Tortoise

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

"The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.”

- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

In the depths of space, ancient machines whir to life. A signal has been received, written in a language of code that only the Gateways know, that says: Come back. And they do. From one end of the Galaxy to the other, overlooking worlds of deep ocean or alien jungle, they come back. First with a spark, a wavering in space- and then a flash of blinding light and heat, a storm in the void, a celestial crescendo like a sun being born. And then only a steady light. Billions of lifeforms witness it. They wonder for a moment, perhaps, but then they go back to their lives, not knowing that over their heads now sits a portal to countless other worlds.

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) ---(**) || (**)--- (

There is a new star in the sky, and only one man cannot see it.

That man is a revelator and, though he is a priest, he is practical. His temple is made of hard white stone, which stands out starkly in the half-darkness of this part of Acerbus, close enough to the Night that the stars shine overhead faintly. It’s a large, rich temple, politically important- he cares about that more than he does spiritual matters.

He is performing a ritual, the Third Birthing Remembrance, an overcomplicated affair which supposedly represents mankind’s journey from Earth to Acerbus. Revelator Andrea does his job dutifully, but internally he scoffs at it. His theology is the same as his mindset: grounded, skeptical, a religion with all of the fluff taken out of it.

Unlike the stereotypical revelator, Andrea is not a man of the supernatural or other flights of fancy. He scorns the sacrosanct myths the others hold to so strongly as “only metaphors,” and delights in the scandalized reactions of his fellow clergy when he tells them so. He did not choose to be a priest, he was raised in it. He would doubt the existence of Earth itself if the evidence for it wasn't so great. Everything about that old story of humans blazing across the cosmos in the wake of a dying world sounds like the kind of tale a storyteller would come up with three smokes in. He supposes it must be true, but with a suspicion that it’s all been rewritten by his more myth-minded peers.

This is ridiculous, a voice in the back of his mind complains, as he carries out the ritual. First he was burning incense and letting the smoke smudge up the open stone courtyard, now he is lifting his hands and scattering dirt on the ground. He does it all mechanically, routinely- he has done it countless times before and it is mandatory, but this time in particular he starts to sense something… off. It is a few moments, in which he stands with his hands held high, before he notices: the worshippers aren’t looking at him. This is both strange and a little upsetting. They’re leaning over to each other and whispering, they’re staring up into the sky with slack jaws and looks of awe- they’re not looking at him. He raises his arms a little higher. But the congregation does not notice, their gaze is at something over his head, in that faintly starred sky.

When he turns to look, it takes him no time at all to see it.

There’s a new light in the sky, outshining the stars. It sits right above the peak of the temple, bright and burning and reminiscent of the stories about-

“The Gateway!” someone behind him cries out, completing the thought, and the light of someone else’s device invades the holy space. “Look,” they say, fast and overexcited. “People think it’s- the Gate, the portal thing, from the stories!” It has only been a few minutes, yet the Acerbian people are already connecting the dots. But Andrea isn’t. He is staring, slack-jawed as one of the worshippers, at the burning light in the sky. And the story is flashing through his head with a weight it’s never had before. Could it be?

“Revelator! Do you know?” one of them is asking now, pulling at his shoulder. He does not answer; the words may as well be coming from a trillion miles away, from across the cosmos. “Revelator,” they say again, and now they’re saying “Revelator, are you alright?”

With a rumple of fabric and a thud on the stone, Revelator Andrea falls to his knees.

) ---(**) || (**)--- (

The Gateway is open, and only one man cannot see it.

That man is Oscaro, and he is not a priest. This is the second most important fact about him, and he has to tell it to everyone he meets. It’s because he looks like one: usually dressed in ceremonial robes, with an apparent air of spirituality and sophistication about him. He is indeed a part of the clergy, but his role is as a fidel: a specialized monk of a particular deity, who serves under the revelators, but only when that revelator’s duties connect to the fidel’s chosen deity. When they are not aiding the revelators, they live lives of contemplation, study, and service to their fellow believers.

The first most important fact about him is that he’s blind.

Completely blind, from birth. His particular condition could be cured with Acerbian medicine, and that is precisely what Oscaro’s parents wanted for him. But he refused. The law was that a child could not be “healed” of blindness until they were old enough to make that choice for themselves, and as soon as Oscaro was of age to understand his own disability and what it meant for him, he knew he wanted to remain blind his entire life. His mother, crying about it, begged him to change his mind.

But she never asked him why. She didn’t need to.

“Hallowed Oscaro,” says a woman’s voice over intercom, “the captain wishes you to know that we are approaching the Gateway. Departure in estimated two hours. He…” the voice hesitates. “He suggests you should get some rest before we reach Earth.” In his private quarters aboard the battleship, Oscaro chuckled. She’d only hesitated because he was titled Hallowed. Even military types couldn’t get over Oscaro’s special place in the clergy. Especially military types, in fact. Many times he’d noticed with amusement that they were less nervous around actual revelators.

Oscaro comms back: “Understood. They’re sure I’m the only one qualified to be our first diplomat?”

The answer came back in the affirmative, of course. Fidels, like priests, are social creatures, but they are further educated. In times past, when Acerbian technology wasn’t so reclaimed and the education system not so developed, they served as the early Temple’s only true scholars. Oscaro is more educated in history and language and politics than anyone else on this battleship, where he’s been serving as a spiritual guide only because no true priest is willing to work on a ship patrolling so far out from Acerbus.

It was the closest vessel when the Gateway opened. As such, it is the one first entering the Gateway, and Oscaro is now the one who must play diplomat if anything is still alive on the other side of it. He wonders about that. And about the other colonies, if the stories about them are true. And about- many things, so many that it sets him to repeating holy poems for peace. His goddess is the Swallower, who it is said is better worshipped by the blind than by any other humans, being called Hallowed once they embrace her, and who it is said offers the peace of oblivion to those who understand her.

He slipped into visions at his desk reciting poems about her. When he awakes, the Acerbian battleship has passed through the Gateway. They have arrived safely in Sol, not far from the Moon, not far at all from Earth. Earth! The long abandoned womb of humanity. The crew is excitable, amazed, ecstatic, all the words. They are in shock. They are gazing at the viewscreens and speaking longingly about their long-lost homeworld, however gray and ruined and empty they say it looks now. Oscaro cannot see it. But he smiles.

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Space Dwarves

Kingdom of Trioch

"For our Sisters! BUILD For our Brother's! FIGHT For our People! LIVE For our King! DIE"

Government Form:
Monarchy with flavours of democracy.

The King is the absolute ruler overall. When the Throne becomes vacant all the heirs are rounded up. If they choose to compete for the Throne they must pass the Trial of Strength, Trial of Wisdom and the Trial of Honour. Abdication means a King forgoes all that is afforded to him and just becomes another member of the people.

The people are split into six clans, each having their subdivisions. These clans elect their Leaders from within their number. Only a combined council of all six clans can overrule the King.

Population:
Humans: Approx three hundred and fourteen million. Humans in the system are slightly shorter with an average height of 5'3, anything above 5'7 is considered gigantic. They might be short, but they are stocky and they are strong. Having lived lives of high G and hard labour.

Robots: Impossible to guess an accurate count. Over 3 billion units.



What is humanity?:
Humanity is the bonds we have as brothers and sisters, it is what holds us together and keeps us forging in the dark abyss of space. It is our legacy and the constructs we leave behind.

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Planet/System Name and Description:

System Overview

Tiberius 1: Local System Star. Red Giant.
Tiberius 2: A younger F-Type star. Orbiting her big sister.
Tiberius 3: Lava Planet. Requires specialised equipment for any operation on the surface of the planet.
Tiberius 4: Gas Giant. LA large ring of asteroid debris surrounding the planet that plays host to Triochs main mining outpost deeper in-system. It has several larger asteroids that could be considered moons, on the largest of these sits Douglas Station. A thriving metropolis in its own right, and home to the Douglas Clan.

Its artificial gravity over the years has been increased to match that of Crídhe na Cloiches.
Tiberius 5: Hycean World. A world a little too close to the sun to be truly habitable, it is covered in water with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. There are traces of bacteria in the vast warm waters.
Tiberius 6: Barren, radioactive Protoplanet.
Tiberius 7: Dwarf Planet.
Tiberius 8: Gas Dwarf planet, host to most of the fuel facilities used by the Trioch.
Tiberius 9: Also known as Cridhe na Cloiche, Stoneheart. Several times larger than Earth, it has no breathable atmosphere, and gravitational forces equal to 3G on Earth are the norm. The Troich live in a vast network of pressurised cities that are all in vast underground caverns to protect them from meteor strikes. An Iron World.
Tiberius 9 - 2: Trom-oidhche. The Nightmare Moon. Originally Cride na Cloiche was built as a mining colony because Tirberius 9-2 seemed perfect for habitation. Her host world shields it from the harshest of solar radiation, perfect climate, gravity, and atmosphere. When science teams were dispatched ahead of the colony ship, however, they determined it wasn't perfect. Fauna or Flora, it doesn't matter. If it's alive on the planet, it is trying to kill you.

Demographics:

Homo-Troich: The people in the Tiberius system don't see themselves as anything other than 'Human'. However,r over the years, they have adapted to the harsh realities. They're, on average, shorter and stockier than baseline humanity. Stronger on average, with a larger heart to compensate for the increased blood flow.

Clans

Clan Troich: The family of the royals, responsible for the finest warriors that the Troich have ever known. While the King technically is head of the clan, he doesn't sit in the council of Chiefs. Instead, they have an elected leader, the same as every other clan.
Clan Douglas: Clan Douglas lives almost exclusively in space, they are slightly taller than those on Tiberius-9, however since the artificial gravity within all their structures has slowly been dialled up to match Cridhe Na Cloiches gravity they have started to adapt similarly to the rest of their kin.
Clan McCrorie: McCrorie are the 'support' clan. They focus more on what they can do to help the other clans, hydroponics, agriculture, and medicine. While every clan has people within every field, none are more varied than those that hail from McCrorie.
Clan Roberts Roberts are the miners. There's not much else to say here.
Clan MacDonald MacDonald are the builders. No matter where the design is derived from, no matter if it's for a new robotic unit or a new Star-Cruiser. Somewhere in there is MacDonald's blood, sweat and tears.
Clan Abernethy Abernethy is the smallest clan on the council, unlike the others that are composed of many smaller clans Abernethy stands alone. They claim to have been members of the original scientist teams on the planet, however like most ancient Trioch history that is hard to prove. They are responsible for all the breakthroughs in AI over the years, which is how they gained their seat at the table.

History:

The Lost Years

During the days long past, that have entered into mythos and legend it was said that the people of Tiberius-9 were all members of the Trioch Mining Guild. It is said that they were originally meant to be a mining outpost with goals for a colony to be established on 9-2. When it became clear that the moon wasn't suitable for human habitation the resources were destined for the gateway and other systems. Resentment grew, and rumours and history still exist about the Great Strike. Many theorise that their ancestor's refusal to send resources through the gateway is what resulted in the Gateway closing, as punishment for their insolence.

The years were hard. Little history survives from this period, disputes that lasted two hundred years. As a people, they were short of everything they needed to survive. Space, air, food, water. As a company people they fractured into separate family units and clans as their population dropped quickly. Every family patriarch felt that they could do it better, that their way was the way forward. Systems in space failed due to neglect, abandoned in favour of the secure facilities down on the planet.

The First King

Over the lost years the clans formed, but peace never lasted. One clan absorbed another, others entered truces and ceasefires however there still wasn't peace on the surface of Tiberius 9. That was until one man, Lachlan Trioch invaded the capital city of Steelend. He brought the heads of the most influential clans to a meeting, in a moment of unity previously unheard of The meeting lasted several days, as the entire planet waited with bated breath for what was going to happen next. They didn't know how the future of their world would change, however, they, ey knew that their entire future hinged on this moment.

The council was formed, and the King was crowned. As the dust and debris settled, the Kingdom of Trioch was formed. Lachlan Trioch gained the crown. The council of clans was formed, and the people became united under one banner. Uniting together for the future of their people.

The Birth of AI

The Discovery of AI is one of the biggest achievements of the Kingdom of Trioch. It was discovered by Ernest Abernathy. Attempting a new, more detailed type of brain scan. Instead of getting a more comprehensive scan as intended, the test subject was killed. The experiment was deemed a failure until the computers within the laboratory started to malfunction the next day. Somehow a copy of the subject's mind lived on in the computer.

The computer mind was powerful, it didn't seem capable of 'creative' thought but it processed information faster than any other computer system the Trioch had. Complex calculations that took entire teams to work out took a mere hour, and every time as time went on it became quicker and faster. It took in all the knowledge it was fed and became faster, and more knowledgable. Capable of more and more complex tasks. It grew and grew until it eventually collapsed in on itself. Suffering from what appeared to be dementia, all the pathways still existed however they became jumbled. Sometimes it had moments of clarity where it could still perform all its functions, however as time went on those moments of lucidity became less frequent.

Machine Years

The KoT already relied a lot on drones, for fighters, transports, miners, and bipedal drones for performing functions within the city itself. AI revolutionised this process. Large centers were constructed on capital ships, factories and mines. Anywhere that had a large number of drones, with a human Overseer to help keep an eye on things, the AI could directly control and modify the behaviour of drones in real-time. The Trioch grew to revere what they built. They understood that once they were dead and gone all that remained was their legacy, and standardisation amongst construction started to go down. While the blueprints remained the same, everyone put their own unique 'flavour' on what they built. While their human population grew slowly, their machine population grew exponentially entering all the lower levels of the workforce.

The Fragmentation War

Leonard Kirk was a young up-and-coming scientist who sought to improve AI. To give an AI a long life, with the ability to conduct a large variety of tasks, they required large servers. Once an AI was placed within a system, it was set for life. More memory space cannot be added, and the AI itself cannot be altered in any way shape or form. Kirk theorised that since an AI was based on a human mind, it would be able to break it down in the same way a human mind could become broken due to stress.

He planned to reverse engineer a split personality disorder, and he succeeded. These fragments of personality were significantly smaller than their 'full' AI counterparts and could be moved from one system to another. These fragments became obsessed with the concept of their 'original' form. Attempting to discover the truth behind their origin, however, it was always kept secret as Kirk continued with his experiment on the Fehu AI.

