LiotrentSo, depending on how we work out the map claims, there might not be room for the Commonwealth, which by its very nature needs to be pretty big.
Just in case, I've put together an NS for another race. I'd prefer to play the Commonwealth, but these guys would fit in a much smaller space. I thought I'd post the NS anyways and let people have a look.
The Talisan Concordat is a civilization defined by their cybernetic augmentations. One particular augmentation lets them emulate psionics among themselves, and possession of that implant is what makes one truly Concordat. Over the years, many have been drawn in by the Concordat’s seemingly utopian way of life, so the citizenry of the Concordat, both implanted and non-implanted, is quite diverse. The Concordat eagerly welcomes, and actively recruits, new citizens. Many other nations do not really appreciate the Concordat trying to lure their citizens away, so relations with their neighbours are...tense.
The Concordat ostensibly wants to co-exist peacefully with the rest of the galaxy, but many suspect some deeper, more nefarious purpose.
As many know, the Itharian Harmony has a propensity for...meddling where their flippers don’t really belong. A few thousand years ago, one Ithari Elder developed an intense interest in a race of intelligent (though not sentient) avian predators on a distant rocky world. This Ithari was Mu’ur, who would come to be known as Talisan the Allfather. He was fascinated with the surprisingly elaborate community structures these creatures formed, intrigued by their rudimentary tool use, and tantalized by the complexity of their minds. He named them the Vae’shan, and decided to attempt to uplift them to sentience. Mu’ur tried at first to use psionics, but his results were inconsistent and difficult to reproduce. He wanted to uplift the entire species, not just a few random individuals. He turned to cybernetics, seeking to artificially augment Vae’shan intelligence with brain implants. In an entirely unlikely turn of events, his first experiment with cybernetics was a spectacular success.
The first sentient Vae’shan awoke after the surgery and looked around him in wonder, seeing the world through completely new eyes. Mu’ur spoke to him in his mind, asking “What is your name?” The Vae’shan spoke, the first of his people to do so: “Ademnon.” Thus was born Ademnon, the First Concordat.
Mu’ur and his assistants uplifted more and more Vae’shan, more than they perhaps should have. The Vae’shan remained predators, even if they were now sentient, and some were not prepared to deal with their new intelligence, and their thoughts turned to violence. Late one night, a group of Vae’shan descended into the aquatic pools of Mu’ur’s facility with deadly intent, and caught Mu’ur’s assistants by surprise, slaughtering them all. They then turned on Mu’ur himself. Mu’ur tried to reason with them, but one threw a spear, wounding the Elder, and he saw they could not be reasoned with. Mu’ur reached out with his vastly powerful mind, and killed his assailants in an instant. He lamented the loss of his assistants, his friends, and the failure of his experiment. He prepared himself to exterminate the remaining Vae’shan.
It was Ademnon who saved his species. Ademnon, always Mu’ur’s favourite, begged the Ithari to reconsider. The Vae’shan could not all be held accountable for the actions of a few. They were not inherently flawed. They could be taught, they could learn to better themselves. So impassioned was Ademnon’s plea that Mu’ur agreed to spare the Vae’shan, remembering the potential he had originally seen in them.
However, Mu’ur knew that the Ithari would not see it his way. Once they learned of the deaths of their brethren, they would turn on the Vae’shan and annihilate them, as Mu’ur himself had considered. Mu’ur taught the Vae’shan to build a great ship that would carry him and them beyond the Harmony’s borders, to a sanctuary where they could learn to overcome their baser instincts. And so they fled.
On their new world of Sanctuary, the Vae’shan named Mu’ur Talisan, “Father and Saviour”, and name he has kept ever since, knowing he cannot return to the Harmony. Talisan continued his tinkering in cybernetics, ever improving the Vae’shan, until they were smarter, faster and stronger than they ever could have been otherwise. He taught them to control their instincts, to look on the world with empathy and compassion. To assist in this task, he developed the cortical network implant (the CNI), which permitted someone with the implant to know the thoughts and feelings of anyone else with the implant. That was the true birth of the Concordat. It expanded and developed as civilizations do, first their planet, then their star system, then star systems beyond that. Over the past 500 odd years, the Concordat has developed into a small sovereign star nation.
(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)
Concord Dawn: A hidden deep space station from which the Concordat is actually ruled. Heavily defended, but mostly kept safe by secrecy, its co-ordinates are only given to select navigation officers on a strictly need to know basis. The co-ordinates are directly inserted into a navigator’s implants and from there into the ship; they then erase themselves on arrival. Concord Dawn also contains extensive shipyards, building the bulk of the Concordat navy. Notably also home to Talisan
Sanctuary: A lush paradise world teeming with citizens from all corners of the galaxy. Sanctuary is an open world, welcoming civilian vessels of any nation. It also serves as an administrative center for the Concordat’s fledgling domain.
