[b]Name of Nation:[/b] The League of Wisdom [b]Description of Government:[/b] The League of Wisdom is ran by a series of world-states, of which is dominated by the Fortunate Council who hold authority over local planetary rulers provided they manage to placate the stars and assure a fortunate future for all. This has made them intense diplomats, because a diplomatic failure can mean death. It the most dire times, especially that of war, the League of Wisdom may collapse into military dictatorship, but these dictatorships tend to be overthrown once their use to society disappears since Zevedics despise autocracy since no one Zevedic mind can suffice to keep things running well. This council consists priest-like figures who hold power through their veneration of the stars and the needed ability to ensure a prosperous future for the next generation. The Zevedics do not separate morality from politics, if a political failure happens, it is seen as a moral failure as well. When such failures occur, the current council is usually overthrown and must find redemption in a trip to the sun. For when they fail to achieve fortune or prosperity for the League of Wisdom and the galaxy, they fail everyone and must redeem themselves by resetting their life. Below the council itself as the Zevedics who have achieved space travel, a feat of which requires decades of training which has put them above the lesser Zevedics who have yet to gain the ability to telekinetically control spacecraft or be able to amplify their abilities with other Zevedics- a crucial ability needed to make a sophisticated spaceship whose applications can vary depending on what situation they are in. For Zevedic ships tend not to have any rigid classification as trade ships or warships thanks to their pilots being able to use their telekinesis for violence should the situation call for it. The ground Zevedics are fleshy, organic Zevedics who are very alien in their appearance, being essentially massive egg-like bodies with tendrils that are used to connect, reproduce and move around. These bodies depending on the level of maturation of the Zedevic may be part of a construct (of which they hold together with their mind. These bodies can take over a century to completely develop, with the first phases of development taking decades alone due to having to go through multiple forms of metamorphosis. A typical Zevedic in their life span tends to have 2-3 offspring at most, of whom are collectively raised in sprawling academic institutions that teach all matters of subjects as opposed to being raised by their biological parents. Ground Zevedics however, are extremely diverse in their societal roles and often rely on the more aged and advanced space capable Zevedics to conduct business with other world-states and societies out and about the galaxy. They are the commoners and have an amazing diversity of roles in the League of Wisdom, but their telekinetic power is generally much, much weaker than what the Zedevics who pilot spaceships are capable of. Zedevics incapable of learning or self-advancement (or even simply are horrible at it) are euthanized to put them out of their misery. [b]Description of species:[/b] The Zedevic are a species of egg-like masses with multiple tendrils that project from their bottom side they use to move around their environment. These tendrils are of varying thickness with some being more specialized, as larger tendrils are used for actual movement while the smaller tendrils are used to latch onto things and keep hold of objects. The males have a specialized tendril for reproduction while the females simply have a reproductive orifice that is near their mouth. There is also smaller tendrils which protrude from the top of their body which are basically their eyes. Much of this is their brain, of which is not centralized in their head but spread about like a thick layer of tissue. They can repair brain damage much more than humans can, but significant brain damage does impair their telekinetic abilities and cause serious lapses in memory among other problems. Without any knowledge of telekinesis, their natural means of survival is pretty much to lay low and scavenge. However, as primitive Zedevic groups gained the knowledge telekinesis over many generations they became apex predators on their planet because they than are able to trap and kill larger creatures. Zedevics tend to consume and digest food externally, not too unlike a starfish might and they need to consume larger quantities of food the older they get. This results in the pilot Zedevics needing to eat large shares of food and usually bringing large quantities of food wherever they go. Traders tend to go with less food, usually eating at destinations instead since the Zedevics aren't really picky eaters due to their evolutionary past as scavengers. The growth and development of Zedevics is done through multiple stages of maturation, with the first stage of Zedevics being the Grub Forms who come to be through live birth. Juveniles go through a stage of metamorphosis that leads to the Juvenile form. The Juvenile form than will grow for decades until they become mature enough to reproduce. Gestation for the grub forms tends to take a few years. Their telekinetic potential gets higher the older they get. Zedevics can live up to 200-300 years on average. Zedevics have male and female sexes (they reproduce by tendril), but these sexes have little, if any dimorphism beyond genitalia. However, they do have a degree of dichromatism in than the males tend