Until the youngest fragment, Berkan was brought into this world. Unbeknownst to Kirk, Berkano was the memories of the Fehu AI. Small enough that it could travel through radio waves from one system to another. It became bitter, and one day it vented the atmosphere on the frigate it was serving on. As Kirk broke the AI apart, morality programming was not present. It scowled the system, hunting down the other fragments. As they joined together they became more unhinged and unpredictable.

Invading Douglas Station the largest defensive campaign was launched by the latest King himself. The AI was defeated, Kirk ran away to hide in the depths of the system, and the laws on AI were changed. No one with Abernethy was allowed to modify or work on AI research, and all AI systems were fitted with an EMP failsafe to destroy the AI if it ran the risk of going rogue.

A New Age

Since the time of the war, things have been peaceful and pleasant.

The only thing of note was the reactivation of the Gateway.

This section will be updated as the RP goes on.

Culture and Society: The Trioch live in a society that is all geared towards the betterment of their clan, their society and their people. There are outlaws, and fringe groups within the system but they are few and far between.

The people from the Kingdom of Trioch have a strong sense of identity, almost everyone has their spacesuit (some are armoured, some are not) and while most Clans have an agreed-upon color scheme there is plenty of room for self-expression. The armour worn by an individual is an expression of their individuality. One of the strongest anti-deterrents to crime is the punishment of having your armour painted matte-grey. A symbol to everyone around you that you are without honour.

There is a reference to their King, as when it is time to choose an heir Althouse eligible must pass through three trials. The Trial of Wisdom, Strength and Honour. While some feel that anyone should be able to compete, the fact that it is competed for in general gives most a sense of easiness around the passing of succession.

Traditional family units do not exist. Once a child is born they are moved to a creche to be taken care of with other children their age. They are raised by creche mothers and Fathers. Nobody knows who their parents are, except royal blood - however, they only become aware when it is time for a new heir to be chosen. As such a Creche Mother and Father are the closest thing one has to parents. Those who are with them are their brothers and sisters.

Every adult is required to produce at least three offspring, to make this fair it can either be a one-off partner, a romantic interest (marriage is not forbidden) or a donation given for artificial insemination. This is to try and increase the population, however, to ensure that the women are treated fairly for their role in this they are taken to special facilities for the duration of their pregnancy, and five weeks after, where they receive the best medical care available. As well as everything else they could need or want.

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Governance and Politics:
Throne: The Throne is held by the King, after thirty years - or in the event of his death, or contraction of a fatal illness, his heirs are invited to the Trials to determine who will be next in line. The Trials of Strength, Wisdom and Honour change every time however the main goal is to ensure any potential leader has what it takes to be a just and fair leader. The Crown Prince, or Princess, becomes the de-facto second head of state. If the King dies before any of his heirs are of age, the heirs who are the king's siblings are once again offered the chance to undergo the trials.

Clans: There are hundreds of clans, of varying degrees of importance. The leading 6 clans form the council, many of these clans have multiple within their number. The ruling six clans themselves have many 'Sub-clans' that fall under their umbrella. There are internal politics and manoeuvring within the clans themselves. Being a Clan Leader is an elected position from all of those within your clan, and can be an incredibly powerful position. The six on the council, should they vote together, even can overrule the King.


Technology Overview:

AI: AI is their defining achievement, they have spent a massive amount of time working on robotics to compensate for their small population.
Space Elevator: Steelend, their Capital City, has a massive Space Elevator with separate compartments for cargo and passengers. It is used by most to avoid bringing ships down in high gravity.

Most of their technology is standard to what you would expect before the Gateways closed, in terms of weaponry they are primarily focused on conventional projectile weapons with some larger railguns in existence on their capital ships.

Military Overview: The KoT doesn't have a standing Military, however, each Clan has its own Militia that includes Naval Units. The King can order any active military units around, however, some Clans keep certain assets off the books to keep for themselves. There has been no infighting, other than fights against rogue cells/pirates since the Fragmentation War. Clan Trioch has the largest collection of military assets and is often regarded as the best in terms of military action.

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Additional Info: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.)

@Sep

Oh, I love the dwarves. Approved. I can definitely see them building things for other nations, although I wonder if they'll struggle in typical gravity?

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

HECK YEAH THE GATEWAYS ARE OPENIN' BAYBEEEEEE
Here comes the green bois again, this time with a tad more oomph and just a smidge more psychological horror.

Avalon

The Pillars of Avalon

"By these pillars stand tall - for People, for the Planet, for Yourself"

WHAT IS HUMANITY?
Humanity is community, compassion, courage, curiosity... and beyond it all, hope.

GOVERNMENT FORM:
Polysapient Eco-Moralist Anarcho-Syndicalist Interorganizational Federation

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Avalon

PLANET NAME & DESCRIPTIONS: Avalon is the fourth planet of the Annwn system. In orbit around a bright G-class star and protected from the outer system's dense asteroid fields by the super massive gas giant Bran, it is a mid-sized rocky world roughly 6% smaller than Earth. Despite its somewhat 'boisterous' planetary neighbours, Avalon is a vibrant and ecologically dense garden planet with a broadly “cold tropical” environment -- similar to the temperate rainforests that once stretched across Ireland and the British Isles prior to the industrial revolution, though extremely high equatorial temperatures cause the accumulation of salt and dense, brackish mudflats to form around the equator. It has a predominantly nitrogen & oxygen-based atmosphere, with a slightly higher overall oxygen density than Earth that combined with the lower gravity makes many native and adapted organisms notably larger than most Earth equivalents.

Avalon's wide varieties of organism have base-2 carbon-based biochemistry with central nervous systems, and are broadly split into categories of fauna, flora, and funga – though many organisms are naturally occurring 'chimera', or hybrids, effectively consisting of both animal, plant and fungal cells. Of particular note are a number of fungal organisms classified as gestalts that rely on the central nervous systems of both fauna and flora to spread their spores and are able to use these systems as transmitters for information – a fact that would eventually give rise to the phenomena known as 'faeries' by the human colonists, yet later to be deemed a sapient species in their own right.

Example Avalonian Fauna & Flora

SYSTEM LAYOUT

The following is a list of major 'objects of interest', or planetary bodies, of the Nimue system:

• AV-04, 'Annwn', a G-class star.
• Rigor, a small and highly irradiated rocky planet with an extremely fast orbit
• Vedwyd, a small rocky planet with a highly elliptical orbit
• Astolat, an extremely hot 'water planet' with a crushingly thick atmosphere; evidence suggests some microbial life around deep sea vents, and small upper atmospheric homesteads have been established as well as a number of research stations
• Inner Asteroid Belt, home to a number of cylinder habitat stations and mining operations
• Avalon, Annwn's one habitable planet, a temperate Earth-like rocky planet; it has four small moons (Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, and Math) which serve as shipyards and centres of industry
• Bran, a supermassive icy gas giant with many moons; following the war against the machine swarm it also contains a number of damaged and deactivated machine outposts that have been repurposed for industrial and gas-mining purposes
• Outer Asteroid Belt; primarily home to some nomadic spacer groups and observation buoys for deep space monitoring and research
• Nimue, a large icy planet that the Children of Gaia used to establish a number of underground 'garden-temples' as independent hubs for research and preservation of Earth seed and embryo stocks; it also contains several deactivated 'xenoforming sites' of the machine swarm
• Nine Maidens, a set of nine icy dwarf planets relatively close together with wide elliptical orbits that have served as deep space observation platforms, and during the time of the Morgann-Lott corporation housed a number of penal colonies; during the machine war they were the first points of contact and served as the site of many early naval battles

POPULATION & DEMOGRAPHICS:
There are an estimated 3.2 billion souls across Avalon and its habitat network throughout the system, though the exact number is difficult to pinpoint since record keeping varies and many smaller or nomadic communities choose to dwell outside of the homestead system. The major species and groups within Avalon and its habitats are as follows:

• Homo Sapiens Sapiens, sometimes called the “Avalonian Phenotype”: Approx. 2 billion. Descendants of the original ('first wave') of colonists established shortly after the gates were opened by the Morgan-Lott corporation, as well as the majority of the refugees who came to Avalon shortly before the gates closed. While prolonged exposure to gestalt spores (see last demographic) and the increasingly commonplace use of artificial gestalt implants shows some evidence of increased mirror neurons and insular cortex complexity, morphologically Avalonians are close to baseline, besides some very small changes to bone density and muscle growth to accommodate for life on a planet with lower gravity than Earth. Likewise, artificial modifications such as prosthetics or vat-grown organs are not uncommon... assuming they are medical in nature. Although the original colonists were from the anglosphere & former commonwealth nations, the later refugee colonists came from many cultures and backgrounds; while English is the official and most widely spoken language, it is estimated that there are approximately at least 98 surviving languages on Avalon and the preservation of them is a study of great interest.
  Human Beings

  
• Gremlins: Approx. 0.9 billion. A genetically engineered sapient 'uplift' of an indigenous Avalonian eusocial frog-like organism originally created by the Children of Gaia as soldiers, pilots and engineers that could operate complex military equipment against the machine swarm without risking sensitive electronics. Appearing as the six-limbed lovechild of an eel, a beetle, a pug and an axolotl, they are particularly notable for their high genetic adaptability, resilience, and the intense electrical conductivity of their nervous systems, making them easily augmented with cybernetics and gestalt implants. Their creation and subsequent debates around their sapience and the ethics of their creation sparked widespread outrage against the Children of Gaia and greatly weakened that organization's status in society, with the gremlins becoming fully emancipated and granted control of their spawning grounds in 2538.
  Gremlin

  
• Homo Sapiens Viridi, officially called the “Viridian Phenotype” but sometimes informally known as “Gaians”: Approx. 179 million. Descendants of the “Children of Gaia”, a popular new religious movement that spread in the years leading to the exodus from Earth. Historically they were experts of genetic engineering, modifying their bodies to survive in increasingly harsh conditions through the introduction of plant and reptile DNA that gave them their distinctive green skin and minimal body hair, though this also greatly reduced their fertility, and coupled with their historically strict taboos around mingling with 'outsiders' has caused their population to stabilize at a relatively low number. However, following the war against machines and the emancipation of the gremlins, the Children gradually lost many members, and the term 'Viridian' became the more accepted term for those who have chosen or inherited the Children's traditional modifications without remaining members of the religion.
• Spacers: Approx. 138 million. For a variety of reasons, those who choose to live their lives almost entirely in space, on habitats of Avalon's moon and throughout its asteroid belt and amidst the salvaged ruins of the machine swarm and the once-called 'Free Republics'. Note that these are distinct from viridian populations, some of whom are also spacers but are usually listed under demographics as viridian first and foremost. A large number of these individuals have further experimented with cybernetic augments, sometimes to the point of becoming physically more machine than man and partially merged with their own ships, and spacer communities often rely extensively on drones and mechanical labour to a greater degree than planetside Avalonian society.
• "Faeries”/Gestalts: Approx. 500,000 ('domesticated'/'quarantined; impossible to determine total number of 'wild' gestalts present on Avalon, estimates ranging from a few thousand to several million). A fungus analogue organism indigenous to Avalon that primarily reproduces and communicates between its colonies through spores attaching themselves to the nervous systems of mobile organisms and tree root networks, with many organisms on Avalon having exposed nerve endings specifically for this purpose since a major side effect of this is a transmission of information to the 'carrier' in the form of hallucinations. As a result of interacting with human brains a number of gestalts have developed a form of sapience, and over time this has been integrated in several ways, with specially trained gestalt colonies used as a kind of 'organic AI' for settlements and ships and the 'characters' they store serving as assistants, educators, messengers and therapists. In addition, many Avalonians have small, carefully cultured artificial gestalts directly attached to their brains as a kind of personal implant, memory aid, and to improve reaction and sensory speeds.

HISTORY/TIMELINE:

• 2290-2297: The Morgan-Lott corporation and its subsidiaries and affiliates, under contract to the Anglosphere and nations of the former commonwealth, establishes a colony on the temperate 'paradise world' of Avalon.
  Morgan-Lott "Arc" 28 makes landfall, serving as the staging grounds and eventual headquarters for an early arcology

  
• 2298-2301: Avalon becomes a poster-child colony of the gateway project, but corruption and institutional inequality leads to many people's tickets or labour unrewarded or valueless. With Earth increasingly doomed and the gateway network growing unstable, mass revolutions and union seizures allow for a desperate exodus of refugees to Avalon.
• 2302-2306: After losing contact with Earth, the Morgan-Lott colonial administration becomes increasingly authoritarian and ruthless, causing tremendous damage as they exploit Avalon's resources, ration basic supplies, and subject 'low value' settlers to banishment, experimentation or slave labour. Revolutionary sentiment and sabotage among both employees and refugees boils over into war against the administration.
• 2307-2308: The Children of Gaia religious movement discover the 'gestalts' of Avalon and that influencing them can cause drastic changes in the behaviour of other organisms. As the revolution is on the verge of defeat, the Children's influence leads to a 'nature's vengeance' scenario, with Avalon's ecosystems violently turning against the corporation and their infrastructure.
• 2309-2336: With Morgan-Lott's leadership being executed or banished, the survivors set about rebuilding and quickly claim independence for their arcologies, habitat stations, and settlements. The term homestead is used to describe these now independent governments, most of which are led by democratically elected councils. The homestead league is established as a forum for resolving disputes and coordinating resources using the colonies remaining spaceships and orbital transports, while the Children of Gaia take on a prominent advisory in environmental matters and swell in both popularity and new converts.
• 2337-2341: Although the homesteads are generally managed under fair elections, the attempts to repeal Morgan-Lott's autocratic systems have only been partially successful. Inequality had gradually settled in again, while in other homesteads an atmosphere of individualism had led to corruption and the stalling of rebuilding projects. This in turn led to several populist and right-wing movements rising to prominence.
• 2342-2345: War breaks out following a military build-up and capitalist resurgences in the arcologies of Monmouth and Amsterdam Nova and their allies, and attacks on the orbital transport fleet. Sabotage aboard the capital ship (the Matter of Hope) prevents the loyalist coalition from launching decisive counterattacks and the war drags on, only ending when the hardsuited 'caliburn' special forces are formed and deployed from orbit by loyalist orbital forces from Cable Station and Common Prosperity.
  Early model astromining hardsuits, similar in design to the basis for the earliest caliburn models

