between Riders and between them and their horses. Key pheromones can broadcast a Rider’s presence over long distances, signal when a Rider is under threat, when a group should press the attack or fall back and retreat, and much more besides. Riders have learnt to produce and deploy pheromone traps to warn of dangerous locations, assert territorial control and even be used as biological weapons during tribal conflict.
Finally, Riders are born with survival skills already integrated into their minds, with a greater range of more deeply developed muscle memories. These are accompanied by prion-derived proteins that can effectively encode and reproduce sophisticated information - providing Riders with a well of ‘genetic memories’ designed to improve their survival instincts. Rider culture is heavily influenced by these genetic memories, and children recalling them form key developmental markers. Some Riders will also express a smaller range of highly specialised memories, making them prenaturally good at specific skills such as medical care, mechanical engineering and even storytelling.
Of course, just like Dwellers, Riders are hyper specialised for life on Itügen’s surface and suffer greatly when removed from their natural environment. Their dense, tough muscles and sturdy bones atrophy quickly and more deleteriously without gravity and their balance is completely thrown off by weightlessness, making them much more susceptible to space-sickness. They lack the same level of natural radiation resistance that Dwellers have, and their respiratory systems massively overperform in carefully controlled void-habitats, causing them unnecessary fatigue and strain. Dweller food is also both safer and simpler than what can be found on the Steppe, and a rapid dietary change can lead to significant gastrointestinal distress while their bodies try to adapt.
Pheromone-based communications are almost entirely neutralised by Dweller air filtration systems leading to a form of sensory deprivation colloquially known as ‘space silence,’ while Riders removed from their natural environment can miss out on important contextual prompts that would usually trigger genetic memory recall, severely stunting their development. Because of this, despite the obvious utility Riders would have in combat situations, they are rarely taken from Itügen’s surface, except for the most promising of candidates that are earmarked for transformation into…
"War-Lords." The ultimate synthesis of the best portions of both Rider and Dweller lineages, whose blending has been made possible and further augmented thanks to the inclusion of entirely alien xenogenetic material recovered from archeotechnology. Unlike other lineages, War-Lords are completely sterile and must be made, not born, using the best possible Riders as a baseline to further enhance. The city of Aurag hosts festivals and competitions designed to find those most suitable for implantation among Itügen’s inhabitants, and being selected as a War-Lord aspirant is considered a great honour among most Steppe tribes.
The War-Lord transformation process starts at the physical level, as Lords need to be able to efficiently function both in space and on planetary surfaces. Muscle and bone weave themselves into a mutually beneficial lattice that regenerates quickly and withstands microgravity well, while Dweller anaerobic adaptations combined with the stronger twitch-muscle fibers of Riders allow for terrifyingly quick and powerful movement in even the most confined of spaces. The vestibular system of Lords is highly adaptable, making them at home both when moving through microgravity environments and while tearing across the Steppe, while a fresh influx of memory-bearing proteins provides an instinctive understanding of both tactical and strategic decision making that others would have to rigorously learn in a military school. Although a Lord’s pheromone system is weakened by the transformation process, they remain sensitive enough to be able to pick up on signallers emitted by Riders, and some limited level of pheromonal communication still occurs between Lords, used primarily to enforce strict military hierarchy between each other.
Upon this chassis are built even more modifications to better develop them for war. The usually dormant regenerative abilities of Dwellers are permanently active in Lords, leading to aggressive cellular regeneration, with wounds repairing themselves in mere hours and even terrible amounts of tissue being mended in days, albeit with dramatic scarring accompanying the process. A War-Lord’s synaptic processes are vastly improved, and they feature a secondary neural cluster located in a protective organ attached to their spine, which both relieves the brain of the need to carry out many autonomous processes and allows a Lord to continue fighting through even severe brain damage.
It is within these brains that the best and worst parts of the extensive modifications a War-Lord undergoes come home to roost. War-Lords were initially engineered specifically to resist the sort of mental trauma and behavioural disorders that develop under repeated and intense periods of stress, with enhanced neuroplasticity, self-regulating sleep patterns, improved emotional regulation and even modifications to memory consolidation… But in doing so, the groundwork was laid for a condition known as Uzay’s Rage.
When a War-Lord is pushed enough, their greatly enhanced sympathetic nervous system triggers an acute stress response marked by repression of both the prefrontal cortex and short-to-long-term memory conversion, along with massive spikes in cortisol and overstimulation of the amygdala. Their overcharged pituitary system greatly increases the impact of this reaction, and emits a powerful rage pheromone that can trigger sympathetic reactions in nearby War-Lords, causing a domino effect throughout a squad. In other words, when finally pushed into a fight-or-flight situation a War-Lord will not only always choose ‘fight,’ but will do so in an extremely exaggerated way. This trance-like berserker rage is incredibly dangerous for anyone in the area not capable of emitting bonding pheromones - i.e other War-Lords and select members of nobility who have them specifically to protect against exactly this eventuality.