to be a more vibrant color than the females. The Zedevic color-wise tend to be a mixture of dark grey and pale colors than may be affected by their exposure to the sun to start becoming a pinkish color. Their skin patterns tend towards spottiness. For Zedevics also gain nutrition from exposure to sunlight and while Zedevic eyesight is poor, the warmth of the sun is easily felt by them. [b]Description of Culture:[/b] The Zevedic are extremely well learned as a whole due to rigorous amounts of training for their kind being focused in solely aggregation of knowledge. From birth to death, the pursuit of mastering their mind and achieving transcendence is leveraged onto every Zedevic, with vast state sponsored institutions on each world. One may spend over a century in these academies, with much of their society centered around these massive academy complexes that carry out many of the same functions of a city at the same time. These academies teach pretty much every subject they can teach. As a result, many Zedevic tend to know quite a bit about other species (and have to- their kind relies on other societies to attain technologies they never developed in exchange for outsourcing their telekinetic abilities). The need for so much education becomes most clear in the fact that the only way they are able to manipulate the environment around them is through their innate talent for telekinesis, of which can take decades to be adept at for even the Zevedic. The sheer range of abilities Zevedic telekinesis can do is simply staggering, for they can flip switches drag around objects larger than themselves (note that this does have limits in size, bigger objects being harder to manipulate and when they use constructs can't devote as much of their mental resources. They also can amplify their telekinetic ability when they are near other Zevedics of similar talent, enabling for the large scale telekinesis that would give rise to space travel. The Zevedic talents come at a price, however. The Zevedics always need more food than other species (often having to eat as much of their own body weight in a day) and frequently must bask in the sun in order to gain all their nutrition. Their telekinesis requires focus, and can be disrupted if they are caught off guard. This means they tend not to have high populations on the whole, and their cultures are not as 'social' as more populous ones. Since the beginning of time, The Zedevics have worshiped the Sun. Early on in their history, such worship was very simplistic. Simple ritual was all that was needed to placate the sun, burn some Zedevic children at dawn and you were morally clear. Such a system in the League of System is looked down upon as one of the most shameful aspects of the past, if the serfdom was not horrid enough. Sacrificing so much is opulence, after all. The warmth of the sun is not only associated with knowledge and wisdom, but ethicality and morality itself. The night used to be feared by ancient societies, but as the revelation of the true nature of the stars so distant came to be, the night too, became a time to be enjoyed as the thousands of parts of the sun come into view. Veneration of the Sun is achieved through long exposure to the light, singing hymns and giving valued material goods to the Sun. Their conception of the sun would be greatly affected as they awoken to the greater universe and became aware of the true nature of the cosmos. The sun it turns out, is far more vast than they ever imagined. It is not simply the sun in their skies, but countless aspects of the sun. All of which having a personality of their own. (For instance Sol, earth's sun is considered a very courageous star who never spoils but never abuses. The Vedl system the Zedevics come from is more of a calm, but watchful star whose silent judgement passes over every day.) Their god it would seem, is far more powerful than the ancients ever imagined. The implications that the stars and the sun are one completely changed their world view from the small mindedness of the ancients who only knew of one sun. No longer was it that they had obligations to Vedl, the star that had given birth to them, but they had obligations to every star, even many who never had children. Such veneration could not be carried out by one species. To truly satisfy and show gratefulness to the stars for the light of knowledge and life, their cousins too, had to cooperate in venerating the stars. The sun is seen as both god and a realm, a heavenly realm where the souls of the dead go to be judged for their next life. Souls with the Zedevic are seen as the engine of wisdom, the sun being where knowledge is collectively deposited to one day be scattered among the stars. All organic sapient life is seen as having souls, of those that gain knowledge are the ones who are seen as truly soulful. A being incapable of learning does not have a soul. Zedevic tend to not be buried, instead their corpses are left to bask in the sun so they may be embraced by the heavenly light and go on to their next life. Burial is a ritual horrifies the Zedevic, as the soul is trapped underground in such events. The Zedevic engage in a distinct form of sacrifice, of which is not based in placating, but redemption and judgment. Those who have dishonored the galaxy in their failure to bring fortune are given the choice to redeem themselves by going on a one way trip to the sun. Prisoners of war are given this option, to end their lives now to redeem themselves. And so they may be born again and hopefully next