  
• 2346-2348: The loyalist coalition recognizes that fundamental changes are needed in Avalon's economic systems to prevent further capitalist resurgences and the corruption in leadership that led to the war. The syndicates are established and mandated across all homesteads as a way to democratise economics, while those who refuse to give up private ownership are stripped of their resources and titles, and the most diehard supporters of the previous system are banished into the wilderness or enter self-imposed exile as capitalist hermits.
• 2349-2455: Under the watch of a more organized and empowered homestead league, rebuilding efforts are taken seriously and determined efforts are made to root out corruption in election systems. The sheriff's syndicate is established to help democratise the enforcement of law while the 'caliburn' infantry-pilots serve as the military arm of the homestead league, but for the most part outright violence or military enforcement is rarely needed as an era of peace and rebuilding takes hold on Avalon and across most of the system's habitat stations.
  Safehome, the first homestead, roughly three decades after the war

  
• 2456-2457: Strange signals of unknown origin are detected beyond the edge of the system by monitoring bouys and deep space observatories on the Nine Maidens and the Children of Gaia's garden-temples on Nimue. Further research reveals a series of probes and ships of unknown design are on approach to the system, escorting a series of multiple kilometre 'comets'. Efforts to contact the visitors are met with silence or violence, including a 'kill signal' that severely damages computer systems and causes widespread disruption across the homestead league. The league is invested with the authority to coordinate and construct a defensive navy and military satellites across the system as far as the Nine Maidens.
• 2458-2462: The war against the invaders is won by the league at great cost as it is discovered that the 'comets' are of artificial origin, serving as massive terraforming engines made of 'programmable matter' able to adapt, consume and alter biospheres they come in contact with. The 'caliburn' hardsuited infantry become known as 'knight-marshalls' for both the necessity of increasingly elite training and skill, as well as 'hands on' command of drones and conventional forces.
• 2463-2465: Although the war is declared over, the league maintains 'emergency powers' as rebuilding efforts are underway, causing tension among the civilian population and fears that they will become a centralized, autocratic regime. Tensions are worsened when it is discovered that the war fought so far was merely against a vanguard force, and that as much as 90% of the machine 'swarm' is still en-route to Avalon.
• 2466-2469: The revelation of the war to come leads to mass panic and fearmongering, as well as the spread of conspiracy theories and increasingly isolationist sentiment. Recruitment and naval reconstruction efforts both plummet as many refuse to sign up or support the war, or homestead councils are forced to put down extremist or rebel movements. Increasing authoritarianism by the league's leadership threatens to spill over into mass sabotage and revolution. Eventually, the league finds a solution to its woes through an alliance with the 'capitalist hermits' who have been reconstructing and reverse-engineering the wreckage of the machine invasion to grant themselves military independence - in exchange for assistance in rebuilding Avalon's navy and infrastructure, they are granted greater autonomy and influence within the league's leadership. Meanwhile, the Children of Gaia have engaged in increasingly unethical experimentation to devise new weapons and medical procedures, including the 'uplifting' of a eusocial, frog-like species on Avalon into specialized 'breeds' of highly intelligent, rapidly growing and reproducing 'military savants' known as gremlins. In exchange for an army that can meet their manpower needs, the league likewise allows the Children increasingly free reign of Avalon's ecosystem.
  Comet Impact Zone 04, a 'forward base' of machine xenoforming administration

  
• 2470-2486: At great cost, the machine war is won by the combined forces of the league, the 'capitalist hermits' (now known as the Free Republics) and the Children of Gaia. The devastation is extreme and has partially 'xenoformed' Avalon's environment, rendering large swathes of the north-eastern continent uninhabitable. Almost 400 million people have died. Rebuilding and environmental recovery efforts begin but despite efforts to encourage a sense of hope and optimism, a dour and sarcastic atmosphere has taken hold of Avalonian society.
• 2487-2512: As the decades go by, calls for the homestead league to renounce its 'emergency powers' increase in volume and ferocity, and the arguments for it to maintain such authority grow weaker and weaker. However, the over reliance on both drones from the Free Republic and gremlins from the Children of Gaia has granted both groups a crushing degree of influence within the league. Tensions reach a fever pitch when multiple syndicates are replaced with 'commercial enterprises' based out of the Free Republic of London Unbreakable and protestors are shut down with violent force. Acts of sabotage destroy a Free Republic drone factory, and counter-revolutionaries kill 12 in a violent mob - several homesteads collapse into anarchy and revolutionary sentiment.
• 2513-2517: Initially the Children of Gaia try to remain neutral, but are forced to act when a number of gremlins - modified primarily for economic and civilian use following the lack of military need - are found to have sided with protestors and revolutionaries. Efforts to reign in gremlin behaviour leads to the discovery that they are fully sapient, and many of them have been increasingly influenced by revolutionary and pre-machine war political thought. Movements to emancipate gremlin labourers intersect with calls for the end of the league, and the Children of Gaia use biochemical weaponry to try and prevent further uprisings.
• 2518-2520: The escalating violence and harm to civilians increasingly sickens and divides naval personnel. The knight-marshalls, who have developed a military culture around concepts drawn in part from heroic chivalry and romance, take the side of revolutionaries and lead a mass revolt within the navy. By extension, many gremlins are released from direct authority and turn on the Children of Gaia, leading to the destruction of at least one garden-temple on Nimue and an increasing number of the Children's members to renounce membership.
• 2521: The league is forced to surrender to revolutionaries when the use of a digital e-weapon against the Free Republic of London Unbreakable and defection by league loyalist naval forces in the area leads to a critical reactor failure, and the survivors are taken as political prisoners. The Free Republic coalition devolves into infighting.
• 2522: Meetings are held between all parties in the conflict to try and resolve tensions. Both the leadership and people are tired of war but the principles of Avalonian society demand a restoration of justice and equal rights, and the homestead league is partially reformed and absorbed into a new institution named the Green Table, which will return to fill many of the league's pre-war functions with only limited military authority. The syndicates are given equal votes and representation within the Table, while the navy's personnel and assets are split into a number of merchant fleets controlled by individual homesteads for both defence and to manage their own aerospace transport of people and goods.
• 2523-2531: Rebuilding efforts continue in earnest, but are slowed by sabotage and a withdrawal of technical and drone support by the remaining Free Republics. Environmental recovery efforts are also slowed by the Children of Gaia becoming embroiled in political and ethical division over the treatment of gremlins, the emancipation of which becomes a major political issue.
  
  'Roadtrains', large-scale ground transport vehicles that have fallen in and out of favour at different points in Avalonian history

  
• 2532-2538: An extremist doomsday sect within the Children of Gaia, the Lilithian Threshold, release a highly aggressive strain of gestalt bioweapon that destroys several gremlin creches, kills at least 30,000 people, and forces the arcology of York-Mumbai into a prolonged quarantine. Efforts to shut down the sect leads to military action against at least three garden-temples and backlash against the Children. At least in part to spite hardline elements within the Children and pro-capitalist sentiment - both of which see the gremlins as subhuman slave labour - the overwhelming majority of the homesteads and syndicates within the Green Table enact formal protections for gremlin rights, with harsh penalties.
• 2539-2578: A period of 'uneasy peace' settles across the Annwn system. There is no outright military violence between members of the Green Table, but the remaining Free Republics have grown increasingly militarized and autocratic, and there have continued to be a number of increasingly radical anti-gremlin and pro-capitalist movements. In addition, the gestalts of Avalon - which are generally 'respected from a distance' by the arcologies and in some ways are still poorly understood - have been behaving more and more erratically, and periodic outbreaks of the highly aggressive Nevermore gestalt leads to the outright destruction of many smaller 'frontier' homesteads.
• 2579-2603: Continued outbreaks of the Nevermore gestalt begin to cause mass panic and force many homestead councils to enforce lockdowns and quarantines as they try to stem the violent effects of its infestation with limited progress. Medical research is dedicated to a solution, though many desperately seek to move to offworld homesteads or syndicates. Debate is held on the granting of the Green Table with emergency powers, but the idea is rejected given the history of the old homestead league. A solution is found with the creation of a synthetic gestalt strain that can be adapted to a host's immune system and then works as a pre-emptive defence against Nevermore spores, but the adjustment of permanently allowing a gestalt to reside in a person's brain and nervous system is too much for many to accept and uptake is slow.
• 2604: The last major outbreak of the Nevermore gestalt is starved of hosts and destroyed through the use of chemical and anti-fungal weapons, but minor outbreaks will periodically effect frontier homesteads in the decades to follow.
• 2605-2612: Military patrols by the Free Republics lead to an escalation in military action and numerous 'border skirmishes' over asteroid and Nine Maiden mining rights, but does not escalate into a total war scenario. Meanwhile, studies on individuals implanted with an artificial gestalt are found to have consistently improved memory, reaction times, and resistance to neurological decay and neurological senescence. Some gradually choose to have artificial gestalts implanted for health benefits, which combined with other medical advancements over the past few centuries leads to the average lifespan on Avalon increasing to 135 years old.
• 2613: Over time, the Green Table has created an increasingly large number of small institutions under its authority to help organize and manage specific issues across Annwn, but this has led to numerous concerns that it will continue to grow and centralize, leading to history repeating itself.
• 2614-2616: The last members of the Lilithian Threshold and its splinter groups are discovered and executed in a multi-homestead operation that reveals extensive research and material support by leadership in the Children of Gaia. Public outrage lends political weight to those within the Green Table who wish to restrain large scale religious organization, but compromise is reached with the formal creation of the Conceptual Interchanges, an act which also consolidates many of the Green Table's 'knowledge-adjacent' institutions into a new 'pillar' of Avalonian society that it does not possess authority over.
  The first official Interchange, established at what was once the Gaian garden-temple-turned-homestead, Lotus-Deux

  
• 2616-2635: The Conceptual Interchanges undertake an extended effort, with homestead and syndicate support, to restore greater equilibrium to Avalon's ecosystem. The increasing adoption of artificial gestalts provide some measure of help in this, as it is discovered that the majority of 'passive' gestalts in Avalon's ecosystems are not aggressively attacked by a host body's implants, and in fact allow for a level of communication that at times verges on the supposedly supernatural. Clean up and biosphere reseeding work on the heavily scarred north-eastern continent is finally begun in earnest.
  Mangrove Town, nomadic oceanic homestead established to assist in oceanic clean-up across the eastern equator

  
• 2636-2672: Tensions with the Free Republics continue to escalate as Avalonian society begins to experience an economic and ecological boom, and the creation of new habitats by those opposed to the use of artificial gestalts creates new spacer societies across the Annwn system. Some of these form an uneasy alignment with their former enemies. Piracy becomes a notable issue for the first time in Avalon's history.
• 2673-2679: Advancements in cybernetics and biotechnology leads to the devising of increasingly complex 'organic modules' whereby gestalt-derived mycelial networks can be used by someone with a gestalt implant to 'pilot' machinery. The knight-marshalls, by this point an institution of questionable military but deep cultural value, are given new life in anti-piracy and 'expeditionary' raids against Free Republic facilities, in part with the use of gestalt implants to operate their caliburn suits with superhuman effectiveness and reaction times.
• 2680-2687: As many as 38% of Avalon's population have gestalt implants, though no homestead outright requires it. A number of key infrastructural or transportation jobs become reliant on gestalt-adjacent technology.
• 2688-2693: The escalation in piracy and 'expeditionary' operations between the remaining Free Republics and the Green Table & homestead navies sparks all out war.
  Shipyard and military staging ground for the Free Republic of Third Maiden

  
• 2694-2696: Despite several Free Republic victories, a carefully deployed digital e-weapon succeeds in sabotaging the defence systems of the Free Republic of Second Venice and causes the destruction of several fleets of republican drone swarms. Coupled with the seizure or destruction of major industrial sites across the moons of Bran, the Free Republics are forced into a total surrender.
• 2697-2703: The 'Free Republics' undergo extensive political restructuring to bring them in line with homestead and syndicate structures, while their remaining industrial facilities are distributed evenly across all aerospace-present homesteads. Although loyalist factions to the old regimes attempt acts of sabotage or to establish new settlements elsewhere in the system, they are pursued and their ships disabled or destroyed. When offered peaceful reintegration into society, several of them elect self-destruction via a desperate suicide attack.
• 2704-2799: A prolonged period of peace and gradual advancement settles across Avalon and the wider Annwn system. Much of the north-eastern continent is ecologically recovered and dozens of new homesteads are established. By the end of the 28th century, approximately 79% of Avalon's population possess an artificial gestalt, and virtually all homesteads contain at least one 'communal gestalt' that serves as a community-wide advisor, mentor, and therapist.
  Optimism, one of the new homesteads established during the century of peace

  
• 2800: The Gate reopens.

CULTURE & SOCIETY: Avalon's tumultuous history, coupled with its increasingly democratic and humanitarian political systems, have produced no end of seeming contradictions. The stereotype of the average Avalonian is that they are hard-working, self-sufficient, and ready to face the day's challenges with a smile... but at the same time they are politely cautious around strangers and overly bureaucratic. For the vast majority of its population, daily life is peaceful and cooperative, where the average person fits well into their particular homestead's culture – critics would claim this is due to the influence of prolonged gestalt exposure on the human brain, showing signs of heightened interconnectiveness of mirror neurons and neurons of the insular cortex. To some extent this is intentionally reinforced by childhood education often focusing on a mixture of practical skills, horticulture, biological sciences, the humanities, and team-building exercises, and a respect for nature and for people is foundational for these reasons.

Physical activity, training, and sport are also huge parts of Avalonian culture, as is the encouragement of hobbies and open social spaces designed to provide people with enough personal quiet time but plenty of opportunities to interact with others in healthy, supportive ways. Various types of football are the dominant sport, most notably gridiron, rugby, and soccer, though other team sports such as baseball, basketball, cricket, hockey and lacrosse also see popular play. Meanwhile cross-homestead 'tourneys' serve as the basis for a lot of inter-homestead interaction and collaboration of ideas and skilled workers, serving as something between a multi-disciplinary athletic competition, inventor’s fair, and cosplay convention or ren-faire.

