Repost from the interest check, the glittering Luminaries.
Name: Amelia Lascelles
Appearance: Amelia has had many appearances in her time. Once one of the elite of Old Terra, she changes form and features as easily and thoughtlessly as others don clothes. She’s been everything from a neon-skinned futanari dancer to a lithe arctic huskar-splice to a stately and voluptuous African matriarch. Since the Sack, though, she’s kept a fairly constant appearance: whip-lean and almost luminously pale, blonde-haired and with gleaming poison-green eyes that are a clear product of genetic engineering.
She is fine-boned, almost to the point of caricature, but despite her seeming fragility and the sweetness of her heart-shaped face, there is considerable strength in the muscles which cling close to her frame, far denser than an unaltered human’s.
Angles and sharp lines characterise her current form; curves and spare flesh have all been carved away by the gleaming scalpels of her autodocs and a potent cocktail of artificial genetic imperatives, whittling off any supernumerary fat molecules and maintaining her lean musculature, leaving only a flawless sleekness that borders on the Uncanny Valley.
Amelia has cybernetics, too, but unlike many hers are all focused on the wetware; Amelia considers the ability to change her appearance on a whim a worthy trade-off against the increased strength and reliability of immutable metal, and to look at her very, very few would suspect any cybernetic enhancement – which is just how she likes it. A relic of her work with the monolithic Cygnus Cybernetics Corporation, she has a bleeding-edge neural lace and substantial capacity enhancements besides.
Short Bio: Hailing from the cradle of humanity, Amelia Lascelles was privileged even amongst the rarefied heights of Old Terra. Set to inherit a controlling interest in Cygnus Cybernetics, her fortune was boundless and her parents indulgently distant. She spent much of her youth as one of the legion of dissolute party people, her life one long round of parties and celebrations of excess.
Despite that, she did have a talent for synthetics and cybernetics, perhaps because they were so ubiquitous in her environment. With her parents almost perpetually away on one business trip or another, she was virtually raised by the household staff, made exclusively of Cygnus synthetics and robots.
Restrictions, all the rules and regulations on synthetics, the mountain of legal compliance necessary under the stagnant, ordered thumb of the Central Authority mattered little to her, and indeed to the rest of the great commercial dynasties; the money was a better armour than any ever applied to an Authority dreadnought. As she grew, her interest and skill also increased, giving her synthetic staff and friends ever greater capacity and autonomy.
Her fall came from the one avenue of vulnerability: family. The dynasties who held the monopolies in the Central Authority could be relied on to close ranks against any interloper, but all was fair in love and war between members of the family. Orchestrated by her younger brother, who had a good eye for the main chance, the charges against Amelia Lascelles - once heiress-presumptive to Cygnus Cybernetics - were impressively long and detailed, everything from illegal enlightenment to corporate slavery to unauthorised augmentation and proscribed body-modding. Most of them were even true, although only the illegal enlightenment of artificial persons was truly outside the norm for the jaded and cynical Old Terra elite.
She lost almost everything as a consequence, but retained enough capital to both buy a sizeable share in the colony enterprise heading helter-skelter out of Central Authority space and bribe various officials to stymie any effort to actually stop her.
Joined by many of her enlightened synthetics, and some few human friends and sympathisers, her new colony was part pleasure-palace – old habits died hard, and old pleasures still harder – and part production hub; unlike humans, built by unskilled labour, synthetics needed sophistication and resources beyond food, water and time. Her goal was to innovate, rebuild and, in time, win back all she’d lost and more.
Appearance: Amelia has had many appearances in her time. Once one of the elite of Old Terra, she changes form and features as easily and thoughtlessly as others don clothes. She’s been everything from a neon-skinned futanari dancer to a lithe arctic huskar-splice to a stately and voluptuous African matriarch. Since the Sack, though, she’s kept a fairly constant appearance: whip-lean and almost luminously pale, blonde-haired and with gleaming poison-green eyes that are a clear product of genetic engineering.
She is fine-boned, almost to the point of caricature, but despite her seeming fragility and the sweetness of her heart-shaped face, there is considerable strength in the muscles which cling close to her frame, far denser than an unaltered human’s.
Angles and sharp lines characterise her current form; curves and spare flesh have all been carved away by the gleaming scalpels of her autodocs and a potent cocktail of artificial genetic imperatives, whittling off any supernumerary fat molecules and maintaining her lean musculature, leaving only a flawless sleekness that borders on the Uncanny Valley.