Ordo Shipyards: An extensive industrial complex that has expanded into an orbital ring surrounding Sanctuary’s smaller moon. Careful analysis would show that the military vessels constructed here do not account for the amount of new construction present in the Concordat’s fleets. Ordo Shipyards are otherwise a major civilian center of industry.
Vae’shan: A young race of avian predators, Vae’shan have a hexapod limb configuration: two arms, two legs, and two wings, quite capable of flight. Vae’shan are not actually born sentient: they must be cybernetically enhanced to achieve that benchmark. As a result, all Vae’shan are implanted, true Concordat.
Humans: Present throughout the galaxy, humans make up a notable chunk of the Concordat’s implanted population. They tend to be extensively augmented, with only superficial resemblance to their baseline cousins.
For lack of a better term, the Concordat is a utopia. Manual labour, manufacturing, construction, all conceivable forms of labour have become fully automated. Citizens of the Concordat spend their days living in luxury; perhaps not as opulent as the wealthy of other nations, but well above the galactic standard of living.
On paper, non-implanted citizens are every bit the equals of their implanted counterparts. In practice, every aspect of Concordat society is designed to pressure people into receiving the implants, or becoming Concorded as they call it. When crime occurs, the non-Concorded are the first suspects: after all, a Concorded can simply present sensory footage to prove their innocence. Virtual reality simulations, the most popular form of entertainment in the Concordat, require the implants to be experienced fully; they are otherwise restricted to visual input only. And if you should be seriously injured in the Concordat? You will almost certainly wake up with implants in your head.
To be Concorded is to exist in complete harmony with your peers. Concorded can communicate directly to eachother’s minds via their cortical network implants, but beyond that, their minds are open books to eachother. With permission, any Concorded can sift through the memories and knowledge of any other Concorded, coming to understand them on a very personal level. It is common to request permission to exchange such “Dives”, and considered quite rude, even suspicious, to refuse.
Oddly enough, no one ever minds being made Concorded. They may be reluctant before the procedure, but all are without exception exceedingly happy once they become Concorded. It is partially this which makes other nations suspicious of the Concordat; the fact that no one has ever, ever regretted joining them. Even spies either return with nothing, or become Concorded and stop reporting to their superiors. The paranoid suspect the implants transmit some kind of indoctrination signal. Nonsense, say the Concorded. Life is simply better this way, you should try it.
The Star Chamber is the entity that ostensibly runs the Concordat. It is a large elected assembly operating on Sanctuary. In truth, the Circle, a small council of unelected Concorded, runs the Concordat from the secrecy of Concord Dawn. Members of the Star Chamber must be Concorded as well. They also have the unique ability to isolate and conceal knowledge and information from other Concorded. This is ostensibly for security purposes. Members of the Circle go beyond this. They can override the privacy of any Concorded, scooping knowledge from their minds without the victim ever knowing it. There is some overlap between memberships in the two entities; after all, the secret rulers of the Concordat must be able to keep an eye on it’s supposed rulers.
The Concardat’s tech base is quite far above the galactic average, though they have a tendency to needlessly overcomplicate things.
Cortical Network Implant (CNI): The linchpin of Concordat cybernetic augmentation, the CNI permits extensive command and control of other augmentations. More importantly, it lets Concorded directly communicate with eachother, brain to brain. The range is fairly limited on its own, but the Concordat maintains extensive networks in all it’s holdings. Basically, if you can connect to “wifi”, you can speak and share knowledge with almost anyone in Concordat space.
Thermal lances: The primary armament of most Concordat ships, thermal lances are a needlessly convoluted variation on conventional railguns. Instead of firing a slug, thermal lances use magnetic fields to accelerate superheated ferofluids to relativistic velocities. The streams are generally incandescent, and so resemble energy beams, albeit slow moving ones. The range on thermal lances is more limited than that of conventional railguns, so Concordat ships tend to engage at close range.
Hypometric weaponry: Another needlessly overcomplicated weapon, hypometric arrays are installed in limited numbers on all Concordat ships, with just one array on destroyers and only 8 on dreadnaughts, compared to the multiple banks of thermal lances and grasers. Hypometric arrays consume vast amounts of power to essentially alter the geometries of a target area, causing a huge strain on shields and neatly scooping out sections of armour.
