The Humankind Empire of Astrana is a human-centric country that, while legally ruled by an emperor, is controlled by a fascist political party called Humanity United. This led to the outbreak of a civil war between the fascists and a coalition of constitutionalists, democrats, and alien nationalists.



(Imma do this later cause I'm a lazy fuck)


Truica, Floyn Thal System: The heart and sole of the Empire, Truica serves as the Imperial capital. It is host to a number of important institutions include the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Navy Academy, Imperial Intelligence, and the Imperial Center for Scientific Pursuit. On top of all this Truica’s planetary ring station hosts the third largest shipyard in the Empire and the system itself is the center of all trade in the Empire. Within the Empire, it can be said that all roads lead to Truica.

Atrar, Cormyral System: Homeworld of the Nalloth species, Atrar is a major industrial center in the Empire and home to its second largest shipyard. Atrar has long been considered as a lynchpin in the Empire’s defensive position towards the Federation and thus serves as an important logistical point for military operations in the region.

Odrela, Voflain System: Home to the Empire’s third largest shipyard, Odrela is considered to be, in many ways, the Imperial capital in the south. It is an economic and logistical hub in the region and has long served as a major naval base. Odrela itself is home to the Imperial family’s vacation palace, which has historically served as a place to host members of the Imperial family during times of crisis to ensure the continuation of the bloodline. It currently serves as the de facto capital of the rebellion.


Nalloth: The nalloth are the natural inhabitants of the Cormyral System. They have six legs, each of end in what can serve equally as both foot and hand. They exhibit characteristics of both mammals and reptiles: they have scaly skin that they regularly shed, but are warmblooded and give live birth. They have four small eyes and a mouth that is literally filled with razor sharp teeth.

Nalloth commonly partake in various drugs for both recreational and ritualistic purposes. Their language consists of a series of shrill whistles, whines, and grunts with small differences in pitch and tone having a small effect on the meaning of a 'word'. While a human is capable of understanding a majority of the native Nalloth language they cannot hope to speak it and Nalloth can, at best, imitate some of the same words as humans use. Commonly nalloth make use of a form of sign language to communicate with those who can't speak their language.

Nerkin: An insect-like race, nerkins are carnivores with a voracious appetite. They have six limbs, four of which are traditionally used as arms, although they can run on all six with incredible ease and speed. Surprisingly they are natural linguists, able to speak and comprehend most languages very easily, although their mandibles make a very distinct clicking noise whenever they speak. Nerkin are known for their somewhat violent tendencies, which are caused by their stronger fight-or-flight instincts; nerkin rarely attack creatures the same size as them unless threatened, although it is very easy to make them feel threatened.

Nerkin are commonly viewed as being dull and slow, although this isn’t entirely fair, the sentiment is not without merit. They struggle with rapid change and are slow to make decisions. Despite this they are remarkable craftsmen, able to finish just about any large construction project far quicker than most other sentients.


There are three generally accepted classes in Astranan society: the royal family, the nobility, and the commoners. As the name indicates, the royal family is the ruling class in the empire. The nobility is made up of viceroys, military officers, and those given a permanent title by the monarch. While technically anyone can become a noble, more often than not positions held by the nobility remain in nobility. The commoners are a bit different from the other classes as they are easily subdivided into other classes that include indentured servants, business entrepreneurs, and high level politicians.

Constitutionally xenos are to be treated the same as humans, and in most places in the empire this is true. However with the rise of Humanity United prejudices against xenos has risen in the imperial capital and northern territories.


The government is ruled by the reigning monarch, whose powers are limited by a constitution. A parliamentary body, elected by individual planetary populations, helps with the administration of the government while ensuring that the needs of the citizens are met without infringing upon their constitutional rights. The reigning monarch assigns viceroys to govern over star systems and individual planets; these viceroys in turn have a counterpart parliamentary body that deals with the system or planet’s laws and taxation. These viceroy assignments are held until the viceroy either dies, retires, or is recalled by the monarch.

That is, of course, according to the constitution. In reality a fascist pro-humanity political party known as Humanity United has control over the Imperial parliament and has used its immense influence to essential usurp power from the Emperor, while keeping him on the throne as a figurehead. Parliamentary elections at every level has been suspended until the “xeno menace” has been handled, leading to a civil war.


The technology of the Empire is much what one would expect from a major power in the region. They possess fairly advanced energy weapon in the form of particle beams which can even be used in strike craft and armored vehicles. Shielding for spacecraft is commonplace and even some infantry possess personal shields.


Cyberware: A broad term, cyberware refers to essentially any machine or hardware that is implanted into an animal. Cyberware can be divided into two categories: interfaces and prosthetics. Interfaces are implants that are used to interact with other machines, usually wirelessly, or store information. Specialized interfaces are used by the military to allow soldiers to link with their hardware to achieve better control or gather more information quicker. Interfaces are also used to accelerate the learning process. Prosthetics are hardware used to replace limbs or re-enable their use should they or the nervous system be damaged. A darker side to this technology involves replacing limbs with prosthetics to increase a soldier’s physical capabilities or use interfaces as a means of surveillance and control.

Defensive Smoke: By placing a charge on the particles created by a zero point generator and then dispersing those particles in an area a magnetic field can be generated. These particles essentially form a “cloud” of plasma that can vaporize projectiles and cause intense diffusion and blooming in energy weapons that go through it. It is important to note, however, that defensive smoke isn’t as effective of a defense as shields generally are and that multiple attacks will cause it to disperse. It is also important to note that a sufficiently powerful attack can punch through defensive smoke, although it will lose some of its strength in doing so. A ship technically has an unlimited amount of defensive smoke to employ, however using defensive smoke means there are less particles available for other applications such as propulsion or weapons. There have been instances of defensive smoke being used offensively as well in a sort of “shotgun” attack against strike craft or larger ships that got too close, although this is comparable rare.

FTL Catapult: Essentially the way a FTL catapult works is that it “hurls” a smaller craft into hyperspace. The craft requires only the most basic of functions, as all it has to do is “drop” out of hyperspace at the correct time to reach its destination. FTL catapults are typically viewed as highly efficient systems, as the craft expends none of its own energy to enter hyperspace and very little to exit. Most commonly FTL catapults take the form of massive space stations that are used to launch civilian and even military craft into hyperspace; however, carriers and even smaller specialized ships are equipped with FTL catapults and can launch smaller craft than themselves. Fighters are commonly deployed by FTL catapults and research has even allowed specialized “FTL torpedoes” to be developed.

Imperial Swords: Soldiers in the Imperial military have access to a variety of melee weapons called swords. While named after an archaic weapon, these swords have been updated for use in the modern battlefield and range from having plasma based blades to monomolecular blades.

Particle Beam Weaponry: These weapons function by taking the particles produced by a zero point generator, giving it a charge, and then accelerating these particles with a circular accelerator to produce a beam. These weapons are useful as they have more impact damage than lasers and possess greater penetration. On the flip side they have far less range, about one light second for the largest and most advanced models. Advancements in the miniaturization of the circular accelerator have resulted in even fighter craft being equipped with these weapons, although they are much weaker and have far less range than the models found on larger ships. Particle beam weaponry effectively have unlimited ammunition due to how the zero point generator functions, but this means that there are fewer particles available for other applications. Continual use can also overheat the weapon, decreasing its effectiveness.

Personal Energy Shield: Some of the more expensive suits of infantry armor used by the Empire, usually those used by elite forces, are equipped with energy shields capable of protecting the user from a variety of attacks. While effectively useless against large calibre/power attacks, these do provide some additional protection from small arms fire and shrapnel.

Q-thruster: Short for quantum vacuum plasma thruster, Q-thrusters are a type of drive used to propel almost all of the ships used by the Empire. Q-thrusters make use of the virtual particles produced by a zero point generator by charging the particles, effectively turning the particles into plasma. The particles are then exposed to a crossed electric and magnetic field which induces a force on the particles. As the particles are expelled in one direction an equal force is applied on the rest of the ship, thus propelling it in the opposite direction. Because of the way they function Q-thrusters do not require fuel, thus saving space in the ship and eliminating the risks inherent with many conventional fuels.

Squire AI: Squire AI are specialized AI designed to push human capabilities beyond their natural limit. Usually these AI are integrated into a piece of equipment such as a strike craft, warship, or armor and interact with its user via their implant. Squire’s are set up in a way that they are intended to make it as if the equipment they are installed in is a part of the user’s body; but it does more than that. The AI helps process large amounts of data for its user and supplements its user in a way that greatly increases their decision making abilities and reflexes. Some high ranking officials even have these AI permanently installed in their cyberware, although this is somewhat rare. Commonly Squire AI are simply referred to as ‘Squire’, however some users decide to give them a real name.The use of limited purview and sophisticated moral and reinforcement coding ensures that Squires do not become a threat to those who made and use them.

Zero Point Generator: Using the dynamic Casimir effect, two reflective flat plates are placed a few nanometers apart. These plates are then manipulated in such a way that they osculate, producing particles and energy in the process. The zero point generator first saw use in space craft, which they were used to power and propel without fuel. Later developments allowed for the construction of massive zero point power plants that provide power for entire cities. While the virtual particles produced by a zero point generator are inherently useless, due to ceasing to exist after a short amount of time, by charging these particles they can be made usable for a wide variety of applications. It wouldn't be an understatement to declare the zero point generator as the foundation of modern Imperial technology.


Fueled by an unimaginably large stockpile of resources locked in asteroids and a truly massive workforce, the Empire is an industrial machine always churning out massive amounts of goods. Ship building is a particular emphasis of Imperial industrial might, with the output of entire planets dedicated to the construction of ships, both civilian and military. While, by Imperial decree, all inhabited planets are required to be able to produce their own basic necessities, massive shipments of raw resources and finished products are still continually moved from planet to planet to ensure the production of less basic goods can be produced efficiently.


The Imperial military is a well trained and equipped force that prefers firepower and mobility over defense. As a rule of thumb both the ground forces and navy prefer close-in engagements.


Command of the Stars Doctrine: The Imperial navy’s doctrine revolves around maintaining complete dominance wherever it operates. This is achieved by either finding and crushing hostile forces in traditional battle or attacking and destroying their logistical base. Towards these ends Imperial ships are made to be both fast and powerful.



Manuever-Firepower Doctrine: The combat doctrine of the Imperial ground forces revolves around incapacitating the enemy’s decision making ability through shock and disruption. This doctrine revolves around punching through enemy lines, or outmaneuvering the enemy, in order to strike their command structures and logistical bases.




There is no official aerospace branch of the Imperial military, instead the strike craft that would make up such a branch operate under the control of the Imperial Navy and Imperial Ground Forces.

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A political amalgamation with grand pretenses of freedom and democracy, the Commonwealth is in truth a sprawling monarchical imperium dominated by a species of feline humanoids called the Vit'azny. The Commonwealth owes its existence to the fact that 500 years ago the then Vit'azny Empire realized assimilation was vastly easier than maintaining overlordship over their rebellious subjects. The resulting organization has since exploded into a major galactic power and an economic juggernaut.




As the name implies, the Commonwealth is a large aggregation of “independent” nations united under a single “democratic” government in a “free” and “egalitarian” society. While the name may imply such grandeur, the reality of the Commonwealth is a far cry from independent, democratic, or free. In truth, the Commonwealth is a vast monarchical imperium, dominated by a species of long lived feline humanoids called the Vit’azny, and ruled absolutely by Catherine, the Imperial Queen.

The Commonwealth is a younger nation, at least compared to some of the antiquated species clinging to the scraps of their former glory around the galaxy. The Vit’azny are also a young species full of pride and ambition. Other members of the Commonwealth vary in age; some species were pre-FTL when they joined, others were the remnants of once great empires. Regardless of age or stature, they now bend knee to Her Imperial Majesty, Catherine.

The Vit’azny have been a spacefaring civilization for a little less than 700 years. They set out from their homeworld of Praetoria and began rapidly expanding to accommodate their swelling population. Historically, they have never shied away from warfare, though they are pragmatic above all else and understand the usefulness of diplomacy. First contact with another alien race, the snake-like Yanissans, quickly devolved into war. Seeing how one sided the conflict would be the Yanissans promptly surrendered were annexed as subjects.This happened again with another race, the brutish Szitzu. Neither species were happy as subjects, and rebellions rapidly become a problem for the Vit’azny overlords. 499 years ago (1396 I.C.), they developed a solution: the Imperial Systems Commonwealth. The governments of the Szitzu and Yanissans were restored, and they agreed to the formation of the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich and the other institutions of the Commonwealth.

Today, the Commonwealth exists as a major economic and military powerhouse in the galaxy, always looking to expand its borders.


TBD


Corinthene: The Commonwealth’s capital, seat of the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich, ancestral homeworld of the Rhodesians. Modern day Corinthene is a planet of gleaming cities full of towering glass skyscrapers. Everything is shiny and new; anything old tends to be torn down to make way for something bigger and better. Corinthene is a bright and orderly place, with extremely low crime rates and very little poverty. It’s a little boring to be perfectly honest.

Praetoria: Seat of the Imperial Crown, so called “Shadow Capital”, homeworld of the Vit’azny. In sharp contrast to Corinthene, Praetoria is full of ancient buildings, most predating the Commonwealth itself, many predating spaceflight, and some are even older than that. Praetoria is rife with political plots and intrigue, lavish parties, and hints of well concealed debauchery. Poverty is virtually non-existent; the poor were long ago...encouraged to make new lives in the colonies. As a result, the most expensive thing on Praetoria is manual labour; the fantastically wealthy employ actual butlers and maids as a display of affluence, while the moderately prosperous make do with robotic servants.

Sthis Tor: Yanissan homeworld, a place of intrigue, hedonism, and debauchery. Average temperature and humidity are just on the high side of comfortable for most people. The local flora and fauna have a tendency to be brightly coloured and very poisonous. The local citizens have the same tendencies, and they tend to be far more deadly. If you’re looking to have a good time, Sthis Tor is the place to go; if you’re looking to get murdered, Sthis Tor is also the place to go. The difference between the two can be a few steps into the wrong part of town. Over it all, the scheming Lord Captain Commanders vie for personal power and the favour of Salmissra, the Arch-Duchess of the Yanissan Principalities. On a side note, Sthis Tor leads the Commonwealth in high fashion.

Ursuli: Szitzu homeworld, a major military stronghold and training centre. Admiralty House may be on Corinthene, the Imperial War College may be on Praetoria, but as home to United Forces Command, Ursuli is the beating heart of the Commmonwealth military. A successful attack on Ursuli would decapitate the Commonwealth’s military hierarchy, but such an attack would be virtually impossible, as Ursuli is a more or less impenetrable fortress.







Life in the Commonwealth is actually quite pleasant for Vit’azny and other species alike. The Imperial Government maintains a large number of social programs to foster growth and development. Citizens of member species enjoy access to free universal healthcare, free secondary education, heavily subsidized post-secondary education, a decent amount of personal rights and freedoms, unemployment insurance, fair taxation, a fair minimum wage, democratic representation in government, a degree of self governance and independence, and imperial funding for a number of industries. These benefits are something of a trap; they encourage many species to join the Commonwealth, not realizing they will be neither full members nor citizens immediately upon joining. In war, the Commonwealth maintains a policy of always offering membership to their enemies. Many species over the years have decided to join rather than be exterminated. Even some species who could have won the conflict sought a quicker diplomatic end to war and accepted the offer, a decision most have come to regret.

