Tortoise

Through the Gateways: Humanity

@rezay
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Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@ClocktowerEchos
Accepted!

You know, I'm kinda surprised you got me rooting for actual vampires with that History

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

ACTIVE NATION:

White Flower Democracy (WIP)

White Flower Democracy

Government Form:
Direct Democracy

Demographics:
While all Flowers are human, there remains a demographic split in the form of faith. 88% of post-revolutionary citizens remain secular, however, a growing 12% have converted to the popular new religion of Mixtism. (This divide has caused a major split within some votes.)

While not officially citizens, there also remains a small community of Supremus Apes, native to the Khanate of the Apes, who have taken up residence on Bezia. A vote to offer them citizenship is currently being processed.

Population:
1.2 Billion

Planet Name and Description:

_{On a scorching day, the ruin-filled deserts can glow like molten gold}

Bezia- sometimes called "New Hollywood"- is a once-ruined world that has since been given new life. The original inhabitants, nicknamed "Bezians," are thought to be the same aliens who colonized the homeworld of the One. But sadly, few things about them can really be confirmed: except that they used to be here, they are no longer, and they left nothing but dust, rust and ruins behind them.

So when the first human colonists arrived, that's all they found. A planet filled with cities that nobody lived in. Monuments of creaking, decaying metal. Water was scarce, and all native life was fully extinct. An endless wasteland.

The perfect blank canvas.

Before the revolution, New Hollywoodites were deeply focused on preserving and restoring the aspects of Old Earth life. To find a world so barren might have disheartened some other peoples, but it gave the early colonists a perfect starting place towards restoring the world they'd lost. Terraforming tech was heavily invested in, and as progress continues today, the world of Bezia is becoming more and more like a mirror image of Earth. And though hot, alien deserts remain the norm in large swathes of the world, plant life is creeping in even there, turning the world green.

In order to bring moisture back to the surface, vast amounts of H2O are currently being released into the atmosphere. This causes frequent rains.

History:

It all starts with the first Savant, Chun Zhang. Or well, no, it doesn't. But he'd convince you that it does.

Chun Zhang was a masterful speaker and beautiful propagandist- as befitting of someone who grew up in Hollywood. He always portrayed himself as the epitome of a cultured genius: intelligent and charming, determined and impulsive, stormy and mysterious. It was that personality- along with other things- which later won him leadership of the early colony.

Prior to that, the real facts of his life on Earth are blurry- unusually so, given the famous accuracy of Bezia's records, almost as if someone had scrubbed them. A handful of details are salient. He was born to Chinese immigrants, he lived in LA his entire life, and he worked as a part-time actor in his youth.

Post-revolution, more formerly locked records have been released to the public, revealing that a California university did indeed list him as the highest graded student in his freshmen class. Does that, perhaps, add some legitimacy to his claims of intellectualism? Maybe. It is still unknown what exactly he studied. And his grades dropped every year after, so that his GPA at the age of graduation was barely above 2.0. One teacher wrote "Chun is a genius, if he'd just work like one."

Genius or no, he managed to end up on the Champion.

This Champion was a rare breed of colony ship. It didn't belong to one nation nor one company, but instead was a mix of the finest minds of two powerhouses who had both led the world at one point or another: China and the United States. The selection process was complex, heavily algorithm-driven, using an AI to compare a potential passenger's academic achievements, IQ tests, and something called "Individual Potential Quotient." Whatever that was, it liked Chun just enough: he was the very last passenger selected. If he had scored even slightly lower on the AI's cryptic system, he'd never have set foot off of Earth.

That would have been for the better.

The interior of the Champion was a severely overcrowded, teeming-over hive of STEM field intellectuals. It seems the AI decided to place as many people in the available space as it possibly could. Men and women crowded twenty to a room. If you tried to escape to the hallways, you'd quickly find yourself shoved out of the way by someone who'd once made "fundamental progress" in the field of Quantum Computing. A dozen mighty minds wielding PhDs would slip by while you leaned against the cold, metal walls. In this environment, chaos was the norm.

The overcrowding was only compounded by the many passengers who were used to that structured, organized world of academia. There was no structure on the Champion. AI had selected them and placed them there, but little thought was given to what would happen afterwards- it was assumed a ship full of geniuses could simply figure it out. They could not. Not least because roughly half the passengers spoke English, and the other half primarily spoke Mandarin. How can you coordinate with those you can't even talk to?

Well, you'd have to ask Chun to translate for you. That was what the other passengers quickly realized; this unknown wanna-be artist was one of only a handful of passengers who actually spoke both English and Mandarin with great fluency.

Culture and Society:

_{The slums of New Rome are a busy, tragic place}

Media-obsessed. Romanticist. Escapist.

These words described the people of the ECU, and still largely describe the people of the WFD. The average citizen spends all of their free time engrossed in media of one flavor or another: films, music, plays, holograph-enabled videogames, social media, news. They are materialistic and love entertainment.

