Tortoise

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Memories and Mold

Trying to forget
An interlude

Alexander walks through the meandering, close-knit streets of Acerbus' capital, a veritable ghost, dressed in a dark robe and a polished bone-and-shell mask that makes him featureless. He tries to avoid the groups of other pedestrians, keeping himself close to the walls of the high, heavy stone buildings that tower up on either side of the path. He strains his neck to look at the sky, dark yellow in the glory of an evening that never ends, searching for something. His astronomy fails him; he can't quite locate it. He sighs and reminds himself that this is not a place for star-gazing. The City of Walking Earth is a place for getting lost.

Before he gets lost himself, he stops at a familiar corner and waits.

"Hey," says a voice behind him at last.
"Seraphine," says Alexander, looking stubbornly back up at the sky rather than turning around.
"We're not close enough to Night to see the Gateway," Seraphine says, correctly.

Alexander points up at a narrow patch of sky, choked between two competing circulus towers.

"Do you think that's it?" he asks. "It kind of looks like there's a light there. See it?"

Seraphine never wears a mask or a veil if she can help it, and has the splotches on her face to show for it. He can see her squint at the yellow with impatience. "No," she answers, "I think you just pointed at a random spot."

"Yeah," lies Alexander, who had really convinced himself there was a light.

They walk together under a shared umbrella, even though both of them are wearing waterproofed clothes and the rain is light this hour. All the oversized drains dug into the cobblestone, made by city-planners who were thinking of the kind of abusive downpours and flash floods that can wash a child away, swallow it up easily. It seems to become later in the day as they approach Ombra Town, a squat little neighborhood that lives in a false night created by the shadows that cast down from larger buildings. It was purely residential until the asteroid rush shook everything up, and now it is halfway transformed into a mess of local, struggling business run out of badly renovated houses. The owners sell out of their dining rooms and sleep in rooms full of stock.

"You're from here?" Seraphine asks, in the same tone she would use to ask if he was sick.
"I'm from what this place was," says Alexander. "Remember, you came by a few times and saw me. The little blue house."
"Is she still around?"
"Only as an ancestor. I spoke to her digitized spirit today."

They are descending into Ombra, the cobblestones are becoming rough and weary under their boots.

"Any luck?"
"None, cousin," answers Alexander. "She's still the same. Dying didn't make her kinder."
"I'm sorry. We would've taken you into our circulus, but-" says Seraphine, and Alexander interrupts:
"It's okay. Mother made sure I was alright here." He is lying again.
"I'm a seer," she offers, awkwardly shifting the heavy bag at her shoulder. "I could try to reach her soul for you, on the other side of the veil, if her spirit is still unchanged on this side."
"No." He says it flatly.

It looks to be very late in the evening as they walk into the shade of dirty buildings. From somewhere, a waft of incense. The grandest lights here are spotlights drilled into the cobblestone by low-class entrepreneurs, pointed at their signage. Ada's Nursery and Giftshop or Golden Fleece Allocated Here - Certified Diako! But most of the buildings are still homes, and most of them are in bad shape.

"It'd be so weird not to have a circulus," says Seraphine, without thinking.
"This is where we live when we don't," says Alexander.
"They can't afford anything better?"
"When was the last time you could buy anything good without your family treasury backing it up?"
Never ever is the answer, but she doesn't confess it.

The have arrived at their destination. A dilapidation among dilapidations, a crumbling home that smells like Acerbian Mold even from the outside. It chokes the air. There is no wood to rot in the rain on Acerbus, but a creeping, sticky, wet purple moss has filled up every crack in the home's dark bricks and shattered stones and crumbling bone and grotesque shell. The windows are broken in and shattered glass reflects the little light there is. Within, it is completely dark; it is midnight. It's a little blue house.

"You have everything with you?" asks Alexander, looking for the first time directly at the bag Seraphine carried.
"Yes," she says. "I can cleanse this place. You'll feel better after, cousin. You'll forget."
"I'll do it myself," he says. "I looked up how."
Her eyebrows are two marks of disbelief. "You're not allowed. I mean, legally, you can't. You're not a seer."
"And I'm not in your circulus, either," Alexander says.
"You don't need to be in my circulus for me to cleanse a house for you..."