Citizenship is a very important part of Commonwealth society. Being a citizen grants an individual access to all the Commonwealth’s benefits, as well as all its rights and freedoms. Citizens can also move freely from world to world, vote in elections, and apply to present a petition in the Royal Court. Non-citizens have none of these privileges; for them, life can be very hard. There are two ways to gain citizenship: money, or service. An applicant for citizenship must take three different tests: a generalized aptitude test, a specialized IQ test, and finally a citizenship test. While citizenship itself is free and the tests are not particularly difficult, the fees for taking each of the three tests are enormous. This means only wealthy non-citizens can take this route. Children of citizens gain access to citizen privileges via their parents until the reach the age of majority for their species, at which point they must obtain citizenship for themselves. It is common for parents to pay the fees for their children; many banks in the Commonwealth offer services to help citizens with children save up for the admission process, much like a college fund.

The other way to gain citizenship is through service; either to the Imperial Armed Forces of the Commonwealth, or to the Imperial Directorate. Both routes skip the usual testing procedures entirely; simply serve for the allotted time, and be granted citizenship. The IAFC will take almost anyone, but it is a dangerous life. The Imperial Directorate, in its never-ending quest to find intelligent individuals to help run the Commonwealth, has its own application process, which involves difficult aptitude tests and a number of exams and interviews. However, the Imperial Directorate is not just a quick way to gain citizenship, but also an extremely prestigious career that an individual could happily remain in for life. A third option is sometimes available; the Commonwealth sometimes has colonization drives to settle new colonies or Verge worlds, and offer citizenship to anyone who volunteers after they have lived on the target planet for a set number of years.

Vit’azny culture is strongly embedded with honour and military tradition. While not precisely a militaristic people, the Vit’azny don’t have any particular qualms about getting involved in conflicts, when it is necessary. War, of course, brings honour and glory to those with enough guts to seize them. Anything other than steadfast and heartfelt support of the military during wartime is considered borderline sedition. The culture of the Commonwealth in a larger sense is fairly difficult to pin down. Each member species brings elements of their own culture with them, so where a given species if more concentrated, their culture is more prevalent.

The Commonwealth does have a state religion, which the Vit’azny are quite fervent about. The enthusiasm of the rest of the Commonwealth varies widely. Their faith revolves around a pantheon of 7 gods: chief among them is Llyena, Goddess of Victory and Justice, from whom the Imperial Queen takes her authority. The others are Ichael, God of Life and Death; Arctus, God of Chaos and Destruction; Nezia, Goddess of Thought and Reason; Lexus, God of Order and Industry; Cyris, Goddess of Sight and Time; and Shakras the Lost, God of Secrets, the Unknown, and the Void. While Llyena is chief among the deities, different species in the Commonwealth honour others above her. The sly, snakelike Yanissans, for example, tend to favor Shakras the Lost, while the brutish Szitzu favor Arctus. Different planets, or even individuals of specific occupations will favor some gods over others; doctors might prey for Ichael’s left hand to guide them; the mandates of the Imperial Directorate are stamped with Lexus’s seal; some soldiers might pray to Llyena for victory, while others might pray to Arctus to grant them his battle fury. It is a faith as diverse as the Commonwealth itself.


There are four main bodies to the Commonwealth’s government: The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich, The Diet of Lords, the Imperial Directorate of the Commonwealth, and The Imperial Crown.

The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich is the lower legislative house of the Commonwealth. It is composed of 1021 elected representatives who are affiliated with assorted political parties. The party with the most seats after an election composes Her Imperial Majesty’s Government, and the leader of that party becomes Lord Chancellor. He in turn appoints assorted ministers to compose the cabinet. The parliament functions as most parliaments do: bills are presented, voted on, debated, voted on again, and so forth. The Parliament of the Sovereign Reich is responsible for issues affecting the whole of the Commonwealth, with regional authority being granted to smaller legislative assemblies, or the existing governments of member species. The Imperial Queen is not directly involved in its functioning --she is not permitted to enter the chamber in fact-- though she may appoint heads of committees and task forces. There is an exception, however: Royal Mandates. The Imperial Queen may issue a Royal Mandate at any time, on any subject she deems suitable. A Royal Mandate skips all the debate and voting; in this, the Imperial Queen’s word is law. The idea is to have a mechanism in place for rapid resolutions to be passed in times of crisis. However, Royal Mandates are a touchy subject: a ruler that uses them too freely to abuse their authority over parliament often finds that their Mandates take a very long time to be implemented, often poorly. Additionally, they risk a constitutional crisis, or even open rebellion. On the flipside, Prime Ministers who steadfastly refuse to bow to the ruler’s authority often find themselves in front of committees on charges of Contempt of Parliament.

The Diet of Lords is the higher legislative house of the Commonwealth, composed of just 300 members. It is ostensibly there to serve as a source of 'sober second thought'. Technically, members of the Diet must be members of the Vit'azny peerage, but by long precedent anyone who is scheduled to be appointed to the Diet is granted a peerage if they don't already have. Lords of the Diet are elected by popular vote to serve lifetime terms. However, their actual appointment is contingent on the Queen's approval. Generally, the Queen approves the appointments, but she may reject them for any reason whatsoever. Doing so is politically risky, but sometimes necessary. Political parties technically stop at the doors of the Diet, but the members tend to organize themselves into voting blocks with similar mindsets.

The Imperial Directorate of the Commonwealth is the vast bureaucracy that keeps the trains running on time. From the wealthiest Core world to the most desolate colony, the Imperial Directorate’s deft touch can be seen at work. It consists of a large number of ministries, departments, bureau’s, agencies and crown corporations, all arranged into a maze of regulations and red tape. Entities of the Directorate cover a variety of areas, everything from defense and procurement to citizen health and wellbeing. Some entities only operate in certain areas of the Commonwealth; the Ministry of Environment, for example, has absolutely no use in the colonies, but is enormously important in the Core worlds. Similarly, the Commonwealth Civil Order Agency is unnecessary in the Core, but plays an important role in suppressing the rebellious colonies. There are also a vast number of agencies that do everything from maintain slipspace beacons to collect taxes. The Directorate can also be used as something of a political scapegoat if necessary. Ministers, the Lord Chancellor, even the Imperial Queen have been known to redirect blame into the faceless mass of the Directorate on occasion.

This brings us to the final entity of the Commonwealth’s government: the Imperial Crown. The exact limits of the Crown’s authority are vaguely defined and poorly understood. The Crown is an old, old institution, dating back thousands of years to one of Praetoria’s great empires, long before the Vit’azny began venturing into space. The Imperial Crown began with the establishment of the Breshelin Empire, under Catherine’s distant ancestor, Petyr Dragunov. Originally, the King’s power was absolute, but this power was limited by the first constitution of the Breshelin Empire, which came about after the Wurtenstein Uprising when the first ever parliament was established. Some 900 odd years ago, the Breshelin Empire managed to unite the entire planet of Praetoria under a single government after evidence of intelligent alien life was discovered, and a new parliamentary system was formed and a new constitution was written. The Imperial Crown continued on, but it’s powers were defined under the new constitution as being “similar in nature and spirit to those established under the Wurtenstein Constitution” (due to the Vit’azny legal system being largely based on historical precedent rather than written law). 499 years ago, when the Commonwealth was formed, much of the Crown’s power was again defined as “similar in nature and spirit to those established under the Planetary Constitution.” Considering all this, the problem becomes apparent: the exact limits of the Crown’s power are based on a poorly written 2000 year old document. The accepted conventions are as follows: the Crown will ask the majority leader of Parliament to form the official government, and will agree to dissolve parliament and open elections at the request of the majority leader. The Crown is entitled to appoint appropriate individuals to chair parliamentary committees, in consultation with the Lord Chancellor. The Crown is entitled to use Royal Mandates to address matters of urgency for the benefit of the Commonwealth. As of the Colonization Act of 22 AU, the Crown has jurisdiction over Colonial Territories, while the Ministry of the Interior is responsible for their administration and answers to the Crown in this regard. Even these conventions are not ironclad, though ignoring them risks a Constitutional Crisis. For the Commonwealth to run smoothly, it is essential for the Crown and the Lord Chancellor to have a good working relationship. If they do, they can combine their efforts to make good use of both of their respective authorities.







The Commonwealth’s general tech level is comparable to that of other major galactic powers. The multi-national nature of the Commonwealth has brought together a myriad of technologies and ideas and combined them in innovative new ways. For example, the primitive brute force firepower of Szitzu mass drivers was combined with Vit’azny gravity expertise to develop a much more deadly weapon, while Yanissan missile systems and Rhodesian miniaturization have given the Commonwealth incredible versatility in their long range firepower.



GDC: The most remarkable Commonwealth technology is without a doubt their engine systems. The Graviton Drive Chain is a massive engine system that takes up a good portion of a ship’s mass. In the main reactor core, a self perpetuating Wronski-Birks reaction creates huge amounts of energy, gravitons, and anti-gravitons. The particles are directed around the ship to form a gravitational envelope around the ship, which simultaneously pulls the ship from the front and pushes at the rear. When reinforced by generators along the surface of the ship, this envelope doubles as a very effective shielding system. Having the ship enclosed in its own gravitational field grants a number advantages, most notably extremely good acceleration, if somewhat poor maneuverability. Most GDCs have slipspace drives built in, though strictly intra-system vessels have no need for FTL.

Hyperspace Gravboats: The Commonwealth has only relatively recently developed successful hyperspace drives, having preferred to use slipspace for centuries. The Royal Commonwealth Navy considered mounting both forms of FTL on their ships, but the projected costs and mass increases were untenable, so the RCN stuck with its more reliable and strategically flexible slipspace. However, the speed of hyperspace was appealing to civilian shipping companies. Again, the cost of retrofitting their fleets seemed prohibitive, so instead they built dedicated hyperspace vessels that were capable of pulling other vessels into hyperpsace with them. The ensuing ships were called gravboats. They were fantastically profitable for the civilian companies who built them, drastically cutting down on shipping times. The military was quick to see the potential, and begun constructing their own gravboats. Gravboats are capable of bringing Commonwealth fleets quickly to theatres of operations, where they can then proceed to specific areas of conflict under their own FTL. Gravboats are valuable strategic assets, but they are not designed for combat, and should instead be left safely in deep space or at secure bases.

MCM: Multiple Configuration Missiles are another mainstay of Commonwealth military power. Commonwealth missiles are highly modulated, with a number of interchangeable components that allows ships to rapidly assemble whatever type of munition is needed. Warhead features range from standoff range ion beams to direct contact anti armor plasma charges. Fuselage features include additional drive sections for high speed missiles, extra fuel for extreme range engagements, and extra EW capability, among others. The drive section can be configured for long range bombardment, short range slipspace transits, or high speed evasive maneuvers. A kinetic warhead, enhanced targeting fuselage, and short range high speed drive combined make an excellent defensive missile, while an ion warhead with a stealth fuselage and a mircro slipspace drive can make a nasty surprise for enemy shields.

Axial Weapons: Though Commonwealth ships are designed to engage with broadsides, their long narrow profiles presented an opportunity that was too good to pass on. As a result, all Commonwealth ships mount high calibre axial weapons that fire from the bow. In older vessels, these weapons take the form of large graviton railguns, while newer vessels tend to have high intensity superlasers. Battleships and Dreadnoughts mount two axial weapons, while smaller ships mount only one. Powerful as they may be, these weapons are not the ship’s primary armament, so they are not as effective or mass intensive as a full sized spinal weapon would be.

Graviton railguns: The primary weapon of the RCN. The principle of magnetic rails accelerating a metallic slug is an old and quite simple one. The only modification the RCN has made is that, instead of magnetism, their railguns use artificial gravity systems to massively increase the size and speed of projectiles, and have multiple munitions types to accommodate different situations, such as good old fashioned ultra-dense slugs, shield-breaker rounds, and flak shells. Graviton railguns are configured in huge numbers of double mounts on the broadsides of Commonwealth ships.

Positron Beam Cannons: The pinnacle of Commonwealth energy weapons tech, positron cannons are devastatingly effective. They are mounted in massive turrets on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of Commonwealth ships and configured to deliver optimum firepower both forwards and to either side.


The Commonwealth is an industrial juggernaut, with massive production capabilities. This industry is driven by an extensive trade network and a skilled workforce, but the real power of the Commonwealth comes from an immensely wealthy tax base and an abundance of cheap manual labour and raw materials. The disparity between the wealthy and the poor is truly astonishing, and a direct result of how the Commonwealth is organized. The worlds of the Commonwealth are classified into one of four categories: Core worlds, Constituent worlds, Colonial worlds, and Verge worlds.

The Core worlds are the original Vit’azny colonies and a small number of worlds of some of the Commonwealth’s oldest members. The vast majority of the Commonwealth’s wealth is concentrated on these worlds. In fact, money is the only real industry of the Core worlds. Almost all food and manufactured goods are imported from the Constituents and the Colonies, with the exception of some ultra-high end luxury goods. Any respectable company maintains its corporate headquarters on one of the Core worlds, with some exceptions. Money is the biggest industry of the Core worlds, with countless financial service providers and stock exchanges dominating the economy. Core worlds tend to be heavily populated; on average, about 70% of a Core world’s landmass is covered by gleaming cities. The majority of the population is inevitably Vit’azny, and poverty is virtually nonexistent on these worlds. While one would expect a society as lopsided as the Commonwealth’s would pass off the burden of taxation to its helpless colonies and let the Core Worlds amass their fortunes, this is not the case.The Commonwealth in fact maintains a sophisticated taxation system with multiple income brackets where the highest bracket pays the most taxes. Through this system, the Core worlds actually provide the majority of the Commonwealth’s tax income. Aspects of the Commonwealth such as the taxation system and the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich have convinced many species to join the Commonwealth over the years. By the time they discover some of the ‘conditions’ attached to membership, it is too late.

The Constituent worlds are the backbone of the Commonwealth. They include newer Vit’azny colonies, a large number of Commonwealth colonies, and the worlds of moderately respected member nations. The Constituent worlds are much less homogeneous than the Core worlds: some are richer, some less so, and even on a given planet there is a wide margin between the wealthy and the poor. A given planet, or even a given city on that planet, will have affluent communities and slums alike. Like the Commonwealth as a whole, the Vit’azny and a number of the older member species form the elite, with a healthy spattering of individuals from all kinds of species who happened to do very well for themselves. Constituent worlds are ruled by either Imperial Legislatures of the Commonwealth (in the case of colonies founded by the Commonwealth as a whole) or by existing governments (in the case of colonies established by individual members). Constituent worlds have full member status in the Commonwealth; the world has high degree of self governance, can apply for subsidies from the Imperial Treasury, and has a number of other advantages. Constituent status is essentially citizenship for a planet, though individuals on the planet still have to adhere to normal citizenship procedures. The Constituent worlds are the primary manufacturing and processing centres of the Commonwealth. While the Core worlds’ only industry is money and the Colonies tend to only provide raw materials and cheap labour, Constituent industry does a bit of everything; large scale mining, agriculture, the production of consumer goods, starship construction, and all the financial and legal services that such industries need. It is all jumbled together in a free market economy that powers the massive industrial capabilities of the Commonwealth.