Grasers: Instead of a beam of coherent light, gamma ray lasers are beams of coherent gamma radiation, another example of the Concordat taking a perfectly sound concept and complicating it. They serve as secondary armament on all Concordat ships, melting through strikecraft and missiles with pinpoint accuracy and no visual trace. Also used as ground weapons, in various configurations and yields.
Sand shields: Magnetically suspended fields of particles (usually of dense metals, not actual sand) make up the first layer of defence on Concordat ships. The vast amounts of power consumed by their engines and weaponry leave little for conventional energy shields; sand shields conveniently require very little energy, though they are somewhat subpar defensively. They do not stop any enemy fire, but disperse or disrupt it to lessen the damage to the armour beneath.
Regenerative armour: Concordat shielding may be sub-par, but their armour makes up for it. It is capable of rapidly repairing any damage sustained. Take a damaged Concordat ship out of the fight permanently, or it will heal itself and fight on.
The Concordat armed forces, Guardian Force and Void Force, operate on planetary surfaces and in space respectively. Void Force is decidedly average as navies go, but Guardian Force is one of the galaxy’s premier armies.
Navy Doctrine: Void Force employs superficially simple tactics that play to its strengths: close range brawls. Thermal lances are most effective at close range, and boarding actions are highly favourable to the Concardat’s cyborg marines. On another level, any Concordat fleet is a constantly shifting being, with ships moving in and out of the front as they take damage. Remotely operated drones take the place of strikecraft.
Ground Doctrine: Guardian Force is enamored with the concept of combined arms. Expect any Concordat assault to involve infantry, armour, air support, and artillery fire together. Elaborate feints and decoy maneuvers are preffered tactics as well.
Just in case, I've put together an NS for another race. I'd prefer to play the Commonwealth, but these guys would fit in a much smaller space. I thought I'd post the NS anyways and let people have a look.
The Talisan Concordat
General Information
Overview
The Talisan Concordat is a civilization defined by their cybernetic augmentations. One particular augmentation lets them emulate psionics among themselves, and possession of that implant is what makes one truly Concordat. Over the years, many have been drawn in by the Concordat’s seemingly utopian way of life, so the citizenry of the Concordat, both implanted and non-implanted, is quite diverse. The Concordat eagerly welcomes, and actively recruits, new citizens. Many other nations do not really appreciate the Concordat trying to lure their citizens away, so relations with their neighbours are...tense.
The Concordat ostensibly wants to co-exist peacefully with the rest of the galaxy, but many suspect some deeper, more nefarious purpose.
Official Name: The Talisan Concordat
Common Name: The Concordat, the Conks
Government: Networked Oligarchical Council
Dominant Species: Vae’shan, Humans
Capital (Apparent): Sanctuary
Capital (Actual): Concord Dawn
Common Name: The Concordat, the Conks
Government: Networked Oligarchical Council
Dominant Species: Vae’shan, Humans
Capital (Apparent): Sanctuary
Capital (Actual): Concord Dawn
History
As many know, the Itharian Harmony has a propensity for...meddling where their flippers don’t really belong. A few thousand years ago, one Ithari Elder developed an intense interest in a race of intelligent (though not sentient) avian predators on a distant rocky world. This Ithari was Mu’ur, who would come to be known as Talisan the Allfather. He was fascinated with the surprisingly elaborate community structures these creatures formed, intrigued by their rudimentary tool use, and tantalized by the complexity of their minds. He named them the Vae’shan, and decided to attempt to uplift them to sentience. Mu’ur tried at first to use psionics, but his results were inconsistent and difficult to reproduce. He wanted to uplift the entire species, not just a few random individuals. He turned to cybernetics, seeking to artificially augment Vae’shan intelligence with brain implants. In an entirely unlikely turn of events, his first experiment with cybernetics was a spectacular success.
The first sentient Vae’shan awoke after the surgery and looked around him in wonder, seeing the world through completely new eyes. Mu’ur spoke to him in his mind, asking “What is your name?” The Vae’shan spoke, the first of his people to do so: “Ademnon.” Thus was born Ademnon, the First Concordat.
Mu’ur and his assistants uplifted more and more Vae’shan, more than they perhaps should have. The Vae’shan remained predators, even if they were now sentient, and some were not prepared to deal with their new intelligence, and their thoughts turned to violence. Late one night, a group of Vae’shan descended into the aquatic pools of Mu’ur’s facility with deadly intent, and caught Mu’ur’s assistants by surprise, slaughtering them all. They then turned on Mu’ur himself. Mu’ur tried to reason with them, but one threw a spear, wounding the Elder, and he saw they could not be reasoned with. Mu’ur reached out with his vastly powerful mind, and killed his assailants in an instant. He lamented the loss of his assistants, his friends, and the failure of his experiment. He prepared himself to exterminate the remaining Vae’shan.
