My WIP nation. Many of my characters will be explorers and mercenaries from the Commonwealth ranging out into the stars. Official Name: The Interstellar Dominion of Mitran States Unofficial Name(s): The Dominion Demonym: Citizens, State’ers, Dominars Capital System: Hearthstar Capital Planet: Haven Home Region: The Haven Sector Head of State: Head Ministers Lady Athena and *Architect Head of Government: Empress Helena Greywind Head of Military: Grand Admiral of the Fleet Lord Markus Tyran Population: Approx 5 billion Mithras, 20 billion biosynths and AI’s. Mithras: A slender, elven species. On average standing around six feet tall. The prevailance of commercial body-modding means skin color, hair color, height, even apparent age skew wildly from individual to individual. In general, the longer the hair the older a person is, and the more elaborate the hairstyle the more senior they are. Biosynths: Artificially created subspecies of Mithras or copycats of other minor species they have absorbed into the Dominion. Obedient and communal servants, soldiers, slaves, and laborers of a hundred kinds. They tend to be shorter and less elegant than the highborn natural Mithras. AIs: Artificial Intelligence (although courts debate rebranding them as synthetic intelligence) make up a major minority of the Dominion’s servant population. Most are low-level entities focused on singular tasks, while a few are high-level minds spanning an entire star system. Or in the case of *Architect, the whole empire. Dominion AI’s add a (*) to the front of their names in text to clearly differentiate themselves from organics in text-comms. As a whole, they are highly intelligent, but tend to lack personal innovation or initiative with a few exceptions. History: WIP In a nutshell: a society of natural-born people ruling over a nation of artificial creations after a major civil war, now out to expand and explore the stars to further their own horizons to repair and replace their damaged empire. * * * * * * * [hider=Government, Politics, & Economy] Head of State: Head Ministers Athena and *Architect Head of Government: Empress Helena Greywind Head of Military: Grand Admiral of the Fleet Lord Markus Tyran Chief Diplomat: Lord Kalor Blake, *Crystal Other Key Figures: Type of Government: AI-assisted Monarchy Description of Government: The Dominion is formally a monarchy, with the ruling Emperor or Empress having supreme executive power, with a subordinate advisory council of lords and ladies to run day to day affairs. With the space age, the complexities of governing many far-flung worlds made the Empress Lansel Greywind commission the creation of a network of advanced computing networks and AI’s to provide advice and information to smoothly run an interstellar empire. As time progressed, more routine affairs are handed over to *Architect, the central advisory AI and right hand to the Empress. Not even the civil war did much to damage *Architect or its functions as it diligently served to minimize damage and ensure a quick rebuilding with the success of the royalists. Type of Economy: Free Market Capitalism Description of Economy: WIP, involves sentient interstellar macroeconomics [/hider] * * * * * * * [hider=Foreign Relations] Faction Status: Expanding, growing, dealing with recovery from a civil war. Diplomatic Approach: (Note your nation's general approach toward others -- and better yet, how your faction would have others approach you.) Aggressiveness: The Dominion is cautiously aggressive. They want to grow and expand into new frontiers, but are willing to compromise or negotiate before turning to war. They are not above forcibly uplifting smaller nations into their fold, but tend to respect the boundaries of nations they see as larger or stronger than they are. (How often does your nation attack others? How aggressive is it towards the little guys, or even the big ones?) State of War: Dealing with remnants of the Sovereign Colonies rebellion and assorted traitor military personnel. Presently minor warfront, but could become a larger issue in the near future. (Are you fighting minor wars, major wars, nothing at all? Note whatever you want here.) Allies: (Doesn't matter how close they are as long as it's official. Run it by GMs first.) Friends: (Add whoever your nation likes here.) Apathetic: (Add whoever your nation avoids/doesn't care about at all here.) Foes: (Add whoever your nation doesn't like here.) At War: (Doesn't matter the scale of conflict between the two factions. Run conflicts by both the player involved and the GM if the conflict started before IC's events take place.) [/hider] * * * * * * * [hider=Military Forces] Space Fleet [img]http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Urik_Antares_h2.jpg[/img] Ship Class: Aegis Ship Type: Dreadnought Size: 3 km in length, 1 km in width Role: Flagship, Fleet Mothership, Dreadnought of the Wall Primary Weapons: 80x Broadside Missile Tubes, 60x Broadside Plasma Beam Cannons Secondary Weapons: Gauss Cannon Batteries, Primary Defenses: Klein-Bottle Shields, Superheavy Hexaferrite Armor Secondary Defenses: Active Decoys, point-defense laser clusters Power Source: Six 25-Way Fusion Reactors Crew Size: 10,000 to 150,000 depending upon degree of AI automation and ground force complement. More than 3/4ths are biosynths or drones. Other Notes: Retains drop-pod capability for deploying ground forces. A