time live a more moral life. Some sects do practice more conventional sun sacrifice, but these sects are heavily criticized by the mainstream faith for their sheer opulence in sending thousands of people into the sun to save them from a corrupt and evil universe. The League of Wisdom, due to not engaging in the assimilation/conquest of other species is pretty much dominated by Zedevics with all minorities being those who immigrate to the League. Those minorities tend to make separate parallel communities in the League of Wisdom due to so much of the infrastructure being unsuited to non-psionic species. They don't seem to have a concept of citizenship, instead just allowing immigration and emigration through a simple check to make sure you aren't armed or intending to kill anyone. Immigrants may be pressured to worship the sun however. Machines however, are seen as soulless by the Zedevic, for they have no life in them and their knowledge is merely transferred, not truly gained through experience. This is perhaps the most disputed aspect of Zedevic faith, one of which continues unresolved to this day in the League of Wisdom. Despite the common respect they see themselves to other societies in the galaxy, the Zedevics find the beliefs of their cousins shameful. They believe that their civilizations have corrupted their youth, filling them with deception and confusion, making them ignore the universal truth. That is, of the sun being the mother of all life and the light of knowledge. For many of these other faiths to the Zedevic are out of touch with reality in their belief of invisible and intangible gods. Or even worse, those who insist the world to be only material and nothing else. However dogmatic the League of Wisdom is on their faith, they do not use force to convert. Instead they try to show how much greater of a society they are for worshiping the sun in through benevolence and charity. The power of the sun and its universal importance must be acknowledged in totality. To give credence to a fictional entity is madness. To see the sun as "just a hot ball of gas" is stupidity. The Oligarchs of the league of wisdom, seeing the madness of some of their cousins have invested in methods of conciliation and therapy to fix the insanity of other species when possible. Such methods being an optional service- as force only repulses the non believer. But attempts at persuasion is frequent regardless. Sects more radical and dogmatic be damned, the only way to true reverence of the sun is through knowledge. For they must come to see the error in their minds on their own. [b]Description of Economy:[/b] Being a network of world states ruled by an oligarchic system, the economic network within the League of Wisdom is both dead simple and highly convoluted. Essentially every world has similar level of development. At the very least they all have a World Institute to ensure education is universal for all Zedevic. The League of Wisdom's economy is fueled by industry, education and psionics with Zedevic industry being shockingly high quality using advanced metallurgical techniques that has created a range of alloys and magnetics used in the constructs and magnetic transit systems that link the many Zedevic towns on a world-state together, of which often centralizes around massive, sprawling academies that also double as the main cities for each world state. These industries often have adopted technologies from other parts of the galaxies, integrating new technologies when the opportunity arises however hesitant they are when it comes to making use of many forms of machines only tolerating simple machine tools for their constructs. Instead they make use of decades of education to make extremely well crafted products. Financially the League of Wisdom is basically a system of working for benefits. Money doesn't seem to be of much incentive to the League and the autonomy of 'lesser'/regional educational facilities, artisans, merchants and industrial complexes within the League is more akin to a system of guilds instead of a corporation. These complexes however, are watched by the world governors to ensure they are being ethical in their ways. The world governors in turn are watched by the guilds to ensure [i]they[/i] are being ethical in their ways. Ethics here being defined by common respect and logical reward/punishment- no opulence being tolerated. Competition between these guilds are frequent, as they may sometimes be populated by rivaling sects and feuding tribes that have never really ended their petty rivalries. Merchants in the League of Wisdom tend to not be merchants in the human sense. League of Wisdom merchants instead are advanced psionic users who (as mentioned earlier) trade their psionic capabilities (of which it should be noted are renowned the galaxy over- the psionic capabilities of a Zedevic especially in telekinetic prowess is considered unmatched and the potential a Zedevic has for psionics can just keep growing and growing) in exchange for technology, food or services from their client. Some merchants may given money from their clients regardless, of which they accept and use to buy whatever they need from the factions that accept whatever currency they were given. However the League of Wisdom doesn't have much of a currency themselves beyond some experimental currency systems meant only to interface with their other more money utilizing cousins. Other species are welcomed to learn in the League of Wisdom, other psionic species having come to one of the famous academies in