The culture of Bezia is also still geared, just as it was back when it was called New Hollywood, towards the preservation of Old Earth cultures. Most citizens have what is known as a "Chosen Cultural Expression," or CCE, that they take very seriously. A citizen's CCE represents not only his favorite Old Earth cultures, but the ones he most identifies with, that he considers to be him. They dress accordingly. They listen to their music accordingly. When they speak, they'll likely put on an accent that fits it.

(OOC: For context, readers, Tanaka's CCE was American Western, and Abadi's is "Arabic with British and American influences." This is just a fancy new term for a concept I've been using from the start.)

You might call it performative, but a Flower (or a New Hollywoodite, for that matter) would argue that all culture is performative: they just happen to be the first ones to embrace it.

What has changed, when it comes to Bezia/Hollywoodite culture, is their stance on outsiders. The ECU was puritanical in ideology, xenophobic in character. Their nature was one of fear: fear of the alien, of the cyborg, of the mutant. But after exposure to so, so many foreign cultures, the more open-minded have begun to accept that not all peoples could stay as unchanged as they did, and- perhaps- that is not their fault.

Outside of xenophobia, there is one other aspect of culture that has been greatly altered: religion.

Religion is a touchy subject for the Flowers, having been illegal under the ECU. The old Oligarchs didn't like having competition over the minds and hearts of the populace. Because who can compete against a god? What can move a man's spirit more than faith? So it was illegal, with the largest religious group- the Mixtists- being driven out of the cities and into the wilderness, or else being driven into hiding their faith from the world.

But now that the restrictions are lifted and they've finally been reunited, the Mixtists are beginning to realize that they aren't all the same any more.

Ruinists

"The early Mixtists, you know, their name comes from an Old English word, 'mix.' They accepted almost every Old Earth faith as true in some sense or some other, and tried to smash them all together. This is what made the Noocracy angry with them. Made them chase us out of the cities. Earth religion never had such a unity, so the ECU will not accept it now."

"But why?" I asked her, "Isn't unity good?"

"Maybe," she answered. "But New Hollywood will not have a thing which Earth didn't have. But besides, back when I was still young, we were... over-enthusiastic. Living out in these ruins has made us more discriminating. Perhaps every faith does have some echo of the Truth. But- but- there can still only be one Truth. It is our mission to find it."

Interview with a Mixtist, by Martina Ward

There are few things more hardening than life in a wasteland. Cast out from the cities, the Mixtists had to survive on less than nothing. Earlier, they tried to mix all Earth religions into a cohesive whole. The desert made them abandon that folly.

Throwing aside a million faiths, these Mixtists- often called Ruinists- have come to believe that there can be only one, whole Truth to the world. Shadows of the Truth may be found in many places- and indeed, in many hearts. But there is still only one. They must find it where they can, and serve it as they must.

Putting aside the poetic language for a moment: the Ruinists are monotheists, believing that one god created the universe and maintains it. Because they do not have a name for this god, they simply call it "Truth." The customs for worshipping Truth are derived from many different Old Earth faiths, especially monotheistic ones, creating a distinct blend of religious practice found only among the Ruinists.

Masonists

The more mysterious half of that two-headed dragon called Mixtism. The Masonists are those who, rather than being dragged out into the wastelands, managed to hide themselves "under cover" in secular society. They hid it with secret passcodes and occult rituals nobody else could identify. Life was harsh for them, just as it was for the Ruinists, but in a different way: they had to cozy up to criminals to keep themselves hidden.

For years, the Masonists worked alongside gangs, bribed officials, did all they could to stop the protectors from breathing down their necks. Only in those few, free hours, early in the morning or late at night, could they truly practice their faith- which become more esoteric and secretive every year. By now, it's all wrapped up in doublespeak, with hidden meanings and inscrutable rituals at every corner. They certainly don't worship anything named Truth. But they do worship, and for them, that is enough. Right?

---

Governance and Politics:

Although very new and deeply unstable, the new government of Bezia is quickly coming to resemble a "Direct Democracy." That is, it is becoming a system in which most laws and other affairs-of-state are decided not by rulers or representatives, but by votes direct from the people themselves.

You see, most every citizen on New Hollywood owns a device called the infopad, a descendent of the smartphone of Earth's past. Under the ECU, these devices were used primarily (by the individuals) as entertainment and (by the government) as a surveillance device. However, the Flowers have justly appropriated them for the purposes of democracy. When a governmental decision must be made, New Hollywood citizens receive a prompting on their infopads, detailing the issue and allowing them to vote on it. Everyone gets a say on... everything.

Now, you may wonder: who decides which votes are to be held? And who watches over the system altogether? That work is done via a mass Bezia Bureaucracy, the closest thing New Hollywood still has to a traditional government. Except that the bureaucrats are elected, if you can believe it, by lottery. Any citizen who volunteers can be randomly selected to serve as a bureaucrat.