Colonial worlds (a deliberate misnomer) are tragic monuments to the lies, oppression, and broken promises of the Commonwealth. They are the worlds of new or reluctant member species, and by the strictures of the Colonization act, these worlds are not technically members of the Commonwealth, but are instead subjects. Most Colonial worlds are desperately poor and underdeveloped, even if they were originally quite advanced. Many species join the Commonwealth with the understanding that they will enjoy all its benefits; citizenship, representation in Parliament, a degree of self-government, fair taxation, security, universal healthcare, subsidization, free education etc. Unfortunately, the Colonization act decrees that all newly added worlds are considered colonial holdings, and are under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior and her Imperial Majesty, not the Parliament of the Sovereign Reich. This means they are not eligible for any of the Commonwealth’s social programs, nor do they have any representation in Parliament. They are not ruled by legislative assemblies, but instead by Colonial Governors, who are appointed by the Imperial Queen at the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior. Few people are citizens on Colonial Worlds; only the Vit’azny dominated elite, who take ownership of any industry or natural resources on the planet and employ the locals as ultra-cheap labour. Slavery is technically illegal throughout the Commonwealth, but with no minimum wage or labour rights for non-citizens, colonial labourers can be paid almost nothing. Some landowners elect to provide food, clothing, and shelter for their employees and then pay them nothing at all, reasoning that room and board are taken from their pay, and the rest goes to taxes. Colonial Worlds are subject to the same fair taxation system as the rest of the Commonwealth, but it is not taxes that leave them in poverty. A clause of the Colonization act permits the Commonwealth to seize any assets it deems necessary from Colonial worlds and their inhabitants. Money, goods, resources, land, businesses, even people; all can be seized and repossessed by the crown, or given to a favored citizen. The exploitation and lack of support causes technological regression on many worlds; it is not uncommon to see vehicles with internal combustion engines on Colonial worlds, and even horses in extreme cases. Colonial worlds are often quite rebellious during the early years of their integration, but the Commonwealth is always quick to brutally repress such uprisings. The brutality they employ deters further uprisings, but it is the hope of citizenship, or even becoming a Constituent world, that ultimately keeps the colonies in line. Unlike citizenship, there is no specific criteria for a Colonial world to gain Constituent status and full membership; it is simply granted at the discretion of the governor and the Imperial Queen, again with the advice of the Minister of the Interior. This means a world might easily wait 15 years or 50, or even 500. The Imperial Queen usually tries to grant Constituent status to at least one colony every few years, in order to keep other colonies hopeful and obedient. This process is always accompanied by a grand ceremony where the Imperial Queen herself visits the new Constituent world, relieves the planetary governor, and validates its new government, while the Commonwealth holds a colonization drive to boost the world’s population and showers it with money and resources. A three-day festival is held to celebrate the change in status, and the day of the ceremony becomes a statutory holiday for that world. Some Colonial worlds, however, are so remote, poor, or useless that they will likely never be granted Constituent status. A few of the extreme cases have even been largely forgotten by the Commonwealth and the Crown, and the inhabitants have in turn forgotten the Commonwealth.

Verge worlds are planets on the very edge of Commonwealth space. Their categorization has more to do with their location than their membership status. They are not grossly exploited like colonial worlds, nor are they pampered like Core worlds. They are ruled by military governors, and all have a heavy military presence due to their location on the borders of Commonwealth space. Some few are actually quite wealthy and heavily populated, almost as much as a core world. Most others are significantly less so. They’re populated by a wide array of people: military personnel, hopeless colonials seeking citizenship, prospectors seeking riches, wealthy citizens with a taste for adventure, convicts in forced relocation programs, and so on. Their purpose is to guard the borders of the Commonwealth, anything else is secondary. Verge worlds usually have extremely diverse populations and much more relaxed culture, and social status is not considered as important. The military often provides some of the benefits that the imperial government would elsewhere, so the populace is not as desperate for citizenship as on other worlds. This much freer society makes them places of opportunity. Historically, some of the Commonwealth’s most successful corporations were started on Verge worlds, though some say that’s only propaganda. Regardless, Verge worlds are better places to live than many Colonial worlds, and even the slums on poorer Constituent worlds.


The Imperial Armed Forces of the Commonwealth have two primary entities: the Imperial Army, and the Royal Commonwealth Navy



Doctrine: The Wall of Battle
The RCN is an old institute that dates back to when ships sailed the seas instead of the stars. The Vit’azny saw no need to create a separate organization when space flight began, and the RCN simply assumed responsibility of military endeavours in space. The RCN remains convinced that the good old fashioned broadside is the best way to win any fight.

As a result, Commonwealth ships tend to be tall and thin, with positron beam turrets on their dorsal and ventral surfaces. The sides of the ships carry the majority of the broadside armament, which consists of multiple missile tubes and medium-calibre railgun batteries. Flak systems and point defence lasers are scattered across the ship. Shields are designed to be highly redundant, with even the smallest ships having multiple shield generators. Additionally, most Commonwealth ships are equipped with axial mounted weapons: older ships use supersized graviton railguns, while many newer designs use massive superlasers. This configuration reflects the RCN’s current tactical doctrine. A given RCN ship is designed to be able to approach an enemy ship, firing with their positron turrets, axial weapons, and missile batteries at a target in front of them. Once the opening salvo has been fired, the ship turns to present its broadside, allowing all its positron turrets and broadside weapons to open fire. For fleet engagements, the RCN’s most common tactic is to have ships form into a wall formation, each ship presenting their broadside to the enemy for devastating effect. The wall formation often ends up being adjusted to a sort of semi-spherical formation, which ships altering their broadside angles slightly to fire on targets approaching from any vector. This formation is often deployed to form a defensive screen for Commonwealth Star Carriers as they unleash their hordes of strike craft from the safety of the centre of the formation.

Tactical slipspace transits are also extremely popular in the RCN, used to reposition the Wall to more favourable locations. Given the complexity of calculating a transit for an entire fleet, a poorly executed transit will be disastrous, though a well planned one can be the key to victory.





Doctrine: Strength in Diversity
The Imperial Army is a far younger institution than the RCN, and has evidently not accrued enough battle honours to earn the 'royal' prefix. Nevertheless, the Imperial Army has spent almost 500 years cracking heads across all kinds of worlds. As the Commonwealth has grown, so too has the IA's technological and strategic diversity. The IA favours a relatively straightforward combined arms approach. Expect any IA theatre of operations to feature infantry, armor, artillery, and air forces working closely together, all backed by orbital support from the RCN.

Mixed regulars
The varied population of the Commonwealth mean that their regular infantry is composed of multiple species. Well trained, equipped with power armour and a variety of graviton-acceleration based projectile weapons, the Commonwealth’s infantry can hold their own on any battlefield in the Galaxy.

Szitzu Shock Troopers
The natural size and strength of the Szitzu makes them uniquely well suited to ground combat. Combined with power armor, personal shields, and man-portable positron cannons, the Szitzu are a devastating addition to any conflict.

Valerian Skyjacks
A new addition to the Commonwealth's armies, Valerian Skyjacks have cybernetically enhanced their otherwise useless wings into functional flight appendages. Their power armor is lighter than other models, sacrificing protection for speed and mobility with built in thrusters. Skyjacks are optimally suited for ambush tactics; flying at high altitude and dropping from the sky directly on top of unsuspecting enemy infantry.

Yanissan Su'urtugal
The end result of Yanissan efforts to weaponize psionics, the pinnacle of their genetic splicing programs, the most deadly and unquestioningly loyal soldiers in the Commonwealth: Su'urtugal. The enigmatic organization known as Toolbox tracks down and requisitions all Yanissan psintegrae shortly after birth, then spirits them away to locations unknown to begin a lifetime of training and genetic tampering. The resulting individuals are stronger, faster, smarter, brimming with psionic power, and machinelike in their efficiency. Deployed as spies, elite bodyguards, and elite special operatives in combat, Su'urtugal are constantly in high demand.

IH870 'Piper' Infantry Support Walker
A small bipedal walker with minimal armour and moderate shielding, designed to be able to follow infantry more or less anywhere they can go. The Piper is armed with dual gravitic gattling guns and a low yield positron beam emitter. The emitter is meant to sweep fire across enemy personnel, but it can be used in an anti-armor capacity in a pinch.

MT330 'Instigator' Main Battle Tank
The workhorse of the Imperial Army, the Instigator is heavily armed, armoured, and shielded. A variant on the Commonwealth's GDC propulsion technology moves the Instigator across the battlefield at impressive speeds. As a hovertank, the Instigator has trouble controlling weapon recoil, so it mounts exclusively energy weapons. Low yield positron beam emitters serve in an anti-personnel role, much like on the Piper, while the Instigator's main gun is a heavier positron cannon, well suited to obliterating hardened targets. A few laser emitters serve as point defence against most self propelled projectile threats.

CA425 'Kestrel' Multi-role gunship
Any infantryman's best friend, the Kestrel does a little bit of everything. It can carry a squad of infantry quickly and quietly across the battlefield thanks to its GDC propulsion. Heavy shielding keeps it safe, and an array of missiles, positron weapons, and gravitic railguns give it a lot of hurting power. Like most gunships, it doesn't fare so well against air superiority fighter craft, but it has the tools to fight and win against most other threats.

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The Itharian Harmony is an ancient nation, noted for its pacifist nature and advanced sciences and cultural practices. Long since stabilised in its territorial extent, the Itharian stewards maintain most of the worlds in its immediate vicinity - and it is not uncommon for their work to conflict, albeit mildly, with up and coming nascent star nations. Some reflect that if it were not for the dynamic nature of the Ithari, the Itharian civilization would of stagnated into a dying empire perhaps millenia previously.



The development of Itharian civilization on Aprathia was a story often told amongst the multiple emergent civilizations of the galaxy. Tools, writing, husbandry, agriculture, taxes - civilization. That the nascent Itharian civilization did most of its developmental feats in the sparkling azure oceans of Aprathia was less common, but by no means unheard of in the grand history of all that was and will be.

For Millenia, the Itharian species developed a society that, despite technological limitations and the vastness of the depths, was global, thanks to the far reaching thoughts of the elders, and near entirely pacifistic - at least when it came to the pods of early Ithari. The threats came from outside - the large, lurking monsters of the deep, and the reef colonies and deep sanctuaries worked together against such threats until such a time came where all but the smartest predators had succumbed to their prey.

From such beginnings the Ithari came, but were not limited. In time, they came to evolve further, and in doing so dominate the few small continents of Aprathia - home to only a few creatures that had developed in their isolation. It would take many more centuries of idyllic peace before the Ithari turnt to the stars - and then they did so with wanton abandon.

The Itharian people took to their first true starships decades after that - traversing a new deep to the worlds of the home star, Danae. New oceans were found under the light of Danae, and they too were brought to order and soon enough, peace, as new pods of Ithari took to their currents and mastered new frontiers.

It did not take long from this, in the grand terms of our civilization, to break the barriers that prevented our access to the various isolated shoals of interstellar space. However, with mastery of FTL travel - the ability to jump, dependant on our ability to calculate such feats of dimensional transport to far away stars - we repeated what we had found to be our calling. We found worlds upon which life different from what we knew had developed, upon some, the Itharian people found life with true inklings of sentience, different, but evident. From here, our stewards began their work - protecting those who did not know of the stars until the time was right.

However, as the pods became separated by such vast distances, we made a mistake - we stopped listening to each other, to our revered elders, for their voices could not reach so far, and we grew fractious. It took many centuries, but from such mistakes only misery could result.

We, as a species, knew murder, and with our minds so attuned to the essence of our people, we punished it severely, but we did not know war, and war we could only abhor in the most strongest terms. The losses of our first, and only, "civil" war, were vast in their material cost, but more than that they were a mark upon our very collective psyche. Such things could only continue until we descended into madness, and so from the brink of that abyss, we turned back. From this, the Void Swimmers came, and for their sacrifice we must all be honoured.

We formed a new greater pod, to which all others could belong, and where we could hear, if not truly feel, all voices, and especially our elders, whilst maintaining the new and diverse cultures and ways that we had developed. And so we returned to our order, and our peace, and for countless millenia we have defended such peace from those we have encountered along the way with a passion - and a fear. For when Ithari kill, there is now a note missing from the song, and for that, we are all guilty.

-Revered Elder La'alei of Tu'at. "The Song as I Remember It".


N/A ?


-Aprathia, Danae System

Aprathia is the homeworld and birthplace of Itharian civilization. Its well tended and largely unspoilt, if small, continents leave one to thing that only a small Itharian presence is immediately obvious upon the world - though the immense amount of orbital traffic would leave one perplexed if they did not know better. Its lustrous deep oceans are a hive of activity - long since pacified and turned into the shining heart of the Itharian culture. Though governance has long since moved away, the economic importance of Aprathia and the colonies of the home system cannot be understated, and billions of Ithari - including some of the most ancient, are found here.

-Arillia, Vantara System
Arillia is one of the younger "core" worlds, and has a much larger landmass than the homeworld of Aprathia - with a much heftier Itharian presence. Though the Itharian government holds its seat in a station above the world, its shallower, purple oceans are still home to the most cosmopolitan melding of Ithari pods found in the entire Harmony. Its status as a world open to such things and its reputation as a centre of learning, especially for foreign visitors and emigrés, has secured its status as the de facto capital and a new beacon of culture in the Harmony.




The Harmony is largely, though not necessarily by intent, homogenous. While there is diversity in the Ithari genome particularly with the advancement of technology and the settling of diverse worlds, the Ithari overwhelmingly make up the bulk of the populace in the Harmony. As such, most notable concentrations of non Ithari are either races under stewardship - and largely unaware of the Ithari at all, or concentrations of foreign students or ex-pats that have been granted leave to remain by the Ithari.

The Ithari, are however an unusual species in more ways than one. Their bodies are sleek and dynamic, allowing for fast movement in water. Although they appear completely smooth, their skins are in fact coated with a layer of dense, fine fur. Fur patterns and colors will vary with the individual. They, like mammals, bear live young. Yet all members of the species are hermaphroditic, possessing both male and female sex organs. The majority of Ithari are capable of both fertilizing as a male or bearing young as a female, but only the very oldest Ithari can do both at once; it is normally impossible for a Ithari to impregnate as a male while carrying an offspring itself.

Ithari take on gender pronouns to indicate the dominant pursuits of the phase of existence through which they are passing. A Ithari who is gestating, birthing and nursing young, for example, considers herself a "she" since her existence is devoted to her feminine side. An Elder who has ceased to function as a female is most definitely a "he." Since Void Swimmers have cut themselves off psychologically from the aspects of their character which create and nurture life, a death-dealing Void Swimmer's feminine side, although still present, is not in ascendance. Void Swimmers as such are referred to as male.

A newborn Ithari is very small, less than half a meter in length and weighing only 8 to 10 kilograms. By the time they reach the age of majority, a period of roughly fifty years, a typical Ithari will be around 3 meters long and weigh approximately 120 kilograms.

There seems to be no natural end to the potential life span of any given Ithari. Throughout their lives, they never stop growing. Some records have notes of Elder Ithari over 60 meters long, massing many tons, though no such Elder is known to exist today. If size is not deftly controlled, the end of an Ithari life is typically the point where cell revitalisation requires more energy than the individual can provide through their intake. Largely painless, an individual will simply began to become more lethargic over the course of years until the point where vital organs begin to fail.

The most unusual feature of the Ithari race is not the shape of their bodies however, but the power of their minds. Ithari do not have opposable digits, tentacles or any other physical means of manipulating objects; they employ a limited form of telekinesis instead. A deft Ithari can use several tools at once, and can often operate many simple machines simultaneously. With some concentration they can also hurl objects with astonishing force and the spear was a traditional hunting weapon among the Ithari for many centuries.

Although they have large, light-sensitive eyes, the frequency range of Ithari vision is limited. They have a very refined sense of taste and a sophisticated array of sound-producing and sound-receiving equipment however, which more than compensate for the lack of sight. Ithari echo-location is good enough to allow Ithari to draw very sophisticated schematics of any machine or device simply by “singing” to it and reading the sound waves that bounce back.