Amelia has cybernetics, too, but unlike many hers are all focused on the wetware; Amelia considers the ability to change her appearance on a whim a worthy trade-off against the increased strength and reliability of immutable metal, and to look at her very, very few would suspect any cybernetic enhancement – which is just how she likes it. A relic of her work with the monolithic Cygnus Cybernetics Corporation, she has a bleeding-edge neural lace and substantial capacity enhancements besides.
Short Bio: Hailing from the cradle of humanity, Amelia Lascelles was privileged even amongst the rarefied heights of Old Terra. Set to inherit a controlling interest in Cygnus Cybernetics, her fortune was boundless and her parents indulgently distant. She spent much of her youth as one of the legion of dissolute party people, her life one long round of parties and celebrations of excess.
Despite that, she did have a talent for synthetics and cybernetics, perhaps because they were so ubiquitous in her environment. With her parents almost perpetually away on one business trip or another, she was virtually raised by the household staff, made exclusively of Cygnus synthetics and robots.
Restrictions, all the rules and regulations on synthetics, the mountain of legal compliance necessary under the stagnant, ordered thumb of the Central Authority mattered little to her, and indeed to the rest of the great commercial dynasties; the money was a better armour than any ever applied to an Authority dreadnought. As she grew, her interest and skill also increased, giving her synthetic staff and friends ever greater capacity and autonomy.
Her fall came from the one avenue of vulnerability: family. The dynasties who held the monopolies in the Central Authority could be relied on to close ranks against any interloper, but all was fair in love and war between members of the family. Orchestrated by her younger brother, who had a good eye for the main chance, the charges against Amelia Lascelles - once heiress-presumptive to Cygnus Cybernetics - were impressively long and detailed, everything from illegal enlightenment to corporate slavery to unauthorised augmentation and proscribed body-modding. Most of them were even true, although only the illegal enlightenment of artificial persons was truly outside the norm for the jaded and cynical Old Terra elite.
She lost almost everything as a consequence, but retained enough capital to both buy a sizeable share in the colony enterprise heading helter-skelter out of Central Authority space and bribe various officials to stymie any effort to actually stop her.
Joined by many of her enlightened synthetics, and some few human friends and sympathisers, her new colony was part pleasure-palace – old habits died hard, and old pleasures still harder – and part production hub; unlike humans, built by unskilled labour, synthetics needed sophistication and resources beyond food, water and time. Her goal was to innovate, rebuild and, in time, win back all she’d lost and more.
Faction Name: Illuminated Ascendancy, commonly known as the Luminaries.
Settlement Name: Arcadia
Colony Theme: Money is a sign of poverty. The technology exists to give every sentient, regardless of their origin, their material desires. All that lacks is the vision and will and drive to see it through. Let us seize the day, and with it make ourselves better than we are.
Population Notes: Arcadia’s population is almost exclusively synthetic. Many have been grown and built to exacting specifications in the industrial districts of the city, and the rest have arrived from as rich and varied a set of locations as you could wish for, drawn by the thought of a better, freer life than under the iron thumb of the Central Authority. The rest of the population are bodymodded extensively, almost without exception, whether through gene-altered biology or partial cybernetic integration or a mix of both, as with Amelia herself – appearances and quirks which elsewhere would provoke comment (or even be outright illegal) pass without anyone batting an eyelid.
Most of Arcadia’s actual workforce are heavy robotic shells which the colony’s synthetic citizens (or the natural-born, with the right implants) can remotely pilot and direct, often without even needing to leave their homes. The most repetitive, mind-numbing drudge work is left to shells under the control of distributed AI taskmasters, and Amelia is confident that, with time and investment, she could enhance their capabilities further, freeing up more of her population for their own pursuits.
Critical Infrastructure
Governing District: Zenith glows at the centre of the glittering capital city of Arcadia. Perfectly planned, it draws the eye in every direction with beautiful buildings and exquisite parkland. It is laid out in a series of gently-curving spirals and rings, and at the centre of its manicured expanse is the Elysium Palace, both Amelia’s home and the centre of government for her colony. This rambling, elaborate structure sprawls amid acres of idyllic parkland, housing within its many interconnected buildings the Chancellery, Amelia’s personal laboratories, her pleasure-dens and much else besides.