The bureaucrats serve for one year, and have a limit of two consecutive terms at a time. They work outside of offices, primarily from their infopads, to regulate the voting process. And this also works democratically: while any citizen can propose a vote, it must receive approval from a certain number of bureaucrats before the rest of the population is prompted to vote on it. These bureaucrats are random and numerous, to outweigh any personal bias one may have against a particular proposal.

Therefore, the process goes as follows:

A Flower citizen, let's call her Jane Doe, proposes a law that bans the use of tobacco within public spaces. The Anti-Tobacco Proposal is sent to a randomly-selected group of bureaucrats, with each one voting on whether the Proposal is relevant and possible. After receiving sufficient approval from many individual bureaucrats, the Proposal then appears before the citizens themselves, who vote en masse on whether the Proposal is good.

As infopad messages are near-instantaneous, this entire process can happen quickly, sometimes within an hour. AI is currently being developed to detect redundant laws.

In this way, Bezia's population can now decide major issues with neither rulers nor representatives. No masters. No kings. Only the will of the people.

It is perfect.

It is not perfect.

The obvious problem with such a system is that humans, when in large groups, tend towards a mob-like mentality. Already, the punishments leveled on former protectors have been brutal and unusual- because the mob hates them. No education is required to vote, after all. You do not have to be smart, or understanding, or a good person.

There are particular critics who point these flaws out. Very often. They come from the other side of screens- because they are, of course, embedded in the media. The old Oligarchs still have many sympathizers within the media groups that they used to own, who still attempt to divide the new democracy. And yet, those media anchormen who no longer care for the Oligarchs might just be worse.

The news thrives on eye-catching, anger-inducing headlines. The kinds that naturally drive people towards political extremes. Many arguments are had between the viewers of different news stations who, for all intents and purposes, are beginning to live in different worlds. The headline of one station says this, and the headline of another says that. It splits the vote. How can they be reconciled?

Division already wants to tear apart this new democracy. Time will tell if it does.

Technology Overview:

_{A complex tower seeds the earth while releasing purifiers into the air}

Hardlight: Originally designed as touchable holograms, the hardlight of the ECU is currently being expanded for use in other fields, especially matters military. Holographic soldiers and hardlight shielding in particular are becoming trademarks of ECU defensive strategy.

Micro-emitters, a new invention, enable the use of touchable holograms everywhere. As these holograms are replacing real workers at an alarming rate, socialist policies have become markedly more popular. A vote will be held about this.

Terraforming: From strategically releasing climate-altering gases into the atmosphere to building gigantic, sun-reflecting mirrors in space, the WFD understands terraforming. Their own world has been shifted remarkably, from a wasteland to a little almost-clone of Earth. It's great! And now the thought has come up to terraform other planets in the Bezia system as new colonies, or even- would we dare it?- to terraform Earth itself back to life. But the decision has yet to be made. A vote will be held about this.

Psychological Programming: A dark secret, buried in the past that is the ECU, perhaps best left alone. They learned how to "brainwash" a person to obey specific commands at the hearing of specific trigger words. Their psychological warfare tactics have recently become infamous. The WFD has formally condemned the former, but holds a place in their armed forces for the latter.

Military Overview:

Armed Forces: The Volunteers

making Volunteer combat strategy an interesting, eclectic mix of different martial arts.

The WFD fleet is growing quickly, and is no longer just Old Earth designs. If recent events have taught the masses anything, it's that a good military is a necessity; they've been shot at by enough people to learn.

See, when the Oligarchs evacuated Bezia, they left their bank accounts behind. All currency and all assets- a staggering amount- have been seized by the Bezia Bureaucracy, to be used for funding public works. Like the navy. The navy is a public work.

And due to the abundance of metal resources on Bezia, many ships can be constructed cheaply. The Flowers lean deep into this advantage to create countless, small ships, manned by one at a time. They are inexpensive in design, simply armed, but numerous. In fact, the one area where the Flowers have splurged is in hardlight shielding, leading to a new nickname for the Flower's one-man fighters: "Shield Ships."

_{Shield Ships working collaboratively}

The name is accurate to their strategies, as well. Shield Ships in combat often act collaboratively, generating group shields around themselves and important assets. When a larger, "warship" size Flower vessel enters the battle, its smaller comrades will be spotted swarming around it in a cylinder pattern, cloaking the warship in their shields. They can then deactivate shielding at key points to allow the warship to fire projectiles, reactivating it after the missile has passed through.

This tactic can't go on forever- it is a huge drain on batteries- but for the moments it lasts, a Flower warship is nearly invincible.

Finally, and borrowing again from ECU strategy, fighter ships often flood comm channels with random noise, making it difficult for enemies to coordinate- but, as a consequence, making it laughably easy to detect the ships doing the jamming. Really, they expect to be detected. They have to fall back on that shielding to keep themselves safe.