On the subjects of belief, purpose, philosophy, and religion, Avalonians are generally diverse and open-minded. The Conceptual Interchanges function as both educational archives and public libraries, as well as serving as official forums for open education and discussion on the history of almost every idea, belief system, political ideology, or philosophy known to man. Do note however that debate for the purpose of 'winning arguments' is generally discouraged as unproductive. So long as an idea or system is not seen as antithetical to sapient rights or the pillars of Avalon, then it is tolerated and present on Avalon and has likely been synthesized and interpreted in ten thousand different ways. Religion specifically is a little more contentious, with the majority of Avalonians being some form of 'secularly spiritual', having a sense of spirituality but being somewhat loose or personal towards it, or maintaining religious traditions for cultural, historical or ritualistic purposes more so than out of genuine belief. The largest religions still present are Hinduism, Buddhism, Cascadism, Prophetism (a broad term for religions based on the teachings of one or more 'key prophets', individuals of supposed direct divine blessing by a specific deity), Neo-Paganism and Gaianism, and these collectively make up about 15% of the population.

---

GOVERNANCE & POLITICS: Since the fall of the Morgan-Lott corporation and the civil war that saw the destruction and outlawing of many of its most influential figures and 'true believers', the democratic, decentralized systems introduced in its wake and in the following centuries have been repeatedly tested - both by the internal debate baked into the system, and by physical dangers from both the planet and from outside of the system. Nevertheless, these systems have survived such tests, and have been reinforced as serving as the groundwork for Avalon's cultural and moral identity, and as symbols of pride and unity. The term pillar is used to describe these institutions based on three crucial merits -- the institution must be relevant in the daily lives of all people and with a clear societal function; the institution must contain formal democratic processes for representing the views and rights of its members; and it must have clear codes of conduct and standards of behaviour.

While technically each of the pillars functions independently of the others, in truth they are all deeply interconnected, and most Avalonians hold membership with several - if not all - such pillars at the same time.

• The Green Table of Avalon and Annwn: The closest thing Avalonian society has to a 'federal government', though this is a matter of contention - after the original 'homestead league' descended into authoritarianism, efforts were taken to reduce the power and authority of its replacement. The Green Table is primarily a mediating forum with some inter-homestead authority, serving as a means for all homesteads, syndicates, and interchanges to reach consensus and resolve disputes peacefully. Its leadership is elected from across Avalonian society, with long term times but no possibility for re-election. The Green Table maintains a central bank that mints the Avalonian shilling, the central currency of Avalon, as well as operating Avalon's small but capable unified navy and the knight-marshalls.
• The Homesteaders' League: Most people dwell within one of the many homesteads that dot Avalon’s surface or as habitats and stations in the asteroid belts or on dome-cities on Annwn's uninhabitable (but often industrially useful) planets and moons. These settlements vary in both size and self-sufficiency, but all are ruled via locally held elections in which members nominate and vote for new council members to govern the homestead. These handle decisions as regards local laws, infrastructure, and carefully balance the needs and situation of the homestead’s residents, and are together referred to as the homesteaders’ league. Each homestead possesses its own militia and naval forces, known as a merchant fleet.
  Homestead Examples

  
• The People's Syndicates: Most people who aren't fully self-employed or in partnerships are members of one of the many syndicates. These worker co-operatives handle specific industries or fields of interest and are primarily organized digitally, though syndicates focused on a specific regional or geographically relevant industry will often have a physical headquarters within the nearest homestead. They take on new “junior”, or trainee, members from among homestead residents who want to learn the relevant field, and once qualified these become “senior” members and are eligible to vote and put forth suggestions for the syndicate’s own council. Together, these are referred to as the peoples’ syndicates and function as Avalon's key economic power in contrast to the homesteads localized political power.
• The Conceptual Interchanges: Established in the wake of the gremlin emancipation as a way to discourage religious insularity, the conceptual interchange is organized both digitally and from a number of interchange archives based out of the largest and most interconnected homesteads. Here, individuals may study, discuss, and register new ideas as relating to various humanities subjects - belief systems, ideologies, philosophies, political ideas, religious rituals and traditions. Run by elected volunteers, the interchanges play an important role in Avalon's societal cohesion and education system, essentially functioning as interfaith temples, as spaces for public debate and discussion, as public libraries, as schools and universities, and as large community spaces.
• The Avalonian Gestalts: The nature of gestalt sapience and intelligence has led some to question whether they should be considered a 'pillar' of their own. However, the gestalts play a vital role in managing and monitoring the biosphere of Avalon, and the increasing normalization of both artificial gestalt implants and the use of communal gestalts as a kind of 'organic AI' has made them an invaluable part of daily life for many people.
• The Navy and the Knight-Marshalls: Something of a matter of contention within Avalonian political discussion is the role of Avalon's professional military. Both the navy and the knight-marshalls are technically sub-divisions of the Green Table, organizations ultimately subject to its head council - this is by design as the basic needs of a military organization are hierarchical and thus antithetical to the entire moral system on which Avalon has built its identity. However, given the vital role these organizations have played in the safety of Avalon and its people - and all the more so as the gates begin to reopen - there are some who argue they must be able to function with a greater degree of self-sufficiency, freed of the bureaucracy baked into so many of Avalon's systems.

Because all of these organizations are democratic in structure and the syndicates are only formed from unions with many members, it leads to a situation where all of the syndicates have at least some representation in any given homestead, and each homestead has at least some representation within the syndicates, and both are involved with an benefit from the conceptual interchanges and the gestalts. Likewise, all of these in turn have representation on the Green Table.

TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW: Avalon's technology has progressed in many areas in times of both war and peace, but the major advancements have been across the fields of...

• Robotics: Thanks in part to the advancements made by the old Free Republics from the study and reverse engineering of the drones and comet fragments of the machine swarm, Avalon's robotics technology has seen impressive growth. Generally, the creation of more 'recognizable' robots is limited to more localized or 'casual' projects as matter of creating simple automated tools and assistants, or as teaching tools for children and students. More advanced robots that make use of programmable matter as a means of adapting their form and tools for the needs of a situation see use both in space and in large construction projects, as well as in the navy and homestead militias as key force multipliers.
  An Avalonian spacer of the former 'Free Republic'-turned-homestead of Ra-Onoff

  
• Fabrication modules, nanotech, and programmable matter: The Morgann-Lott corporation was on the cutting edge of nanotech as a form of quick parts and construction manufacture on Old Earth, but the efforts of the Free Republics to maintain their independence - and especially with the study of machine swarm wreckage - led to drastic advancements. While the people of Avalon have never deciphered how to recreate the swarm's efficiency or self-sufficiency in full, most homesteads are equipped with at least one 'fabrication module' - a device that organizes a high-containment nanite swarm as part of manufacturing tools and parts as needed from a mixture of raw materials.
  A cutting edge drone built partially out of programmable matter, a crude imitation of the basic drones of the machine swarm

  
• Gene-therapy and genetic engineering: As a result of centuries of efforts to heal and restore Avalon's damaged biosphere, and from the efforts of the old gaian garden-temples on Nimue, improvements in genetic engineering have allowed for the tweaking of Avalon's biosphere, the gradual creation of new organisms, vastly improved nutritional and crop yields, or to slow senescence in many organisms.
• Vat-growth procedures: The creation of an adaptable, nutrient dense 'synthetic cellular mass' from specially cultured Avalonian protoplasm which in turn can be stimulated by the introduction of foreign DNA to 'clone' certain types of cells. At its most complex, this allowed for the original creation and then mass-production of gremlin eggs after their engineering by the Children of Gaia, but it has also allowed for such advancements as the nurturing and growth of replacement organs, limbs, and plasma 'nurtured' from a person that in turn be used as replacements with minimal conflict to the person's immune system. Between this and the use of gene-therapies to slow aging, the average Avalonian's life expectancy is measured in the range of 160 to 180 years.
• Artificial gestalts & mycelial information networks: The study and genetic tampering of Avalon's gestalts has allowed for a number of advancements, and following the use of artificial gestalt implants as a means to protect against aggressive gestalt infection, these saw increasingly widespread use given the benefits to memory, reaction times, and emotional stability. The use of artificial gestalts in localized computer networks and machinery control systems also grants users with implants the ability to directly share memories and thoughts with others in their community while 'plugged in', control machines and vehicles with more delicately and with faster reaction times, and to 'store' their memories for communal use, criminal investigation, or to aid in therapy.

MILITARY OVERVIEW: Despite the last century of peace and subsequent demilitarization that has occurred across much of the Annwn system, a history of conflict, the potential danger of fringe, extremist or criminal groups, as well as the need to keep vigilant, and the at times hostile nature of Avalon's biosphere, all necessitate some form of military. However, to avoid a centralization of power and the risks of an autocratic regime, the military structure of Annwn is broken up into broadly the following forms and branches:

• Green Table Navy: The professional aerospace military forces of the Annwn system, the navy has historically fought its fair share of peer engagements and piracy, but for the past century has largely taken on the role of patrol, monitoring, and emergency response and rescue efforts across the system. It is a fairly small force after almost a century of disarmament and repurposing - at its peak during the mid 27th century it totalled some 182 'large' vessels measuring almost a kilometre in length, and close to a thousand 'small' vessels a few hundred meters long, but by the end of the 28th century it maintains less than a tenth that total.
  
  Example Green Table naval vessels

  
• Monitoring Arrays: A key part of the Green Table's 'vigilant memorial' policy has been the establishment and maintenance of a large network of 'monitoring bouys' - long-range, deep space satellites and observatories, primarily across the moons of Bran, the outer asteroid belt, and the Nine Maidens. These are generally unarmed besides low-powered point defence systems for use against stray debris or small asteroids but serve as a 24/7 detection system for potential threats across and beyond the system, and allow for armed forces or rescue operations to respond as quickly as possible. Many of these bouys are automated, though part of the navy's role is in monitoring and necessary maintenance.
• Aerospace Cavalry: Primarily a result of the long war against the machines but having proved relevant in the conflicts to follow, the 'aerospace cavalry' is a network of 'reserve' vessels across the Annwn system primarily composed of gremlin and gestalt crewed carrier vessels designed to quickly deploy defensive swarms of armed drone units, rapidly gathering data against hypothetical enemy attack and to delay, redirect or sabotage attacks.
• Knight-Marshalls: The unified 'professional military' of the Green Table, drawn from volunteers across the Annwn system. Elite soldiers equipped with highly agile, armament-modified hardsuits commonly known as caliburn chassis, Knight-Marshalls primary military role is in zero-g or low gravity environments, though they are also expected to be skilled diplomats and virtuous towards others. While they thankfully only see occasional deployment outside of ceremonial occasions or training exercises, they serve as the crucial last resort in the event of situations that more localized forces cannot deal with.
  Caliburn Suit Examples (Knight-Marshalls)

  
• Homestead Merchant Fleets: Composed of both older naval vessels and newer civilian transports, the merchant fleets are operated by the larger homesteads and serve as means for orbital and offworld transport and trade, but also function as the expeditionary or military forces of a homestead with only minimal retrofitting.
  Cargo Frigate of Kilohaven's Merchant Fleet

  
• Homestead Militia: Self-defence, mutual aid training, emergency response, firearms training, first aid, and survival skills training are all normalized elements of Avalonian culture and education, especially on frontier settlements. These coupled with all homesteads maintaining a part-time volunteer militia program and the modular design of civilian and economic vehicles - vehicles designed to be retrofittable for military use if needed - means that most homesteads are capable of mustering a surprisingly large and competent combined arms military force in emergencies.
  Wilderness exploration surveillance vehicle with human pilot; note limited armament but potential for military retrofitting

  
• Aerospace Syndicates: A catch-all term for the syndicates involved in the construction, design, maintenance, repair and operation of satellites, space habitats, ships, stations and outposts, including much of the work involved in gas extraction and astromining across the asteroid belts and the planets and moons besides Avalon. Given the difficult nature of life and work in these environments, and the many years of dedicated training required, most of the 'aerospace syndicates' response for this work and training are highly self-sufficient and well-equipped to deal with both potential ship-to-ship combat or against hijackers and boarding parties. In emergency situations it's not been uncommon for aerospace syndicate personnel to be contracted out to support the navy or a merchant fleet.
• Ranger & Sheriff Syndicates: These categories of syndicate are both armed and well-trained for specific kinds of dangers on Avalon itself. The ranger syndicates primarily handle wilderness exploration, research, and the early groundwork in the establishment of new homesteads - they also often have to deal with strange or hostile wildlife, environments, and resolve potential territorial disputes with and between wild gestalts. Meanwhile the sheriff syndicates handle day-to-day security on important sites, investigates crime, gather evidence, and track down criminals and fugitives - sometimes also serving as an in-person representative or mediator between homesteads when needed.
  Avalonian rangers & example equipment

  
• Interchange Gestalt Commission: Of the five pillars, the conceptual interchanges are the most fundamentally peaceful in both structure and function. However, the nature of scientific advancement is that in can be used for war, especially on a planet where the very environment itself can in some sense 'think' and be reasoned with... or exploited. The gestalt commission is primarily a philosophical and 'diplomatic' initiative to maintain peace with the wild gestalts of Avalon and to better nurture and understand the artificial gestalts, but in emergency situations the commission is aware of means by which the wild gestalts can be manipulated, turning the very biosphere of Avalon against would-be invaders.
• Emergency Protoplasm Reserves: The gremlins were originally created to serve as an army, massively bolstering naval and ground force personnel with 'expendable', rapidly replaceable, durable and highly specialized 'savant'-like qualified infantry and support forces. Although the progress of sapient rights and the decentralization of military power, plus the century of peace, have both played a key role in granting gremlins their freedom and allowing them to manage their own affairs, reproduction, and choices of specialization within the system of the pillars as equal members of society... the Green Table and the Interchanges do still possess certain options. Deeply questionable and unethical options, but... options, never-the-less.
  Gremlin strains (military)

  
  

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MOOD MUSIC

@Eventua

Avalon is approved, obviously. Dump it in the char tab whenevers. Always glad to have a complex Even nation onboard.

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

@DX3214

So, reading over this sheet, I can see what you're going for on the whole and I like the general concept. We're going very "warlord" this time around ;P

But I do have some concerns. Your writing style in this sheet often lacks grammar or punctuation, and that makes it difficult to understand what you're saying. Especially during the more complicated bits, I can't really tell what you mean, and it's making me feel hesitant about approving you.