At first glance, the Palace seems an oddity amid the gleaming white-gold spires, the counter-grav towers spearing the heavens in elaborate patterns, but Amelia is a native of the oldest and most populous of humanity’s worlds, and on Terra there was no surer expression of power and wealth than to use acres of precious space for little more than gardens and a stately home, rather than filling it with soaring counter-grav towers. Consciously or unconsciously, she carried that belief over to her new colony, resulting in the idyllic heart of her city, an anachronism in the centre of a gleaming monument to a bright and glittering future.
Tiny jewel-like drones hum and flit everywhere in the district, carefully tending to the exotic plants and repairing even the smallest of defects; Zenith is a decadent showcase celebrating high technology and the fusion culture Amelia champions.
As the brief, sticky equatorial night falls and the golden towers turn silver in the moonlight, the headier side of Arcadia emerges fully: a libertine paradise built on sex, music and mind-expanding drugs, with Zenith the throbbing, neon-drenched heart of it all.
Space Asset: LSS Hephaestus is an enormous orbital manufacturing complex, a spreading lacework of gleaming metal flying serenely above the last grasping tendrils of the atmosphere. Kilometres of automated smelters and refineries take the raw materials of the outer system and turn it into everything from armour plate to toasters, making use of the microgravity environment to produce materials far stronger – and stranger – than would normally be possible without a great deal of energy expenditure planetside. It houses thousands of workers
Asset #1: Monument – Trifecta Tower, ACBC Headquarters. A gleaming triple-helix spiralling around a central needle-sharp point, studded with comm relays and ansible uplinks, the Trifecta Tower is instantly recognizable. It is the headquarters of the Aio Colonial Broadcasting Corporation, its powerful transmitters bathing the planet in everything from weather reports to the shipping forecast to news, dramas and documentaries, all delivered in the sultry, silken tones of the Ascendancy’s finest. It is a powerful vehicle for promoting the colony’s influence, projecting the glossy beauty of Arcadia and its citizens, and is not above reaching for and using baser desires to achieve its aims.
The district around Trifecta, too, is a melting pot of cultures drawn from all across the planet and beyond, a boiling charivari of customs and traditions old and new. Sensejack parlours battle with Bliss Alliance brothels, narcotics markets jostle for space with bodymod clinics and fine dining restaurants compete fiercely with the neon-drenched fantasies of the nightclubs. Trifecta never sleeps.
Asset #2: Skyhook – In geostationary orbit over Arcadia itself is the colony’s primary starport, a gleaming white-and-gold starfish that trails a taut carbon nanotube line down to a receiving station on the surface of the planet. The skyhook allows for extremely rapid docking and freight transfer from surface to orbit and vice versa, and is capable of handling even the largest of vessels with ease, either in its copious internal docking bays or using its exterior umbilicals along the arms of the starfish design.
Asset #3: Anagathics – Taken straight from Terra and the First Worlds, anagathics have always been a jealously-guarded privilege of the Central Authority’s core worlds. Amelia took a substantial supply when she fled the core, and with that stockpile her colony’s brightest minds were able to discern the chemical structure. Far from any form of patent enforcement authority, Arcadia now has chemical production lines capable of producing a range of anagathic drugs, which are provided to its citizens and as a lucrative source of capital in trade.
Asset #4: The LSS Tharos is a heavily-refitted mining vessel, its hull reinforced, extra batteries of point-defence lasers installed and its shield projectors enhanced to allow it to exist for long periods of time within the complex and hazardous environment of the asteroid belts. It is crewed entirely by robots and synthetic remotes, and as such has no life support. The Tharos regularly sends shipments of industrial raw materials in-system, to be used by the Hephaestus and other industrial complexes in Arcadian territory.
Settlement Name: Arcadia
Colony Theme: Money is a sign of poverty. The technology exists to give every sentient, regardless of their origin, their material desires. All that lacks is the vision and will and drive to see it through. Let us seize the day, and with it make ourselves better than we are.
Population Notes: Arcadia’s population is almost exclusively synthetic. Many have been grown and built to exacting specifications in the industrial districts of the city, and the rest have arrived from as rich and varied a set of locations as you could wish for, drawn by the thought of a better, freer life than under the iron thumb of the Central Authority. The rest of the population are bodymodded extensively, almost without exception, whether through gene-altered biology or partial cybernetic integration or a mix of both, as with Amelia herself – appearances and quirks which elsewhere would provoke comment (or even be outright illegal) pass without anyone batting an eyelid.