Being such a self-sacrificing role, AI is currently being developed to "autopilot" smaller vessels. But the Flowers are three centuries behind in AI development: they will need foreign aid to complete this project.

[Side-note: Most Shield Ships are carried inside the warships themselves, to be released during combat]

Examples of Flower Ships

<sub>An M01 Lily Class; the classic "Shield Ship"


An M03 Wasp Class; a one-man fighter


An M01 Sunflower Class; a warship, used for docking the Wasps and Lillies.</sub>

---

Additional Info:

A search has began for the famous icon of the White Flower movement, Martina Ward, who was sentenced to exile by the ECU. She is likely somewhere in the ruins. She must be found and brought back to her people, to be told how much things have changed.

The Scuttler's Gang, a Neo London criminal organization who helped the Flowers win, has become increasingly agitated by their lack of repayment. They pose a real threat to local security. A vote will be held about this.

The more anti-cyborg Flowers still call Zetans "toasters," and refuse to stop even when it's making everyone else increasingly uncomfortable. A vote will be held about this.

ARCHIVED:

Earth Cultural Union

Nation Name:
Earth Cultural Union

Government Form:
Noocracy ("Aristocracy of the Wise")

Demographics:
While all human, most of the ECU population has been exposed to radiation throughout their life, and the potential damage to DNA has been a source of great fear and concern.

Population:
1.2 Billion.

---

---

Planet Name and Description:
New Hollywood. A world of dust, rust and ruins.

Humans are not the first people to live on this planet. The predecessors (named Bezians, after the planet's original name: Bezia-72b) were a sentient race who, like humans, built cities, paved roads, and discovered the world around them. Then they blew it up.

Nuclear war seems to have been the likely cause of the Bezian's extinction. Radiation levels have faded in the eons since it happened, but remain a hazard today. Along with the intense clutter of ruined cities, and the uncomfortable alien-ness of the environment, the ECU has been prompted to invest heavily in terraforming. To date, New Hollywood is five years into a complex process of being terraformed into an Earth-like paradise.

Only time will tell if it succeeds.

History:
The history of New Hollywood is bloody. The first occupants, the Bezians, destroyed themselves. And the Noocracy has put down many potential uprisings and "Anti-Earth activities" in the time since. A rough timeline follows.

Timeline

Year 0: The Champion, a small colony ship staffed largely by scientists and experts in STEM fields, lands on Bezia-72b. The Champion's captain, Cpt. Julia Oppenheimer, assumes command of the colony.
Year 6: While gathering metals from a Bezian ruin, Oppenheimer and her team are killed by a collapsing building.
Year 6-9: Debate rages regarding Oppenheimer's replacement. Being a society founded largely by academics, the residents of Bezia-72b push for a system governed by the rules of science and logic, facilitated by a council of proven intellectuals. Taking a page from Plato, this council is named the Noocracy.
Year 10: The first Savant is elected: Chun Zhang. He attempts to lead the colony in a path "of respect for Earth's traditions and cultures," but faces much resistance from this group of forward-thinkers.

Year 14: A large segment of Chun Zhang's rivals are assigned to a scouting expedition into an unstable ruin, and never return.
Year 15: Zhang is reelected as Savant.
Year 21: As the first Bezian ruin is cleared and used for the building of a permanent human habitation, a sense of intense patriotism and accomplishment sweeps the population.
Year 22: Framing himself as the hero of this achievement, Zhang is finally able to consolidate power under himself, and push the populace into fully accepting his agenda.
Year 22-25: Bezia-72b is renamed New Hollywood, and the Earth Cultural Union is officially formed.
Year 26: Thus follows the only period of relative peace in New Hollywood history.

Year 98: A scientist in the employ of the Noocracy, Dr. Amanda Yung, proposes a revolutionary new gene treatment that could combat the impact of New Hollywood's latent radiation.
Year 105: Long-term trials of Yung's Treatment conclude, showing a small but permanent altering of the recipient's genetic structure.
Year 106-108: Controversy ensues.
Year 109: Savant Fredrick Byrne outlaws Yung's proposal. In a rare official speech, it is made clear that no alterations to the human genome, no matter how small, will ever be tolerated.
Year 110: Dr. Amanda Yung is found dead. Despite being shot in the back, it is officially ruled a suicide.

Year 140-145: Agitated by increased repressiveness from the Noocracy, protests break out across every city on New Hollywood.
Year 141-143: The Noocracy attempts to combat these protests peacefully.
Year 144: Violence occurs for the first time when a drunken protestor beats a policemen to death.
Year 145: The Protectors, a dedicated new policing force unafraid to use violence, is formed. Uprisings are violently suppressed. Rebellion gradually dies down in all cities, with the exception of New Beijing.
Year 146: New Beijing remains a hotspot for anti-government discourse for decades.