It was Ademnon who saved his species. Ademnon, always Mu’ur’s favourite, begged the Ithari to reconsider. The Vae’shan could not all be held accountable for the actions of a few. They were not inherently flawed. They could be taught, they could learn to better themselves. So impassioned was Ademnon’s plea that Mu’ur agreed to spare the Vae’shan, remembering the potential he had originally seen in them.
However, Mu’ur knew that the Ithari would not see it his way. Once they learned of the deaths of their brethren, they would turn on the Vae’shan and annihilate them, as Mu’ur himself had considered. Mu’ur taught the Vae’shan to build a great ship that would carry him and them beyond the Harmony’s borders, to a sanctuary where they could learn to overcome their baser instincts. And so they fled.
On their new world of Sanctuary, the Vae’shan named Mu’ur Talisan, “Father and Saviour”, and name he has kept ever since, knowing he cannot return to the Harmony. Talisan continued his tinkering in cybernetics, ever improving the Vae’shan, until they were smarter, faster and stronger than they ever could have been otherwise. He taught them to control their instincts, to look on the world with empathy and compassion. To assist in this task, he developed the cortical network implant (the CNI), which permitted someone with the implant to know the thoughts and feelings of anyone else with the implant. That was the true birth of the Concordat. It expanded and developed as civilizations do, first their planet, then their star system, then star systems beyond that. Over the past 500 odd years, the Concordat has developed into a small sovereign star nation.
Starmap Information
Galactic Location
(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)
Major Holdings
Concord Dawn: A hidden deep space station from which the Concordat is actually ruled. Heavily defended, but mostly kept safe by secrecy, its co-ordinates are only given to select navigation officers on a strictly need to know basis. The co-ordinates are directly inserted into a navigator’s implants and from there into the ship; they then erase themselves on arrival. Concord Dawn also contains extensive shipyards, building the bulk of the Concordat navy. Notably also home to Talisan
Sanctuary: A lush paradise world teeming with citizens from all corners of the galaxy. Sanctuary is an open world, welcoming civilian vessels of any nation. It also serves as an administrative center for the Concordat’s fledgling domain.
Ordo Shipyards: An extensive industrial complex that has expanded into an orbital ring surrounding Sanctuary’s smaller moon. Careful analysis would show that the military vessels constructed here do not account for the amount of new construction present in the Concordat’s fleets. Ordo Shipyards are otherwise a major civilian center of industry.
Social Information
Major Species
Vae’shan: A young race of avian predators, Vae’shan have a hexapod limb configuration: two arms, two legs, and two wings, quite capable of flight. Vae’shan are not actually born sentient: they must be cybernetically enhanced to achieve that benchmark. As a result, all Vae’shan are implanted, true Concordat.
Humans: Present throughout the galaxy, humans make up a notable chunk of the Concordat’s implanted population. They tend to be extensively augmented, with only superficial resemblance to their baseline cousins.
Society
For lack of a better term, the Concordat is a utopia. Manual labour, manufacturing, construction, all conceivable forms of labour have become fully automated. Citizens of the Concordat spend their days living in luxury; perhaps not as opulent as the wealthy of other nations, but well above the galactic standard of living.
On paper, non-implanted citizens are every bit the equals of their implanted counterparts. In practice, every aspect of Concordat society is designed to pressure people into receiving the implants, or becoming Concorded as they call it. When crime occurs, the non-Concorded are the first suspects: after all, a Concorded can simply present sensory footage to prove their innocence. Virtual reality simulations, the most popular form of entertainment in the Concordat, require the implants to be experienced fully; they are otherwise restricted to visual input only. And if you should be seriously injured in the Concordat? You will almost certainly wake up with implants in your head.
To be Concorded is to exist in complete harmony with your peers. Concorded can communicate directly to eachother’s minds via their cortical network implants, but beyond that, their minds are open books to eachother. With permission, any Concorded can sift through the memories and knowledge of any other Concorded, coming to understand them on a very personal level. It is common to request permission to exchange such “Dives”, and considered quite rude, even suspicious, to refuse.