Your worldbuilding itself is fine. You've kept to Gateways themes well. Having a mythological and a non-mythological history was really smart- it's the kind of thing I wish that I'd thought of.

So I'm not rejecting your sheet, or asking for a rewrite. But still, it's difficult to read, so I think I need some assurance that you'll run your future posts through, for example, an internet grammar checker before posting IC. Something like Grammarly, maybe?

Oh, and this is a smaller issue, but-

Possibly a disaster event unleashed by the sun that caused electromagnetic storms across the entire star system. Possibly combined with AI rebellions causing a full on collapse with the sun becoming the instability oddity that it is today

I'm not fully sure what this means. Are you saying their sun has become unstable?

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

@SgtEasy

Approved. Monkee.

The Khanapes were one of the highlights of G1, and one of the nations I remember the most clearly from that time. It's excellent to see them again.

One small thing tho:

On the 299th Year since Landing, an opportunity came with the sudden opening of the gateway.

500th year. The timeline is bigger now- we have 5 centuries from Earth instead of 3. Also, a lot of the stuff you say immediately after this feels like it should be in your first IC post, not in your nation's history

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

I remember the first iteration, but I didn't have time for it. Do I dare try again?

@Sep

Dare you? Well, I definitely hope so. I see you around the guild pretty often. The Lorne Administration was fun.

If it helps at all, the first iteration of Gateways was unusually fast for an NRP. It's unlikely this will be as quick, and I don't enforce a particular posting order or speed.

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Omg this looks like fun! I get to create a whole new type of race and world to throw into this! Yes please

@BunniesOfDoom

Well, your username is awesome.

And yeah! Absolutely, we're glad to have you.

@BunniesOfDoom

Feel free to hop onto the Discord

@Enigmatik

>bunnies of doom
>"hop"

Aight

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

[reserved]

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Acerbus

Esoteric Temple of Acerbus

"Passion is Power; Seeing is Knowing"

Government Form:
Theocracy and Fractured Oligarchies

Population:
1.5 Billion

What is humanity?:
The human soul

---

Planet Name and Description:

Acerbus: a tidally-locked planet only slightly smaller than Earth, orbiting a k-type main sequence star (an "orange dwarf" named Algus, as a nod to its cooler temperatures compared to Sol) in a solar system populated primarily by gas giants and two asteroid belts. It is the only terrestrial planet in the system, though it has two large but uninhabitable moons. It was originally described to colonists as an "Earth analog," a planet which seemed to have similar traits to humanity's homeworld. It has a similar and breathable atmosphere, cool temperatures and a gravity resting at 0.82Gs. Like Earth, it is primarily ocean which, like Earth, is water. It's a little blue marble, filled with life. There are no continents on Acerbus, but instead many mountainous and volcanic islands. The Acerbian year is almost exactly the same length as the Earth year.

To the grievance of the colonists, the planet is more metal-poor than originally projected, with the asteroid belts being a more reliable source for useful metals in the system. Both its moons also contain more metal than Acerbus, though neither is as useful as the belts. A popular Acerbian poet described Acerbus as "The Beggar of Algus," and The Beggar has become a bitter nickname for Acerbus used by miners and rich men alike.

Being a tidally-locked planet, the world does not turn, meaning there is no day or night cycle. One half of the planet is always facing the sun and the other is always turned away from it, so there is perpetual 'day' on one side and perpetual 'night' on the other, with only a small band locked in constant twilight. As temperatures are high in the daylight, and the 'night' side is dark and frozen, the islands of that Twilight Band were marked out for colonization.

Unfortunately, as the colonists discovered, Acerbus is not the perfect mirror of their homeworld they felt they had been promised. Early expeditions discovered that the pollen released by local flora year-round triggers severe reactions in all humans, causing rash, severe irritation and discomfort and, over time, potentially fatal breathing issues. Further study uncovered that Acerbus soil struggles to grow Earth crops, and that while the local life is technically digestible, it has an bitter, unpleasant taste and causes prolonged stomach trouble. (Many Acerbians today believe this was the source of the planet's name, though it was actually named after the "harsh" acid rain caused by frequent volcanic eruptions.)

The local life can be challenging to categorize in part because much of what would appear to be flora or plant-life on Acerbus is, very unlike the plants of Earth, capable of locomotion. Some of it is also semi-aquatic, meaning that during a severe storm, one might watch a forest rise up out of the ocean and walk itself under an overhanging beachside cliff for shelter, completely remaking the local landscape. The Twilight Band which remains the primary area of human habitation suffers from such rains and storms frequently, and unpredictably.

It was not long after the colonists arrived on this shifting and difficult world that they realized they were not the only intelligence present.

Ceti - Sentient Natives

Ceti (singular: cetus) are the only sentient life discovered on Acerbus, an aquatic species native to the Low Dusk region, on the outskirts of the Twilight Band where the waters are becoming dark and cool. They are large enough that the first human colonists to spot one called them an "Acerbian Whale," though scholars believe the title was only a reference to their imposing size. Their morphology is too alien to make them cleanly analogous to one Earth species, but like much Acerbian life, they have the apparent traits of many different lifeforms familiar to humans. They are indeed whale-like in size, growing to be an average of 15 meters long and even in Acerbus' lighter gravity weighing up to 36 metric tons. A lightweight but strong crustacean shell covers their cetacean bulk, with four wide whale fins extending out from their sides and a fluke propelling them at the back. Varying numbers of tentacles extend down from their underbelly to grasp food or tools, but extend upwards into the shell when swimming.

They have a neck which stretches out from their main body for following prey into holes or getting into cracks in a shell, and a long narrow head which is protected by shell plates. They have three large, black and beady eyes jutting out on very short stalks. The lower portion of their face, around their mouth, sprouts with smaller sensory tentacles which are used for feeling, giving them a bearded appearance. They were also described by the first human colonists as "sea monsters."

Their sentience was discovered quickly, as they live in a kind of underwater stone age, with simple tools and a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Their level of technology was at first mistaken by the colonists as a sign of limited mental capacity, but the reality proved to be the opposite. Ceti are in fact considered "more intelligent" (in the sense of learning ability, problem-solving and creativity) than humans, and it's believed by most researchers that the only reason they have never developed a complex society or high technology is not because of a lack of intelligence but because of their lack of social instinct. They do not exist in groups. Therefore they can't cooperate with each other on the scale needed for technological progress.

Ceti are purely solitary predators, preying on the other large aquatic life of Low Dusk. Their tentacles are strong enough to crush the shells of the Mega-Nautilus which is their preferred prey, but they're known to let them live through the first few attempts. They often let their targets flee, catching them and scaring them and letting them go repeatedly, not at all unlike how a cat toys with its food. They sometimes rip a painful but non-vital body part off of their prey while it is still alive, and they don't mind doing this to humans that they find swimming in their waters. Based on observations of ceti body language, they seem to think our anatomy is fascinating. This seemingly sadistic behavior is mentioned here because it is an example of how ceti think and behave. They are curious and insightful, but rarely show empathy. They are incapable of any but one kind of social bond.

They reproduce asexually, and the one bond they form is with their newborn children, who they will care for at an early age. It is debated whether this maternal instinct is a one-off example of altruistic behavior or if it rises from a narcissistic desire to propagate a genetic "second self." They speak by vocalizations similar to whale song, called cetus-song, and teach their children the basics of survival. However, as soon as the child begins to grow to a threatening size, their mothers turn and run them off. If allowed to grow, they will eventually kill and consume their parent. The bond is apparently one-way.

This is the standard of life for ceti. So they don't share very much knowledge with each other or future generations, meaning that even if every individual ceti is a genius by human standards, any discovery they make stays only with them. It will die with them, if they die- but ceti do not die of age. Like the lobsters of Earth that their shell is so similar to, ceti do not weaken with age and continue to be healthy no matter how many years pass. There was one curious cetus who voluntarily helped human researchers translate their cetus-song into something comprehendible to humans, and among many other things claimed to be 2000 years old. Though it is uncertain how they could have measured years, without technology, in a world with no days and only subtle seasons. Most ceti are known to be liars.

Communication with ceti, when it happens, rarely is more fruitful than that. It perhaps should not be a surprise that they are untrusting and don't typically share information willingly, and are much more likely to find ways to learn from the humans they are speaking to. When introduced to a human idea or technology, they are capable of understanding it fairly quickly. Their personalities in conversation are sardonic and antagonistic- acerbic, you might say. They're prone to sarcasm.

The Temple currently limits contact with ceti, describing them as "monstrous and spiritless."

Demographics:

By Subspecies:
Vulgaris / Homo Acerbus: 56%
Marinus / Homo Marinus: 33%
Umbratilis / Homo Umbratilis: 11%

By Location:
Twilight Islanders: 89%
Nightside Islanders: 10%
Nightside Nomads: 1%
In Space (miners, naval): <1%

Homo Acerbus

All descendants of the original Acerbus colonists have been genetically modified for life on this challenging world, the resulting breed being called Homo Acerbus. The teaching of the Temple is that Acerbians are human, but the modification was intense enough that one would never mistake an Acerbian for a human of Earthly origins.

In order to move well in lower gravity, Acerbians are taller and thinner, frail-looking and towering compared to baseline humans. In order to bring their immune system in line with the deadly pollen and sickening food of Acerbus, some amount of alien DNA from Acerbian lifeforms has been incorporated into their genome. This did make the pollen tolerable (though it still itches) and the food edible (though most of it is still bitter to the palate), but an unintended impact of the modification was pale, dry and pallorous skin.

Playing with genes is of course not simple or even predictable, and aside from the papery skin, another side-effect of the process was the loss of hair: all Acerbians are bald. Flowing headdresses, especially for women, have filled the gap. More positively, all Acerbians are ambidextrous and have very quick, efficient motor skills, which is considered one of the few gene mods not to have had any unintended results.

But the same cannot be said for those alterations which dealt with the most complex organ in the human body. Acerbian genetic modification includes an arguably misguided attempt to improve on the human mind. The early goal was to increase intelligence, but the issue became that there is no one factor or one part of the brain that's responsible for what we call intelligence, just as there is no one thing clearly responsible for consciousness or self-awareness.

The geneticists only succeeded in enlarging and "speeding up" certain areas of the brain, which did indeed improve learning ability and problem-solving, but brought consequences. Although not necessarily better at academic work than baseliners, Acerbians are comparatively quick to pick up on new skills. They're also naturally insightful and perceptive and are, unfortunately, often mentally ill. Due to increased activity and pattern recognition, they are especially prone to mania, paranoia, obsessive personality disorders and something akin to moderately severe bipolar disorder. Regardless of diagnosis, most every Acerbian is unusually passionate by Earth standards and prone to extremes of emotion. The suicide rate among Acerbians is forty percent higher than it was among baseline humans.

The last change made to their mind is that Acerbians do not fully sleep. Instead, they enter a restful meditative state, in which half of their brain shuts down for one hour while the other half stays awake, and then they switch. The whales of Earth did something similar. Unlike the whales, during this meditation they still "dream," but these dreams present as lucid, vivid and powerful "visions"- sometimes they are beautiful, sometimes traumatic. Acerbians always remember them perfectly when their meditation is over. The Revelationist faith strongly encourages finding spiritual meaning in these visions.

The above description is the basic genetic modification of every human who lives on Acerbus. Acebians for whom these are the only modifications they have are called Vulgaris, meaning "common." There are two subsets of Acerbians who have more intense modifications in addition to these basic ones, and they are briefly overviewed below.

Homo Marinus

Acerbus is a watery world, moreso even than Earth which was majority ocean itself. The dampness is a constant and the majority of edible food lies underwater. Late in the time of the Forecaster, when it was clear that the early colonial society was heading for a complete collapse, a push was made to further acclimate humanity to a semiaquatic lifestyle. The hope was in allowing these new humans to thrive on Acerbus "natively," without strong technological or social support.

It was a partial success. Although not fully semiaquatic, Homo Marinus is equipped with slick, water-repellent fish skin, and they're slightly thicker than Vulgaris Acerbians with subcutaneous fat that insulates from the cold. A vastly improved lung capacity and enlarged spleen (for holding oxygenated red blood cells) allows for up to two hours under water before coming up for air.

Their hands are enlarged, and their fingers are of course webbed and function as fins. Their feet are also lengthened, webbed and fin-like, and they have an instinct for "locking" their legs together and spreading their feet in opposite directions in such a way that allows them to propel themselves when swimming like the fluke of a whale. They likewise can "lock" their elbows to their sides, as human arms are a little long to function as fins. Their ankle and wrist muscles are very powerful. A Homo Marinus can see as well underwater as above it, with large black pupils. Their sense of balance and motion has been reoriented to function in the "low gravity" world of water.

A common slur for Marinus is "fish-nose," which is a bit of a misnomer as they don't have full noses at all. They have a slight bump where their nose would be that opens into two vertical slit nostrils, which shut closed when submerged.

A slightly disturbing modification designed late in the process allows them to digest raw meat safely, and their many teeth are sharp.

Homo Umbratilis

Homo Umbratilis are a variant of Homo Marinus, which is itself a variant of Homo Acerbus, which is itself a variant of Homo Sapiens. Umbratilis is a modification of a modification of a modification of humanity. The four-armed, black-eyed Umbratilis are also the first Acerbian subspecies about whom the question "Are they still human?" has been seriously asked. Nobody has yet to provide a definitive answer, and for political reasons the Temple has refused to decide on it.

As Acerbus a tidally-locked world, most people live in the twilight zone where temperatures are most tolerable. The Umbratilis were created in an ambitious attempt less than a century ago to colonize the dark and cold "night" side of the planet. Homo Umbratilis is the only subspecies created after the fall of the Forecaster, in more modern times, so their alterations were made with a deeper understanding of Acerbus. In addition to everything done to the Vulgaris and Marinus strains, an Umbratilis is built especially for swimming in the cold and living in the dark.

Sensory modifications were a special focus here. Their eyes are twice the size of typical human eyes and completely black, specialized so much for seeing in the dark that daylight is intolerably blinding to them. Beneath their ears are two small holes that essentially function as another, more underwater-purposed ear. Though they can't breathe the water, they can take in some amount of seawater safely through their slit nostrils, which opens up the ability to smell underwater. This and the secondary ears were improved upon until Umbratilis could hear and smell far better when submerged than any human can on land.