Year 210: The first Holographic Suite is invented.
Year 211-214: As a testing ground, Holographic Suites are used to indoctrinate Protectors in Noocratic thinking.
Year 215: The Holgraphic Suite is released to the general public, to ecstatic reception.
Year 216-220: Savant Kungawo Johannes encourages the construction of Holgraphic Suites in New Beijing, with an intense focus on patriotic messaging.
Year 221: Tensions gradually die down in New Beijing.

Year 270: A new religious movement begins, based on the great religions of Earth's past.
Year 271-273: The Noocracy tolerates this movement so long as it stays focused on traditional human beliefs.
Year 272-280: "Mixtism" becomes an unofficial name for the spiritualist gathering, as views have mingled to a point where it is now something new, unique completely to New Hollywood.
Year 280: Mixtism is declared a dangerous cult.
Year 281: Religious individuals are forced into hiding. Thousands are believed to still be living in Bezian ruins.

Year 290: A famous Oligarch writes an anti-Noocratic manifesto. By her command, it is broadcasted across much of the planet. Before authorities can apprehend her, she commits suicide.
Year 295: The terraforming of New Hollywood begins.
Year 300: Current day.

Culture and Society:
Socially, the Earth Cultural Union is both incredibly diverse and incredibly traditional.

The focus of the ECU, as always, is to preserve the cultures of Old Earth as they were before the Fall. With this in mind, the Noocracy has pushed "Earth Culture Parties" as a craze among the youth. These are large and intense gatherings where participants take on new names for an evening, speak in Old Earth slang, and eat New Hollywood's best approximations of Earth food.

Not that the rest of New Hollywood doesn't "keep to the Culture." Even outside the parties, you could walk down any street in Neo London and see dozens wearing their sacred folk costumes of blue jeans and hoodies, Japanese kimonos, or lederhosen. If it's Earth, it's valid.

And then, naturally, some of those street-walkers are probably headed towards a Holograph Suite, where they'll be given a list of options for a night of entertainment. They can watch Shakespeare premiere at the Globe Theatre, for example. Or they can have an intimate (pre-scripted) chat with Marilyn Monroe.

These programs, as with everything in New Hollywood, come pre-approved by the Noocracy and represent Earth in only the best possibly light. A paradise. A place we should want to go back to. Home.

---

Governance and Politics:
"Noocracy," as defined by Plato, is rule by philosophers. As defined by the ECU, it is rule by the intelligent. A subtle difference, but vitally important.

The Earth Cultural Union ruling class, sometimes called the Oligarchy, maintains that its members represent the most intelligent and educated members of society. Early on in New Hollywood's history, entry into the Oligarchy required passing a rigorous technical exam, a certain level of required reading, and an I.Q. test rumored to break men's minds.

Today, it requires you to be born the child of an Oligarch.

Over the centuries, the standards of the Noocracy have gradually been corrupted. Whereas once one had to be an almost savant-like genius to gain real political power, now the Oligarchy is mostly an insular group of families and dedicated social climbers. But in order to maintain appearances, the Oligarchy still presents itself as representing intellectual refinement.

Therefore, young Oligarchs often increase their social standing by walking around in public with books, or paying more genuine scientists to do research on their behalf. (In fact, most scientists on New Hollywood work for Oligarchs. They publish no finds the Noocracy doesn't approve.) If you ask an Oligarch if they have any hobbies, they'll sigh dramatically and confess "Tragically, my uncomplicated companion, I have not the freedom to engage in fanciful recreations. But I digress- my studies, the foul mistress, call me again." They spend most of their time at Earth Culture Parties.

At least, that is the case for most Rulers of today. Lately, there seems to be one dangerous exception: James Heralds is a middle-aged Oligarch who is best described as "gray." His voice is gray, his thinking is gray, and his hair is gray. And he's terribly clever. He's managed to build up a power base among more weak-minded Oligarchs, and was just elected Savant (the formal head of the Noocracy) by a razor-thin margin.

Technology Overview:
With the Earth Cultural Union's obsession with preserving the past, no scrap of knowledge- no matter how trivial- has been allowed to go forgotten. Since reconstructing a damaged database carried on their Colony Ship, the ECU has been able to tell you everything from the lifespan of Hericium Erinaceus (40 years) to the color of Johnny Depp's eyes (chocolate brown).

And with the Noocracy's determination to prove their intellectual might, Oligarchs will often fund any number of scientific pet projects.

Terraforming in particular is a specialty- the ECU has managed to transform sections of New Hollywood into Earth-like paradises, and they've gotten to be very good at it. There have been some rumors that, if New Hollywood can be brought back to life, perhaps Earth can as well. But it remains only speculation.

Another field that has flourished in the Earth Cultural Union is the use of holographic simulations. The invention of Holographic Suites has allowed touchable holograms to bring any fiction to life, creating an entire world before the user's eyes. This is popularly used to both distract and indoctrinate the populace. (On the more practical side of things, scientists also use holograms for visualizing complex simulations. Before a new terraforming project gets underway, it's always run through the Holographic Suite a couple of hundred times, mapping out any potential side-effects.)