This is not the only significant downside to being a War-Lord however. Their overactive regenerative abilities put them at high risk of cancer, while misfolds in the prion-like genetic memory markers can turn them into actual prions, leading to TSEs similar to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and fatal insomnia. Their hyperactive metabolism requires a vastly increased caloric intake to sustain itself, and hormonal issues like hyperthyroidism are also common.
Because of this, War-Lords have a greatly reduced natural life expectancy when compared to any other lineage and Meta gene-lines even when accounting for those fallen in battle. Combined with the already dangerous and invasive implantation procedure required to become one and the result is that without the constant production of fresh War-Lords the lineage would quickly become extinct. Thanks to their difficulty in production, maintenance and the extreme risk a War-Lord poses to other members of the Khaganate, their creation is only permitted on the Bai-Ülgen itself. Thus, this lineage is only seen among the elite Kheshigs charged with carrying out the Khagan’s will across Tengri.
“Meta-Lines.” These three lineages of Dweller, Rider and Lord are the most common, well-understood and best established lineages within the Khaganate, but they are not the only ones. Because of how common genetic modification is, the extreme environments that the Khaganate routinely explores and colonises and the desire to create better and more adaptable people, many splinter lineages also exist.
Meta-lines run the gamut from stable sub-populations of the chief lineages to experimental procedures enacted on only a handful of individuals. In time, some Metas will become fully-fledged lineages of their own, while others may have their most beneficial traits isolated and merged into already existing ones. Some too will die out entirely, proving too troublesome, difficult to produce or dangerous without enough upside to counteract these disadvantages.
Some of the more well known Metas include the royal Soyunli line, the Baser-derived Zuraqchi, suited for manufactory work on planet-based örtöös, and the Dweller-derived Shinjar line, which forms the backbone of the Khaganate’s archeologists and archeo-tech specialists.
History:
Much of the early days of the Khaganate's history has been lost to time and poor record keeping, but what few facts are known about the brave souls to foray out in hopes of settling the Steppe paint a bleak picture. The dregs of the Cataclysm - the desperate, the mad and the left-behind fled a dying world in the hopes that a distant star might be the key to their survival.
They were joined by flocks of ‘belters:’ exoplanetary colonists with established settlements in the main asteroid belt who saw no hope of life in Sol without Earth to support them. Perhaps a more formal colonisation effort would have seen these two groups come into conflict, but desperation makes compatriots out of even the oddest of strangers, and so together these groups stepped through the Gateway and out into the system of Tengri.
Although they quickly realised that the situation was far worse than initial reports could ever have expected, it was too late to turn back and secure another system. The loose flotilla had lost all cohesion, and before an attempt could be made to voyage back, the Gateway sealed shut. The rag-tag group of settlers were left to try and forge a path in a system almost more uninhabitable than the one they had just left.
Itügen’s biosphere was poor, its atmosphere breathable, yes, but insufficient protection against harsh UV rays and other stellar phenomena. Unimaginably powerful tornadoes, sandstorms and so-called ‘brightstorms’ tore across the planet's surface, making long-term stationary settlement unviable in all but the most protected of alcoves. Worst of all, the planet was captured in the vice of the Huiten Dzhut or Cold Death, - when the planet’s damaged atmosphere was further struck by one of Tengri’s solar storms, the result were brutal snap-freezes that killed off vast swathes of what hardy life was able to survive the perilous planet and quickly devastated any group unprepared for its fury. Once it passed however, the Cold Death offered some consolation- the massive snowstorms spreading much-needed meltwater across the planet’s surface for a brief but vital season of blooming.
Offworld settlement fared little better despite the knowledge and expertise of the Belters among them. Many of the ships that had formed the initial flotilla were already old, badly maintained or damaged in some way, and even those in good condition still required complex electronics and machinery they couldn’t hope to manufacture themselves. Despite their best efforts and surprisingly swift adaptation to the conditions they faced, the simple fact of the matter was that the refugees were not prepared for Tengri’s brutality, and one by one, vessels, habs, cities and fleets all began to fail, and for a time it seemed that all was lost.
But the night is darkest before the dawn, and the struggle and suffering of those early colonists laid a beachhead for the next generation to storm onwards from. Those born into Tengri had survival practically hard-coded into them, and in some ways the smaller population helped the survivors - there was, for the first time since the Gateway had winked out of existence, enough resources for those that were left.
One step at a time the societies of Tengri began to find their niches. Habs once fit only for survival grew into towns, then cities. In space, the fires of industry were relit and new vessels voyaged forth, greeting each other as fellow survivors. Trade routes meant more complex industries could be constructed and sustained more easily, and although it took nearly a century to do so, humanity began to become masters of their environment once more.