The Ithari, as noted, communicate largely by telepathic means, although they do have some very rudimentary sound-signals that convey strong but simple emotions—being startled, amused, frightened, angry, etc.

Ithari are conscious breathers, like earthly cetaceans humans would be familiar with. They can never be fully unconscious, or they die. They fulfill their need for sleep by allowing one lobe of the brain to doze at a time, in three hour cycles, while the other two lobes remain awake and active.

While Ithari are more than physiologically capable of violence and their harmonious society certainly has never extended to all other species, They have never been "Buddhist" in their dietary habits, for example—they are omnivores who are known to raise and herd aquatic life forms for their own sustenance without guilt or shame. However, their nature as a telepathic minded and decidedly empathic species makes the taking of sentient life incredibly traumatic to the unprepared.


Ithari Society has stratified itself into two noticeable classes since the ascent of the Ithari into space for a number of reasons, primarily, however, the one that is tied into the Ithari view on living things. Until the civil war, the Ithari understood but barely endured the concept of Murder - let alone War, and were deeply affected by it and its connotations. The schism in the way the Ithari think and behave, in terms of what other races would see rational has many striking examples. A lesser example of this would be the Ithari's technological prowess in bio-technology. The Ithari, while having a great knowledge in the field that could be employed to great effect, rarely, if at all, modify themselves either through enhancements or genetic tampering.

Overall, however, As a society, the Ithari are now made up of those who know nothing of war and those who sacrifice all that they are to protect those who remain blissfully serene and untarnished. The "Void Swimmers" - those who take to the stars to defend the Ithari worlds, form a consequent parallel class to the main element of civilian society, though not regarded as lesser or elevated. These "Void Swimmers" effectively die, in a social sense, and are reborn as instruments of death rather than life. Few are ever likely to be reintegrated. As such, these classes of society vary, but essentially denote the civilian and the military.

It is, in most aspects, their becoming space faring and subsequent civil war that has made its mark on Ithari Society. The Ithari certainly have mixed feelings about the "Fracture" and all events that have followed since their traumatic first true war. There is definitely a schism between the civilian struggle to cope with this aspect of their history–which, due to their tendency to live long lives and a telepathic story telling tradition, is very much a "Holocaust survivor" syndrome among them—and the military response.

Becoming a Void Swimmer, for some Ithari, was very much like becoming a hunter of those who caused such pain. For others it is plain and simple fear for their homeworlds and loved ones that drives them into the Void Sea. Thanks to their oral-telepathic traditions it is literally impossible for the Ithari as a species to ever forget the way death can come from above...and the humiliation, pain and loss of life that they suffered under their own madness has become a very dark and ugly scar.

There is a certain amount of tragedy in military service for the Ithari. The Ithari are aware of that they may involved in genocidal wars against other sentients, and could be forced to kill the entire civilian population of an enemy world. The Ithari, from their experience, know what sort of affect it can have on individual Ithari and their society overall. Often the answer for how its people cope is "not well". The truth is that, in some cases, a Void Swimmer crew who have seen too much of the wrong kind of action will never return home. When they are no longer needed by their people, they may well choose to "decommission" their own vessel by piloting it into the corona of the nearest star. They understand that they will never be able to become Ithari again. In this way, they are still protecting their home from the horrors of war.

Because of their empathic and telepathic abilities the Ithari are always keenly aware of the sufferings of others and they take no joy in causing pain, fear or anger. They revere life and harmony and abhor needless death or destruction. Nonetheless, they also value their own lives and over their ancient history they have come to embrace survival as a necessary virtue. The Ithari value of life is not to be misunderstood however, as they separate life, sapient life and sentient life. While, as they understand, all life is sacred - particularly sentient and to some extent, sapient life, this has not precluded them from animal husbandry and consuming such reared animals as a food source. To them, this is part of life and not necessarily abhorrent. It is from such a thing that has also lead to the separation of the Ithari military from the civilian population.

Other Information:

For perhaps obvious reasons, the Ithari place an intense value on music. Ithari music is all choral, as one would rightly expect. For many, It is inexpressibly beautiful and powerful, even as a recording, but of course the full effect could never be achieved outside of live performance. When you are close enough to receive the telepathic stream that goes with the song—to hear the lyrics as well as the melody—the experience is magnified a hundred-fold. And this is to say nothing of the frequencies of sound which humanoids can more easily feel than hear.

In terms of religious values, The Ithari spiritual worldview is both simple and profound. They have no separate sense of the divine as is commonly understood. They believe that all things are equally divine and sacred; the universe itself is, in a manner of speaking, in essence their "god". Theologically, they make no philosophical or hierarchical separation between themselves and other living things, or even between themselves and non-living bodies like stars and planets.

The Ithari conceive the Universe as one great Song—a vast tapestry of harmonious music. To a Ithari, every physical object and living thing in the universe is another trembling chord, a pattern of vibrations, a sequence of notes. Everything is part of the Song. Everything that exists, in their eyes, is beautiful and necessary; if one cannot see that beauty, the fault lies within.

If the Ithari perceive themselves as special in some way or separated in some way from the rest of the Song, it is only because they recognize the unique ability of all sentient beings to marvel at the music and to shape the world around them—to change the Song, even in a small way.

Whether the Ithari conception of the Song implies the existence of a divine singer is a subject open to debate. When asked whether there is or was a singe, a "Creator" who was the author or instigator of the divine Song - most Ithari simply create bubbles. If pressed, they all reply with the same question: "Are you not singing yourself?"

When it comes to their young, Ithari parenting is communal. An infant can nurse from any other "female" Ithari in its community. They have several variations on the word "mother" which, depending on mental inflection, can mean: "a female Ithari," "she who birthed my body," "she who nourishes me physically (or spiritually)," etc. Pair bonding among the Ithari is not common, but neither is it uncommon. Courtship is an interplay of minds and bodies which is impossible to unwind and separate from other interactions.

Entertainment

Entertainment is a telling part of a society, and how, for some, they work, and perhaps how they think and hold themselves, all as a form of playful expression. In the case of the Ithari - they express themselves almost entirely through music and thought. They never stop "dancing" from the moment they are born until the moment they die — because they can always hear the music. Most of their art is difficult to describe in average humanoid terms; it consists of tapestries of sound, memory, motion and emotion. For fun, they tend to engage in various athletic contests or play a game called "hide the idea".

"Hide the idea" is a game which Ithari children begin to play soon after birth, much as human babies first learn to play "peek-a-boo" and then "guess which hand the penny is in"? But as the Ithari grow older and stronger "hide the idea" becomes a much more aggressive, passionate, fascinating contest of wills. It is a common exercise for hundreds of younger Ithari to wrestle the mind of one elder, trying to prize the thought from beneath his layers of defenses. When they finally "find the idea", it sometimes changes their lives forever.

There are other games which would be analogous to water polo, although among Ithari this sport is a little more like underwater hurling. Of other interest is the Ithari equivalent of "toys" - items that came about as steelsingers created objects which were meant to teach reading to other Ithari. Essentially, the standard Ithari object of this nature is a puzzlebox with various characters inscribed on its surfaces; as the different parts of the puzzle are moved by telekinetic fine motor manipulation, the player is able to "read" simple vocabulary words. The word changes with each movement of the box's pieces, transforming from one concept to another in an aesthetically pleasing or humorous manner: the classic is a box that begins with the word "steel", which becomes "reflective", which becomes "bright", which becomes "beautiful", which becomes "song".

Any sentient which nurtures its own young and practice any form of animal husbandry will keep pets of some kind. In the case of the Ithari, their relationship with biological mechanisms is so intimate that half the natural world is a "pet" to them--i.e., something which they care for, nurture, train, control, and love to the extent that one can love a lesser creature. As such, The Ithari have a fairly common practice of "Tattooing" themselves. Tattoos for a Ithari involve painting their bodies with colorful microorganisms, usually fluorescent. Watching an underwater "dance" featuring multicolored/fluorescent Ithari can be quite a visual spectacle.

Old Age

Ithari achieve “Elder” status after having lived for more than three hundred years. At this point they are over typically over 5 meters in length and usually weigh well over 200 kilograms. Ithari who have reached this venerable age generally retire from any profession which might put them personally at risk and adopt a monastic lifestyle. The older a Ithari becomes, the less likely it is to reproduce. Although Ithari elders can both birth and father children simultaneously, they are far less likely to do either than younger Ithari. Infant Ithari only come in one size, and it becomes increasingly difficult for an increasingly massive Ithari to tend to its own infants as it grows beyond the size of an adult blue whale - At a certain point elder Ithari simply become far more interested in educating and nurturing children than in producing them.

In general, their days are spent contemplating the mysteries of the universe, composing songs and poems, maintaining the timeless oral tradition of the species and instructing the young in matters of ethics, morality and proper conduct as a sentient being. No Itharian philosopher is taken seriously before the age of 400.

Any given Elder will usually be surrounded by a cloud of younger Ithari, who listen to the songs, ask questions and telepathically explore the complexities and subtleties of the Elder’s mind. This period of “swimming alongside” is considered a vitally necessary part of any young person’s education. The aged are highly revered in all Itharian subcultures and younger Ithari will gladly sacrifice their own lives or embrace great personal risk to protect an Elder from any possible harm. Their ancestors are living treasures in their eyes. A sizable number of Ithari spacers regard their service as a duty to the species and volunteer to “scout the empty sea” in order to protect the Elders who must, most often, remain behind on Aprathia or the other colonies.


The Itharian Harmony operates three primary elements of guidance in order to facilitate the smooth running of the state, while the Ithari recognize the establishment of their nation as being the moment they became aware, the first true state was established by the formation of the Council as was necessary in the space age, and subsequently the Harmony itself after the Fracture. The Harmony has come to encompass numerous star systems, with some densely inhabited, with vested interests throughout many others.

The Eldest

The Eldest, though also referred to by Ithari as "The First Voice of Aprathia" is, as the name would imply, the eldest Ithari currently in existence, thus judged to the be wisest and greatest amongst them as both a guardian and a teacher, but the strongest telepath, the deepest of voice and accomplished as a singer in the great universal song. While the First Voice of Aprathia has traditionally guided the Ithari, the advent of the space age and the creation of a form of interstellar government to guide the pods necessitated a formalization of the position. Such a position is only locked to the Eldest of Ithari age - not to a particular planet, and such it is likely in many years to come a Ithari from one of the many colonial pods could lead the state.

The Ithari handle government differently, of course. The Eldest serves only to make decisions where the Council cannot - and their main role remains, as throughout the Elder portion of a Ithari's life, to teach and to guide, but the Eldest is rarely prone to give orders - that is for those elevated to such specific positions and the agreement of a Council. As such, the Eldest is largely a figurehead, though the Eldest's importance, not only on a cultural and social level, but in the Harmony itself is not to be understated.

The Council of Elders

The Council of Elders consists of the First Voices of the colony worlds. While the Eldest is elevated to a slightly higher position, he is but one among near equals. These many near equals form the main form of interstellar governance needed by a state that spans more than one ocean. These First Voices meet only when situations require, as each guides their own world or worlds individually as they desire. For the most part, decisions are spoken about and considered, a consensus reached and guiding principles decided without the Council ever being convened in person.

The difficulty in transporting the largest of the Elders means that when such a council is convened, something of dire import has surely occured.

The Pods

The Pods are the Ithari themselves. Each world is considered such, and with the open hearts and minds, and few guarded thoughts of the Ithari there is always open discourse among the pods. While the First Voices of each pod guide and enforce the will of the pod, it is the greater pods themselves throughout the day that reach decisions and debate the merits of actions at all possible times. The pods effectively govern their own worlds in a form of direct democracy, though the pod's trust in each of their Elders, and the First Among each group of Elders, to make their decisions reality - and to work with the Void Swimmers - themselves an independent pod, to ensure the safety of their oceans.

The Pods in function:

The pods are known by the name of each of their worlds or hub world, but each holds equal importance to the harmony of the Harmony. Each effectively functions as their own state but unified as a people and as part of the Universal Song. The Void Swimmers, that is, the Ithari military, by necessity functions as its own separate choir with its own First Voice, though it is beholden to the will of the choir's it has been created to protect. Traditionally, the First Voice will assume the name "Ocean" - as the Ithari spread to other worlds, these First Voices would sometimes assume the name of the Ocean they now guided.


The Ithari have been spacefaring for countless millenia, and have long since refined elements of bio-science, energy and gravity manipulation, construction, and many things from simple agriculture to advanced particle physics - much of which, however, remains theory. However, the Ithari application of many of these fields in regards to the making of war is lacking, though largely by intent.


Particle/Energy Weapons
Exotic Energy Generation
Terraforming
Bio-Science
Gravity Manipulation
Nanomolecular Construction/Manipulation.


In simplistic terms regarding its ability to produce and resources available, Ithari society has long since entered the realms of post-scarcity. Nearly all non-unique or non-mass construction or production is "state" ran, co-ordinated from Steelsinger directed "nanite" foundries both on planetary surfaces and in stellar space. The majority of economic dynamism is thus in special projects, unique items and architectural experimentation and small-scale "cottage" industries varying wildly from world to world.


Because of their empathic and telepathic abilities the Ithari are always keenly aware of the sufferings of others and they take no joy in causing pain, fear or anger. They revere life and harmony and abhor needless death or destruction. Nonetheless, they also value their own lives and over the past several centuries they have come to embrace survival as a necessary virtue. It is also a sad circumstance that even a single soldier who has seen such needless death and destruction can poison an entire pod with his burdens, his unrestrained thoughts. This is what lead to the creation of the Void Swimmers.

There is a great deal of debate, angst and soul-searching among the Ithari general population over the actions of their military. There are many Ithari who have never embraced the changes that came with their creation and genuinely would have preferred to find some peaceful way of resisting the wanton destruction inherent in war. They argue that mass suicide would have been a better answer than embracing the ways of those who commit such atrocities.

The Void Swimmers
Ithari who join the navy often do so against the express wishes of their families, friends and elders. Sometimes they are disowned and ostracized entirely. More often, a Ithari who decides to become a "swimmer in the void" goes through a death ritual before he enters the service. He lies very still in the water; his loved ones circle him, sometimes for hours, singing mournful songs and touching him one last time, as is their habit when a Ithari dies. Then the funeral procession carries his unresisting body to the Naval base and he is remanded to the custody of the Void Swimmers.

It is universally understood that he is no longer Ithari from that point onward. He will not behave as a Ithari would; he will learn the ways of the void sea and carry out missions which no living Ithari could countenance. These Ithari retain their old name, although it is likely to have a bittersweet irony. A new name would come if they were ever able to leave the service--such an event is considered rebirth, and would involve a new name to commemorate the occasion, and allow the past to be left behind.

If he ever returns, and wishes to become a Ithari again, he must go through a re-birthing ceremony and he will slowly to be re-integrated into Ithari society by use of a long process of purification. The horrors he has seen and done must be cleansed from his body and soul; he must learn to swim and sing again as a Ithari. The elders will help him in this process. They are considered strong enough to bear his burdens and each of them will hear one of his battlesongs as a confession and keep the sin of it for him. The heart of an elder is so massive, the long ages of beauty and joy it has lived are so powerful, that one Ithari's grief, guilt and rage cannot overshadow it.

This is however not always a possibility, If the Swimmer is relatively young, neither too old nor too far gone to heal his war wounds and go on with his life. Such a thing is expected, for many, it is not.