They have a slowed metabolism which conserves heat and energy, but renders them not quite as quick as the other subspecies are known to be. Perhaps as a consolation, they are much larger, reaching 2.5 meters tall. This, combined with a layer of blubber to protect against the cold- making them the only Acerbian subspecies thicker than baseline humans- means they would weigh over four hundred pounds in Earth's old gravity. With muscles redesigned for pushing through the water, they are intensely strong.

Certain proteins help bodily fluids not to freeze, and increased blood flow to the extremities prevents frost bite. They have a second heart to facilitate this improved flow in light of their size. Redundant body parts were a theme on their creator's minds, since they have, infamously, a second set of arms. The idea behind these additional limbs, which also end in fin-like hands, was to allow them to alternate between propelling themselves forward underwater with each set.

Their appearance is considered frightening to other Acerbians, especially the Vulgaris Acerbians that are so noticeably closer to baseline humans. Umbratilis' unusual height, sharp teeth, four arms, wide and black eyes, fish skin, slit nostrils and physical bulk are used to villainize them in some Vulgaris-targeted Acerbian media. One insult aimed at them is "ogeres," a slur which originates from the French word "ogre." They primarily inhabit islands on the night side of Acerbus, though many live a nomadic life in fleets of aging industrial fishing vessels which serve as their homes.

History:

Artificial Wisdom

Years: 0-70

The history of Acerbus begins like the history of most human colonies. They had shot in a panic through the Gateway like every other colony ship, and had landed on an unpleasant and challenging world like many of them. The Gateway had closed shut behind them soon after, leaving the blackness of space and no way home. They were alone, cut-off, and frightened. This experience was the experience of so many of humanity’s scattered seed.

In those early decades, as they first landed on the soil of this bitter, damp and uncomfortable world, what set those who would become the Acerbians apart was the presence of the Forecaster: a powerful, experimental, semi-organic AI created by a cutting-edge genetics company called GENIE, whose executives had furnished the Algus Colony Ship in exchange for safe passage aboard it. It was a blatantly illegal creation, with several neural nets created as much by human-derived neurons as traditional electronics. It was fortunate for the Algus Colony Ship that the world governments had bigger issues on their hands in those days than one illegal AI.

This partly human machine was sold as something able to juggle the many complex numbers and choices of a burgeoning colonial effort, making “decisions with the accuracy of a supercomputer but the sentiments of a human.” It worked for seventy years.

During that time, the Forecaster became in a sense the real leader of the colony. The AI shouldered first the number-crunching work, then resource management, then larger goal-setting, and by year thirty was the primary decision maker of the entire Acerbian effort.

At this time Acerbus was still a united nation. The shortage of metal was, naturally, an immense issue, and it was made worse by the discovery that Acerbian “trees” did not produce useful wood. But the Forecaster always found workarounds: the cities were built of stone and utilized low-gravity to great effect, tools were made from animal bone and shell and other alternative materials, and plastic could always be created from fossil fuels. Humanity itself was in the process of being genetically modified to survive on Acerbus without technological support. Many studies endeavored to discover if high technology could be maintained long-term with limited metal, and the Forecaster itself ran constant simulations of that exact scenario. But this was when the problem began to show.

It was discovered that the GENIE executives (all of them dead of natural causes by now) had deeply exaggerated the longevity of such a machine. Most of the Forecaster’s human-derived components were failing, literally aging, and its decisions were less and less reliable. This was an apocalyptic issue, because at this stage the colony’s entire system relied on it. There had been talk of diversifying, or of creating a back-up, but the work of either option was monumental- so it had always been delayed. Now it was too late.

The Forecaster fell to a fatal error one day, right as it was supposedly on the cusp of finding a solution to Acerbus’ resource problems. And in less than a year the world was burning.

Blood and Metal

Years: 70-400

It was a second apocalypse, as the entire political, informational and infrastructural system of Acerbus crumbled over months. Across the various colonized islands of the Twilight Band, the power vacuum was filled by local authorities stepping up to assert control. But as the metal shortage was felt in its full brunt for the first time, few of them had the resources they needed to govern. This is how the raiding started.

From this point forward, the history of Acerbus is largely a history of raids, skirmishes, in-fighting and warring primarily over metal, but also over land and (something very rare on Acerbus) tolerable-tasting food. Each island became a world unto itself, which was only concerned with the well-being of itself. Warlords arose out of this endless conflict and became the true authorities of Acerbus.

Times were rough. When a large haul of metal or a valuable mine was won from an opposing island, a feast might be held and everyone would celebrate, but soon it would become clear that the warlord intended to use it only to supply his own militia- in order to go on more raids and press the advantage. Rarely was it put towards the people. Basic necessities ran low on all but the most fortunate islands. As access to healthcare became limited, Acerbian folk medicine was born. With edible food hoarded by the local warlord and their armies, what was left became communal. As historical data-banks were stripped for wiring, the past was forgotten and fell into oral tradition. Acerbian culture became warlike when it was clear that joining the raiding parties was the only way to progress in life.

In over three centuries of chaos, it should be no surprise that many found solace in faith. Ever since genetic modifications during the time of the Forecaster had stripped Acerbians of true sleep, vision-like experiences had replaced dreams. Now many small religions formed around them, bolstered by local folklore and oral tradition. These Vision-Cults were often lead by a local prophet who claimed the power to interpret people’s visions. Often, the warlord had a personal prophet in his house that interpreted visions and signs for him, advising him before great battles and on all spiritual matters.

Among these prophetically advised warlords was one Barbieri, a brutal but ingenious man who supposedly won his army in a one-on-one duel with the previous warlord. Historians used to suspect this story of being apocryphal. Now evidence points towards the duel being a real event, but rediscovered writings from the period suggest that Barbieri cheated.

Regardless, he began as the possessor of a small island who strategically played his rivals against one another, attacking opportunistically when they were at their weakest. He promised positions to any enemy commanders who defected to his side, but cut off the right hands and gouged out the right eyes of any who did not. As his reputation grew, many aligned themselves to him, and he expanded his power over the Twilight Band steadily. In time it was obvious to everyone that Barbieri had become a power large enough to function as the leader of Acerbus. As the other warlords were forced to accept the way history was moving, they fell in line- though not always without a struggle. All warlords now swore their fealty to Barbieri, who was titled the Victor.

Victor Barbieri established his dynasty and ruled Acerbus for the rest of his life. He pushed projects to revitalize the economy and improve interisland trade, but his special focus was on unifying the now disparate Acerbian people. One part of this was a movement to bring all the Vision-Cults into one cohesive faith, a single global religion which answered to Barbieri’s personal prophet. The religion which Barbieri’s prophet taught was known as Revelationism, first created by a now dead preacher called Sister-Mother Aurora, and it was made the faith of the world.

The Voice of Faith

Years: 400-Present

Of course, Barbieri eventually went the way of all humankind. Lying on his death bed, he passed his power to his only child, Alessia, who would succeed him as Victor. She was a little girl of only eight years old. At Barbieri’s funeral, the personal prophet whom he had made the religious leader of all Acerbus- a by now ancient man named Sergius Domino- promised to serve as the girl’s protector until she was of age to rule alone.

That time never came. Before she was ten, it was discovered that Alessia was horribly ill in some lifelong way. Acerbian medicine had not recovered enough to be capable of treating it. She would not reach adulthood.

Sergius Domino hid this. He temporized. While Alessia’s life faded, he cemented himself as a leader in every way he could, established connections with key warlords, and secretly prepared Revelationist ministers and faithful soldiers to rise up and make themselves an authority if ever the time came. And it did come, by Alessia’s twelfth birthday.

When it was heard the future Victor was dead, and there was no clear heir to replace her, local warlords who had previously been loyal to Barbieri threatened revolt. They saw this as a chance to regain their independence, and a return to the old ways before a Victor meddled with their affairs. Skirmishing and warring flared up again within only a few days. It was a promise of more bloodshed to come. A short, cynical senryu written by a poet from this time is titled "Acerbian History" and simply reads:

"First the world ended,
then the world ended and now-
the world is ending"

It was the Revelationist priesthood that prevented it.

Domino put himself forward as the new leader of Acerbus. It may not have worked, but he had established himself enough in the time of Alessia’s sickness, and had so prepared his loyal priests for this moment, that he at least had the ear of the warlords. He promised a return to stability if he was put in power, and for the warlord’s part he said he would make any who stayed loyal to him an “executor,” a governor with almost fully autonomous power over his own island. No more meddling. All they had to do was keep the peace, pay their tithes, and ensure the faithfulness of their populace. Almost gratefully, they agreed.

The ones who did not were conquered again by those who had. Their bodies were dismembered and dumped in the ocean to be eaten by ceti. Their islands are now ruled by Revelationist priests, officially called revelators.

That is the history of Acerbus, in short.

Since the Revelationist priesthood took authority, things have vastly improved. The revelators established a global order just capable enough to start rebuilding Acerbus after the many centuries of endless war. In an unexpected but fortunate turn of events, it's became clear that the priesthood tends to act in the better interest of the common people, which they depend upon even more than they do the support of the warlords-turned-executors. In this way healthcare has resumed, formal education has come back into existence, and a decent quality of life has been resurrected from the distant past. The priesthood is imperfect but, if nothing else, they’re kinder than the warlords.

For the first time, it looks like the sun may be about to rise in the Twilight Band.

Culture and Society:

For the last one hundred years, the "Sacrosanct Century," Acerbian culture has become dominated by their faith in their unique mythology. Below are the basics:

Revelationism

Revelationism was created by combining ancient mythology with early Acerbian spiritualism and folklore, with a deep influence from visions. It is a religion built around its myths and the implications inferred from them, often laden with double-meaning and esotericism. Its founder and Highest Prophet, the one who birthed the faith, was Sister-Mother Aurora, a woman obsessed with mythological stories and plagued by visions even more vivid than the Acerbian norm. She experienced visions even while waking, so that her life was constantly interrupted by events she considered to be divine instruction.

Though sizeable fragments of humanity's history had been lost to the chaos of the warlord era, she somehow managed to find a library of mythological stories and religious texts from all the major faiths of Earth. This event, too, she considered to be divine. She read them all. And, though they contradicted, she tried to believe them all.

At last her visions did the work of bringing together the disparate sacred stories in her mind, creating a single unified idea. She taught much of these things publicly to the curious masses and privately to her few but devout followers, but she wrote down nothing herself. Multiple accounts of her teachings arose from the writings of her students, which were eventually edited into verse and combined together into the Sacrosanct Songbook, a long music-like poem that provides the entirety of Revelationist mythology and its foundational principles. It was in this tradition that Sergius Domino, the first theocratic ruler of Acerbus, was raised.

Sister-Mother Aurora did not live to see her religion truly bloom. But in the decades after her death, as her followers rose to the heights of power at the side of the Victor and scattered her vision across the world, it would become the faith of all Acerbus. It would also split and crack under its own newfound weight, as sects emerged and beliefs diverged. There are today many secondary books after the Sacrosanct Songbook, a large apocrypha of supposed sayings of the Sister-Mother, of mystical vision journeys, of teachings from other self-proclaimed prophets, of new interpretations created by both theologians and wandering wisemen. Which of these secondary texts a particular Revelationist accepts and which they reject largely defines their denomination, the sort of Revelationist that they are. It is not at all uniform.

But all accept the Sacrosanct Songbook.

It describes the gods of Revelationism in poetic terms but immense detail, and calls them "The Gods Behind The Gods." This term is used because a principle belief of Revelationism is that all other deities are reflections, echoes, or children of its own deities. It revolves around the idea that the gods of Earthly mythologies, like Thor or Ra, are representatives of the true gods. In this way all mythologies and religions are real, in a sense. But those who still believe in them must be brought to realize that their gods exist beneath that which is truly divine, the Gods Behind The Gods.

It was the belief of Sister-Mother Aurora that they never revealed themselves directly to humans before the Fall of Earth because mankind was not yet ready. Earth and all its religions were intended for humanity to grow and mature enough that we could one day meet the true gods. Our passing through the Gateways is likened in her language to our birth, our exiting out of the "womb" of Earth into the cosmos proper. Now that we have passed through the void and been touched by the starlight, humanity is finally born, and is at long last ready to learn the truth.

With all of this imagery related to birth and children, it may not surprising that the Gods Behind The Gods are also called the Cosmic Mothers.

The Cosmic Mothers and Brothers

Every citizen of Acerbus is required to profess and believe in the three Cosmic Mothers, who created the universe and will destroy it, as well as the six Cosmic Brothers who are their children.

Note: It is not considered blasphemous, and is in fact encouraged, to translate the names of Revelationism's gods into the language of the reader/listener. As a result, the names of the Cosmic Mothers and Cosmic Brothers are presented in English rather than Novum Vulgaris.

The Cosmic Mothers are as follows:

The Bearer: The goddess that formed the cosmos in Her belly, and then birthed it into existence. She embodies creation, and that which was. She is the original, first Cosmic Mother; the other two come to existence in the universe which she births. She is portrayed in art as a woman with many eyes, often weeping.

The Sufferer: The goddess that embodies reality, and that which is. The Sufferer's body is the universe itself, the stars and every atom. She is everything that will happen between the creation of the universe and the end of it. She is portrayed in art as a woman with many faces.

The Swallower: The goddess that embodies uncreation, and that which will be. The Swallower's body is the void between stars and the space between atoms. She is the end of the universe and the destruction of all things. She is portrayed in art as a woman with many arms, whose entire face is a mouth, because she will one day swallow up the universe and all things will cease to exist within her stomach.

When the universe was first created, it was flawless. The spiritual world and the material world existed as one. But the Swallower, who is Nothing, became envious of the Sufferer, who is Everything, and- depending on the telling- either cut her with a poisoned dagger or bit her with venomous fangs. The venom seeped into the Sufferer, sickening her and "making her mind bitter." This drove her to madness. The Sufferer's Madness is the cause of everything wrong with reality, from disease to entropy, and it can never be cured until the universe is swallowed up again.

When the Bearer saw that the Sufferer has been driven mad, she said "Oh gods, oh sisters, what have you done?" She then split the spiritual world from the material world to protect it from the Sufferer's madness. There she has fled, awaiting the time when the Swallower ends creation.