New Hollywood does, however, remain "behind the curve" when it comes to two fields: robotic automation, and gene modification. This is primarily because their research is banned on New Hollywood, due to a fear that such inventions would lead to a new humanity- contrary to the ECU's mission to preserve humans as they are.

Military Overview:
The ECU has not needed an army for some time. There was a violent period, roughly 150 years ago, where a large policing force was developed to put down rebellions, but that time has passed. Today, the people are easily occupied with holographic fantasies and revelry, and rarely think of politics long enough to oppose the government in anything.

The only exception remains the Protectors. Originally formed during the rebellions, the Protectors are a combination of soldiers and police. They are trained and indoctrinated by Holograph Suite programs which have been designed to teach them to love Earth, fear anything foreign, and practice violence without hesitation. Recently, these men have been placed formally under the control of Savant James Heralds.

---

Characters

Savant James Heralds

Perhaps the only elected Savant in some time to truly be a genius, Heralds has an intimate understanding of two things: machines, and people. And he can fine-tune them both.

Martina Ward

An out-of-luck discontent. Ms. Ward is a woman who feels that there must be more to life than the shows and parties and diversions offered by her society, if only she could figure out what it is.

She's been arrested for anti-Earth activities multiple times, but the charges never stick. One day, a Protector might decide to finally take care of this troublemaker for good- it only hasn't happened yet.

Oligarch Tanaka

A rose in a world that's entirely thorns, Tanaka was born into the Oligarchy, but is not what you would call "a born Oligarch." He is good-natured, optimistic, and perhaps not very bright. He really believes everything the ECU says. And boy, does he love Holographic Suites.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@ClocktowerEchos
So, small issue.

Warning: Nitpicks Within

In your History section, you write:

When Trifera was cut off from Mother Earth, chaos soon followed. As riots and panic protests broke out, opportunistic radicals with the help of fringe elements of the military took power.

And then shortly after:

They had already mastered their own planet, so their egos told them it was nothing to dissect some dead giant monster.

See, these quotes make it sound like Trifera was colonized for a very long time before Earth collapsed. But as I tried to describe it in the OP, the colony ships were sent out right as Earth was already falling:

A desperate government, equipped with technology that still outstrips anything seen in the galaxy today, threw the last of its resources into the making of the Gateways. Massive artificial wormholes, each one set to lead to a different location. Colonists were sent haphazardly through them. Humanity was scattered across the entire Milky Way: separated from eachother, lost, but determined to survive.

I understand that there could be some ambiguity, of course. But basically, the History section's phrasing makes the Trifera colony sound older than the rest of our nations. I wouldn't have mentioned it, except that most of the other Nation Sheets I've received all phrase their colonies as being established basically to replace Earth, and so I feel like it causes consistency issues. If you can rephrase that a bit, I'll be glad to accept it. :)

@datadogie
Accepted! I've honestly always loved the idea of living in space, as much as it would probably be a nightmare in reality.

---

And at that, my dudes, my NS is completed too. Well, minus the fact that I still have to make a flag, but by my authority as GM I order you all to ignore that.

Earth Cultural Union

Nation Name:
Earth Cultural Union

Government Form:
Noocracy ("Aristocracy of the Wise")

Demographics:
While all human, most of the ECU population has been exposed to radiation throughout their life, and the potential damage to DNA has been a source of great fear and concern.

Population:
1.5 Billion. Colony founded with 150,000.

---

---

Planet Name and Description:
New Hollywood. A world of dust, rust and ruins.

Humans are not the first people to live on this planet. The predecessors (named Bezians, after the planet's original name: Bezia-72b) were a sentient race who, like humans, built cities, paved roads, and discovered the world around them. Then they blew it up.

Nuclear war seems to have been the likely cause of the Bezian's extinction. Radiation levels have faded in the eons since it happened, but remain a hazard today. Along with the intense clutter of ruined cities, and the uncomfortable alien-ness of the environment, the ECU has been prompted to invest heavily in terraforming. To date, New Hollywood is five years into a complex process of being terraformed into an Earth-like paradise.

Only time will tell if it succeeds.

History:
The history of New Hollywood is bloody. The first occupants, the Bezians, destroyed themselves. And the Noocracy has put down many potential uprisings and "Anti-Earth activities" in the time since. A rough timeline follows.

Timeline

Year 0: The Champion, a small colony ship staffed largely by scientists and experts in STEM fields, lands on Bezia-72b. The Champion's captain, Cpt. Julia Oppenheimer, assumes command of the colony.
Year 6: While gathering metals from a Bezian ruin, Oppenheimer and her team are killed by a collapsing building.
Year 6-9: Debate rages regarding Oppenheimer's replacement. Being a society founded largely by academics, the residents of Bezia-72b push for a system governed by the rules of science and logic, facilitated by a council of proven intellectuals. Taking a page from Plato, this council is named the Noocracy.
Year 10: The first Savant is elected: Chun Zhang. He attempts to lead the colony in a path "of respect for Earth's traditions and cultures," but faces much resistance from this group of forward-thinkers.

