Instead of wating to be answered, i could not resist to propose this. I am sorry for my impatience, hehe. [i]Fitting music:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs02P3Rhd0U[/i] [img=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TyyqrT9yZUo/TAFGx2rPSoI/AAAAAAAAB78/VaYEp4rX6Qs/s1600/PACAL.jpg] [b]Faction Name:[/b] Court of the Concái [b]Faction Type:[/b] Meritocratic absolute monarchy [b]Species:[/b] Slightly evolved humans After millenia of space travel, Concái humans have adapted to lower gravity environements. [hider=Scale and Territory][i]Basic Interstellar[/i] The Concái are sparse in the Stars. Just fifty years ago they have been able to claim and colonize a suitable planet: [b]Pidui[/b]: Pidui ([i]tr: “Morning”[/i]) is a tropical yet arid planet. The planet has been chartred by orbit mesurements, but most population live in reduced area. The main city is Lagoc'háutl ([i]tr: snake's belly[/i]), named as the mothership that has been the home of the Concái since inmemorial times. The ancient ship is now on orbit and is being slowly dismantled, and its treasures and population being transfered to Pidui. Lagoc'háutl and other cities are built around huge atmosferic terraformation pyramids. As Concái ([i]tr: gardeners[/i]) folk reach Pidui, many other small comunities have formed in the main continent. Roughly 1,650,000 Concái citiziens live in Pidui and its orbit. [b]Other terriotries[/b]: Concái people do not posses terriotries. They only posses mobile asteroid-mining facilities and a pilgrim fleet, now stationed in Pidui.[/hider] [hider=Government] The soverignity of the people of Concái lays in the king. The actual king, His Majesty King Pykhal XIX, watcher of the Dreams, watcher of the Stars, the Snake Dancer, Holy Comander of Lagoc'háutl by the grace of the Gods, descends from the lineage of Tuúlkuán, the first king. His authority is endorseed not only by his lineage, but also from his sacred condition. He holds and represent both chief of government, religion and tradition. He is assisted byt the Speakers Council, formed by the most skilled and noble subjects; and by the Listeners Council, formed by the most eminent priests and scientists. Each greatship and city is under the govern of a Lord, elected by the King, which can be disposed at any moment. Only the king retains hereditary rights.[/hider] [hider=Society] The Concái society is divided in open castes. Over everybody else, there is the King and his family. Just under them, the High Court, which covers approximatedly the 10% of the population, formed by High Priests, Army Comanders, Ship Captains, politicians and brilliant artists, artisans and scientists. The Low Court is formed by villagers and workers. The artisans caste, the monks caste and the scientists caste were abolished during the Dawn Era. There is mobility in the different social classes. Exceptional individuals are rewarded and join the High Court. Also, corrupted officers and inneficient nobles are often degradated. Sever ofences from unloyal subjetcs are sometimes forced to exile. Only High Court spaceship crew subjects are allowed to know the navigation keys, a encrypted space chart system that allows long distance orientation and the ubication of Pidui. The common Concái would be very gregarious, with a humble lifestyle. Their past has taught them to save every single resource and profit as much. They are not, however, unready to waste high amoutns of food in gifts, and celebrations. Indeed, there is a solid tradition of collective rituals, which involve storytelling, dancing, music,debate and collective meditation. Concái enjoy, more than anything else, gardening and agriculture both as a form of art and work. They value the development of their tradition and knowledge, learning and researching. Overall, they are very mystic, and they also like to collect art pieces and treasures for the glory of the Gods.They also rely on "scrying", a form planification according to complex predictive simulational computation systems that Governors use arrange economy and politic plans .[/hider] [hider=Religion and science] The Concái have a very complex understanding of the world. They mix myth and logic in their belies. For them, their Gods are aspects of reality, a simbolic explanation of what science has unveiled. Religion hasa social function in tying up and integrating idividuals in their role in their society. The principal Gods or Aspects of their religion are Hualtzu, the cosmic snake, of the death and birth of everything; Láatzilil, God of Stars and navigation, of travel and misteries, Jukul, patron of the arts and Mayuk, Aspect of Dreams and revelations [/hider] [hider=History] [b]Origins:[/b] In the Gliphs of the Evening, carved in Lagoc'háutl front, it can be read: [i]“In the Evening, King Tuúlkuán, he who watches the stars, he who dances with the Snake, he who was blessed, holy and feared be his name, set out from Home with his most beloved subjects of his Court. As we entered the [i]púha[/i], the ever-hungry snake of Hualtzu put King Túulkuán and his folk in the Deep Slumber.”[/i] The origins of the Concái people are blurry. The only memories from the days before the Dream are few conserved inscriptions in the frontal parts of the Concái homeship and the distorted oral and written tradition, mixed with more recent myths originated during the Journey. The reasons of this [i]púha[/i] (hyperspace jump) are completely unknown to modern historicians. [b]The Dream:[/b] The myths of the Concái people begin with the Journey. The jump placed Lagoc'háutl in the very empty vastness of space. There is an huge written traditions which cover over one thousand years of isolation and hardship. This period is called the dream, for the modern Concái culture, religion and myths originated in this epoch, when they inmersed in a colective illusion due to the divinization of the ship, the stars, and the loss of the scientific knowledge. This later fenomenon was caused by the maintenance of a formated elite who sacralized the hlding of knowledge. There