Through the holes of his featureless mask, he stares at her.

"Oh," says Seraphine. "Oh." She frowns but she doesn't argue. The bag is passed into Alexander's hands. Inside: sage, a mirror, a statue of Christ the Healer to leave behind. Each of them tools to kill the memory.

Seraphine stands outside as Alexander goes into the house alone. He told her she could go, he'd give the stuff back to her when he comes by in a few days, but she's waiting for him until he's finished. Standing in the Ombra Town street by herself, now she can feel the stinging pollen on her face, and the dampness that works its way into your clothes no matter what you wear, and how uneven and awkward the stones are beneath her feet. All things you never seem to notice when you're in company.

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

Revelations of Mars

The Acerbians take up a home in the Meeting Place
Addressing: @SgtEasy

The Acerbian dome is a strange place.

Acerbians touched down on Mars at the recommendation of Hallowed Oscaro, fidel and first Acerbian diplomat through the Gateway. And then he watched. While ships crashed at the Moon and Ceres was colonized and Earth was harassed, the people of Acerbus had taken it in silently, observing without speaking. A raider up in the trees or a submarine under the ocean- take your pick of metaphor.

But Acerbian warriors and clergy alike know that patience becomes foolishness when practiced for too long. When the message broadcasted from the newly-founded "Meeting Place," Hallowed Oscaro was able to persuade the Temple Gathering (they were in regular, if time-delayed contact) to approve his plan. If he'd been under a particular domain, he might have been able to talk his executor or revelator into action much sooner; but to Oscaro's constant frustration, he was under the clergy-bureaucracy of the Temple itself, and that meant slow, ponderous decisions. A domain, an isle, could act rashly, send its ships to raid or trade. The Temple Gathering acted slowly. A wise man cautiously considering his ways or a confused old priest- take your pick of metaphor.

The Acerbian transports landed drunkenly in the low gravity. Awkward, never equipped for a terrestrial world other than Acerbus or its moons. The necessary thruster output of the first transport proved to be just a little underestimated, and touchdown was rough. Clouds of cold red dust and the swearing of engineers signaled their arrival.

They were shocked to see the appearance of their hosts, but less so than one might have expected. Few of them knew what a monkey looked like. The moonsuited Acerbian warriors who helped bring in equipment, assisted somewhat by automation, readily assumed the apes they saw were mutated humans, not unlike like themselves. "Some have fur and some have fins, eh?" was the comment one former raider, a Marinus, made to a passing ape. Only Oscaro and a very small handful of others had really began to guess at what the Khanate's message had meant by "apes and humans alike." Only the most educated knew what apes were, after all. But they would cross that bridge when they got to it.

For now, the Acerbians have established themselves in one of the domes of the Meeting Place. Though it is an environment nothing like their homeworld, they have brought home along with them. Aquatic lifeforms native to Acerbus, so often shelled and tentacled, and disturbingly intelligent for animals, live in tall tanks which decorate the walls. The lighting is behind them, so it distorts through the water and washes out the dome in an "underwater" atmosphere. A deep and fairly large meditation pool, hastily constructed, sits proudly in the center area of the dome, open to foreigners. Acerbus may well take credit for the first public pool on Mars. Their gray and orange banner has been moved into the central dome, placed just to the right of the Khanate's.

A soft colonization of the prayer rooms has already been attempted. There is, of course, just one alcove which has clearly been claimed for Revelationism: three small statues of the Mothers are shoved awkwardly into the place and tapestry has been hung with images of the Brothers. But they have also stationed a missionary to remain there and interact with those of other faiths entering or leaving the rooms, and especially to seek out those who look to be in an emotionally distressed state. With hope, they may be brought into the Unflinching Starlight- and made to see.

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

Be Ye Angels?

Well, this won't go well
Addressing: @Sep

Information flying through the void. A message sent between two worlds which have never spoken. Technology to make five centuries of separation a gap crossed in a few electronic pings. Beatrice will never cease to be amazed by these things.