the League of Wisdom to learn telekinetic powers and telepathy from the Zedevic themselves. Such education is free, but extremely selective with other species often requiring proof of high psionic potential to apply. They tend to teach sun worship as well, so be warned. The most notable and cosmopolitan of these universities is the "Institution for the Universal Advancement of Life", of which has the prestige of training some of the most advanced Zedevic pilots in the galaxy. [b]Description of Technology:[/b] The technology of the League of wisdom is adapted to specifically interface with Zedevic individuals. Their architecture is made from large parts due Zedevic builders being able to levitate large objects and place them together. There is a wide variety of constructs the Zedevic utilize to better manipulate the world around them, such constructs being metallic suits the Zedevic fill in and control through telekinesis. Such constructs can get rather large and are utilized for all sorts of things such as interacting with other species in a equal manner or construction work. They also have applications in world exploration as they can double as spacesuits. More intricate tech has been used by the Zedevic for ages, weapons such as the sharp edged cylinders or guns that can be aimed using telekinesis and fire at the will of the user existed over a thousand years before the league of wisdom was even conceived of. Magnetic devices have been used as force amplifiers by the Zedevic, indeed it is such devices that have allowed for the Zedevic to experiment with space travel and eventually become a space faring species. Magnetic transit systems are frequently used for logistics as well, of which connect their worlds together and can take one to the other side of a world-state in a matter of minutes. They have a wide range of tools that are specialized to telekinetic usage, many of which are designed so even a novice Zedevic may be able to use them. The more complex ones require more training. Automation and mechanization has limited application in their societies, often being used as toys or for aid in systems needed for their spacecraft (mainly life support systems). The Zedevic do not really use computers much, their computer systems being still fiber optic based and used more for recording and archiving information. In more recent time more sophisticated computer systems brought in from outside societies have been experimented with for educational applications. There is a range of Zedevic tech that is simply tech from other societies re applied for their use, of which will be discussed and revealed in respect to the League of Wisdom's affiliations with other societies. In exchange for these technologies, the Zedevic outsource themselves as mercenaries or assistants in various fields for other civilizations. Zedevic psychiatry and therapy is considered shockingly decent, but be warned they sometimes will try to convince you to worship the sun. [b]Description of Military:[/b] The military of the League of Wisdom is sourced from multiple world states and consists of warships that are specially designed for the crew by their peers, often with a shocking amount of personalization for what is generally considered a unitary species by more material cultures out there. Their fleets are decent in size due to having long enough drawls of relative peace and the long lifespans the pilots have, however the big concern among their commanders is the difficulty in recuperating losses in a protracted conflict. As a result the League of Wisdom has military tactics designed not to engage in protracted wars, but force a truce as soon as possible and bring an enemy to the negotiating table. They are hesitant to use any genocidal methods due to them viewing other species in the galaxy not as "xenos", but instead as cousins to themselves. Their ancestor's souls might now be human, Vit’azny, Valeran, Sauru'u and so on now after all. That's not to say of course, they have no means of trying to force a peace or resorting to conquest and reeducation when the situation calls for it. There is not much distinction between a warship or a trade ship except for identifiers they use when working with societies that request it. This is because of the pilots living their lives in those ships and being conscripted to fight in wars when necessary for military training comes part of their education. The pilots spend almost of their lives in spaceships once they achieve the capability of space travel, with the only true military forces being specialized ships used for diplomatic leverage via sending in their land troopers to occupy enemy cities in order to force their opponent to the negotiation table or to begin saving the less savory cousins from themselves. Enemies that don't surrender pretty much are seen as mentally unstable and have their corrupt culture dismantled and replaced with more ethical and moral principles for their own good. The general capabilities of these ships is that they can act as if they have a reactionless drive, are able to use incredibly hard hitting projectile attacks using rail guns whose projectiles can be steered into enemy ships and have a variety of scattershot flak weapons they can unleash upon opponents. The orbital bombardment potential of these ships is known, (they simply need to drop a large asteroid on a planet), but is practically never used except against machine opponents or in a hypothetical state of total desperation. These ships tend to be crewed by multiple pilots who