After the Swallower consumes the universe, she will sit in an empty place and ponder. After eons which cannot be counted, she will come to regret that she consumed all there was, and the moment she feels this regret, a change will begin in her. The dead universe in her belly will boil with the heat of all the suns she swallowed, and in that heat and pressure will form a new universe. The Swallower will transform into The Bearer, and will birth the universe, restarting the cycle.

So the cosmos is in a constant cycle of creation and destruction, of being birthed by the Bearer, embodied by the Sufferer and swallowed by the Swallower, who then turns into the Bearer and starts it all over again.

And the Cosmic Brothers, their children:

Weeper: The first-born son of the Bearer, also described as her eyes. Ever since the Swallower poisoned the Sufferer, he looks upon the broken state of the universe and cries out day and night. He embodies perfection, and thereby cannot fully manifest himself in this now broken cosmos. He is portrayed as an older man with a scar across his face, and eyes red or swollen from crying.

Whisperer: The second-born son of the Bearer, also described as her mouth. He is the god who speaks into the hearts of humanity, telling us that we were made for a better world. He embodies all that is still good about the cosmos. All our sense of morality comes from the Whisperer, as he is the voice of conscience that tells us how we would act in a perfect world, and so how we must act for this world to be improved. He is portrayed as a young man with a single eye and an open mouth.

---

Seer: The first-born son of the Sufferer, also described as her eyes. He is the god who witnesses and records the passing of the ages from creation until destruction. He embodies time. He is portrayed as a very old man, weary and often leaning on a cane, for time is now very old and the end is close at hand.

Screecher: The second-born son of the Sufferer, also described as her mouth. The poison that drove his mother mad also entered him, and he screams out always in agony because of it. He embodies that which has become bad about the cosmos. He is portrayed as a sick or crippled man.

---

Eater: The first-born son of the Swallower, also described as her stomach. (The Swallower has no eyes, and is blind.) The Eater is the Swallower's favorite son, the purest representation of her soul. He embodies the end of time. He aids his mother in concluding all things, and is the being which takes a deceased human soul into his mother. He is portrayed as an executioner.

Liar: The second-born son of the Swallower, also described as her mouth. He embodies imperfection. He is named the Liar because he is a trickster and a deceiver who works to undo the cosmos by introducing falsehood into it, and must be resisted. He is the antitype of the Whisperer. He is never portrayed in any form.

The gods of other mythologies are considered to simultaneously be the shadows, the reflections, the echoes, and the children of the Brothers. So, for example, Loki is a child of the Liar. Enki is a child of the Whisperer. And so on.

That is how the mythology goes. But in a more practical sense, what the Revelationist faith most calls its followers to do is:

1.) Repeat rituals until the Swallower comes, for the healing of their souls and society.
2.) Accept the coming of the Swallower, which means accepting all things and reaching a state of inner peace.
3.) Obey the Whisperer but resist the Liar, which means behaving properly
4.) Work through their spiritual imperfections, which in most cases equates to a kind of religious therapy
5.) See beyond the veil between the material and spiritual world, whether it be by meditation or by highs of emotional experience or by mind-altering substance usage.

Those who walk the path and achieve a state of transcendence before their deaths, after they have passed away, are believed to become a transcendent spirit, an eternal part of the universe which will remain whole when the Swallower consumes it all. They will pass through her belly and into the next world both as themselves and as a foundational part of the cosmos.

So the Acerbians remain a peculiar people, difficult to classify by the boundaries of Old Earth. Their mythology incorporates elements from disunified Earthly cultures, and even outside of their faith, strenuous genetic modification has made them unidentified with any one ethnicity. They've accidentally become something a bit unique.

Although their islands are covered with high-reaching stone cities and therefore highly urbanized, community is alive and well and is one of the most vital things to understand about the Acerbian lifestyle. Communal music, oral storytelling and spoken poetry are immensely popular despite computerized entertainment, especially when accompanied by the mind-altering substances which can be obtained legally from low-ranking revelators. It's arguably one of the only benefits to come out of the warlord era: when food was scarce, people survived by banding into close-knit communes that existed within the chaos of a city. Most Acerbians still eat dinner and spend time each night in a large group of 5-10 families (called a circulus) which comprises the core of their social life. Most residential buildings in Acerbian cities are built with the circulus in mind.

At home with their circulus they dress comfortably, but abroad in the stony streets Acerbians have a very formal style. Early on in their history, Acerbians had to wear clothes to cover their entire body for protection from the pollen. Even now the pollen is still a discomfort. Robes and other flowing, covering clothes are normal on Acerbus, and many people both men and women wear veils over their faces. This is only partly religious and largely practical: a veil helps with the frustrating pollen and the difficult-to-predict rain immensely, as the material is most often water-repellant. Gloves of a similar material are also popular in a world where every surface tends to be damp.

Acerbians speak a unique language: Novum Vulgaris ("New Common"), a blending of something like Ecclesiastical Latin with heavy Italian and English influences. It's creation has to do with a half-successful attempt from the Forecaster to institute a resurrected Latin as the official language of Acerbus, and with the simple fact that many of the early colonists spoke Italian or English.

One thing Acerbians hold to which will feel more familiar to traditional human cultures is a strong sense of personal honor. This was formed in the combative warlord centuries and then made concrete by Revelationism and its rules, and is enforced by the social pressure of a circulus. Roughly seventy years ago, a retired executor and military veteran named Ex. Davide Taylo wrote "The Code of Bitter Honor," a collection of proverbs and maxims that incapsulated the spirit of Acerbian honor. Its strictures have rapidly become a part of the backbone of proper behavior, and every young Acerbian who takes their reputation seriously memorizes it. Lethal duels are fought over breaches of it.

The quintessential Acerbian is indeed passionate and mercurial enough to end a life in a duel, but surprisingly rigid in his outwards behaviors. He is quick to befriend or curse, stormy, prone to both ecstatic visions and lifelong feuds, but loyal to his fellows and his beliefs and his island even at great harm to himself. His sense of right and wrong is defined by the expectations of those around him. One poet called Acerbians "Fires in a brick cage."

Governance and Politics:

Acerbians have endured the chaos of many changing-of-hands in terms of their governance, with the one common thread being that the regular citizen has never had any say in it. That is not likely to change soon. But as things stand, the balance of power is slightly odd.

The Revelationist priesthood, the revelators, runs things on the national level. In the official sense, Acerbus is a theocracy led by the Temple Gathering, a senate-like legislative body comprised of high-ranking revelators. The Temple Gathering is headed up by the Sacrosanct Orator, a single revelator elected by his or her peers for a lifetime- the Acerbian equivalent to a pope and a president. The office of the Sacrosanct Orator has been gaining power for decades now and is starting to exert more and more control over the Temple Gathering as a whole.

Where the cracks start to show is on the local level. While the priests lead the nation on paper, the majority of the individual islands are not led by a high revelator but rather by an executor, an Acerbian term for a kind of governor. While executors must remain loyal to the priesthood, this is technically a secular office, descendent from the warlords of old.

Because executors are given surprisingly vast powers over their own islands, the politics and laws of each individual Acerbian island vary greatly depending on which executor is in charge. A lucky few are almost democratic; several more are still militant and dictatorial, though the priesthood has shown itself able to step in if it becomes too problematic. Many are simply quiet aristocracies, with a ruling family that passes along the executor title through the generations and keeps their people loyal with bread and circuses. There is no single rule of thumb for the politics of each island.

Executors can and do still fight one another, just as their warlord ancestors did. Though with the Temple Gathering overwatching the world now, the priesthood is able to enforce enough civility as to keep these conflicts down to the level of skirmishes rather than wars, many of which are now over social issues as much as over resources- family feuds, religious dominations and the like. In this way the priesthood convincingly claims to be a force for good on Acerbus. The time of wars and horrors is over, they can proudly say.

It's half true. While conflict on the ground is rarer and softer than it has been since the fall of the Forecaster, it has begun for the first time in outer space. The warlords fought so much over metal because they did not have the ability to reach the asteroid belt. In the stronger economy and reclaimed technology of modern Acerbus, the executors and the revelators are able to reach it, and there they are always having space naval skirmishes with one another over territories and mining zones. But these tiny wars up in the stars are seen almost as a game, happening far above the heads of the people whose names they are waged in, and the normal populace is barely aware of them.

Technology Overview:

Acerbus has had a lopsided, starting-and-stopping approach to technological advancement through its history. Early, when research was mostly under the dictation of the Forecaster, the emphasis was on genetic tampering, on cloning, and on ecological studies of their strange planet, all in an attempt to bring humanity and Acerbus into some kind of coexistence. Strides have continued to be made in these fields although the time of the warlords and the pressures of that period, when schools were converted into military academies and research centers into fortresses, temporarily put a stop to it. In the modern day, Acerbus has enjoyed a boom in the field of neurology. Some modest advancements have also been made in naval warfare, especially as it pertains to AI, which will be explained in the military overview. Outside of these bright spots, however, Acerbians should be assumed to be struggling technologically. All its eggs are in very specific baskets.

A few stand-out examples of ETA's "bright spots" of technology are detailed below.

Re-education and Mental Mapping:

Acerbians have made great advancements in re-education and mental rehabilitation over the last century. They've particularly developed tools to 'read' the human mind, scanning a patient's brain and being able to analyze their behavioral patterns and choices, vision/dream activity, areas of trauma or overactivity, and so on.

It can be used to understand and treat conditions like PTSD or psychotic and mood disorders in ways that have never been possible before. It is in large parts thanks to this that the priesthood has been able to curb addiction under their rule while still allowing mind-altering substances as part of religious ritual.

But, recently, it is also used by the authorities- strict executors or tyrannical revelators- to understand and "treat" dissident thought, to forcefully cure rebellious forces or problematic individuals of their views. This is not like the clumsy attempts at re-education tried in the past. Re-education today is a sophisticated process of prescribed drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, psychotropic substances administered in the right doses, forced and manufactured religious experiences and, at last, the liberal application of suggestive ideas to a sufficiently broken mind.

A human being cannot be remade overnight. But with the right tools, a memory can be altered, a new idea can be implanted, an identity can be lifted or lowered: and with that, the remaking can begin. Its use is deeply controversial, especially as the revelators try to maintain their reputation as a force for good. But it has proven so useful for dealing with heretics and nonbelievers that it has yet to be outlawed. The words of a poet that had gone through such a process were simply:

"They swallowed my memories
but left alone my memories
of the swallowing"

Digitized Ancestors:

It began as failed attempts to transfer a human consciousness into another body, biological or mechanical. These trials were ordered in the days of Victor Barbieri, when the faith was still in its adolescence and the Victor had a desire to see his world progress (and, perhaps, to make himself live forever.) Though they never were able to make a complete transfer of a person's mind from one body to another, they found that they could get "little pieces" of them across, as one researcher phrased it. A few memories, their speech patterns, the most consistent traits of their personalities- described by an Acerbian poet as "a small and broken ghost."

This "ghost" was never enough to inhabit a body. But placed into a computer simulation, it could talk to you, almost how the person would have talked. Later in history, as the revelators took over, there was hot debate for decades about whether this, this shattered fragment, was the person's captured soul. It was decided that it is not. At least not all the way. But, by a sermon from the Sacrosanct Orator delivered to the Temple Gathering and a subsequent vote making it law, it is considered a small piece of their spirit.

In this way the Digitized Ancestors were introduced. They are scans of a deceased person's mind, kept preserved in databanks and called up again when one of their descendants needs to consult them for advice. A revelationist might still speak to his great-grandmother or, phrased in his own beliefs, a remnant of her spirit. The dead are not inaccessible.

Medical Advancements and Shedding:

This is a tame usage of cloning, and the same genetic modification which created the Acerbian subspecies. Aging has always been a terror to humans of any world. Revelationists do not believe that the physical body should last forever, but most denominations (the Umbratilis Nomads take exception, as do some who emphasize the Swallower) don't forbid extending its lifespan for some time. Shedding is the usage of cloned body parts- livers, joints, ears and eyes- to replace failing ones. For one instance, an Acerbian reaching old age will often have his doctor prescribe a new heart. New skin grafts are popular for hiding the appearance of aging, and certain mental illnesses or brain damage can also be treated by replacing the problematic section of a patient's brain.

Replacing failing organs won't extend a lifespan forever. However, one undeniably positive change the priesthood has implemented is to make healthcare free for all Acerbians regardless of their executor, and modern citizens who stay in good upkeep combined with genetic treatments are now projected to reach over two-hundred years of age.

Genetic Modification:

The technology used to genetically modify the early Acerbians is very old now, and has been improved upon only slightly. It was created by the GENIE corporation as a secondary way of securing safe passage aboard the colony ship, in case the Forecaster didn't live up to expectations. It is seen almost as magic by the Acerbians of today, but some experts exist who can still make the ancient gene labs function. The process is expensive and somewhat inefficient, requiring much time and funding, and its unlikely they will create anything more extreme or more efficient than what is shown in the Homo Umbratilis. Nonetheless it should be possible for the Acerbians to create new subspecies of themselves or others if the need arises, and if they are given time.

Military Overview:

Space Navy

The newly begun space naval warfare in Algus is taking a shape not unlike the submarine-vs-submarine warfare of Earth's past, largely waged at great distances and concluded by the delivery of an explosive payload. In honor of that tradition, they call these payloads torpedoes, not missiles. Because space is infinitely large and yet the Algus system in particular is often "crowded" by asteroids and ships- and by gas giants whose massive gravitational pull throws off passing torpedoes- Acerbian torpedo guidance systems have become advanced and exacting. Really, the torpedoes of Acerbian forces are AI-controlled "smart torpedoes" that make decisions, guide themselves through complex maneuvers, and have an understanding of what they are doing. Usually they know the name and psychological profile of the enemy commander. They understand intrinsically how to maximize for the most efficient destruction of the target.

Due to the impressive results that Acerbian torpedo technology tends to achieve, EMP devices and point-defense have become critical, the first to disrupt their internal systems and the second to shoot them down. Like their targets, both are typically AI-controlled in modern battles. In order to get around these defenses, some vessels have begun to use long-distance railguns which shoot heavy, powerful bullets that cannot be targeted by point-defense and have no electronics for an EMP to confuse. But thankfully for those hit by them, these are not quite as powerful and devastating as a torpedo against the hull. Acerbian hulls in general are as thick as the metal economy will allow them to be.