She stands in a smoothly metallic but furnished room aboard the transport vessel, a little alcove where a foreign transmission they have just received was routed to. The code-speakers asked her where she wanted them to send "the message," and she chose this place. The quietest spot on the ship. Two other missionaries are crammed in with her, eyes all staring expectantly at the place where they were told the hologram would be projected. It's a little iron dais, a foot in diameter, decorated with carvings of phantasms and trickster gods. They've all seen devices like that before. Certainly, none of them have seen a foreigner.

It takes a moment for the signal to come through. Over comms in her earpieces, she hears code-speakers chatter about making it "talk" to their technology, though Beatrice does not know what they mean. Seconds pass. A minute passes. Tension. And then, slowly-

A flicker of light above the dais is joined by more flickers of light, seeming to move, twist and intertwine with one another, gaining color and form as they mingle until they have created...

"Greetings travelers," says the hologram, which is now of a winged woman. "I am the Angel Miriam, Guide and Protector of the Chosen, speaker for Deacon To'plir. Should you be God-Chosen, you are welcome however, be warned. This system has been cleansed of all Demons before, and we will not hesitate to do so again."

"Angel?" exclaims Beatrice. Her mouth hangs open- until she remembers that the angelic figure represented in the hologram should also be able to see her, wherever it is at, and her composure returns to her. She takes a moment to process the mythology dancing in lights on the dais. "We... are surely god-chosen, as you say, 'Angel Miriam.' Chosen by all the gods. By Woden, by Zeus, by Vishnu, by the Mothers and Brothers. By the wind of all the spirits good and bad, by angels and demons, we have come. So always does one who has Revelation and walks with a foot in the world of spirit. But what are you?"

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

Acerbus

The Sacrosanct Orator, the leader of Acerbus politically and spiritually, walks through stone halls, carrying with him the traditions and faith of his people, and a bowl full of blood. His echoing steps on that gray floor are like mythology: old, slow, laden with meaning. The bowl shakes in his decrepit hand, and a beautiful young aide leads him by the other. She knows not to smile at him. She knows not to make any expression at all. He does not look at her: he looks ahead- in as much as he can still see at all- towards the huge double-doors.

When the word of the Gateway's opening was heard, charismatic young revelators, wise fidels in their formal postures and mystical seers were quickly recruited from across the Twilight Band. It didn't take long at all. Thousands begged for this opportunity, even without being asked, and the Temple Gathering's clerks picked whomever appeared to be the best candidates freely. Wasn't this what so many of them had wished all their lives for? The forty or so who were chosen stand now in the inner chamber of one of the most important temples on Acerbus, dressed in red robes, their faces uncovered. They try not to whisper to one another. It helps that in a group this small, from across all the world, none of them know one another. A majority of them only know the Orator from media. As the aide opens the doors with a bit of struggle, their gaze moves from her to him. He stares back half-blindly as he descends down to them in trembles.

The chosen remind themselves that they are about to become missionaries for Revelationism. They contain their imagination, as they try not to daydream about the alien worlds and other colonies where they are about to be sent to spread their faith. They are each feeling the same thing. Among them, there are some from powerful families or islands that could not be excluded. There are some others who are politically cunning social-climbers who, before this opportunity came, might have been in pursuit of a seat at the Temple Gathering. And there are the true believers, a few with dangerous bright eyes, whose faith burns so much like fire they become beloved or hated by everyone who meets them.

The Sacrosanct Orator is nothing like any of them.

Invited theocrats, family members of those chosen, and the press watch from a high balcony as he moves down below with ritual in every creaking, ancient joint. He dips his hand into the bowl, slow, letting it run down and soak into the sleeve of his robe and drip onto the floor with a pit-pat-patter. The soon-to-be missionaries feel his wrinkled fingertip as he paints a circular symbol on their foreheads: two snakes biting each other's tails, with a third dividing between them.