number of Aegis are granted to explorers or obtained by mercenaries heading out into foreign stars. [/hider] * * * * * * * [hider=Society&Culture] Dominant Society: Social Hierarchy: The Dominion can be loosely divided into the natural-borns and the synthetic biosynths and AI’s. Moral Values: Self-fulfillment is the chief ideal for the natural-borns. Finding your ideal desires, the vocation your perfectly suited for, creating works you will be proud of, furthering oneself is the highest value the Dominion holds. Loyalty to family and love of others are close seconds. For the biosynths and AI’s, conformity and efficiency are their highest moral values. Their life of hard labor and toil is ideal to them, and they find comfort within repetition and routine. Culture: Put simply, the Dominion’s natural-born upper classes are hedonists of almost every variety. The boons of interstellar travel and space-age technology have been turned to create a eudaimonic high-consumption society that allows everyone to focus on what makes them will fulfilled in life. The only difference among the various social tiers among the natural-born are to what degree of excess they can afford. In contrast, the lower-class AI and biosynth populations live in hard labor to support the natural-born elite. While they are afforded some degree of basic comforts and are well-treated cogs of society, they are still cogs in a larger machine and treated as such. Biosynths and AI’s of high-quality or exceptional service may be promoted to more middle-class refined supervisor positions or servants directly to their masters. Other Notes: (List anything truly unique that doesn't fit with the rest.) Class Distinctions: Besides the gross divide between the noble-class “naturals” and the working class “synthetics”, there are some degree of divisions amongst the highborn upper-class naturals, mostly relating to what kind of work they do. Those that govern and lead tend to afford a higher degree of luxury than those that are managing resourcing and industrial activities, but its not that much of a difference. In general, the greatest measure of status is how your time is spent rather than one's taste of abundant luxury. The exception is the military. Those that join the Dominion military tend to be a mix of youths unsatisfied by lives of empty luxury or political aspirants or simply adventure-seekers. Adopting strict discipline and orderly regimes and focused lives, they stand out amongst the ranks of the nobility even after being discharged, which is considered more of a curiosity than disgrace amongst most. Politics: Like most monarchies, there is a degree of politicking going on behind closed doors between nobles and corporations and the crown and military. Appointments to different high positions of authority, for high-level Prolong treatments, and cultural posturing. But surprisingly, most politicking occurs between the governing AI’s rather than the natural-born in their quest for efficiency and service. Entertainment: For the noble-class naturals, grand court galas and dances, airship luxury cruises and hunts, sports, and any other form of high-class entertainment and indulgence is common amongst the “common” nobility. The high-level royalty and social elite take such acts even further. Military nobles prefer to engage in wargames and military philosophy debates, adopting more ascetic and militaristic lifestyles compared to the civilians and largely discarding the materialistic hedonism, although its far from total abstinence. Especially among the younger officers. For the working class biosynths, when they are not at work they are afford baser pleasures like recreational drugs, group activities, sex, or simple commercialism. But the majority of the labor-types consider their work their best form of entertainment and recreation. News & Other Media: The Medialink network spans all of the planets (How is your faction informed on current events?) Language: (How does it work in general? List anything of note here.) [/hider] * * * * * * * [hider=Technology] Technological Overview: As a whole, Dominion technology is built with a mind towards networking and adaptation on every level. Anything and everything they can network, add smart-materials to, or automate; they will. The end result is a highly networked and high-computational society that allows for extremely rapid problem solving and adaptation. Biotech is also notably focused. While gene-modding is kept to merely peak-organic abilities rather than any radical superpowers, the creation of biosynthetic clones is a well-honed practice. And certain fields of extreme cybernetic and genetic modification are being investigated, such as Ascension-class neural implants granting immortality, at a high cost. However the Dominion as a deficiency in the area of theoretical physics and making their higher-level technologies mass-producible. For all their high-tech, their starships are notably difficult to build and repair outside of specialized yards. And there have been no real innovations in FTL travel for decades. Groundbreaking Technologies: * Mass Bio-synthesis- The Dominion have made massive strides in the fields of cloning, genetic manipulation, and neural imprinting to mass-produce biosynths that can be configured and purpose-made for a variety of tasks. Artificial servants, slaves, workers, soldiers, courtiers, to fill out