Most of the cleansing rituals have to do with being physically close enough to your victims to absorb their death agonies. For a Ithari, being within "shouting" distance of a kill is incredibly visceral and devastating. It's hard to put this in human terms without sounding almost deranged--but taking the life of a thinking, feeling sapient being for a Ithari is as intimate and terrible as it would be for a human being to drive a short sword into the belly of a close relative, feel that person's fluids rain onto your skin, and stare intimately into the victim's face as life left the body. They not only have to empathize with the death, but taste every shade of pain and rage and despair and fear as that experience devours someone's consciousness. Not only this - they go through this knowing that they've caused it. Sadly, They may even have to face the fact that some part of them enjoyed it.

A swimmer is brutal not out of efficiency but out of fear. Ithari do not breed like flies, nor do they have the ability to marshal their entire population as soldiers - Most Ithari go to their drowning day out of concern for their race A void swimmer does not destroy an enemy world as his opening gambit. It is done as a last resort. It is no condolence to those who perish, but it is as it is

Unfortunately, not every Void Swimmer is able to reintegrate back into society. The truth is that, in some cases, a Void Swimmer crew who have seen too much of the wrong kind of action will never return home. When they are no longer needed by their people, they may well choose to "decommission" their own vessel by piloting it into the corona of the nearest star. They understand that they will never be able to become Ithari again. In this way, they are still protecting their home from the horrors of war. New events have lead to the possibility of giving oceans to those who would guard them - but they could never be open to Ithari who have not lived a soldiers life.

The Void Swimmers as such have sacrificed nearly everything to protect all they hold dear. They are not the Ithari people expect, and perhaps, in that, they find an even greater advantage.

Seers of the Song
Intelligence is paramount in any operation, and the Ithari would be foolish to not take this idea to the fore. The Ithari Intelligence Service is known simply as Seers of the Song, they are few and largely untested, for the Ithari have made no notable enemies nor is it largely possible to infiltrate other states. Their diplomatic counterparts, the "Singers to the Deaf", do some work in this regard, though not much. The Seer's of the Song are however trained to do what many Ithari themselves do as a game - ferret out thoughts, irrespective of the mind that holds it, and bring the note of the song to the fore, so that the harmony of the song can be preserved.


The Void Swimmers maintain a diverse force of military space craft, centred upon core units such as carriers and "battleships", but overwhelmingly prefer to dispatch lighter forces for harassing and hit and run manoeuvres. Ithari ships are surprisingly agile due to their use of gravity manipulation (once a necessity, due to the liquid water contents often required) and given Ithari energy generation techniques, able to power more than reasonable banks of energy weaponry.

Navy Doctrine: Void-Pod Hunt.

The Void-Pod Hunt typically employs squadrons to harass, surround, and bring down "predators" - either squadrons of lighter ships or the many smaller void craft typically referred to as strike craft by other species. In situations of overwhelming numerical superiority, the Ithari will even employ their nimble capital ships in such a fashion, rotating through their banks of energy and particle weapons in a broadside fashion. Where such tactics are not possible, the fleet will form a "greater pod" and hunt as one, large, all encompassing force - smashing the opponent with a wall of battle if no other options are presented.


The Ithari, understandably, rarely take to the field of combat personally. While the dramatic image of an enraged Ithari, utilizing the combination of kinetics and technology to hover over the battlefield unleashing its own minds power upon the enemy has been popularized in some Void Swimmer circles, it is far from the norm.

While the Ithari will do such things, potentially with devastating effects, the lions share of ground facing weaponry and tactics have been outsourced to modular, adaptable technological constructs - and in some rare cases, willing mercenary forces. Nearly all matters military are left in the hands of the Void Swimmers, and a select few are trained for ground combat every recruitment cycle.

Ground Doctrine: Mind & Matter.

Despite being dangerous telekinetic combatants, Ithari typically eschew personal frontline combat both as a philosophical and practical concern. As a rule, ground combat on a planetary surface is often to a territorial disadvantage, particularly given the necessary mental strength and/or technological adaptations required to engage an enemy out of the water. However, it is an inevitable necessity that Ithari will, if not personally attend to bloodletting on the front line, not be far from the action.

Ithari ground military forces are thus almost exclusively modular constructs, typically made up of billions of, effectively, nanites. While the Ithari maintain certain pre-planned or melded semi-intelligent constructs which can be called upon - Itharians are typically intimately involved in their constructs - multiple ones can be brought together and bonded by a single Ithari utilizing their telekinetic abilities - with the innate technological nature of the "matter" guided by the "mind" forming nanomolecular bonds as appropriate, shaped and guided by an active mind and not reliant on Artificial Intelligence unless the Itharian "controller" disengages from a particular constructs "intelligence web".

However, the necessity of a certain degree of proximity does not insulate the Ithari from danger, and it certainly does not form a sufficient barrier from the effects of taking life, particularly given the near intimate bond necessary with the constructs empty mind (For the Ithari do not utilize true artificial sentience). As such, Void Swimmers destined to become "controllers" receive some of the most intense preparation possible.

Strike Craft


The Da'ran Interceptor is the oldest strike craft currently in service in the Ithari roster.

Dating from just after the conclusion of the Fracture - the Da'ran is an effective construct still employed by the Void Swimmers in the role of reconnaissance and interception, and is noted for its significant array of sensors.

Utilizing a single Ithari pilot, the Da'ran uses a simplistic gravitic drive to power its movement, basic gravitic shielding and singular, under-slung variant of an Ithari particle lance. Firing in rapid short bursts, the Da'ran's lance is more than capable for its role of interception and general "dog-fighting" duties - as well as sufficient in numbers to cause issues for larger craft.


The Cahlai is the primary ordinance delivery platform for the Void Swimmers.

The Cahlai was created as a means to deliver heavier ordinance against targets that could not be overwhelmed by the Da'ran without loss - or by lighter warships employed by the Ithari. Similar to the Da'ran, the Cahlai utilizes a gravitic core to power its systems, though the Cahlai's own core is much more significant in output.

Requiring two Ithari pilots, the Cahlai features a tried and tested, but older pair of Ion based "blasters" as its primary armament potential outside of its ordinance delivery. However, the true purpose of the Cahlai is to fire intentionally created and focused overloads of its gravitic drive in the form of a projectile. Utilizing a mix of kinetic matrices which encase the projectile and careful psionic manipulation by the secondary Ithari pilot, the Cahlai is capable of creating devastatingly unstable ordinance to be employed against the enemy.


The Shalaeth is the newest entry to the Ithari Strike Craft roster, and is appropriately advanced.

The Shalaeth is a surprisingly recent entry to the Void Swimmer's arsenal. Like its predecessors, it employs the same variant of a gravitic drive - but far more capable and specifically designed for the Shalaeth's envisioned purpose as a multi-role craft. As such, the Shalaeth, whilst being a larger, more durable craft than either, is still incredibly agile.

Like the Cahlai, the Shalaeth requires two Ithari pilots - and like the Cahlai, features a similar method of ordinance delivery, though its psionic discharge web in its wings and its matrices are far more finely tuned - and consequently its projectiles are far less unstable - it does grant a much greater range from which its projectiles can be fired.

In addition, the same discharge web compliments its gravitic shielding and two heavier particle lance weapons, contingent on the psionic strength of its pilots. As such, the Shalaeth is being phased into widespread use on the newer carriers and steward ships employed by the Harmony.

Light Vessels


The Shorath is essentially a much larger, adapted version of the ideas at the heart of the Shalaeth

Created to fill a role similar to a frigate or destroyer in the Void Swimmer's fleets. The Shorath was born out of the ideas that created the Shalaeth, and employs similar means of offense and defense - though its psionic discharge web is much more focused and of a newer design than the Shalaeth's.

Requiring a crew of 25, the Shorath is essentially a multi-role vessel capable of performing the lighter duties normally assigned, in other fleets, to basic strike roles, patrol, and tasks as varied as picketing or recon in force. Shorath's typically operate in squadrons of three or more.

As a testbed design, the Shorath currently utilizes a new variant of Ithari gravitic drives, as well as a new core system based upon those subspace taps employed by heavier vessels.


The Torae is the catch-all light cruiser design employed the Ithari.

While the Torae would be unrecognizable in its interior makeup to its original designers, the Torae's initial conception was during the Fracture itself. Employed by those who would come to create the core of the Harmony, the Torae is an ancient, favoured design that can be credited with outclassing its contemporaries - and through countless millenia of continued upkeep and refit, remains a stalwart vessel in service today.

The Torae, as such, requires a hundred Ithari crew and employs the traditional tried and tested gravitic drive and core design employed by lighter Ithari vessels - though it boasts four such generators to power its shields and weaponry - arrayed in a not inconsiderable array of nine banks of particle lances. However, the Torae's psionic web is very limited, and as such the psionic potential of its crew to support systems is correspondingly limited.

The Torae, nevertheless, served as the main force multiplier traditionally employed by the Ithari, or at least was until the development of the Shorath.


The Balaros is the heavier cousin to the Torae, though a far newer design.

Requiring a crew of two hundred Ithari, the Balaros is the heavy cruiser variant employed by the Ithari. The Balaros, like other lighter Ithari vessels, employs the traditional gravitic drives and cores to power its defenses and armament. It boasts a crew of two hundred.

Like the Torae, the Balaros employs multiple banks of particle lances - though it only possesses five. Its other primary armament lies in four Focused Energy Discharge launchers - effectively a heavy and more precise variant of the ordinance deployment employed by the Shalaeth and Shorath. The Balaros also features a sophisticated Psionic discharge web, allowing members of its crew to finesse and improve systems psionically where required.

As such, the Balaros is a compliment to the Torae, providing heavier means of offensive force where the Torae is inadequate.


The Ank'athros is essentially a artillery deployment platform developed to deal with long range combatants and for bombardment purposes.

If an outsider had actually ever seen one, the Ank'athros's genesis would probably seem an antithesis to the proclaimed Ithari ideologies and philosophy. If they had known the battles the Ank'athros had been developed to win, it would not seem as so - for the Ank'athros's was a true warship developed purely to counter an enemy - one that no longer exists.

The Ank'athros as such masses much heavier than its contemporary light cousins, but employs a gravitic drive and series of cores much more specifically designed and with a psionic web designed to compliment the ship much more intimately than others. The Ank'athros as such possesses a very small crew of five Ithari, but all are accomplished psionics.

The sweeping design of the Ank'athros serves one purpose - to provide as many kinetic matrices as possible. While the Ank'athros has sophisticated defenses, it only has one weapon, one singular focused discharge platform. Coalescing a massive, if slow, projectile, the Ank'athros is capable of untold destruction from far outside the normal range of engagement for such weapons. This feat is only accomplished by the potential of its crew - and it possesses no other means of combat except through its variants of point defence and the gifts of its crew.


The Urand was once the premier carrier platform for the Void Swimmers, unable to hold notable numbers of the new Shalaeth, the Urand has been downgraded to a "light" carrier - though it is in truth a capital ship.

The Urand was once the pinnacle of Ithari technology. It is no longer, though it still possesses much of the terrible grace one would expect from such an ancient class of ship. Holding six Da'ran squadrons and three squadrons of the Calaeth, the Urand's primary role is to bear these vessels into combat - and to use its onboard fabrication systems to produce replacement parts of entire craft if necessary.

The Urand, as a former capital ship with sometimes varying flight crew, typically boasts three to four hundred Ithari onboard at any one time - and as such possesses a corresponding psionic discharge web. While possessing gravitic drives, the Urand is powered by Ithari subspace tap technology and possesses far greater energy reserves than other ships the Ithari have classed as "light". As such, its defense systems are far in excess of even the Balaros.

The Urand possesses a number of point defense systems, but as a strike craft delivery platform, it possesses only one primary offensive weapon - in truth, the core of the ship itself serves as that weapon - one immense, spinal particle lance far more powerful than those found on lighter Ithari vessels.

As such, not only is the Urand a danger for its ability to keep strike craft in the battle - it is doubly so for the "grand weapon" it possesses. A few Urand are more than capable of scouring a world of life, if left unmolested - and it can be said that it is a good thing the Ithari are seldom called upon to display such an ability.

Capital Vessels


The Hashan is the primary capital ship in service with the Ithari

The Hashan, with a crew of three hundred fifty, is a newer design that phased out the ancient gravitic powered Tylanthor. Like all Ithari Capital ships with the decomissioning of the Tylanthor, the Hashan employs subspace taps to power its systems - with complimentary psionic discharge webs and employing the traditional gravitic manipulation drives of all Ithari ships.

The Hashan was devised as a frontal combatant - with limited defensive systems meant to be complimented by other vessels assigned to escort it, the Hashan possesses twenty four of the traditional particle lance banks employed as standard armament on Ithari vessels, however, its true strength lies in its Primary Phased Beam Array.

As such, the Hashan is designed to discharge its power core through a focusing emitter into a continuous beam fired at the enemy. Due to the nature of the beam - continued fire will entail increased beam coherence - and supplied by the near infinite nature of a subspace tap, results in a beam that becomes deadlier the longer the target cannot avoid or interrupt its firing.

As such, a Hashan given free reign against a slow target is a devastating opponent.


The Taloris replaced the Urand as the premier carrier of the Ithari fleet.

The Taloris was envisioned as a platform for the delivery of the Shalaeth - and is consequently much newer than the Urand it replaced. The Taloris is also a competent, non-spinal combatant. With a crew of six hundred Ithari, it possesses similar capabilities - that of fabrication and delivery. The Taloris holds twelve squadrons of Shalaeth, with varying numbers of squadrons of Da'ran and Calaeth, though never exceeding eight further squadrons total.

The Taloris employs the traditional subspace tap power generation means of Ithari capital ships, as well as a notable psionic discharge web and one of the newest specifically designed gravitic drives - allowing the Taloris considerable mobility for her size.

The Taloris as such possesses notable defensive shielding, armour, point defense systems and fourteen conventional particle lance weapon banks in addition to her strike craft. The Taloris also possesses two energetics cannons - similar in concept to ordinance delivery used on the Calaeth up to the Ank'athros, but far more focused and arguably conventional in their approach, given the stable energy they can draw upon.


The Apranya serves primarily with the Stewards, but is also a competent military command ship.

The Apranya was designed initially as a vessel to serve the needs of the stewards - a veritable city in space capable of providing them with the fabrication, research facilities, housing and long ranging self supply required when watching over nascent worlds. The Void Swimmer's also saw the potential in a ship capable of providing transport for constructs and controllers - as well as a platform from which fleet command could be designed for from the inception of a design.

The Apranya was the result. Utilizing the most advanced gravitics drives available at the time (and consequently, due to refit, of the current as well) and the first employment of subspace tap technology, the Apranya is a vessel capable of many feats. While it is capable of being piloted by a single Ithari, the Apranya will often have a crew of thousands, though many will be support staff.

The Apranya as such was heavily armed. While possessing eighteen particle lance weapons banks - the Apranya is the only Ithari vessel that employs psionically enhanced phased beam weaponry, capable of far greater destruction than typical Ithari energy weapons. As such, this, along with the fleet command systems asked for, called for the employment of a far greater "focus" than the Apranya's limited inbuilt psionic discharge web - and as such the entire vessel was built around the extremely rare and impossible to synthesise Rillion crystal. The fact that so many crystals of such perfect quality in such a dense arrangement is present on the Apranya, is, despite its size, the real reason only a limited number of the Apranya exist. A single, massive beam of energy can be channeled through the Rillion crystal cluster - though at the expense of other offensive systems - but serves as a potent planetary assault weapon, long range bombardment option, or destructive choice against other slower targets.