On Itügen itself, the people learned quickly to always stay on the move. The Steppe could provide, but its resources were quickly exhausted and had to be treated with great respect. The Dzhut still stalked nomadic communities, but more and more emerged from the snow each time one passed, as shelters became stronger and survival skills improved.
When the specter of extinction no longer loomed large over Tengri’s population though, mankind’s usual foibles crashed back into the picture. Without desperation to bind them together, communities were now free to pursue less enlightened methods of survival.
As civilisation bloomed once more, conflict quickly followed. The Steppe became home to constant skirmishes, as nomads jockeyed for more land, more power and more resources, while those lucky enough to have permanent homes soon found themselves needing soldiers and fortifications to keep what they had safe. Tengri’s void soon became home to violence too, as wannabe warlords and aspiring space raiders began plying their bloody trade.
Only some of this conflict could be attributed to Tengri itself though - the truth was that the game had been rigged from the start; the ad-hoc nature of the ‘colony’ left it without any central authority to attempt to force the disparate factions to play nice. Such a state of affairs could easily have become the eternal norm- further development of the system stagnated as effort was redirected towards an endless struggle for more, but two events came together to place society on a very different course.
The first was the revelation of Itügen’s archeotech. Although it had been known for some time that Tengri had been home to a precursor race (their incredible feats were writ on the very planets themselves,) firm evidence surrounding them was difficult to come by and stymied by the much more pressing needs of immediate survival. With this specter lifted from the Steppefolk, the first precursor vaults began to be discovered and plundered by treasure hunters and explorers.
This technology would slowly make its way from the hands of tribes into the cities, and from the cities to the proto-Hordes, where technological progress and intellectual advances had survived better than on the Steppe’s surface. Although cracking these ancient secrets was no easy feat, it soon became clear that the precursor technology could be deciphered and understood - at least to some small extent. The earliest technologies developed using archeotech allowed for genetic engineering techniques light years ahead of what even Earth was capable of, allowing for aggressive, precise and intentionally directed modifications to the human form.
The potential of this technology, along with others slowly filtering out of the newly-plundered vaults was quickly realised. Contained within the secrets of archeotech was the key to adapting humanity to their new home, and shifting from survival and slow growth to a true explosion across Tengri. The first Meta-lines sprung up almost immediately afterwards, proving their success and versatility and leading to further refinement of the process and the creation of very early proto Dwellers and Riders.
The second event to shake the system was the ascension of the self-titled warlord 'Chinggis Khan,' the son of a moderately successful war captain. Charismatic, intelligent and fiercely ambitious, when his father was ousted by mutineers he managed to flee his home-ship and find sanctuary among a different fleet, where he would rapidly ascend to captain of his own vessel.
Leading his forces back to his former home, he seized his father’s vessel by force and spaced those who had once exiled him so many years before. Two vessels then became three, and as his reputation and fleet grew, more and more disparate warriors, raiders and traders began to flock to him, enamoured by his meteoric rise. Assembling the greatest fleet that Tengri had ever seen, he cemented his rise to power with the capture of a series of manufactories in the second asteroid belt and the construction of a massive and imposing flagship: the Bai-Ülgen, designed to house absolutely everything this aspiring ‘ruler of the universe’ would require in his campaigns.
When the great vessel was complete, Chinggis summoned his armada and proclaimed the establishment of the Golden Horde, a system that he would refine and expand upon throughout his life before offering the other early spacer societies, fleets and confederacies a simple choice: Assimilate peacefully, or die.
Chinggis' persona was not chosen idly however. Having recognised the desperation of humanity’s situation in Tengri, and already seeing what the future might bring for a divided system, he had looked back into his species' past in the hopes of finding a key to unite the system and focus their energies on better pursuits than endless violence. The Mongol Empire was the largest single contiguous polity in Earth's history, swallowing up disunited foes before forging them, if only for a century, into a single, powerful polity. The First Khagan knew that attempting to walk the same path as Genghis would be a challenge, yet with each day that passed, each group that bowed to or was destroyed by him, it seemed more and more as if he just may be made of the right stuff to recreate this greatest of Empires in the harsh vacuum of space.
Unifying the central core of the system over the course of some 20 years, his greatest success was when his fleet sieged and capitulated the largest and best-developed stationary settlement on Itügen, a city he renamed Aurag in honour of the place his medieval namesake had once held court. From this base and with its new Khaan loyal to him, he was able to expand his influence across the surface of Itügen, although never lived to see the whole planet brought under the Khaganate’s rule.
Elsewhere, his burgeoning empire founded dozens of new örtöö across the system, forging and incorporating new fleets along the way. To better manage these new fleets, they were organised into their own Hordes and placed underneath the command of loyal lieutenants and the best suited of his children. He laid out the foundations for the Yam, and set forth a series of decrees to form the basis of a new Yassa,or code of law for his Khaganate.