The Orator, despite his title, says nothing. Revelationism is a religion of actions and not words. The missionaries watch him turn away from them, with his black and starkly white robe trailing on the floor. He halts suddenly for a moment and has a bad coughing fit. The aide forces herself not to react. The Orator leaves their sight still gagging and clearing his throat. More than one of the new missionaries have tears running down their faces. Soon they will travel across the cosmos, finding their long-lost brethren. Their teardrops fall and mingle with blood on the floor.

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

Diplomatic Missionary: Revelator Andrea Federus
Commodore: Ava Jones
Destination: Kamenymir (@Eldritch Puppy)

Andrea stands with his arms crossed, an alcoholic drink in his hand and a disapproving, skeptical scowl on his face. This is not unusual- it's his typical bearing. He wears it now because he's just gone through the Gateway and arrived at a new star system, and discovered that space on the other side looks essentially the same as space viewed from Acerbus. Somehow this feels like a fake-out. He expected the world to be a little different countless lightyears away. But on a lower and more spiritual level, it is deeply appropriate. Of course, he thinks to himself. It is all the same everywhere. 'There's nothing new under starlight.' I bet the people are just the same, too. He'd worked harder than he liked to make sure he was one of those chosen to become missionaries to other colonies of Earth still alive, to take part in the Orator's weird little ritual and get himself assigned. A part of him revolted at it, but since the day his knees had hit that temple floor when the Gateway tore itself into the sky, a unnamable feeling had eaten away at him. He had to see.

They vessel he's been placed aboard to play diplomat has chosen a random destination. Nobody knew or could reasonably guess what the other side would hold- it was a blind shot in the dark of space. This this too feels cheap to Andrea, and also strangely appropriate. The Revelator had been asked to pray for their vessels to emerge where the gods willed. He refused. He did not want the gods in the way.

It seems that the Gateway does not always deposit you directly at the opposite end. The retrofitted, forty year old frigate- the first of its kind ever created by Acerbians, now repurposed and furnished for space travel for the wealthy and powerful- and its two destroyer escorts hover now in space like ships on a dead sea, trying to orient themselves with no context. At last the Commodore who commands the escorts forces Andrea, citing security concerns, to momentarily stop scowling and drinking and do his job. Half against his will, he records a message, which is translated by the shipboard AI into various languages and broadcasted out to the new system they've found themselves in:

"Hail. I am Revelator Andrea Federus, a diplomat-missionary from the Esoteric Temple of Acerbus. We have come from across the Gateway in search of other colonies from before the Fall of Earth. We extend our hand out peacefully to make formal contact, and inquire as to how our fellow man has fared these five centuries, if we are welcome. Thank you."

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

Diplomatic Missionary: Blessed Johannes Daviso, a fidel devoted to the Bearer
Commodore: Davide Ferrarius
Destination: Interrupted by the arrival of the Yellow Horde (@Enigmatik)

Wherever these missionaries were going to go, they're not headed that way anymore.

They are in a retrofitted worker transport vessel, the Wine of Dionysus: a personal project originally created by a wealthy young man who wanted to turn it into his own space yacht, a burgeoning trend on Acerbus that doesn't quite have an industry yet. The shipwrights did a good job, if a plainly improvisational one. Ship design itself is an industry less than eighty years old on Acerbus, younger than the Sacrosanct Orator, and Acerbian ships tend to be ugly. It serves just well enough for this purpose. It is shiny and new, it is small but rich, and inside it is as comfortable as Acerbian interior design can be.

The lead missionary, Blessed Johannes, is submerged deep in the ship's pool in meditation when he is forcefully awoken by a grating, skin-crawling klaxon. The report, delivered to him breathlessly by a nervous crewman before Johannes' even has his beloved veil back on, is that a large fleet of vessels similar to those who identified themselves as a 'Red Horde' (whatever that means- Acerbians were struggling immensely with understanding that message) in Sol has appeared in Acerbian space. They had provided no prior communication to Acerbus. The word "invasion" is flashed around, but it does not stick- they are making no hostile action. Johannes is shown a captured image of the newcomers. The two destroyer escorts flanking the Wine of Dionysus suddenly feel small.