As such a large construct, the Apranya can be argued to be two vessels both constructed separately and then bonded together - its core and constituent "city" and its "wings". This "winged" hull, comprised of three slowly rotating wings, projects a tightly woven energy dome which allows for a life-sustaining atmosphere within the confines of the city itself, and turns harmful deep-space radiation into surplus energy for basic gravitic shields and other primary systems. The Apranya's core itself has a similar barrier whose sole function is to keep the crew on the rest of the ship safe from the powerful energies it generates.

The Apranya, given its size, is capable of hosting even the Taloris in its cavernous bays, and will be home to any combination of strike craft squadrons in addition to its escorts, berthed or otherwise. Though this is never in excess of fourty total squadrons.

The Apranya is, also, with the Kuara, one of the few vessels actually encountered with some frequency by non-Ithari entities.


The Illion was designed more practical alternative to the Apranya, though this did not go to plan.

The Illion was initially devised as an alternative to the Apranya, given its specific construction requirements. However, by the time plans had been finalized on the Illion its construction was not only more substantial - but it required nearly as many Rillion crystals as an Apranya - resulting in a rethink as to its purpose.

The Illion was thus redrawn as a dreadnaught - and its power systems were re-examined. While the Illion would be made mobile by the tried and tested design of gravitics, its size and the inherent power demands could potentially tax even a dedicated subspace tap - and so the Ithari turned to the stars. The Solar Core was the result - and the Illion would be powered by a minature replica of a star.

With such power available, the idea of a simple dreadnaught was once again examined. The Void Swimmers and the Stewards both collaborated and many elders put forward their thoughts - and without much debate the Illion was envisioned not just simply as an offensive asset, but as an arkship of sorts. A final answer to a war, but also the final retreat if such a thing ever became necessary. The Illion would be the ender of civilizations, but would also be the salvation of the Ithari if it was ever necessary. Only Six would ever be produced.

The Illion is armed almost identically to the Apranya, though it possesses several Phased Beam Arrays present on the Hashan, as well as a dozen focused energy discharge launchers. Its immense size means it is home to everything the Ithari would require if their civilization were ever in dire threat - full scale nano foundries, housing, limited agriculture and aquaculture, digital archives and numerous research and botanical areas amongst things as diverse as a hospital wing and a full stasis section for colonists and troops. As such, the Illion's crew "requirements" vary - but for essential operations it requires at least eight hundred Ithari, and to run at full efficiency - ignoring any support staff or other sections such as stasis pods - at least two thousand. It is commonly believed an Illion can hold tens of thousands of Ithari in comfort - and more if comfort is disregarded. In addition, it is more than capable of hosting and supplying a complete fleet of its own, though the Illion has limited strike craft bays of its own. As such, it relies on the Taloris, Urand or even any Apranya that may be berthed within it.

The Illion as such is purely a myth, even among some Ithari circles - however, the fact that six elders are chosen on occasion to guide the resident pods aboard each of them means that their existence is more than on the public record.

Utility Vessels


The Kuara serves one role - to observe

The Kuara is one of the few Ithari ship classes seen outside of Ithari space. A small vessel with only a handful of Ithari aboard - typically scientists and any associated Void Swimmers required - the Kuara is a mobile sensor platform capable of taking in immense amounts of data and then processing it.

The Kuara utilizes traditional Ithari gravitic power systems, drives, and defenses - and possesses a limited capital grade particle lance bank to defend itself with if the need arises - but the Kuaras only true purpose is to see what the Ithari wish it to see - and to bear any samples back home.

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They call themselves the Ninth Amaranthine Circuit, whatever that means. They can put on a neat, antiseptic diplomatic facade when they feel like it - don't let them fool you. They are just some shady, cult-like corporate cabal. Using their 'official' name just helps to legitimize them. Call them The Printers. Everyone else does.

Official Name: The Ninth Amaranthine Circuit
Common Name: The Printers
Government: Corporate Stratocracy
Capital: Point Phokashra

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The Kingdom of Amucia is notorious for strong ethno-nationalism, rapid breeding, vast cities and even more vast farmland. Their borders tightly controlled to make sure nothing gets through without permission, with Amucians rarely knowing much of what happens beyond their nation unless it spins the Kingdom in a positive light. Colonization is heavily supported due to the overpopulated and densely packed nature of Amucian cities, as well as how quickly them become so thanks to the swift population growth. Almost all colonies are located on cold, vegetated planets, minus a few mining colonies in a distant asteroid or on a desert world. Colonies also receive much more freedom from the government's control and gives farmers the right to make or buy guns and ammo.



The Kingdom's founding was not a convetional political victory.

A ceaseless war. After a forever of being confronted by numerous foes, the remains of a great nation had been burned to the ground. In these times a nobleman had risen with an idea not too uncommon with history, one he met with great success. A ethno-nationalist society built around the Amucian people was presented, at the time it was nothing more than another rabble of terrorists who sought to subvert the norm. Little was it known by both these fighters and the remaining citizens that this ideology would catch on with ease, with the mere wars over territory evolving into the survival of a species, or so was claimed.

In the end, they had won over the majority of the Amucian population, especially as every territory claimed would offer a unusually optimistic fervor about the future. Once victory had been achieved and control of the territories wrangled over, those considered unfit for survival in the new age were executed en mass or forced into distant mountains or thick swampland. The nobleman who had been commanding these forces swiftly crowning himself as king, finding his old mansion on his homeworld fit to be refitted into a palace. A century on, past a population boom, rewriting of history, two other kings and a leap in technology, the Amucian Kingdom sits in silence, watching the borders with a long standing hatred for those beyond.


N/A, map in OOC.



Amucia & Dresel

A place of cities so densely packed and active that it is increasingly rare to find a empty street. Both planets share their rarity in wildlife or natural environments, nearly everything having been touched by the Amucians at one point or replaced by buildings entirely. They are the beating heart of the Kingdom, bustling with activity as ships never cease in their deliveries from the furthest colonies to the closest continents. It is truly a place of awe, especially with the structures dating back thousands of years still standing tall, as if time itself wouldn't dare touch them.

Habda

While seeming nothing more than a farm world with a minimal population, the reality is always more important. Science facilities built deep into the ice cold mountains have personnel working consistently to bring about something new to support the kingdom's efforts in expansion and colonization. While their efforts are done with much dedication and plenty of seeming unsolvable challenges being prodded, results are more often noting more then a too small of a solution to a gigantic problem. Nonetheless, research continues...

The Grasslands

Ursa 1 and Ursa 2

The planets weren't named or originally colonized by the Amucians- but after removing the previous populace, they treat it as if it were their own. With a eagerness to utilize nature to their advantage, the untamed lands of both planets are utilized to produce much of the food needed to keep the Kingdom alive. The Grasslands are the second most important system in the entire territory, the navy having a strong presence with constant patrols. If both worlds were to fall, it'd have nearly apocalyptic consequences instantly for the entire Kingdom itself, never mind a year into the future.


Amucians are humanoid- two ears, eyes, legs, feet, arms and hands.

The average Amucian is around 6'0ft, with a snout and two pointy ears as well as a thin layer of fur covering their flesh. The color of their eyes are a blue or brown, with any human-like hair being either blonde or brown and fur being largely lightish-tan, brown, a mix of both or pure white. These colors can darken over time if Amucians are exposed to the sun long enough, much like humans tanning. Those genetically modified have access to red, purple and green eyes, as well as a slightly different lighter/darker tone in fur. Females and males are both similar to humans as well, including internal organs. Despite what could be implied from appearance, they do not seem harbor little or zero relation to animals.

The demographics ethno-state is majority Amucian, near one-hundred percent. The only aliens holding back that 100% are those who either had ancestors originally live on the planet and by Amucian law, have the right to remain settled without citizenship, or those who are enslaved and work in prisons, mines, farms and factories.


The Amucians are a very species-focused society, finding unity and beauty in their physical similarities to each other. This focus on looks is incorporated into their relations with other races, Amucian hostility assuredly apart of their stereotype. Though aliens do exist to a degree, they are either forced to work or kept in tiny reservations that are purposefully constricting them of resources and then naturally, forcing them to leave. It isn't uncommon in the Kingdom to have a paranoia for potential "intruders" who have bypassed the border. If the navy have been watching out for anything these past decades, it has indeed been these alien intruders.

For the average Amucian life is nothing more then work towards a greater goal in mind. In this case, united, they all work towards a bigger, stronger, safer and better Amucia, but individually they're quite the people with ulterior motives in mind. From the lowest menial workers to the noblemen, all suffer from their obsessive need to climb the ladder of progress by any means. Accusations of sabotage are common the higher you find yourself, a few deaths abound eventually. Despite these actions there is very little issues between Amucians, the acts of sabotage having been merged too well with culture itself.

Though this group-minded culture has even made situations in the military dire. The navy is treated as a distant cousin in contrast with ground forces, where all the naval personnel must rely on themselves first to get anywhere alive. Meanwhile the generals keep their bloated army budget, unwilling to cooperate with admirals on the merest of things while extra resources get dumped to the ground forces, who will continue to stockpile endlessly.

Militarism is rampant as one could imagine, with soldiers taking a regular place among civilians in day-to-day life. The military itself is unsurprisingly worshiped and seen as a viable long term job opportunity for males. Women are regulated to a housewife role, though they undoubtedly take place as workers in both urban and rural life if beneficial. Rural life is a whole other category- to be living on a farm to deal with alien wildlife running amok and possibly killing family, or deadly unknown diseases coming by wind. Those who have lived outside of major cities are almost considered a whole ethnicity in of themselves with how generations have passed, adapting to the wilderness over time and easing into the dangerous lifestyle.


The entire nation's fate is decided by a king, what they decree being the most important in all of the Amucian society. Being given the status of King is no mere act of nepotism either- there is an entire complex bloodline dedicated to maintaining a heir to the throne once the leader dies. In cases of peace (as it has been) these relatives- no matter how distant or close -will fight in a multitude of ways to make their claim to be the closest to the throne. Once the King falls, those with the most influence and ties to the recently deceased leader will make their claim to the title of King. This system is purely patriarchal, the title confined to a male only.


In comparison to civilizations with shields, lasers, cloning technology and advanced robotics, Amucia is very primitive indeed.

If anything, Amucia represents a mid-1900s with the ability to utilize exoskeletons, a slight amount of genetic engineering and obviously, spaceships. Certainly their civilian technology has upgraded as well, but people still follow a very specific routine relating to outside work, with little artificial help and still reliant on factories being manned by people over being controlled by robots. Almost all vehicles are still pinned to the ground, using tracks and wheels in order to get around environments. A odd combination of old and new, with a lot of the new stuck with the military.

Genetic engineering and exoskeletons are perhaps the most advanced technology, with genetic engineering being a (mostly) civilian appliance. Even then, it is confined by laws- the best one could do is modify certain colors of their body to a slight degree. Exoskeletons meanwhile are the embodiment of the military might, with soldiers in the Army equipped with exoskeletons with metal plating attached, bulky, but able to handle any spare weight added.

Then, there is the borderline technological apartheid with the those below the middle class and the Militia. Those too poor to afford genetic engineering can be seen with inferiority, unable to "Perfect the Amucian form." as some nobles have put it. Hatred against other Amucians over purity is a taboo- but like all taboos, there are those who embrace it with an unwavering mind. And then there is the Militia who unlike most of the military, don't get exoskeletons or advanced weapons. Instead, they wear mere flak jackets and run about with conventional guns that have little worth to a armored target.


Products are primarily man-made, with factories lacking the help of robot workers. Instead, entire city blocks can be placed under the employ of a single factory owner, who'll have vast complexes dedicated to the production of products that the workers themselves will buy or use in their lives. It isn't a perfect system, but with the propaganda constantly fed through the system to tell people to work for their race first, their individual lives second, the factory workers have been able to work at a decent enough rate with total obedience. And as the population grows, more factories are made with more exploration into the wilderness, utilizing fresh resources to make something new for the next generation. Production has remained high with issues few in number, despite the reliance on maintaining a growing and youthful population.





Ships can be placed in three categories:

Escorts
Thin hulls, large cannons, nothing more than a mere frigate in size.

To be a crewman of an escort is to embrace the title of cannon fodder and understand expendability. This doesn't just apply to how the ships are utilized in combat- serving aboard one of these vessels isn't an experience worth having, with the pay being absolutely low, numerous hazards that threaten to kill, a constant lack of the intelligent or skilled and having to learn how to be resourceful with your own supplies. Many find themselves often stuck with this job forever, unable to garner enough money to truly retire as much of their income must be spent on repairing their own ship in any drydock, civilian or military. Those old enough to be considered unfit for service often aren't let go by a crew if they wish to stay around, despite any disadvantages it may bring, for those who know the ship like home often know much more then any designer of this class of vessel.

It isn't without benefit however, those who serve aboard these ships- be it the marines stationed aboard, crewmen doing the day-to-day jobs or officers trying to deal with logistics, they all have a brotherly bond due to the demanding nature of being the cannon fodder of the navy. If anything holds true to the Amucian military as a whole, the most experienced will often be found in the worst positions.

Dreadnoughts
Bizzarely, frigates armed with large cannons is all there really is combat-wise, aside from these glass cannons.

There are only a total of 5 dreadnoughts in service.
Amucia's Hand
The Flawless
Thunderstrike
Destroyer
G-013 (Gamma)

Even with their limited number, only two have every been active at the same time. The expenses of keeping even one of these ships hovering doesn't make the taxed populous any happier, so most of the time all of these ships are sitting in a drydock waiting to be cleaned up and used for war.

When one of these monsters end up floating (if they ever do) they're a disturbing sight. Gigantic enough to be a nightmarish logistical mess, but with enough firepower to make up for it when a threat comes knocking. These ships are armed with three mighty frontal cannons, rows of turrets on left and right side of the hull, as well as a hangar and numerous missiles. It doesn't lack in the electronic warfare department either, with even the most abandoned and inactive ships being regularly updated and given upgrades to their technology. They also serve as transport, capable of carrying a small unit of soldiers with enough supplies to keep a moderate skirmish going for a week. Their hulls are thicker then a frigate for sure, but they barely keep a hull breach away.

Transports

The most important class out of the entire navy and what the entire doctrine revolves around. Due to the navy lacking any variety or actual chance of winning, victory seems only achievable by ground.

Transports are the blood of the navy, there is no purpose of a war without transports doing something. Either carrying troops for an invasion, critical supplies for a world under siege or providing room for scavenged material post-battle. Without these large boxy ships, there'd be no point for the Amucians to have a navy in the first place. They're the only vessels with a hull worthy of holding itself up against a few rounds, but their only useful weapon is the large crew. Boarding enemy vessels is the most common form of counter attack.

Navy Doctrine: Due to the lack of experience and how horribly unorganized most of the navy is, a doctrine is non-existent. The most common form of attack is just sheer unfocused brute force, unloading all the ammunition they can into an enemy before their ship blows up. It isn't smart, but it has worked against the stray ship drifting in space.


There are a variety of units and branches that can be described in thorough detail. Due to the bloated budget of the ground forces, they have more then ample supply of both manpower and equipment.

Conventional
The standard military is what could be expected out of any. Armored personnel carriers, heavy tanks, bombers, fighters, footsoldiers, etc. It isn't a very outlandish, or unique aside from the infantry utilizing exoskeletons. There are a diverse range of powerful weapons for infantry as well, though their power comes out of their capabilities to eliminate targets through sheer force. When compared to lasers, shielding and the alike, a lot of Amucian technology can seem primitive. Training is quite the same- it spans years, but compared to those with the experience of fighting many empires or rebellions, the military is lacks the ability to keep up. Perhaps the only benefit is the average soldiers' obedience and loyalty to Amucia, which is only instilled through the culture's prioritization of species first.