When finally age came for him, as it does even the greatest of men, he lay back on his deathbed and smiled. His war-path had lasted more than fifty years and carved out an empire that stretched across vast swathes of Tengri, and despite the violence and brutality that it had taken to found, the people living within the Khaganate were united, prosperous, and increasingly more and more specialised to the system in which they lived in. When he gave his last breath and his body was cast into the sun of Tengri, it is said that for a moment even the Steppe quietened in remembrance.
Following the First Genghis’ passing, his second son - Möngke, ascended to the throne of the Bai-Ülgen. Where his father was a superlative admiral, general and unifying figure, Möngke was instead far less bombastic, his greatest skills lying in management, administration and diplomacy. Relying on his brothers and his father’s loyal boyans to expand the Khaganate’s reach, the new Khagan set about expanding upon and codifying the commandments of his father into proper laws and governmental structures. Already an early example of the Soyunli line, he encouraged further genetic modification, using the research and development facilities aboard his flagship to create ‘definitive’ templates for the Dweller and Rider lineages and began experiments that would eventually lead to the War-Lords.
Möngke restructured the Hordes and the Yam, set in place proper procedures for the succession of noble titles, including that of the Khagan itself, formalised the duties and privilages of the nobility and smoothed the many ruffled feathers left in the wake of his father’s great war-path. If Chinggis had won the Khaganate through war, it was Möngke who cemented its existence in peace. His final touch when it came to the new government was to take the regnal title of Genghis, after his father, a habit which all future Khagans have emulated him in.
Of course, even a successor like Möngke could not succeed in every field. Despite decades of attempted pacification efforts the disparate Steppefolk of Itügen proved impossible to tame. Even with the technological and military advantages of the Hordes, the hostile environment and nomadic lifestyle the planet enforced had created a society seemingly perfectly designed to resist top-down rule. Instead, he was forced to settle for mutual cooperation, with any tribe that wished to trade with and benefit from the Khaganate and its cities needing to swear oaths of fealty and provide tribute. In exchange, the Khagans have left the people of the Steppe mostly to their own devices, with only the boldest and most foolhardy of Khagans seeking to disrupt this equilibrium.
Finally, Chinggis’ grand empire had inadvertently laid the groundwork for something quite unexpected to emerge. The survivors of the collapse had been an eccentric bunch that included new religious movements along with Muslims, Tengriists and Buddhists. Having suffered the cultural trauma of the loss of Earth and the Days of Cold and Hunger, these beliefs began to shift and change, melding with the traditions and superstitions that Belters had brought in to produce a syncretic mess that came to be called Uzayism.
The unification of the Khaganate allowed for cultural and religious exchanges that had never before been seen in Tengri. While Chinggis had considered the matter of religion rather beneath him, content to let his subjects practice however they pleased, Möngke was somewhat more attentive to these sorts of things. He encouraged Uzayism's development through the organisation of debates and forums between shamans, mystics and other spiritual leaders, eventually accepting an Uzayist shaman as a permanent member of his court. Where the Khagan trailblazed his Khaganate followed, and soon Uzayism had established itself across all of Tengri as a ‘big tent’ faith in which almost anyone could find a part to believe in. With his empire secure and running smoothly, Möngke too could breathe his last, content and satisfied that he had been a worthy successor to his father in every way that mattered.
Encompassing the great majority of the Khaganate’s history, the Days of Birth and Death are remarkable perhaps mostly for their unremarkableness. It has seen many different Khagans rise and fall in their attempts to maintain and expand the empire, although few have been as truly great as Chinggis and Möngke. Some of these rulers were successful - expanding the control of the empire to new asteroids, moons or reaches of the Steppe, others have failed, pulled down into a maelstrom of intrigue and infighting, but the Khaganate has persisted and thrived throughout it.
The Days of Birth and Death have seen wide advancements across the entirety of Tengri’s society - from Uzayism’s continuing spread and evolution to the recovery and understanding of new archeotech, including the means with which to build Aurag’s spectacular space elevator along with the perfection of Dwellers and Riders for the roles in which they now find themselves. Despite the waxing and waning fortunes of the Khaganate, the past two rulers - Temüjin III and Ögedei II, have proven themselves to be competent stewards of the realm, managing and maintaining the Khaganate at the height of its influence and expansion across the system.
Were no outside force to act upon the Khaganate, it is quite likely that the Days of Birth and Death would have continued for centuries more, but as the five hundredth anniversary of humanity’s arrival to Tengri came and went, all changed in the blink of an eye with the re-opening of old Earth’s greatest project - the Gateways.
Now is no longer the Days of Birth and Death. Now come the Days of Infinite Potential, and only time will tell what will come of the Khaganate.