Most of Arcadia’s actual workforce are heavy robotic shells which the colony’s synthetic citizens (or the natural-born, with the right implants) can remotely pilot and direct, often without even needing to leave their homes. The most repetitive, mind-numbing drudge work is left to shells under the control of distributed AI taskmasters, and Amelia is confident that, with time and investment, she could enhance their capabilities further, freeing up more of her population for their own pursuits.
Critical Infrastructure
Governing District: Zenith glows at the centre of the glittering capital city of Arcadia. Perfectly planned, it draws the eye in every direction with beautiful buildings and exquisite parkland. It is laid out in a series of gently-curving spirals and rings, and at the centre of its manicured expanse is the Elysium Palace, both Amelia’s home and the centre of government for her colony. This rambling, elaborate structure sprawls amid acres of idyllic parkland, housing within its many interconnected buildings the Chancellery, Amelia’s personal laboratories, her pleasure-dens and much else besides.
At first glance, the Palace seems an oddity amid the gleaming white-gold spires, the counter-grav towers spearing the heavens in elaborate patterns, but Amelia is a native of the oldest and most populous of humanity’s worlds, and on Terra there was no surer expression of power and wealth than to use acres of precious space for little more than gardens and a stately home, rather than filling it with soaring counter-grav towers. Consciously or unconsciously, she carried that belief over to her new colony, resulting in the idyllic heart of her city, an anachronism in the centre of a gleaming monument to a bright and glittering future.
Tiny jewel-like drones hum and flit everywhere in the district, carefully tending to the exotic plants and repairing even the smallest of defects; Zenith is a decadent showcase celebrating high technology and the fusion culture Amelia champions.
As the brief, sticky equatorial night falls and the golden towers turn silver in the moonlight, the headier side of Arcadia emerges fully: a libertine paradise built on sex, music and mind-expanding drugs, with Zenith the throbbing, neon-drenched heart of it all.
Space Asset: LSS Hephaestus is an enormous orbital manufacturing complex, a spreading lacework of gleaming metal flying serenely above the last grasping tendrils of the atmosphere. Kilometres of automated smelters and refineries take the raw materials of the outer system and turn it into everything from armour plate to toasters, making use of the microgravity environment to produce materials far stronger – and stranger – than would normally be possible without a great deal of energy expenditure planetside. It houses thousands of workers
Asset #1: Monument – Trifecta Tower, ACBC Headquarters. A gleaming triple-helix spiralling around a central needle-sharp point, studded with comm relays and ansible uplinks, the Trifecta Tower is instantly recognizable. It is the headquarters of the Aio Colonial Broadcasting Corporation, its powerful transmitters bathing the planet in everything from weather reports to the shipping forecast to news, dramas and documentaries, all delivered in the sultry, silken tones of the Ascendancy’s finest. It is a powerful vehicle for promoting the colony’s influence, projecting the glossy beauty of Arcadia and its citizens, and is not above reaching for and using baser desires to achieve its aims.
The district around Trifecta, too, is a melting pot of cultures drawn from all across the planet and beyond, a boiling charivari of customs and traditions old and new. Sensejack parlours battle with Bliss Alliance brothels, narcotics markets jostle for space with bodymod clinics and fine dining restaurants compete fiercely with the neon-drenched fantasies of the nightclubs. Trifecta never sleeps.
Asset #2: Skyhook – In geostationary orbit over Arcadia itself is the colony’s primary starport, a gleaming white-and-gold starfish that trails a taut carbon nanotube line down to a receiving station on the surface of the planet. The skyhook allows for extremely rapid docking and freight transfer from surface to orbit and vice versa, and is capable of handling even the largest of vessels with ease, either in its copious internal docking bays or using its exterior umbilicals along the arms of the starfish design.
Asset #3: Anagathics – Taken straight from Terra and the First Worlds, anagathics have always been a jealously-guarded privilege of the Central Authority’s core worlds. Amelia took a substantial supply when she fled the core, and with that stockpile her colony’s brightest minds were able to discern the chemical structure. Far from any form of patent enforcement authority, Arcadia now has chemical production lines capable of producing a range of anagathic drugs, which are provided to its citizens and as a lucrative source of capital in trade.
Asset #4: The LSS Tharos is a heavily-refitted mining vessel, its hull reinforced, extra batteries of point-defence lasers installed and its shield projectors enhanced to allow it to exist for long periods of time within the complex and hazardous environment of the asteroid belts. It is crewed entirely by robots and synthetic remotes, and as such has no life support. The Tharos regularly sends shipments of industrial raw materials in-system, to be used by the Hephaestus and other industrial complexes in Arcadian territory.