The planetary garrisons do make a standout however- not in a good way. The Militia as they're known are the planetary garrison of each world. They're armed with mere flak jackets, primitive (to Amucian standards) weapons and have incredibly bad organization, their large numbers not helping. Despite all that can happen and the specialized responses that are needed against such happenings, the Militia always find themselves to be the first to go in if its an option. Their purpose is merely to keep planets under control, nothing more.

Government Organizations, Special Agents, Honor Guard
Secrets are plentiful and dangerous, so there must be those that are quite the same. The unconventional and mysterious, these are as expected as well. Clad in black uniforms or dressed in heavy armor that hides their identities behind a layer of thick protective metal. It is not common for them to be deployed, though when they are it is entirely normal to assume something has gone awry.

Ground Doctrine: Mass infantry and guerrilla warfare, making the enemy lose through attrition and striking at key targets. There is a degree of combined arms- such as a reliance on heavily armored vehicles to escort convoys, or spacecraft to clear the skies of threats -but almost all work is expected to be started and finished by infantry.

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The Aurolian Federation, once a defensive pact between A loose collection of colonies, now is among the Great Powers in the known Galaxy. The Federation is home to numerous species both native and migrated from afar, lending it's strength in such a strong brotherhood and those who wish to join it.



The Federation's beginnings can be traced over three centuries ago, in the early 23rd Aurolian Century. Upon the day of Gulsin 15th of the year 2317, the humans of the former colony of Aurolia had finally accomplished a great deed, the creation of their own FTL drives. Within several weeks of hyperspace travel, a Multi-National Exploration Team had touched down on the surface of one of Aurolia's sister worlds of Murani for the first time, and with this monumental event for the Aurolians, so began a new Golden Age of Exploration. For eons, theses colonists had prospered on their lost paradise, but have dreamed of once again traversing the stars just as their Predecessors once did.

From 2320 to 2360, the Nations of Aurolia embarked on a Space Race unlike any other, fleets of cargo and colony ships moving in droves to the barren world of Murani as domed cities were erected on the once dead and quiet landscape. By 2382, over 2 Million humans now called Murani home. And as the years pass by, even more projects were in the works, Mining Companies had begun to lay claim to the Asteroid Fields surrounding the system, the various moons, and many more as now untapped resources once out of reach of the Aurolians were now all theirs for the taking. Dozens of independent parties had constructed Sleeper Ships to set out far beyond the Aurilus System, and explore and colonize alien worlds, and decades later, reestablished contact with Aurolia.

The 24th Century would prove to be the Century of Discovery, Change and War. It all begun in 2400, an Aurolian scout vessel had made first contact with the Hammerheaded Aldzir of Nasj, a Garden Moon that orbits a Gas Giant, communication was shaky with the tribal natives, the colonists having a difficult time to decipher their language, but the two groups lived a relativity peaceful co-existence, but were mostly left to their own devices, the two groups often trading in knowledge or in technology.

By 2424, Humanity would be the ones visited as they came into contact with the Ishkaan, a repto-avian species that had recently reached their own space age, like the Aldzir, the two groups kept into contact, but also kept to themselves, human and ishkaan colonies even traded in what technology was need for their respective worlds to prosper. Despite the occasional border dispute and skirmish between colonies, the general region now dubbed the Aurolian Star Cluster, was functioning with little large scale conflict.

However, this would change for better or for worse in the year 2450, the three interconnected species of the star cluster would come into contact with the Nerkin, an aggressive insectoid species that saw little value in any talks of diplomacy, and caught the scattered colonies off guard as the Nerkin Empire launched a full scale assault on the star cluster, the initial stages of the war were devastating. By the fourth year of the war, the colonies and homeworlds properly organized themselves to form a united front against the Nerkin Empire, whatever differences the Ishkaan or Humans had were put aside to defeat this dire threat.

The war would continue on for another six years before the Nerkin were finally driven off the last occupied colony world. No treaty was signed, the Nerkin did not make any offers of peace nor had their ships returned for a good year after the battle, the war seemed to be over.

Although the war itself was devastating, the reconstruction efforts estimated to take some decades, the Humans, the Aldzir and Ishkaan grew more close, a sense of brotherhood growing among the three, as such, something was to be done in order to become better prepared for the next interstellar conflict.

On the moon of Nasj, Representatives of Aurolia, the native Aldzir tribes and the Ishkaan of Janar, gathered. It was on the Moon of Nasj, in the year 2463 A.C. that the Articles of Federation were drawn, leading to the creation of the Federation of the Aurolian Stars. The nations and colonies soon merged under the sovereign banner of this new Federation, guaranteeing safety and unity against all threats from beyond their borders.

The following decades, before the next war, would be deemed the Century of Restoration. Over the course of said century, the federation would slowly rebuild from the damages brought by the Nerkin, and


(This is for the galaxy map with your location highlighted somehow. The galaxy is gigantic so even a small dot can mean a lot. Don't be discouraged by your size!)


(This is kind of optional, you are given a chance to describe various places of interest. This can be a planet, star system or even entire star sector. Or even something else. Feel free to list them!)


Native Species
Aldzir: A mammalian species native to the garden moon of Nasj. The Aldzir are among the more bizarre species in known space, possessing a vaguely humanoid shape, with the exception of their upper bodies, with long curved necks and T-shaped heads. On both sides of an Aldzir's neck is two silts, these silts both function as two separate, if interconnected mouths. As noted, despite being separate, when a Aldzir speaks, vocals from both orifices resonate in stereo. Regarding gender, it can be quite difficult distinguishing between a male and female Aldzir, sharing little differences besides the tone of their voice, Females having a higher pitch tone.

Aldzir language has traces of a semi-aquatic origin, "singing" similarly to various whale-like animals of various worlds. The language barrier, for the most part, is quite difficult to breach, few Aldzir are capable of speaking the common human tongue, and most often are forced to rely upon translation implants or devices.

Ishkaan: Native to the Arid World of Janar, the Ishkaan are a hardy Avian species of a vague humanoid shape, their bodies covered in a hardened carapace, and most notable for their horned crests and mandibles. Ishkaan, like the Nalloth, uncharacteristic of avians, can give live birth to young. Similar to the Aldzir, male and female Ishkaan do not differ greatly in physical appearance, with the small exception of tone of voice and females lacking horn crests.

Migrant/Other

Ysh:
Nerkin:
Nalloth:
Alarician:


Culture in the Federation is rather complicated, and differs greatly from planet to planet, each contain a unique culture and society born from it's people and surroundings. However, the Worlds of the Federation share quite a few common values, one of individualism, self-determination and liberty for the various peoples of different creeds and species. Such Human ideals had slowly, but surely spread to the non-human citizens of the Federation, both local and migrant alike, and many had grown to adopt such ideals as their own.

The Federation Military is held to a high standard and respect in the Federation, seen as the ever watchful defenders of a fragile civilization against far off Powers that seek its total submission and destruction.

Freedom of Religion in the Federation is also a scared right, and just as diverse, many Human and Alien Religions begun spreading the word of their respective Gods once missionaries left offworld, and to the surprise of most, have acquired many converts not of their own species.


A Federal Republic, the Aurolian Government is split between Three Branches, the Executive Branch, that being the Office of the Federation President who is both the Head of the Senate and the Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Armed Forces. One of the many tasks of a President consist of the creation of Laws, the signing of articles of diplomatic importance such as treaties, to appoint judges for the Interstellar Court and so on.

The Legislative Branch, that of which being the Senate. The Senate's main tasks consist of the passing of laws brought forward by the President, passing or vetoing Legislation by the President, and are to give consent to enact a Declaration of War. And finally there is the Interstellar Court, who are responsible for the enforcement of the Laws created by the President and passed then enacted by the Senate. IC Judges are appointed by the President.

Star Systems within the Federation are partially autonomous entities who are responsible for both maintaining worlds and installations within, and to maintain its own defense with their local System Defense Force to act as its shield.


(Describe your civilization's technology in general)







Navy Doctrine: Like the ground forces, the Federation has developed a sort of Combined Arms strategy concerning spaceborne threats. Federation Battlegroups tend to be clustered together, heavy capital ships forming the necessary center, and the escort screens forming the outer defensive layer, shielding the capital vessels and taking most of the enemy's fire.








Ground Doctrine: The Nerkin War and the current Daisan War have taught the Federation one thing, to meet an enemy head on with all assets. Federation ground troops train for combined arms tactics, in that no matter what, the branches and units within will support each other. Infantry will always be under the guidance of close by armored and aerial support units and vise versa.

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A relatively new contender to the galactic field, the United Artanin Governments have been observed to be a rudimentary space faring nation. Their ships are unshielded and lack basic technologies other nations consider as commonplace. Their ground forces are unremarkable, relying heavily on underpowered and outmatched weaponry, their colonies are underdeveloped and lack proper funding to grow, and their "United" government seem to be constantly at odds with one another and manage to seldom get anything worth noting done.


It's not all that big but just so it looks nicer I've put it in a hider.


Waiting on the officially completed star map.






The United Artanin Government worlds have a demographic made up entirely of Artanese. This is due to the fact that that Artanin have not been players in the galactic stage long enough to gain sizable populations of alien citizens and most importantly the Artanin are largely still against the idea of allowing other races to join the UAG for the time being.


The society of the UAG is very much the same across almost every planet that is part of the UAG, with three clearly defined societal classes; Upper, Middle, and Lower class.

The UpperClass are the wealthy corporation owners, those in advanced fields such as medicine or law, and more than a handful of politicians. These are the Artanin that for the most part run the country. They employ the masses, provide services to those incapable of providing for themselves, set laws and regulations that keep the lesser classes safe and functioning.

The MiddleClass are the average workers of the UAG. Most members of the military are considered to be grouped into the Middle Class. As the bulk of the UAG, the Middle Class have the largest voice when it comes to the direction that the Council is heading in terms of running the UAG, whether having the largest voice counts or not is not very hard to figure out when you wonder just how those politicians have made their way to the Upper Class.

The Lower Class is relatively small in the UAG. With vast employment opportunities stemming from the still ongoing colonization of Lucina and Quirinus, most who were once Lower Class have been able to pick up and go on the federal dime in programs that source laborers and other specialized professionals to the colonies in order to help them grow. Those that are still stuck in the Lower Class are either stuck their due to unfortunate circumstances, or crippling debts.


Unicameral Parliamentary Republic
The UAG is broken up into two separate larger branches, that being the Legislative/Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch.

The Council of Ministers is both the Legislative and Executive branch of Government. Consisting of fifteen pairs of elected officials and one elected Prime Minister, with each pair representing one of the fifteen worlds that make up the UAG and elected by said planets population, they serve for two years with a maximum of allowed amount of four years. This body makes legislative debate and carries out action in the name of the United Artanin Governments fifteen planets on anything from enacting laws to declaring war. Notorious for the constant squabbles of the Council members, many of which seem set on advancing their own planets instead of the nation as a shole.

The Prime Minister of the UAG is in fact just a ceremonial position, and is usually elected from within the Council itself out of a group of influential but soon to be no longer eligible to be on the Council members, elected more as a show of faith by their fellow members of the Parliament, the Prime Minister carries out diplomatic visits on member planets and is the public figure of the UAG for their one year term as such.

The Judicial Branch, or High Court of Artana as it is known, consists of fifteen appointed judges. Each judge is appointed by their planets pair of parliamentary members and serve a life commitment on the Court until they either retire or pass away. This court upholds the laws of the UAG and settles disputes that lesser courts are unable to tackle.


Still a fledgling space faring nation, the Artanin have only mastered slipspace technology in the past ~600 hundred years. With a rudimentary understanding of Gravity generation, the Artanin have been able to create and place gravity generators in ships starting one hundred and seventy years ago, which was heralded by a radical shift in their space vessel designs that saw a move from that of designs resembling a skyscraper and utilizing thrust gravity to a more standard seafaring vessel with a constant down.

The UAG still relies heavily upon kinetic weaponry and missile technologies although it has recently begun to branch out into the fields of energy and particle application in warfare which has resulted in the comparatively crude although groundbreaking Energy Lance.


Slipspace Drive - WIP
Gravity Generators - WIP
Energy Lance - WIP
Orbital Super MAC Stations - WIP


Will do eventually as I build it IC.


The UAG consists of two forces that can be further broken up into more specific entities, the United Artanin Ground Forces or AGF for short, and the United Artanin Naval Forces or ANF. The AGF can be split into the AGF Army and the AGF Marines, while the ANF can be split into the ANF Navy and the ANF Merchant Marine.




Navy Doctrine:
The ANF Navy, not yet adapted to the technologies of the other races around them, rely heavily on their now outdated strategies. Their ships are designed to engage at ranges that far outstrip their own kinetic weapons and instead rely heavily on a large missile volley to overwhelm and destroy as many ships as possible while relying on their own point defense and countermeasures to evade or destroy as many incoming missiles as possible. Following the initial missile volleys the remaining ships of the fleet would then continue to close the distance with the enemy fleet and engage them in close combat where they would be able to use their large compliments of kinetic weapons with devastating results.




Ground Doctrine:
The Artanin Ground Forces, or AGF, are made up of two separate parts. The first being the AGF Marines.

The Artanin Marines are, for all intents and purposes, the real heavy lifters of the ground forces. Ferried in by the Artanin Naval Forces, the Marines are the ones to assault planets and lay siege to fortresses. Using a combination of conventional vehicles (tanks, IFVs etc) and bipedal mechs that are present in every squad and controlled either by a pilot or an Artanin Handler. With these assets the Marines use a combination of combined arms warfare and superior firepower to first soften enemy positions before advancing with highly mobile combat units and support elements to strike hard, fast, and continuing on moving once all is said and done. AGF Marines also play pivotal roles onboard every ship of the ANF, acting as shipboard security as well as both anti-boarding and boarding parties.

The AGF Army, the far more paranoid and less attractive brother to the AGF Marines, arrive second to the fight, if they're even required. With far less of the high-tech goodies of the Marines, the AGF Army; normally if called upon; act as the occupying force following a successful Marine invasion or as a backup force to assist Marines that are being held up as the Army is notorious for bringing with them an immense amount of firepower no sane Artanin would ever deem necessary. Focusing on the idea that bullets are far cheaper than a soldier, the Army tends to be the slower and far more logistically intensive portion of the AGF as they bring with them tens of thousands of artillery pieces and enough mobile rocket systems to put Macross to shame. When not backing up the Artanin Marines by blotting out the sun with 155mm shells, the AGF Army is normally found on Artanin Colony worlds and fully developed worlds as peacekeepers and planetary defense groups, which is the actual primary job of the AGF Army. On every Artanin world the AGF Army tends to have anywhere from 3-30 major base complexes (depending on the world and its importance/how new of a world settled world it is) that are mainly subterranean with relatively small surface footprints compared to their underground complex. As the Chief of Staff of the Artanin Army once put it, "No shell can reach you if you are beneath two hundred and fifty meters of good, solid bedrock". The AGF Army on colonial planets spend most of their time dialing in large fields of fire for their artillery or building more entrenched bunkers, base complexes, and emplacements scattered across the planet "just in case".

Special Forces Groups do exist within the Artanin Military and will be expanded upon as they make their appearances.

