![http://i.imgur.com/3unYE0m.png](http://i.imgur.com/3unYE0m.png *The sight from the esosphere of Aeonas, with Andraste on foreground.*)

### **The Aeonas Hegemony**

**Species:** Characterized by an thick hexagonal plates exoskeleton that covers almost entirely Ourian skin (except for the neck, hands and *cough* private locations), and low sexual dimorphism, this race body reseambles particularly that of other species. Vertebrates, bipedal mammals, Padovens have, like many other species, a capillary cardiac system, a neuronal one, organic fabrics and a diplontic life cycle. They are particularly tall and based on an avian build.
Having a slow metabolism, Ourians need half-dozen more hours of sleep during the night than averange species, though noticeably increasing their life-span, tranquillity and thoughtfulness.
Having evolved in an envirnment based on L-amminacids, Ourians are not able of disgesting any kind of organism not based on the same amminoacid structure. Though originally evolved from an herbivore species, they are omnivore, and really appreciate eating soft and well-coocked meat.
With small and thick eyes, their prolonged head is covered with unusually straight shining plates, that end over a toothed mouth - to be noted the presence of six canines-, devoid of lips. Lastly, on the side of the mouth, important is the presence of two long and moving mandibles, once used by Ourians' ancestors to group substantial bundles of grass to be eaten; today they don't have any pratical use anymore, since the invention of cutlery, but still bear symbolic meanings and attractiveness.
Their hearing is really developed, and they can catch even lower and higher frequences compared to other species. For this reason it is commonly said 'listening to the universe' in order to indicate someone who isn't very talkative, because when in empty space, Ourians can hear a weak background considered as the 'Universe melody'.
An interesting anomaly of Ourian physiognomy is an odd soft protuberance situated behind the neck, capable of stretching over their heads and shrinking back at will: though without any practical utility, thus leaving geneticists really baffled on why their race developed something this useless, this hood-like sack is often used by people to cover their heads during particularly hot or rainy days.

![http://i.imgur.com/GeLLqBm.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/GeLLqBm.jpg *Example of Ourian anatomy.*)

**Description of government:** The Aeonas Hegemony is an intergovernmental organization, first founded in 7678 C.I. in order to promote planetary and extraplanetary co-government. Officially declared a federation twenty years later, it regrouped the 23 nations of the Aeonas Hegemony under a common flag,
In the Hegemony, each state preserves limited local authonomy, whilst the executive, the legislative and the judiciary are held by the central government.
Each great state boasts one to three representatives* in the 'Nations Council', a counseling organ from which are elected those deputies who will make up the General Council. The latter detains legislative power, and the power to elect through a votation system the Primarchs, heads of the military.
The judiciary power is composed of a tripartite organ, each composed of different courts for various crimes, ranging from war ones, to civil ones.
Lastly, the executive is held by the Hegemony Steward, a life tenure office, who has moreover veto over the laws passed in the General Council. The Union Steward is elected by the Nations Council after a week of mourning after his predecessor's death.
_Representatives are not chosen by the Council, but by the local state government, whose government form may vary. As of the day, the permitted local administration governments allowed are: Republic, Monarchy, Illuminate Dictatorship, Militaristic Hegemony, Technocracy, Theocracy, Democracy, Monarchy and Organized Anarchy._


**Description of military**: Disciplined and well organized by a mandatory military school, starting from 16 to 20 years, the Ourians are not likely to start a war without a real reason, mostly because of the kind pulses their massive fleets, built in fear of what lurks outside of their systems, emanes, or just because they have a very lazy vision of conflicts.
The military is generally divided in 30 ranks, of which ten are the ones acquirable during the mandatory military service; the militia-men and soldiers are then divided in a very large number of regiments, which themselves compose a fleet, each ruled by an Admiral Cruiser

![http://i.imgur.com/x0sZo2P.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/x0sZo2P.jpg *The Aurora Armada*)

**Technological Overview**: It's still unbelievable that half a century before Ourians were blocked at the information age, stuck with the simple minded and primitive thought that digital watches were a pretty good idea. Even more awfully inconceivable for the Forces of the universe is their fast ascend to greater space technologies and quantum phisics and electronics.
However, not minding their unexpected discovery of a lost alien civilization technologies compendium, people may fall into error and think these fellas as all-knowing geniouses. Here is a basic example of the most important technologies