Culture and Society: The Khaganate's society has a distinct divide between those who live in space - live they in nomadic, free-ranging space fleets (the hordes themselves,) or in permanent habitats on and off-world known as örtöös and those who live on the Steppe's surface. For obvious reasons, these are known as Hordepeople, who overwhelmingly consist of Dwellers, and Steppefolk who similarly overwhelmingly consist of Riders, respectively. Thanks to their different lifestyles, living conditions and even physiologies, overlap between the two are rare.
Most Hordepeople are born and will live their entire lives within the confines of an artificial habitat, maintaining their craft, harvesting asteroids, moons and other planetary bodies. Those who are permanently settled into örtöös form a chain of stations and planet bases that stretch out to the edge of the system- the Yam. The Yam forms the industrial backbone of the Khaganate, with foundries, factories, refineries and mines working constantly to provide the equipment required not just by the Hordes, but also to shuttle across to the Steppe, where it's exchanged with the cities and nomadic Steppefolk in compensation for the tribute and trade goods they provide.
Horde life is odd - simultaneously atomised and collectivist, high tech and primitive. A ship must be able to survive adrift for years if required, yet simultaneously remain deeply rooted into the Horde which it flies under. Medicinally valid herbs are dried and prepared into teas to cure the side effects of keyhole surgeries done by medical robots. Natural substances like wood and leather from Itügen are highly prized, while platinum and gold are reduced to excellent industrial materials, suitable to be made into common trinkets and jewellery.
Horde diets must be practical for the confines of zero-gravity above all else, with the most common form of food being nutrient dense ‘shakes’ using insect proteins and hydroponically grown food to ensure a Dweller has everything they need to be healthy. More sophisticated and varied meals are an opportunity for whole clans to come together, sharing stories and experiences, meeting old friends and squabbling with long-term rivals.
Perhaps the custom that those outside the Khaganate would take the most umbrage with is the use of humans themselves as a resource. In the hordes, human milk is often the only source of dairy, while terramation, better known as human composting, produces high-quality mulch that can provide vital fertiliser to a ship. Those especially respected will instead be cast out into Uzay’s embrace upon death, either into deep space to prevent them from coming into contact with any man-made object, or directly fired at planetary bodies, with the sun of Tengri itself being the final resting place for all of the empire’s late Khagans.
Individual ships are operated by small clans with tight social bonds to one another, and each ship must be able to maintain itself while providing space for viable economic activity. Stations and habitats offer a rare chance to spread one’s wings, meet, chat and exchange goods and stories with strangers, while ship-to-ship contact is also fairly common - if nothing else, providing a way for fresh blood and viable marriage partners to be injected into an otherwise closed system.
Common Horde memes place great emphasis on collective solidarity and sharing. All are united in the Khaganate’s wide embrace, and have their specific role in the pyramid topped by the Khagan. The simplest of these rituals is the exchange of air, a custom which quite intentionally allows diseases to spread across space and thus ensures the Khaganate’s population has a shared herd immunity. Of course more serious outbreaks of sickness may require a vessel to be isolated or even entirely destroyed in order to prevent the spread of truly dangerous cross-system pandemics, but such harsh measures are rare to see and certainly aren’t done for every new variant of the common cold.
As could be expected however, down on Itügen things are very different indeed; any place that can be permanently settled has been, and a series of complex city-states dot the planet’s surface. These cities and the nobility that rule them fall under the purview of the Khaan (or less commonly Khaatun) - the Khagan's formal representative and administrator, granted near-unlimited power to manage things as they see fit. Of particular importance on the Steppe is its capital of Aurag, whose equatorial placement made it perfect for the establishment of an archeotech-supported space elevator and has thus centered the city as the beating heart of the planet’s administration and military presence, while also being a vital connection for trade and commerce between the planet and the wider system.
The cities are also key productive areas, with vertical farms providing surplus food while their industrial quarters are home to manufacturing complexes independent of the Yam’s vast foundries. This makes them natural melting pots, where disparate peoples can come together for mutual benefit as well as ceremony and celebration. Those fortunate enough to live within the cities are the beating heart of complex society on Itügen, and are best-situated to survive the many trials the planet throws at its inhabitants.
For the nomadic Steppefolk outside these cities, life is extremely harsh. These communities must always be on the move, for being stationary out on the Steppe is to be dead, and so life is quite literally lived at a breakneck pace. Everything, from sleeping to cooking to giving birth is done while at motion, usually in mobile caravans that share striking visual similarities to gers. The most common method of locomotion comes in the form of khulgars, once simple horses and ponies, now elevated to a highly symbiotic partner-species. Khulgars are obligate omnivores, practically extremophiles, capable of moving at great speeds for long periods of time while also being much sturdier and less prone to injury than their forebears ever were. To be a Rider is to share an inimitable bond with the tribe’s khulgars, and the success of each species is directly tied to the other.