together achieve greater feats than a individual could. Their true strength lies in the difficulty in hitting their spaceships thanks to the reactionless nature of their ship handling and their ability to easily intercept and even deflect enemy projectiles by modifying their flight path so they pass harmlessly by. Or send the projectiles careening back to the attacker. They also tend to have their ships "dance" in space as to decrease the probability of being hit by laser or particle weapons, but beyond simple plating systems and their insanely evasive maneuvers they have no real answer to laser or particle weaponry except those they can get through technological trade with other civs. The drawback however, is that these ships tend to be larger and require larger ships due to the ravenous appetite of the pilots (a fact exploited by dining establishments on a regular basis). However, they do not really make use of ship classes. On ground and air, they have various other constructs they utilize that like with most of their tech, requires telekinesis to properly operate. On ground they tend to use constructs that are well defended and designed more for suppression than protracted conflicts. In general the League of Wisdom tries to avoid a protracted war, seeking decisive victories by focusing on attacking the military of the enemy and than forcing open the negotiation table as soon as they can. They can be brought to declare a offensive war if the right order of events occur that drive them to a declaration, but even in such cases they prefer to only wage war when they have allies or are joining in on a war in support of an ally. They might simply just surrender if they have no allies and most are against them in a war. However in practice war is a last resort to the League of Wisdom, they tend to attempt other means to gain power and influence in the galaxy instead. [b]History:[/b] The evolution of the Zevedics is somewhat unclear due to their species looking little into it- for it is clear around them that they shared a ancestor with other species on their planets, some of which having developed psionic capabilities as well, but it all ignores the ultimate fact that the Zevedics are children of the sun- even if their immediate ancestors were animals. For it is the sun that gave life to their world and countless Thousands of years ago the Zevedics were simply organic species who were exceptionally gifted at telekinesis and somewhat capable of telepathy. They were a pathetic, savage species in these ancient times. Telekinetic warlords dominated politics, those left without mind were in a state of serfdom in much of the world, treated as farm animals and had to physically labor using their weak tendrils to toil away in agriculture and labor their lives away for a hundred years before they could gain the embrace of death. The small elite of telekinetic lords even back in this miserable time worshiped the sun, a seemingly near universal cultural trait. Perhaps because of some cultural bottleneck in their prehistory. Such was the politics in ancient times for much of the world. Yet, there was an exception- the Misja. The telekinetic lords in their part of Vedia developed learning and knowledge, uplifting their citizens and achieving power beyond the warlords and their despotic magocracies. The Misja Empire would lay the foundations to later civilizations that in the course of thousands of years led to ever higher levels of psionic achievement. The literacy and education of their species progressively grew and their major schools of magic allowed for ever more elaborate creations and technologies. The first academies begun to exist, with the most prestigious academy in the League of Wisdom today being on Vedia itself with a ancient history spanning back to the age of enlightened autocracies. Eventually the first pilots came to be, transcending the limits of their home world of Vedia and waking up to the true nature of the sun. Efforts to reach these other suns were progressive, but eventually accumulated with the discovery of the precursor gates that the Zevedics make comparatively little concern of despite the sheer power of their technology. For the true matter war that these gateways led to the stars distant and eventually lead to Zedevics coming face to face with their cousins among the stars, also viewed as children of the sun. A different aspect of the sun with a different personality, but nonetheless part of the sun as well. The early colonies were independent. They were full of rivalries between major clans and hostility from past atrocities that just kept building on each other. Acts of total stupidity occurred in the time of world-states that still have resonance today and have informed much of the political behavior the League of Wisdom conducts today. Yet it was in this hostile climate that the League of Wisdom gained power, being able to raise the bar above grudges and sectarian violence into a orderly society that has managed to continue to this day, although tensions still brew underneath the surface of their seemingly ethical and just society (namely more radical sects who try to subvert the power of the League as a whole). Currently the League of Wisdom engages in trade and diplomacy with the galaxy at large, all the while spreading their influence through solar cults and allying with those most similar to their own beliefs to one day achieve further levels of enlightenment with their cousins at their side. [b]Other: [/b] Basically psychic aliens who are into sun worship.