An hour later, Commodore Ferrarius is watching Blessed Johannes closely and uneasily as he drafts a greeting message. After revisions and suggestions by the other missionaries under him, and a read-over by the commodore who frowned down his long nose at it but offered no comments, Johannes records (and the shipboard AI translates):

"Hail. This is Blessed Johannes Daviso speaking. I represent the Esoteric Temple of Acerbus, the people of our world, and our faith in the truths of the Cosmic Mothers who are sang of in the Sacrosanct Songbook. The Temple's jurisdiction includes the whole system of Frigus, where you have entered, including both asteroid belts, the gas giant worlds and the planet of Acerbus itself. I am a missionary and a diplomat appointed to reach through the opened Gateway peacefully to other children of Earth, to make formal contact, or to greet those who have come to us- as in this case. I would like to inquire as to your intentions. Am I speaking to the Red Horde?"

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

Diplomatic Missionary: Beatrice Kleus, a Seer
Commodore: Blaise Mancini
Destination: Unfortunately, the Nameless' System (@Sep)

Beatrice's visions are troubling her. The visions of an Acerbian, which they have instead of the "dreams" and "sleep" that their ancestors had, are rarely peaceful- but Beatrice's have been like a fire shut up inside her skull for a week. Her nerves have rattled her and made her daily meditations into an extended nightmare, which haunts her with images she cannot understand. She has closed her eyes and seen visions of lava, and snakes with gouged-out eyes slithering across the stars, and she is always visited by a deformed old woman who shouts "Dismember them, skin them, or they'll find you out!" She has not yet met a single foreigner, yet she regrets becoming a missionary. Standing on the bridge of a hastily redecorated transport vessel, flanked by brutal-looking twin destroyer escorts, her hands tremble. They started to shake when she crossed the Gateway. Looking at the viewscreen now, she tries to remind herself that she is educated and qualified, experienced in religion and the politics of religion, and this job was offered to her for a reason. She is capable.

She reassures herself that she could speak competently with any other human. If only she could find them. They exited the Gateway and, wherever it has thrown them, all that is in visual range is an odd cluster of what they thought might be asteroids. Beatrice immediately felt (sensed is the word she would use) that there was something strange about it. She is a mystic, not an astrophysicist, but these are not arranged at all like the belt in Frigus. She knows they aren't.

Her suspicions are confirmed when Blaise tells her that what they believed to be asteroids are generating heat. Her trembling hands do not like that news. She remembers the deformed woman in her visions. Were the gods telling her to strike first at whatever is lurking in those maybe-asteroids? But she can't, it isn't her way. If they are generating heat, and if this truly is a system where another Earth colony had long ago been sent, they could be warm only because of some devices put into them by the other colonists.

After only a brief period of internal and external debate, Beatrice lifts her hands up towards the stars and allows the gods to guide her as she says out into this strange system (and as the AI translates):

"Hail! I am Beatrice Kleus, a Seer from the far, far away planet of Acerbus. With the old portal between the stars miraculously reopened by the will of the gods, my people have sent me here to find others such as ourselves out in the cosmos. If you can hear my voice, fellow born of Earth- we have come to make contact with you once again. Let us meet face to face and speak of all that has happened."

Through the Gateways: Inhumanity

@Eldritch Puppy

The KDD always has a unique vibe. Like a well-meaning bazooka.

Obviously they’re approved, but it does feel like there's a plothole in your history. Specifically, how would the KDD not detect or realize that the Shards are from their own moon? Even if they never surveyed the system, and even if hundreds of years went by without anyone doing a study on the local moon, they have telescopes, yeah? It's a part of their night sky. Were the Shards underground, maybe? There's something similar happening with them not detecting the dangerous radiation on their planet.

Speaking as a writer, it sort of feels like you're saying the KDD wouldn't see these things for dramatic effect when they're revealed. I think a better solution would be to acknowledge that they knew about the radiation and Shards and simply didn't have the resources or ability to deal with it yet, or maybe they weren't willing to pull a xenocide until the Shards struck again, or maybe the government was not organized enough to get good weaponry in space until the Second Directorate

But that's a minor gripe in the end. Everything else is gucci. We have our slightly standoffish jocks back.

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.

---

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

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.

---

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)

  
  

---

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