Year 14: A large segment of Chun Zhang's rivals are assigned to a scouting expedition into an unstable ruin, and never return.
Year 15: Zhang is reelected as Savant.
Year 21: As the first Bezian ruin is cleared and used for the building of a permanent human habitation, a sense of intense patriotism and accomplishment sweeps the population.
Year 22: Framing himself as the hero of this achievement, Zhang is finally able to consolidate power under himself, and push the populace into fully accepting his agenda.
Year 22-25: Bezia-72b is renamed New Hollywood, and the Earth Cultural Union is officially formed.
Year 26: Thus follows the only period of relative peace in New Hollywood history.

Year 98: A scientist in the employ of the Noocracy, Dr. Amanda Yung, proposes a revolutionary new gene treatment that could combat the impact of New Hollywood's latent radiation.
Year 105: Long-term trials of Yung's Treatment conclude, showing a small but permanent altering of the recipient's genetic structure.
Year 106-108: Controversy ensues.
Year 109: Savant Fredrick Byrne outlaws Yung's proposal. In a rare official speech, it is made clear that no alterations to the human genome, no matter how small, will ever be tolerated.
Year 110: Dr. Amanda Yung is found dead. Despite being shot in the back, it is officially ruled a suicide.

Year 140-145: Agitated by increased repressiveness from the Noocracy, protests break out across every city on New Hollywood.
Year 141-143: The Noocracy attempts to combat these protests peacefully.
Year 144: Violence occurs for the first time when a drunken protestor beats a policemen to death.
Year 145: The Protectors, a dedicated new policing force unafraid to use violence, is formed. Uprisings are violently suppressed. Rebellion gradually dies down in all cities, with the exception of New Beijing.
Year 146: New Beijing remains a hotspot for anti-government discourse for decades.

Year 210: The first Holographic Suite is invented.
Year 211-214: As a testing ground, Holographic Suites are used to indoctrinate Protectors in Noocratic thinking.
Year 215: The Holgraphic Suite is released to the general public, to ecstatic reception.
Year 216-220: Savant Kungawo Johannes encourages the construction of Holgraphic Suites in New Beijing, with an intense focus on patriotic messaging.
Year 221: Tensions gradually die down in New Beijing.

Year 270: A new religious movement begins, based on the great religions of Earth's past.
Year 271-273: The Noocracy tolerates this movement so long as it stays focused on traditional human beliefs.
Year 272-280: "Mixtism" becomes an unofficial name for the spiritualist gathering, as views have mingled to a point where it is now something new, unique completely to New Hollywood.
Year 280: Mixtism is declared a dangerous cult.
Year 281: Religious individuals are forced into hiding. Thousands are believed to still be living in Bezian ruins.

Year 290: A famous Oligarch writes an anti-Noocratic manifesto. By her command, it is broadcasted across much of the planet. Before authorities can apprehend her, she commits suicide.
Year 295: The terraforming of New Hollywood begins.
Year 300: Current day.

Culture and Society:
Socially, the Earth Cultural Union is both incredibly diverse and incredibly traditional.

The focus of the ECU, as always, is to preserve the cultures of Old Earth as they were before the Fall. With this in mind, the Noocracy has pushed "Earth Culture Parties" as a craze among the youth. These are large and intense gatherings where participants take on new names for an evening, speak in Old Earth slang, and eat New Hollywood's best approximations of Earth food.

Not that the rest of New Hollywood doesn't "keep to the Culture." Even outside the parties, you could walk down any street in Neo London and see dozens wearing their sacred folk costumes of blue jeans and hoodies, Japanese kimonos, or lederhosen. If it's Earth, it's valid.

And then, naturally, some of those street-walkers are probably headed towards a Holograph Suite, where they'll be given a list of options for a night of entertainment. They can watch Shakespeare premiere at the Globe Theatre, for example. Or they can have an intimate (pre-scripted) chat with Marilyn Monroe.

These programs, as with everything in New Hollywood, come pre-approved by the Noocracy and represent Earth in only the best possibly light. A paradise. A place we should want to go back to. Home.

---

Governance and Politics:
"Noocracy," as defined by Plato, is rule by philosophers. As defined by the ECU, it is rule by the intelligent. A subtle difference, but vitally important.

The Earth Cultural Union ruling class, sometimes called the Oligarchy, maintains that its members represent the most intelligent and educated members of society. Early on in New Hollywood's history, entry into the Oligarchy required passing a rigorous technical exam, a certain level of required reading, and an I.Q. test rumored to break men's minds.

Today, it requires you to be born the child of an Oligarch.

Over the centuries, the standards of the Noocracy have gradually been corrupted. Whereas once one had to be an almost savant-like genius to gain real political power, now the Oligarchy is mostly an insular group of families and dedicated social climbers. But in order to maintain appearances, the Oligarchy still presents itself as representing intellectual refinement.