Mounted Riders, when detached from their wider communities can move as quickly as eighty kilometres a day and spread out across colossal areas, coordinating themselves via pheromones, radios, signalling flares and any other tool available to them. They scout out the vast distances of the steppe to guide their people to grazing areas or sources of water, and are relied upon to ensure their tribe has the best chance of survival. Their slower-moving but by no means slow villages are mounted on the back of a wide variety of vehicles that drive, crawl, skim fly or hover across the boundless wastes that smother the Steppe. In normal conditions, tribes can usually sustain themselves nutritionally by the herding of animals almost as heavily modified as the people that tend to them, alongside limited foraging, but complex machinery and advanced goods are impossible to manufacture among the tribes and instead must be exchanged for either in cities or with Hordepeople willing to directly descend to the planet’s surface in massive single-stage ‘barges’ that burn unimaginable quantities of highly pressurised methane to make it from orbit to surface.
This trade is a privilege, not a right, and a privilege that is used by the Khagans to maintain some vague approximation of control over the wide-ranging tribes. In order to be permitted to trade with the wider Khaganate, tribes must swear oaths to the stars and its ruler, with such oaths further enforced by regular tribute payments. The most common form of tribute is archeotechnology, but ultimately anything of value can be given as a sign of loyalty, ranging from skins and felt to the heads of oathbreakers and rebels.
Thus, while intra-tribal cooperation is a necessity, inter-tribal conflict is incredibly common. Loose confederacies may form and even persist for long periods, but ultimately each tribe can only truly trust and rely on itself in an endless Darwinian struggle for survival, for which the only reward is more of the same. The only potential respite a Steppefolk can have from this life is to move to one of the city states, or prove themselves strong enough in body and soul to be selected as aspirants worthy of being forged into one of the Khagan’s mighty War-Lords.
The worst of all the struggles on Itügen come when meteorological outposts and monitoring satellites send down their warning: The Huiten Dzhut is coming. Solar activity from Tengri causes the already fragile atmosphere of the Steppe to break down, sucking warm air up and into space. The air that descends from these pockets is freezing cold and saturated with water, causing it to condense into snow and hail to crash back down onto the planet’s surface.
Areas struck by the Dzhut are buried beneath snow and ice and are subject to temperatures anywhere from sixty to eighty degrees colder than they usually are. Even Itügen’s polar life can struggle in these times, while the life so carefully adapted to the usual heat and dryness perishes en-masse. Cities grind to a halt with only the most essential services still running, the Khagan’s subjects going to ground to weather the storm.
Out on the barren wilds of the Steppe however, there are no homes or city-wide infrastructure to turn to. Instead, as the signs of the Dzhut become clear to scouts and shamans, tribes race to make it to traditional overwintering grounds before they’re caught out in the freeze. These places are deeply rooted into the Steppefolk, their positions encoded into genetic memories and the navigational senses of their khulgars. When the storms finally arrive, disparate tribes, some of whom may have been warring mere days before, are once again bound by the same need to survive as their ancestors did back in the days of Cold and Hunger.
Thus, despite the harshness, these wintering grounds become the temporary homes of great gatherings of communities from across Itügen. Rivalries are reaffirmed, alliances and confederacies are brokered, tribe-members share and bicker over their customs, and for a time the all-encompassing cold manages to freeze even the Steppefolk’s violent ways.
When the solar disruption ends and the atmosphere re-stabilises, the planet has a chance to recover. Cold and ice melt in the rapidly warming environment, causing meltwater to soak into the parched ground, replenishing both surface reservoirs and the underground water table. Animals leave their burrows and dens, the hardiest flora blooms and spreads seeds and the city’s forges roar back to life while nomads pack up their winter camps. With the end of the extreme danger, the tribes go their separate ways across rejuvenated ground, to resume the cycle of conflict and struggle that has characterised them for so many centuries.
The last element to Khaganate society is their faith. In the over three hundred years since it coalesced into a fully-fledged religion, Uzayism has spread to every corner of the Khaganate, and thus is one of the largest unifying factors, transcending the petty differences of noble and pauper or Rider and Dweller:
Tengri is nothing if not a melting pot, and this extends out to its religion. Early colonists drew from a wide mixture of traditional and new faiths from Earth, which shared room among the initial fleet with the Belters and their own superstitions from decades living among the stars. After the founding of the Golden Horde and the unifying of much of Tengri under a single polity, cultural exchange flourished enough to allow for these disparate threads to weave themselves together, giving birth to early Uzayism.
Because of the inherently disparate nature of the Khaganate, maintaining a strict orthodoxy would be a losing battle and be likely to completely shatter the religion as every Horde and örtöö argued over which version of the faith should be considered the authoritative one. Uzayism thus lacks a single creed or religious dogma, and instead is more the tapestry upon which both common and varying experiences are woven onto, binding the Khaganate together with orthopraxis.