the Dominion’s lower classes and need for working masses. In general, at full capacity a average-sized cloning plant can produce and program 10,000 biosynths every six months. In practice they tend to take a bit longer for fine-tuning and specialization of biosynths in smaller numbers. Special Military Technologies: * 3-Dimensional Maneuvering Gear- Every infantryman, from the lowest militia and garrison, to the robotic forces, and especially the elite forces, are trained to some degree in the usage of 3DMG, a combination body harness, grappling hook launchers, thruster packs, and mag-lev skids that grant individuals in the field an exceptional degree of maneuverability well-suited for Dominion high-speed warfare. Not many can master it, but those that can are nigh-impossible to hit. The vast majority just use it to slightly improve upon basic mobility. * Immortal Protocol- Some elite personnel are granted the rare Ascension-class neural implants that permit them when they die on the battlefield to be transferred to a new clone body in the field or on an orbiting warship. The end result are soldiers who are literally incapable of dying, and can learn from every death. The technology is new however, and there are very few people compatible with the Ascension-class Implants, so Immortality is reserved for a few key personnel or people worth keeping alive at any cost. Furthermore, not everyone can withstand the strain of dying repeatedly and may opt for discharge or assisted suicide after a number of “deaths”. * Automated Armies- The a large part of the Dominion’s armed forces are complex and adaptive combat drones driven by AI’s and organic commanders. A single commander can bring to bear hundreds of tireless, fearless, and expendable drone soldiers. While individual drones are unimaginative and need heavy direction, some of the AI’s that survive the battlefields develop personalities and advanced combat skills. * Laser-Tip Missiles- The Dominion’s predominant weapon platform are missiles carrying nuclear-bomb pumped X-ray lasers, with each missile carrying a high-yield shaped nuclear charge that focuses its energy through a series of aimed focus lens to try at enemy ships. While bulky, they bypass traditional missile defense systems by detonating at range. Transportation: Utility: * Neural Net Society- The sheer degree of internet networking between almost everything in the Dominion, from clothes to streets to buildings to pipes and more, all permits for massive-scale networking to the point where almost everything is online and adaptable to the needs of society 24/7. Although it does cause issues when a hacker gets loose. Power: * N-way Fusion- Fusion occurring between more than two atomic bodies at once, creating exponentially greater amounts of energy in a smaller package than conventional fusion. Dominion reactor grades are measured by size and value of “N”. The average norm is a Beta-class 10-way fusion reactor. The peak of N-way fusion are Superdreadnought 40-way reactors. Medicine: * Prolong- One of the core tenants and central rights of the Dominion is the right to life. As such, every citizen receives basic prolong treatments to extend their lives and youth to around 150 years at peak ability. Those who want to live longer can elect for higher-level and more invasive body reconstruction procedures to live centuries longer, but its one of the few rare things in this society that is politicked and not instantly available due to complexity of the procedure despite recurring advancements to make it more accessible. The present limit is around 500 years, but very few people want to live that long. Biology: * Five-Star Fast Food- A nickname for a dozen advances in nutrition and bioscanning that permit extremely fine dining to be available at fast food prices and speeds. Even colonial worlds benefit as restaurant chains are always ready to go out and find new foods and sponsor bio-surveys. Cybertronics: * Mass-Produced AI’s- The Dominion has a ton of AI’s and robotics ingrained at every level of society. Using “Mother-type” AIs to create and raise new AI’s in a sustainable and stable manner rather than direct-coding every AI matrix, the Dominion has created AI’s that are almost like people but still extremely reliable within their given role, while still being extremely loyal and obedient. * Mind-uploading- The Dominion has figured out how to upload a organic mind into a computer. But the greater trick was putting it back into an organic body, even a new blank-slate cloned one. While extremely expensive and reliant on hard to produce ascension-class implants, they can render a person theoretically immortal. Presently the technology is only just beginning to hit larger-scale production, and its still under heavy development to lower costs and broaden implant compatibility. Construction: * Dominant Economic Activity Planning - DEA planning involves dedicating entire swathes or even continents of a planet to a single overarching economic focus with the assistance of AI’s. Population centers, industry, trade, recreation, etc. While this does cause a few issues when rare minerals are found beneath somebody’s theme park, as a whole it vastly improves economic productivity with improved organization and transport efficiency. DEA’s naturally “grow” under the guidance of AI’s to be the best they can be within their given role. [/hider]