Therefore, young Oligarchs often increase their social standing by walking around in public with books, or paying more genuine scientists to do research on their behalf. (In fact, most scientists on New Hollywood work for Oligarchs. They publish no finds the Noocracy doesn't approve.) If you ask an Oligarch if they have any hobbies, they'll sigh dramatically and confess "Tragically, my uncomplicated companion, I have not the freedom to engage in fanciful recreations. But I digress- my studies, the foul mistress, call me again." They spend most of their time at Earth Culture Parties.

At least, that is the case for most Rulers of today. Lately, there seems to be one dangerous exception: James Heralds is a middle-aged Oligarch who is best described as "gray." His voice is gray, his thinking is gray, and his hair is gray. And he's terribly clever. He's managed to build up a power base among more weak-minded Oligarchs, and was just elected Savant (the formal head of the Noocracy) by a razor-thin margin.

Technology Overview:
With the Earth Cultural Union's obsession with preserving the past, no scrap of knowledge- no matter how trivial- has been allowed to go forgotten. Since reconstructing a damaged database carried on their Colony Ship, the ECU has been able to tell you everything from the lifespan of Hericium Erinaceus (40 years) to the color of Johnny Depp's eyes (chocolate brown).

And with the Noocracy's determination to prove their intellectual might, Oligarchs will often fund any number of scientific pet projects.

Terraforming in particular is a specialty- the ECU has managed to transform sections of New Hollywood into Earth-like paradises, and they've gotten to be very good at it. There have been some rumors that, if New Hollywood can be brought back to life, perhaps Earth can as well. But it remains only speculation.

Another field that has flourished in the Earth Cultural Union is the use of holographic simulations. The invention of Holographic Suites has allowed touchable holograms to bring any fiction to life, creating an entire world before the user's eyes. This is popularly used to both distract and indoctrinate the populace. (On the more practical side of things, scientists also use holograms for visualizing complex simulations. Before a new terraforming project gets underway, it's always run through the Holographic Suite a couple of hundred times, mapping out any potential side-effects.)

New Hollywood does, however, remain "behind the curve" when it comes to two fields: robotic automation, and gene modification. This is primarily because their research is banned on New Hollywood, due to a fear that such inventions would lead to a new humanity- contrary to the ECU's mission to preserve humans as they are.

Military Overview:
The ECU has not needed an army for some time. There was a violent period, roughly 150 years ago, where a large policing force was developed to put down rebellions, but that time has passed. Today, the people are easily occupied with holographic fantasies and revelry, and rarely think of politics long enough to oppose the government in anything.

The only exception remains the Protectors. Originally formed during the rebellions, the Protectors are a combination of soldiers and police. They are trained and indoctrinated by Holograph Suite programs which have been designed to teach them to love Earth, fear anything foreign, and practice violence without hesitation. Recently, these men have been placed formally under the control of Savant James Heralds.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@MetalWeight
Super Approved. You can drop them in the Character tab whenever.

@Irredeemable
Approved, especially the theme song. I wonder if it'd be possible for a hostile power to "hack" the artificial parts of Zetan brains, or if the programming is too arcane.

@GreyGoblin
I see that your population has been updated! With that in mind, you're approved. You can go over to that post you accidentally made in the Char tab and just copy/past your Colony into it. (Reduce, reuse, recycle)

@Timemaster@ClocktowerEchos
And three approvals is the most my poor non-augmented brain can handle doing at once, so I'll check y'all's out after work

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@MetalWeight
It's 4 AM where I'm at, but I'll be able to review your NS tomorrow evening.

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

<Snipped quote by Tortoise>

What do you mean "genetically engineered abominations"? The Midnight Technocracy is percentage wise majority human!

@ClocktowerEchos

Majority?
MAJORITY?

That's not enough, xeno scum!

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@Tortoise What sort of faction you thinking on making?

@Sigma

I have it mostly done now. They're essentially an oligarchy that's focused on preserving "Earth culture," so that they intentionally try to keep humanity as it was before Earth fell. Not just genetically, but culturally and socially as well.

Their end goal is to terraform their world into a copy of Earth, erasing everything alien about it, and they probably won't respond well to all these genetically engineered abominations they're about to run into

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@GreyGoblin
Pretty good. At first I figured the Osparians were a native alien, so reading through the history, I really enjoyed that "Ah-ha!" moment of realizing they're only mutated humans.

But before I approve you, I'd recommend upping your population. Most of the Colonies we've got coming in now are hitting about 1 to 4 billion. (Timemaster's is only so small because his NS was completed before anyone else's, and we hadn't realized how big most people's populations were going to be. I've given him permission to increase his as well.)

Unless maybe you're specifically looking to play as a smaller nation?

Through the Gateways: Humanity [Closed]

@ClocktowerEchos
We've got space goths, everybody. Mission accomplished. We can all go home.