are no records of this era. This is described in the Myth of Mauaca, a lower-class hero who rose and confroted the elite. The myth tells that, the King, under the requests of freedom of Mauaca and the common folk, erased all the information stored about the ubication of their ancestral homeworld, and then inmolated himself “in the eyes of the galaxy”. [b]The Night:[/b] First records are dated from after this period, and consist of a vast yet neverending monotonous chronicle of the different travels of the Concái people in the vastness. The second [i]púha[/i] is narrated extensively in the Saga of the Dust. Since that moment, many other [i]púha[/i] were posible, and this leaded to a period of growth once the first solar systems were reached. However, no suitable planet was found, and another 380 years should pass until Pidui was found. Concái calendary begins to count from the second [i]púha[/i]. The calendary system, called the Long Count is extremely complex, since it combines the astral measurements of the movements around the galaxy core and the translation of the same galaxy with preditions on [i]púha[/i] jumps. [b]The Dawn:[/b] The Saga of the Rocks tells: [i]“And the Gardeners visited many worlds and met many strangers. They saw magnificient diamond asteroids and colorful stas, and they saw also many beautiful things and horrible ones, and they struggled sometimes, but they finally arrived to Xibalhuá, where my story begins...”[/i] Prabably, half of the things registered in the sagas are lies, but the growth and development of the Concái in these days is acknoledgeable. Many artifacts and treasures were found in this era. Who the scribe refers with strangers, we do no know, as such thign would have been kept secret by the Upper Court. In 378 [i]puhaljáalk[/i] (since the jump), the last and most lucky jump was made under the rule of King Pykhal XIX, watcher of the Dreams, watcher of the Stars, the Snake Dancer, may his name be holy. From time to time, Concái ships arrive to Pidui to settle and pledge loyalty to King Pihkal, .[/hider] [hider=Technology] [b]FTL[/b]: [i]“Púha”[/i] jumps used to be the only hyperdrive techlogy the Concái had during the Night. [i]Puha[/i] drives consist on a Coincidence Engine. This technology, however, is not fully understood by their propietaries, but they have discovered that it “shorcuts” space by recognizing two equivalent curvature locations. When two points are naturally “equal”, the engine can espontaneously engage in a jump, without almost none energy use. However. Very recently, thanks to the studies of the dimantled engines of the mothership, the Concái are mastering the Coincidence Induction technology, by wich they can induce coincidence either at the entrance or at the exit of the jump. This requires higly complicated computations in massive computers, an so the jump time can be very variable. Although a spontaneus [i]púha[/i] is extremely cheap in energy terms, forcing a jump can be extremely costly both in energy and time terms, depending on the situation. A way to facilitate jumps, now being implemented, is to deploy Coincidence beacons. [i]Púha[/i] jumps are very often accompanied by inharmonicity, which cause different mental effects on travelers to which the concái are relatively adapted. Coincidence is also used to generate energy in small amounts. [b]Ordinary Space Travel[/b]: The used propulsion systems are “sails” and Q-thrusters. While sails are normally used in civilian and bigger ships, Q-thrusters are prefered for smaller, faster ships. [b]Passive matter collectors[/b]: Historically, Concái have faced shortage of materials. Thus they developed matter collectors, filters that allow them to pasively capture atoms. In the long race, matter collectors are extremely cost efective. Solar satellites: Concái fleets recharge thanks to microwave transmited energy collected satellites that colect light from celestial bodies, normally stars in solar systems. [b]Advanced biotechnology (Gardening)[/b]: Trapped in the depths of Lagoc'háutl, Concái learned to produce food in extremely efficient manners. Therefore, they are master ambientalists, synthetic biologists and reciclers. They created the “Seed library”, a collection of creatiosn that suit most engineery needs of these people. Their research on huan brain and their rituallistic tradition has made them develop an advanced knowledge of the drugs-counciousness-mind relation, and so, they are masters in manipulating intelligent life forms in laboratory conditions. [b]Massive predictive computation:[/b] The quiet pilgrim life teached the Concái to observe every single detail i nthe unvierse. Their isolated environement encouraged to do extensive simulative computation in order to optimize every aspect of navigation, economy, survival and [i]púha[/i] jumps. This requiered enormous amount of computation, and they managed to achieve massive computative prediction engines that often work as “oracles”. [b]Militar technology:[/b] Concái often avoid confict. If forced to battle, they rather use subterfuge and hit and run tactics than enganging in direct battle. [b]“Masks”:[/b] Concái use electronic warfare technologies. They hide the electronic signatures of their ships and comunnications, using masks, firewalls and other devices, so as to ahieve scanning invisibility and inexpugnability. Very similarly, they fake their vessels identity to appear like asteroids and different ships [b]“Mouths”:[/b] Offensively, Concái use informatic warfare to cripple their enemies sensors and to control the flow of invormation in battles. [b]Weapons:[/b] Concái weapons are very rudimentary, consisting mostly on missiles. [/hider] [hider=Military Forces] Concái fleet is scarce, with many damaged and obsolete ships. Some other ships may be coming to Pidui, only the vastness knows. [i]4 Garden (farm) Ships 3 Carriers with 550 lightfighters, 250 bombers and 40 “Tickles” (boardment ships) each. 1 Frigate: “Xibalhuá”. Heavily damaged. 61 logistic ships 39 Minelayers / Beacon deployers[/i] [/hider]