The true core of Uzayist belief is the all-encompassing deity named Uzay. Uzay is the universe - a pantheistic God that dwells in every atom, whose power is witnessed in the forces of light, gravity and magnetism, and who has granted intelligent life the rare opportunity to marvel at the universe that Uzay is responsible for. Uzay is creation and the created, and in turn both are a form of Uzay, the two impossible to separate from each other.
Beneath Uzay lie a truly endless parade of lesser gods, spirits and essences, that depending on which believer you ask may dwell within planets, people and even mechanical creations. Practically, this manifests as a form of mystic shamanism, where communion with Uzay and its lesser spiritual creations is not only possible but indeed highly encouraged, although in practical terms such explorations of the human psyche and the universe’s wonder tend to be limited to dedicated shamans able to dedicate their lives to such feats.
A consistent throughline through Uzayist belief is a special veneration of the void of space itself, whose emptiness provides the thinnest barrier between the transcendental nature of the God and its creations. Even just dwelling in space can portend great personal transformation (sometimes attributed merely to the overview effect,) while directly entering Uzay and ‘embracing the void,’ is to experience a minor form of transcendence. Hordepeople shamans are usually inducted into their role by being exposed to the vacuum of space with only a small rebreather and a tether to pull them back into their vessel. The experience - usually involving a mixture of copious quantities of entheogens, physical exertion and a weaker triggering of their hab-breach reflexes is guaranteed to cause a powerful altered state of consciousness and commonly results in a shaman’s first ego death.
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Governance and Politics: While all in Tengri are under the direct control of the Khagan in name, the sheer size of the realm requires local administration, particularly in the case of the larger Hordes. This has resulted in a neo-feudal clan emerging both in space and on the surface of Itügen, although traditionally Hordepeople are considered to operate in clans while Steppefolk communities are named tribes. Hordes and areas of the Yam fall under the administration of various Khans (equivalent to kings or princes, with those directly related to the current Khagan known as Khan Khuus,) and Boyans (once specifically referring to military governors and generals, but now in practice used for powerful nobles equivalent to dukes.) The Khagan’s nominated successor is given the title Jinong, although until they ascend to the throne this offers no additional privileges over the titles which they already hold, typically being Khan Khuus.
These nobles are expected to competently and effectively manage their people, but in practice, the appointment of Boyans and the stripping of privileges from Khans has varied wildly between Khagans, some purely promoting based on merit, while others allow nepotism to run rampant, often with disastrous consequences when ill-suited leaders take power.
Beneath Boyans and Khans exist the usual expanding strata of a feudal system: Noyans, Nokuds and finally at the very bottom Baygs, who despite not being nobles themselves are nonetheless vital as they represent one or more clans or tribes to those above them. At lower levels of the pyramid roles tend to be more flexible, with some level of democracy and collective organisation very common. Clans and noble houses give rise to internal power jockeying, with particularly wealthy, productive or fertile families seeing their power grow, and other families or even ships absorbed into their orbit. In this way, nobles up to and including the Khans themselves cannot rest on their laurels and must always play a careful balancing act, lest they be deposed and their overlord or even the Great Khagan award their favour to the up-and-coming usurpers.
Beneath the Great Black Sky on Itügen itself, Khaganate culture becomes even more dizzyingly varied. So long as the tribes are loyal, strange governing customs are permitted, which has led to a true flourishing of both traditional and unusual systems of organisation. A tribe may rule itself through anything from 'might makes right' warbands lead by the strongest warriors to those who follow the cryptic commands of salvaged AIs or operate under a loosely democratic council.
Technology Overview: The Khaganate has a complex relationship with technology. On the one hand, much of what they excel in would be considered sensible extensions of tech from old Earth; they are excellent engineers and aeronautics specialists, masters of not only living in, but even colonising some of the harshest reaches of the Tengri system. The Khaganate can manufacture vast quantities of sophisticated yet rugged ships, crack down deep into the deadened crusts of uninhabitable planets to carve out oases of life and set up vast stations producing their own gravity through centripetal force…
But none of these advancements would have flourished and spread across the system nearly as quickly without a foundation entirely outside of humanity: the precursor’s archeotech. Such relics run the gamut from relatively understandable and simple, if extremely advanced, to obscure and dangerous artifacts that violate preconceived notions about how the universe functions (an issue which causes the more esoteric devices to have a hostile relationship with Uzayist fanatics.)
Early on in Khaganate history, archeotech diffused out slowly from the Steppe up to the stars, where that which was able to be deciphered then, in turn, spread out across the disunited communities. Nowadays, archeotech recovered by the tribes is usually traded or gifted as tribute to the cities, where it is carefully catalogued and transferred to orbital research stations. The best, safest and least replaceable relics are transported to the Bai-Ülgen, while those that have the potential for widespread use will be reproduced and dispatched out to the various hordes for further experimentation and research.