Oddly enough, no one ever minds being made Concorded. They may be reluctant before the procedure, but all are without exception exceedingly happy once they become Concorded. It is partially this which makes other nations suspicious of the Concordat; the fact that no one has ever, ever regretted joining them. Even spies either return with nothing, or become Concorded and stop reporting to their superiors. The paranoid suspect the implants transmit some kind of indoctrination signal. Nonsense, say the Concorded. Life is simply better this way, you should try it.
Government
The Star Chamber is the entity that ostensibly runs the Concordat. It is a large elected assembly operating on Sanctuary. In truth, the Circle, a small council of unelected Concorded, runs the Concordat from the secrecy of Concord Dawn. Members of the Star Chamber must be Concorded as well. They also have the unique ability to isolate and conceal knowledge and information from other Concorded. This is ostensibly for security purposes. Members of the Circle go beyond this. They can override the privacy of any Concorded, scooping knowledge from their minds without the victim ever knowing it. There is some overlap between memberships in the two entities; after all, the secret rulers of the Concordat must be able to keep an eye on it’s supposed rulers.
Technological Information
Technology Overview
The Concardat’s tech base is quite far above the galactic average, though they have a tendency to needlessly overcomplicate things.
Major Techs
Cortical Network Implant (CNI): The linchpin of Concordat cybernetic augmentation, the CNI permits extensive command and control of other augmentations. More importantly, it lets Concorded directly communicate with eachother, brain to brain. The range is fairly limited on its own, but the Concordat maintains extensive networks in all it’s holdings. Basically, if you can connect to “wifi”, you can speak and share knowledge with almost anyone in Concordat space.
Thermal lances: The primary armament of most Concordat ships, thermal lances are a needlessly convoluted variation on conventional railguns. Instead of firing a slug, thermal lances use magnetic fields to accelerate superheated ferofluids to relativistic velocities. The streams are generally incandescent, and so resemble energy beams, albeit slow moving ones. The range on thermal lances is more limited than that of conventional railguns, so Concordat ships tend to engage at close range.
Hypometric weaponry: Another needlessly overcomplicated weapon, hypometric arrays are installed in limited numbers on all Concordat ships, with just one array on destroyers and only 8 on dreadnaughts, compared to the multiple banks of thermal lances and grasers. Hypometric arrays consume vast amounts of power to essentially alter the geometries of a target area, causing a huge strain on shields and neatly scooping out sections of armour.
Grasers: Instead of a beam of coherent light, gamma ray lasers are beams of coherent gamma radiation, another example of the Concordat taking a perfectly sound concept and complicating it. They serve as secondary armament on all Concordat ships, melting through strikecraft and missiles with pinpoint accuracy and no visual trace. Also used as ground weapons, in various configurations and yields.
Sand shields: Magnetically suspended fields of particles (usually of dense metals, not actual sand) make up the first layer of defence on Concordat ships. The vast amounts of power consumed by their engines and weaponry leave little for conventional energy shields; sand shields conveniently require very little energy, though they are somewhat subpar defensively. They do not stop any enemy fire, but disperse or disrupt it to lessen the damage to the armour beneath.
Regenerative armour: Concordat shielding may be sub-par, but their armour makes up for it. It is capable of rapidly repairing any damage sustained. Take a damaged Concordat ship out of the fight permanently, or it will heal itself and fight on.
Military Information
Military Overview
The Concordat armed forces, Guardian Force and Void Force, operate on planetary surfaces and in space respectively. Void Force is decidedly average as navies go, but Guardian Force is one of the galaxy’s premier armies.
Space Forces
Navy Doctrine: Void Force employs superficially simple tactics that play to its strengths: close range brawls. Thermal lances are most effective at close range, and boarding actions are highly favourable to the Concardat’s cyborg marines. On another level, any Concordat fleet is a constantly shifting being, with ships moving in and out of the front as they take damage. Remotely operated drones take the place of strikecraft.
Destroyer
Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought
Cruiser
Battlecruiser
Battleship
Dreadnought
Ground Forces
Ground Doctrine: Guardian Force is enamored with the concept of combined arms. Expect any Concordat assault to involve infantry, armour, air support, and artillery fire together. Elaborate feints and decoy maneuvers are preffered tactics as well.
Infantry: Concordat infantry are a force to be reckoned with.] Whatever their original species, their cybernetic enhancements make them stronger, faster and more durable. Sophisticated implants mean Concordat soldiers can simply turn off their fear and pain. Regenerative nanites quickly heal any wound that doesn't destroy the brain. Supplementing these advantages are durable suits of power armor. Expect Concordat soldiers to survive any injury short of total cranial destruction.
Light tank
Heavy Tank
Light tank
Heavy Tank