-FAL Engines: It was the Ourian scientist Jigglemat that firstly identified the signal of the alien compendium, and that permitted its recovery from the wasted asteroids orbiting around Andraste. Without anyone expecting it, they returned home after only one year. At their return, the spacenauts and the scientist himself explained the happening, revealing that it took almost one year with their current technologies to reach the cluster in question, whilst it required only one minute with few minded changs to their primitive engines. The following year was launched the ambitious project of reaching the farthest planet of the system in 10 hours. The result was a success, crowned with the discovery of the 'Artifact', and of the star-gate.
-Terra Formation & sculpting: One could say Ourians have gardeni- terra forming in their very veins. Since the beginnings of their time-span as sentient beings Ourians have always felt keen on adapting the outdoor environment. After the inevitable discovery of basic process of terraformation, Ourians followed the path, making giant steps in this discipline, which most of them like to define 'art'. The 'Terraformer' profession is a very profitable one, expecially in these periods when land owners of new colonies don't really appreciate their barren and inhospitable planets.
-Orbital Construction: Given for granted their passion for indoor decors and habitable modules, Ourans have become capable of creating self-sustaining colonies for the harsh environments. One of them, and probably the fiercest after the surface of a star, is space itself. Giant orbital cities and domes sprawling of life circumnavigate daily the system's planets, or, for those who seek easy profit, the rouge stations on planetoids provide content as well contempt.
Billionaire psychopathic and misanthropic Holiania even proposed the overly dreamy project of creating an artificial planet from the scratches of asteroids and useless comets but was fiercely opposed by the Hegemony Steward. Who knows why?
-Shields: The shields industry is a very florid one! It is estimated that personal use shields form up 5% of the whole Hegemony economy. It is so utterly prosperous that even every new ship is able to be armed at low cost with efficient reflective hulls' isotopes and plasma shields. Think about the cruisers!
-Weapons: Surprisingly enough, on the alien compendium there were no schematics for advanced warfare. Seriously? Make love not peace? At least Ourans had the time to develop atomic and advanced kinetic missiles and projectiles
-Shields: The shields industry is a very florid one! It is estimated that personal use shields form up 5% of the whole Hegemony economy. It is so utterly prosperous that even every new ship is able to be armed at low cost with efficient reflective hulls' isotopes and plasma shields. Think about the cruisers!

**Cultural and Historical Overview:** Almost seven thousands of years before the current times, Vituvia - Ourian homeworld - was devastated by a cataclysm, which transformed that idylliac terran world into a scorching ball of restlessness. A comet, moving unexpectedly away from its course, entered in contact with the atmosphere of the planet, unleashing high values of toxic gases; moreover, after the melting of the frozen gases, the comet revealed an heavy metallic core, which survived and crashed with unimaginable strenght on the surface.
The Ourians, silent spectators of their world premature end, eventually adapted, evolved to strive and survive in the new hostile environment: taller and more slender physognomies appeared, and they naturally developed in the successive two thousand years enzymes for digesting meat based meals, easier to find in those blasted lands.
Eventually from the ashes of the world they boosted an healing process of their own planet, slowly regaining pieces of land from the toxic miasma, or rebuilding the fractures on the land. Today Vituvia has returned to his former beauty, partly at least, having undergone an heavy terraformation process. Godless, Ourians rebuilt their world with their own capabilities, thus ascending to a new level of self-conception. [b]They[/b] were the center of the universe.
Today the original tendency of equilibre and sobrity frequent during the cataclysm has passed out, and since the last thousand of years -basically, the return of drinkable waters in most inlands- the Ourians have started again to regroup in differentiated ethnics and cvilizations, eventually leading to the birth of very different nations all through the world. Cultures are now incredibly different each from another, and describing each one of them would be quite a pain in- it would be really wearsome.
Only to be noted that Ourian mix of cultures has led to the birth of the 'New Empire' culture, a global elegant but simple union of arts, architecture and forms of speech, which is swiftly gaining its space in both planetary and extraplanetary communities.
Of what was before the cataclysm, very little remains: only shadows of a forgotten past, and the first light that wasn't from their sun.

Formerly, the Hegemony is based on the sacrosanct equality of rights for all Ourians.
In practice, society is based on a socio-economic hierarchical system based on wealth, and merits. Basically, the self-fulfillment of the individual is entirely based on its capability of striving through this sprawling society, and also on its social background. However, the government bases most of his fortune on this propaganda, promising better conditions and a more just meritocracy.
Still, socio-economic inequalities are frequent, and probably the situation will never change. This is in fact the main reason why the numbers of people enrolling in colonial missions in the system is esponentially growing, having seen that by creating a new colony - and thus a new state -, they would achieve that generally precluded high-ranking position. Of course, that if they survive the unknown environment.

What has majorly influenced Ourian's culture in the last century was the discovery of the first alien artifact - shortly after followed by that of a gigantic network of star-portals - which vividly ignited discussion and Ourian imagination. Surely, discovering they were not alone in the universe had been a great shock, but the Hegemony didn't take this lightly. If somewhere off in the deep sea of the galaxy there was something - or better _someone_ - still probably unaware of their presence, they had to be prepared.
In few years state financed xeno-linguistics and archeology sprouted as mushrooms in all the planets of Alpha-Aeria - hegemony home-system - in order to decipher the glyphs and characters of the ruins, and, eventually, become able to colonize an another system even before FTL engines.

**Nations Count:** 28 = 23 firstborn Aeonas Nations and 5 official colonies - 9 rouge stations, on asteroids or orbitating around Andraste or other planets, yet to be recognized.

![http://i.imgur.com/sO29Gfl.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/sO29Gfl.jpg "An Ourian, Mourn Von Strillghard.")