The Khaganate’s most important and dedicated research facilities are maintained on the other two planets within Itügen’s ‘band’ of the system. These well-trod worlds provide an important home for R&D of all kinds, both that involve archeotechnology and those that the Khaganate explores without ancient assistance. While innovation does occur across the entire system, these are the beating heart of their academia.
Military Overview: Although certainly a warlike and quarrelsome people, the actual military capacity of the Khaganate against another spacefaring nation would be surprisingly limited… At first. Historically Khagans have been very against the mass-production of ship-to-ship weaponry, leaving the majority of actual warships isolated to the Golden and Silver Horde. However, nothing is stopping the manufactories of the Yam from changing production lines to churn out missiles, cannons, and even wholly new vessels, ready and able to defend the Khaganate against aggression.
Similarly, while its ground-based forces are limited to a small minority of dedicated city guards on Itügen and the Kheshigs, it would not be impossible to sweep up tribes of Steppefolk, press them into service and transport them to a warzone, although their difficulties in space would certainly stymie this process. Should they arrive safely though, these warriors would be a fearsome foe indeed, each one raised on a world that seems to spite humanity with its inhospitality, born to fight and armed to the teeth with tech both arcane and understood. Although they would look like a rag-tag bunch compared to a formal army with standardised training and equipment, centuries of constant conflict have left them hardened and battle-ready.
Where the Khaganate would immediately shine is in boarding actions and direct conflict between the crews of vessels. All noble houses maintain standing forces of house guards, and while lesser nobles might content themselves with a small corp of bodyguards, Khans and Boyans will maintain several ships worth of professionally drilled and equipped soldiers, typically drawn from a small number of supplicant Meta-families who have produced generations of soldiers who are understandably proud of this long history of service. Although the Khaganate's equipment might seem unusual to more ground-dwelling nations because they aim to minimise the damage inflicted upon the vessels that they fight within, they are no less effective for that.
The best soldiers are of course under the direct command of the Great Khagan, and to a lesser extent the Khaan. These forces include a great number of traditional houseguards, along with the War-Lords produced to serve in the Kheshigs. Originally envisioned as the personal bodyguards of the Khagan, time, archeotech and the increasing wealth of the Genghises maintaining them has resulted in the Kheshigs growing to the size of a true standing army, serving to defend cities on the Steppe and protect the Bai-Ülgen itself. It is the Kheshigs that are deployed to break the back of mutinying hordes or tribes grown too powerful or too proud to control properly.
On the Steppe, Kheshigs are viewed as terrible agents of the Khagan's fury. Clad in power armour, armed with terrible weapons, they are to a fault faceless and seemingly silent in battle, executing their liege’s commands without question, hesitation or deviation. Should it be required, they would die for their liege in their droves, and yet more would be drawn to replace them.
If all this fails however, the Khaganate has one last trick up its sleeve. The most awesome power the Khaganate has been able to consistently utilise comes not from archeotech, but from weapons programs tirelessly working under the utmost secrecy in the far ring. Should the Khagan will it, his enemies will find themselves pitted against utter annihilation.
Ögedei II Khagan, Ruler of the Universe: The Genghis or High Khagan of the entire Khaganate, Ögedei is the (mostly) unquestioned ruler of the billion-and-some souls who live and die in the system the Khaganate has called home for centuries. Young for a Genghis at only 31, he has nonetheless secured the support of the Khan Khuus after his father's death and proven himself to be a competent and effective ruler in all the ways that are required for a feudal liege. With the Gateways opening, he and his Golden Horde have seized the opportunity to migrate to the Sol system, and his flagship of the Bai-Ülgen now looms large in Mars' orbit.
Orda Khan, Admiral of the White Horde: Elder brother to Genghis and foremost of the Khan-Kuus, Orda Khan shares some traits with his brother, but diverges in just as many. Canny, cunning and power hungry, he seeks to, if not subvert the Genghis' rule over the Khaganate entirely, at least establish the White Horde as a truly semi-autonomous entity, over which he can reign in peace. Such a dream long seemed impossible... Until the Gateways opened, and a galaxy of potential with them.
Boraqchin Khaantus, Governor of the Steppe: It is uncommon within the Hordes for women to reach the upper echelons, but not impossible, and none demonstrate this better than Boraqchin Khaantus, the current ruler of the Steppe in the Khagan's absence. Formerly the first wife of a Golden Horde Boyan, her unusually quick mind and excellent grasp of practical rule led to the previous Genghis taking notice of her, and when her husband passed away, she was appointed as Gonji of the Steppe, ascending to the position half a decade prior to Ögedei's ascension from Jinong to Great Khagan.
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