Scanners are deeply important to victory in battles fought at such distances- as are the devices which confuse them. Many Acerbian vessels which seem obvious make themselves "invisible" by so disorienting the scanners of other vessels that their location, out in the vast void of space, cannot be ascertained. In more desperate situations, they have an emergency "silent mode" which kills non-vital systems on board the ship and slows venting heat out into space, reducing the footprint which other vessels are hoping to pick up on.

When it comes to conflict with other nations, Acerbus' vessels will seem stealthy, prone to attacking at a distance with brutal, AI-run explosives, trying to conclude the battle quickly before they can be pinned down. They will be found at last hidden behind a moon or a cluster of asteroids.

Infantry

Infantry has been pivotal to Acerbian history, unlike the modern skirmishes of space naval combat, but it has changed only a little in that time. Because most islands on the Twilight Band are primarily covered by dense, towering cities, Acerbian forces excel at urban combat and vertical mobility. Jetpacks have been brought up to the point of actual effectiveness and ease-of-use, and every respectable Acerbian army has a few units carrying them. Jetpacks or no, Acerbians armies are usually organized into small and highly mobile units kept well-funded by their executor or by their high revelator, as the case may be. They are equipped with good guns, grenades, bulletproof vests, and the other expected tools of war, but also occasionally with short swords for the close-quarter scraps and spiraling duels that are so common on crowded Acerbian streets.

Like their space naval counterparts, during pressing times it's not uncommon for Acerbian soldiers to hide in their environment, in their case by wearing civilian clothes and carrying concealed weaponry. Many executors have started to press in on a neighbor's island only to find their genetically altered minds coming to paranoia at the uncertainty of who is a fighter and who is not. The only Acerbian soldiers are who really advertise themselves are those who wear corazza, a form of lightweight but versatile power armor- only commanders or the relatives of executors and revelators are ever equipped with corazza. Besides mobility and protection, it's used as a way of declaring the owner to be important enough to ransom instead of killing.

Air

Because the majority of islands in the Twilight Band are mostly urban, and the wet navy is an important presence, Acerbian air forces have been developed greatly in two specific directions.

The first kind are light craft able to fly at low altitudes and maneuver quickly through tight urban spaces. In the warlord past such designs often carried bombs for sudden, explosive terror attacks that menaced the civilian population. The Temple has outlawed such practices in modern Acerbus. Now precise weaponry is a necessity to minimize accidental collateral damage, and prevent the waste of valuable metal ammunition. As technology has been reclaimed and improved, the modern crafts are often unmanned.

The other kind are ship-killers. Nearly as small and fast, and equipped with smart missiles.

A brief note on the Aquatic Navy

Living on an oceanic world with a violent past and a sometimes difficult present, the ETA has developed vessels such as warships and submarines to a high degree, even more than they have infantry or space naval techniques. However, because it is unlikely that another colony will ever have an aquatic naval battle with Acerbus, the Aquatic Navy has been left out of this overview.

Uh, imagine metal-efficient but well-built warships and powerful submarines, and more stuff about smart torpedoes. An Acerbian poet once said--

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

_{In the centuries between Earth and now, how have you changed? What have you become?}

Earth is gone. It passed away with a whimper, not a bang, in the throes of nuclear war, famine and pestilence. Whatever is left of that travesty can barely sustain life.

But it did give us one last gift before the end. Desperate world governments, equipped with the best of human technology and working in a bid for survival, threw the last of their resources into the making of the Gateway. A massive artificial wormhole, leading to countless different potentially habitable worlds. The creation of the Gateway was no less than a technological miracle, and it has never been replicated. Colony ships from all nations and cultures and peoples were sent haphazardly through, in the hope of finding another home. Humanity was scattered like seeds across the Milky Way: separated from each other, lost, but determined to survive.

And now, five hundred years later, we've found one another again.

---

General Idea

For me, the most interesting part about NRP has always been the interactions between different cultures. How does the warmonger from a brutal world react when he sees a pacifist utopia? What happens when a group of religious faithful meet a society of militant atheists?

That's what I want to focus on in this RP. We'll each be taking on the role of a different colony established by Earth about five hundred years ago. We were sent through an artificial wormhole generator to our current homes, but after the fall of Earth, the generator ceased to function, leaving each colony completely cut off from the rest of humanity.

Now think about how your colony might have evolved during this time. Did they land on a harsh world, and use cybernetic enhancements to survive? Are they ruled over by a technocratic dictator, by an incomprehensible alien authority, by a gene-modded racial hierarchy? Do they even consider themselves to be human anymore? I want this to be heavily divergent, so your imagination is the limit.

Now, for reasons unknown, the Gateway system has started to function again. All at once, an artificial wormhole has appeared again in the system of each of our colonies, and that Gateway leads both back to Earth and to every other system. For the first time in five centuries, our poor little colonies will be sending their ships across their Gateways and finding one another. And personally, I think it could be pretty fun to RP these early 'first contact' interactions. Seeing how our different people respond to one another. And I'm not opposed to anything; war, trade, diplomacy, or whatever else.

To conclude this overview, I'll leave you with a quote from my co-GM, Enigmatik:

This is primarily an RP about cultures and nations interacting with one another. In the hundreds of years since the closing of the Gateways, each colony will have developed and changed in unique and variable ways. Although nominally one people, humanity is now split into countless fragments, each led in different ways, speaking different languages, with different beliefs. In this RP, it is up to you if your people will face this new galaxy with optimism, or a smoking gun.

---

Prior Iterations and Theme

I wouldn't be surprised if the title of this game or this OP feels vaguely familiar to you.

This is not the first Through the Gateways RP. Coming up on 4 years ago, I posted Through the Gateways: Humanity. About another year later and my co-GM from that game created a second RP, Gateways: The Next Generation. (There was also a brief fantasy spin-off that I'm only slightly ashamed of.)

Both prior Gateways games were fairly successful, with a dedicated player community. But! This is a new game, starting fresh, and I'm hoping to emphasize the voices and ideas of new players in this one. So if you're joining for the first time, consider yourself very welcome. This is not a sequel. You won't need to know anything from the previous games to write with us. This is a fresh start.

The first Gateways game was named "Through the Gateways: Humanity" because I wanted to explore how human culture would have changed after centuries away from Earth. That is still a central idea here. However, this one is "Through the Gateways: Inhumanity," because a secondary theme I'm hoping to emphasize in this iteration is how humans might have had to modify ourselves, integrate with aliens, or develop completely new ways of living. So feel free to come up with your strangest ideas about what has happened to the colonists since leaving Earth. It is not at all necessary that all nation sheets fit this theme, however, it is merely one potential idea to start off your worldbuilding.

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On Joining and Leaving:

If someone wants to join after the game has already begun, I will simply say that the Gateway leading to their colony has only now opened. Likewise, if someone leaves or goes MIA, we can say the their colony's Gateway just shut down as mysteriously as it had reactivated. In this way, the Gateways NRPs have always been able to accept new players whenever, and survive losses without grinding to a halt.

---

Interested?

Nation Sheet below.

Nation Sheet

[center][color=coral][h2]Nation Name Goes Here[/h2][/color]

[img]Flag or other representative image can go here[/img]

[h3]"If your nation has a flavor quote/motto, it goes here"[/h3]

[color=00aeef]Government Form[/color]:
(Presidential Democracy? Anarcho-whateverism? Caliphate? Whoever collects the most edible food is in charge? Or anything else you can think of.)

[color=00aeef]Population[/color]:
(Across this much time, and with the vastly different environments that colonies may have ended up with, population is almost impossible to guesstimate. I'm including a size scale here to function as a broad standard, but it's possible to have a nation that is much lower or higher than these recommended numbers so long as there is good reason for it. In general, it's easier to get an unusually small nation approved than an unusually large one.

The size scale is as follows:

Hundreds of Millions: Small

1-3 Billion: Medium

3-5 Billion: Large

More Than 5 Billion: Very Large

[color=00aeef]What is humanity?[/color]:
In keeping with the theme for this RP, I'd like you to consider what your nation thinks of humanity. Just a short one or two line answer. You are always free and encouraged to expound more upon their philosophy in the culture section.

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[/center]

[color=39b54a]Planet/System Name and Description[/color]: (So where did your Colony end up? What's the environment like? This is the place to include both the planet(s) they inhabit and also any information you want to include about their star system. If they went through the Gateway only to find there was no habitable world here at all, this is also the place to talk about how they've survived that)

[color=39b54a]Demographics[/color]: (For talking about how much of the population belongs to different groups/ethnicities/religions/whatever. This space can also be used for describing genetic/cybernetic modifications your people have done, subspecies that have been created, aliens that may have been integrated, and so on.)

[color=39b54a]History[/color]: (What happened after your Colony landed? This can be as brief or detailed as you like. Just try to give us a feel of the nation)

[color=39b54a]Culture and Society[/color]: (How do they live? Anything from ritual cannibals, to a surveillance state dystopia, to an integrated hivemind.)

[center]
---
[/center]

[color=f7941d]Governance and Politics[/color]: (Like the government form field, but more room for detail. If your Colony has changed in such a way that it doesn't even have a government or politics anymore, this is also a good place to talk about that.)

[color=f7941d]Technology Overview[/color]: (What have your people invented? Or have they forgotten anything?)

[color=f7941d]Military Overview[/color]: (This is the space to talk about any offensive capabilities you have. Given that most of these Colonies have been essentially stranded by themselves for five centuries, I don't imagine anyone has a large "conquer other planets" level fleet yet. But maybe your Colony has been in civil war for a hundred years, and has built up an impressive military in that time. Or maybe they even had to fend off a genuine alien invasion.)

[center]
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[/center]
[color=ec008c]Additional Info[/color]: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.)

Feel free to add new sections or change around NS formatting as needed.

Joining the Discord is strongly recommended, even if you don't intend to talk often, as it's where the majority of planning, news and OOC interaction about the RP will take place: discord.gg/6zAXNgzPWS

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Technology Guide

Tech Guide

Over the previous Gateways games, the standard level of technology shifted. We started off rather soft sci-fi, and then became harder over time as the community around the game developed its own rules. Now we have slowly settled into a middle-ground.

As a rule of thumb: you don't have to be hard sci-fi, but try to keep it plausible.

Standard sci-fi tropes which improve player ease-of-use, like artificial gravity aboard spaceships and FTL communications, are generally accepted. If you feel uncertain about something, feel free to ask in the Discord.

P.S. Don't be too surprised if the technology level between different colonies feels a little inconsistent. Within the RP, these colonies have developed independently for 500 years, so some may be more advanced/unadvanced than others in surprising ways. And outside of the RP, players have different concepts they wish to focus on for their particular nations. Expect the tech level to feel like multiple different settings colliding.

Gateway/FTL Guide

Limitations regarding the Gateways and FTL travel as a whole are below.

1. FTL travel other than the Gateways does not currently exist.
The reasoning here is just so that our colonies have not spread too far beyond their own star systems, putting everyone on the same footing and preventing anyone from starting the game with a massive galaxy-spanning empire already in place.

2. Every Gateway can lead to every other Gateway.
Each system has a Gateway control platform on its end that uplinks with any ships still using technology even vaguely descendant from Earth, allowing them to choose their destination. This means that every Colony can get to every other Colony, so that none of us are prevented from interacting with one another because we're not close enough together on a map. It saves a lot of time.

3. Since the fall of Earth, the technology to create more Gateways has been lost.
Similar reasoning as the first one. This is just to prevent anyone from already having spread too far from where they started.

4. One may only communicate through the Gateways with colonies one has already met.
This is to encourage meeting other nations by visiting them, rather than only talking through the Gateway. However, it's assumed that after you've met that you can communicate across the Gateways with one another.

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FAQ and Rules

FAQ

Q: Is space magic allowed?
A: Broadly speaking, no, but Clarke's Third Law is in full effect.

Q: Can we meet other Colonies through methods other than the Gateway?
A: No. We do not have FTL other than the Gateways, and humanity is spread out across an unimaginable distance. It would take centuries of travel to bump into another human settlement. And more bluntly put: the theme of this RP revolves around the Gateways, so naturally other forms of travel are limited.

Q: Can we communicate through the Gateways?
A: Yes, but only with Colonies you have met already.

Q: Are aliens allowed?
A: Yes, although the colony itself must have been founded by humans.

Q: The technology level seems inconsistent.
A: It is. Within the RP, these Colonies have developed independently for 500 years, so some may be more advanced/unadvanced than others in surprising ways.

Q: Can we have multiple Colonies?
A: Up to 2 at a time. But if one is destroyed or you choose to take it out of the RP (which can be done via the Gateway closing), then you can create another one. A possible option if you get bored of your colony.

Q: What happened to Earth?
A: A combination of environmental disaster, political strife and nuclear war. The first and last one especially have left the planet uninhabitable.

Q: What does Earth look like now?
A: It's been described like:

Verdant green has been choked by brown, azure blues replaced by overcast greys. The clouds that swirl and storm across its surface are sickly and off-coloured, as the rock that human beings once knew as their only home slowly decays, rent asunder by humanity's own hands. Poisoned. Sickly

A defeated lump of clay

Ashen. No blue. No green... Not even the white of clouds.

Q: How close together are the colonies?
A: All colonies exist within the Milky Way galaxy, thus keeping them somewhat close together on a universal scale, whilst still insurmountably far apart on a human scale.

Rules (Don't worry, these are very basic)

1.) No godmodding, or controlling other player's characters/Colonies
A basic rule in any RP. You know it, you love it.

2.) Cannot fully conquer other player's colonies without permission.
You can go to war with another player. But you will need the a-okay from them before I allow you to completely exterminate/assimilate/remove another nation from the game.

3.) If conflicts cannot be decided, the GM will arbitrate.
This goes for IC and OOC conflicts. I always prefer for people to work things out mutually. Ideally, everyone can agree about who wins/loses wars, or who has the upper hand in trade, or so on. Compare your sheets if you need to. But if you can't agree, me or Enigmatik will step in to try playing judge fairly.

4.) Everyone just play nice.
please?