Overview

The Chronological Foundation is a solipsistic society which has a deeply idealistic worldview of the universe which has shaped its every move, more like a sprawling cult than a political entity, the Chromatists seek to upend existence itself and shed the illusory fabric to which we exist in before it all melts away. Their motives are based on the dogmatic belief that a synchronicity between all life in the universe must be attained, because if such unison thought is not attained all will melt. Melt away into nothingness. This is not the same as entropy, for they are of the belief this melting will be exponential in nature and people will literally melt away.

Much of these beliefs are said to have come from a living star which is referred to by the Chromatists as the Cyan Soul, a bright star which is notably anomalous and well known to astronomers for its peculiarities, though studying the Cyan Soul hasn’t really shown much at all on the star itself being alive.

That hasn’t stopped the Chromatists, of course, who know firsthand that the star isn’t literally alive. That would just be superstition. The Cyan Star is living in a more alien sense, it is the congregation of plasma life within the star they speak to!

History

The history of the Glinnvyr is a messy, convoluted affair spanning multiple time periods of differing dominant belief systems, but the smaller political units which they exist in has been a constant due to the Glinnvyr usually preferring smaller political structures with confederate associations to act as common defense against outside forces. This cyclic will not be elaborated upon for the time being, instead what shall be elaborated on is the birth of the Chronological Foundation.

Once upon a time there was a Glinnvyr known as the Brightest One, the Brightest One was a escapee from the rotting world-state of Xipani who in the stellar abyss came across the Cyan Soul, at the time uninhabited due to being too far from the common ecumene of galactic civilization. The Brightest one, banished to this burning star system with its radiation, fluctuations and unpleasant lack of any world habitable for any life (there wasn’t even a terrestrial body- it was all asteroids and gas giants) would eek a menial existence among the asteroids surviving off the icy deposits.

Using the young system’s resources to make a small home for itself, The Brightest One unwittingly stumbled across a revelation- the burning star was alive and the Cyan Soul had managed to speak to it. The Cyan Soul claimed to have been an aggregation of beings who had seen the thousand years and saw the universe melting away. Everything would melt away, unless a unity could be made to break free of reality itself. The Cyan Soul claimed itself a conduit from another universe, seeking to get out of their universe and into ours so that we may cooperate on breaking out of our universe to break into a better one that won’t melt. This message would be spread by the Brightest One to other world states, the message directly so that all would see it and thus a new faith was born.

The Brightest One never regained the fame it had sought, but the inhabitants of the rotting world state of Xipani had forgiven the Brightest One for bringing to light this new truth and the Brightest One in death had gained the greatest legacy- being the de facto founder of the Chronological Foundation. The Chonological Foundation’s origins came from a military cult which distorted the original message- a call for help made into belief that the universe could be kept from melting away by decreasing the cosmic complexity and ensuring everyone believed the universe was about to melt. It had to be done, or else all galactic civilization would become a slushy liquid to be slurped away by some sentient clouds.

The Chronological Foundation’s early military period quickly developed into a more civilian organization whose chapters grew in numerous parts of the galaxy, with ebbs and flows as to the progress on dealing with the galaxy about to melt. The melting was seen everywhere by the Chromatists, who depicted the melting as a slurry, fluid rainbow flooding the cosmos imploding star after star, eating away at all the worlds of the galaxy littered in the metallic remains of von neumann probes and the military machines of the last wars, from which the devouring clouds would come to existence from the fumes.

((And from there, I’ll need collaboration))

Starmap Information

A bluish color please, with a small circle denoting the location of the cyan soul (randomize it).

Galactic Location
The left part of the galaxy between the UAC and the Amucians.

Major Holdings

The System of Deterrence

A multiple star system which has a multitude of habitable, titan-like worlds notorious for the fact every world state here has stock piled numerous missile systems they aim at each other at all times, each world state is self-isolating and believes the others seek to expand while also believing they should expand. Tensions in this system has been going on for a century, but could escalate into a system-wide conflict at any moment according to the locals. This system of Deterrence is most notable for having the largest amount of military in any single star system, the cold war here having only been made worse with Foundation meddling in the region.

The Vibrancy

The Vibrancy is a swarm of orbital habitats made by the Modulus in Coalition territory, notable for being harassed regularly by the others in this region of space. The Orbital habitats are synced to make a multitude of patterns reprenting the flow of labor in all forms of green and, sapphire blue and crimson. The Vibrancy is a melting pot with the descendants of Nerkin recruits having taken up the foam themselves to labor to the vision of the Architects Council. The Nerkin have even manage to get a couple of their own as part of the Council. The Vibrancy, while in many regards an art project, has also come to double as shelter and a defense system for those who live there over the multiple generations (120 years) the structure has been under construction.

The Cyan System

A multiple star system, with an O-class star as the dominant star with distant A-class co-orbiting stars in the distance. This system has very few planets, due to being so cosmically young that there's only the dust and a couple rapidly formed gas giants. Still, this was enough for the Chronological Foundation to make its base around one of the grey-white gas giants as the site which they listen the Cyan Soul and have votes on how to proceed in basically every policy- be it the color that should be used at the next ritual or whether or not to go fund terrorist organizations in other parts of the galaxy.


The Locus

The Locus acts as a center of many hyperspace tunnels between multiple societies and is the main control factor the Chronological Foundation has over Glinnvyr space and whatnot. It is also a pathetic, loose and often mocked symbol of suppossed "glinnvyr unity"- a concept very few take seriously anymore, but is cynically expressed in hopes of getting enough dupes to whatever imperialistic forces of the time want. This Locus is a terminus of Glinnvyr Activity and has seen its fair share of conflicts and wars, much to the disdain of the Modulus contractors the Empire of Foam had contracted.

The Foamiest World

The Foamiest World is where the five autocrats live, on a icy world with five continents which host huge installations for bureacracy and filled with foam and foam contorlled automata to the brim, of which only the autocrats can manipulate. The Foamiest World is protected by various Glinnvyr renter-protectors as well, basically a volunteer Guard who help the Autocrats with their agenda and act as a personal guard since they bought into the ideal of Foam Supremacy or are trying to vye for one of the Autocrat's positions.




Demographics

The Glinnvyr

The premier species of the Chromatists, made by the Glinnvyr who run practically everything, the minority species being there but not running anything- the Glinnvyr are not ones to trust other species with running things seeing how they ran their own societies in other parts of the galaxy.




Society
The Foundation as an organization is known primarily for a wide range of rituals which they carry out in the belief that it delays the melting, often to great mockery, but still a significant amount of Glinnvyr have come to believe in the melting on their own terms making life harder for the many polities of the Realm, especially the two major powers.
The Foundation, while the dominant force must deal with the interplay between two other rival powers which have emerged since, mainly the Modulus and the Empire of Foam who have significant influence form the Foundation, but generally behave as wholly independent actors in their own petty conflicts with other Glinnvyr of the realm or with other species in other parts of the galaxy.

The Modulus is a coalition of many worlds who share common resources and are in general, a deeply socialistic multi-species cooperative unified by the various projects the Architects Council push forward. The Modulus has a widespread influence and has gone out of its way to build its structures really wherever they believe would be best, to the expense of whoever’s territory they are building in. They’re not actual expansionists, but their colonization pattern is notoriously spread out far beyond the realm with hyperspace conduits linking around to various structures they have built.

They don’t have many systems, just seven total, but each of their systems are very heavily developed or still being built on. The Foundation has used this to their advantage in trying to spread the fundamental truth of the melting much to the dismay of the Architects. Their projects often become living spaces and military installations simply because it takes so long to make them that the workers come to live in the structures, have kids and over a several generations start calling the bizarre structures home. This happened every time. The Modulus has a considerably higher population density than most of the general realm.

The Empire of Foam meanwhile is an empire ran by a pentarchy of rulers who control the different aspects of society and would rather everyone be ruled by them, though they are checked by multiple military alliances and so never really make much ground. The Empire of Foam is explicitly imperialist and is called such due to the nanofoam which they liberally use in everything. It is like wearing tons of tiny little computers in an almost utility fog-like niche.

The Foundation holds a considerable degree of influence in both societies, with many regional leaders in the Empire of Foam deferring to the tribune more than the pentarchy at times and the exploitation of the infrastructure the Modulus spent over a thousand years building up.

The world states tend to be federal societies with low stratification and low populations- the Glinnvyr like their personal space and tend to own large amounts of personal land on a world-state. The Glinnvyr tend to have intersecting land claims, but they usually don’t dispute them and often may just give intersecting land to a larval Glinnvyr. The Glinnvyr culturally are very tacit by nature and usually view movements as much more important than speech. They have copious amounts of archived information and such, along with media systems based more around physical sensation than on visual sensation. The Glinnvyr tend to live in their own little worlds, each Glinnvyr an island is the general attitude, even if in practice they act as groups on a regular basis and did so even more so before they could have machines do all the shit work for them.

The Glinnvyr tend to colonize icy worlds, which are in the vogue in the universe and terraforming an icy world to be more like their home world is not terribly difficult, just a matter of nudging and patience. Hotter parts of star systems they are usually fine with other aliens having, but do often like to mine for materials lacking in the outer system.

The Pasis colonize similar worlds to the Glinnvyr while the Whandl colonize small desert worlds closer to the center of the star system. They often will share star systems and one of the reasons for this is because it was commonly agreed upon that you can’t claim ownership on a star system, only planets and moons. Thus, you end up with many star systems with guns aimed at each other all the time which only occasionally end up in interplanetary skirmishes. The Modulus is a huge exception to this as is the Empire of Foam, of whom tend to try integrating the species to varied levels of success.

The Chronological Foundation, the leviathan in the room tends to exert its presence through cult chapters who are notorious for flooding the media with their messages from the Cyan Soul and carrying out coups in places they view as making the universe melt faster (which has no consistent definition, you just are expected to know that. This tends to translate to being whatever the tribune or cyan soul does not like).

The Cyan Soul itself has no ability to influence anything beyond the star itself, speaking to whoever can hear it. Whatever the hell is in it, no one has a clue. How to get it out, no one has a clue. If anything, some Glinnvyr seem to want in the star and lots of life has been sent to the better place as reward for their services, which translates to a trip to the Cyan Soul’s conduit star.

Government
The association that makes up the Chronological Foundation consists of a loose, informal representative tribune which makes decisions by plurality and deals with potential conflict through a corpus of ancient laws from various world states, which is important as different world states have different means of resolution and keeping track of all this is one of the major elements of Foundation bureaucracy and why they are so tolerated by various world states despite their theocratic nature.

Communicating with the Cyan Soul itself is a long process, though messages from the Cyan Soul are common enough that they can be verified and sent out to all the chapters of the Foundation. There is no formal ruler as they see these as a common initiative and generally try deferring to the Cyan Soul for what their agenda should be. In effect the Cyan Soul’s interpreters in practice hold the keys to power as they come to a census of what the Cyan Soul is saying- other listeners have translated the Cyan Soul as well, but their interpretations are usually considered less valid. Usually, much to the horror of the tribunes who do not want disunity on a mission to save the universe.

Ritual action is common whenever the tribunes and interpreters convene, usually in the form of sending a primitive alien specie’s members to the better universe as per the Cyan Soul’s demands and through various silent dances.

The lower levels of the Chronological Foundation are a mish mash of political entities and cults who act like they work together when they really do not and active effects expanding chapters to other societies has hit many snags. Even when the messages are displayed many individuals or collectives from other civilizations of a similar degree of advancement are unconvinced. So often they opt to find more primitive alien societies to influence who are more apt to believe them as unlike the others, they are clear minded enough to understand the universe is about to melt.

Still, targeting the poor of other societies with their cults has produced one positive result- the destabilizing of the target society. Such destabilizing is viewed as useful by quite a few in the Tribute, cynically to weaken potential rivals and more optimistically to slow down the universe from melting by funding terrorist groups who will reduce the complexity of interstellar civilization across the board.



Technology Overview

This tech overview will concern itself with the general set of technology one can expect from the Glinnvyr and everything within the general realm of the Glinnvyr.

Much of the technology the Glinnvyr are made from the combined product of the various world-states and societies which have come and gone in the times past. Over time, progressively more exotic technologies began to appear as energy transfer became an art for the engineers of this realm. Being able to transmute, sap, project and extract energy using all matter of methods is a critical skill set many Glinnvyr technicians learn of.

Major Techs










Industry

(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)


Military Overview
(Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)

Space Forces

(Describe your space fleets in more detail. You can also list your important ship and other unit types but nobody is forcing you. But keep in mind, no Death Stars!)
Navy Doctrine: How does your navy operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s navy? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as fleet-in-being.
Ground Forces
(Describe your ground forces, too. This is especially important in this RP since ground/planetary combat will enjoy a spotlight. So we do suggest you to take extra attention to this section.)

Ground Doctrine: How do your ground forces operate in a general sense? What are the strategies and tactics commonly employed? What design philosophies are used and how are the affected by your country’s strategies. In short: what can we expect to see from your country’s ground forces? Bonus points if you give your doctrine a real name such as human wave.

Credit goes to Willy for actually making the sheet outline for us, and for those of you who don't know, click raw and copy paste the bbcode into docs and type it in that way so it's already formatted when you post it in guild! Thank you.

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As it is made obvious even by its name (in the Ekhrlithur language, used as an official lingua franca, “Yrrkeltharl” is a locative meaning “of [the sector/region of] Yrrkelthar), the Coalition is best defined as not so much a nation as a loose confederation of the inhabitants of the section of space it occupies. While there once existed a central government which presided over what was then a super-state formed by the fusion of the three local powers, its planets and systems are now the laboratories and playgrounds of its most outstanding scientific minds, who, aside from a few general guidelines and an obligation to support the collective military forces with tributes, enjoy access to vast resources and free rein in working with them.

With such a system in place, it should not be surprising that Coalition space should be a chaotic and almost frighteningly surreal place. The husks of consumed worlds can be found orbiting stars encased in energy absorption frameworks, near planets blighted by experimental weapons or razed by the formidable drone armies stationed there. Worse yet, whoever finds themselves dealing with it will have to endure the eccentric nature and usually poor coordination of its inhabitants, which might lead to strange situations involving guarantees of non-aggression being immediately followed by planetary invasion.














- The Ulvarith System: Home system of the Ekhrilthur, and the official capital of the Coalition. While once it was the seat of the highest power in the region, nowadays it maintains its former superiority only in one field - that of industrial production. Ever since the Ekhrilthur first crossed space, they began laying the foundations for the great Ulvarith machine. It grew bit by bit, component by component, secondary megastructure by megastructure, until it reached its current condition: almost a single, immeasurably vast complex, uniting the function of material gathering, elaboration and construction. Ulvarith is the heart and pride of the Coalition, and the primary source of its vast drone armies.

- Skereth: Homeworld of the Skirol and, to this day, holder of the record for the greatest natural biodiversity in Yrrkeltharl space. Skirol Cycle-Weavers are to this day uncertain of whether they have encountered and catalogued every single species living on the planet, and there is scarce an inch of its surface that is not teeming with pluricellular as well as simple creatures, to say nothing of the lakes and oceans. Something all the seekers of Equilibrium agree on is that Skereth is virtually sacred, and thus none but a select few Trezklin, formed of the most illustrious Skirol to be found in the Coalition, are allowed to reside on its surface. Any who so much as visit it, drawn by the fame of its bio-pod laboratories and spawning pits, must undergo preemptive sterilization procedures, and, of course, never stray from the designated paths, lest they be seized by one of the planet’s many strange predators.

- Iurthelath: While typical Plasmators never remain in office for more than, at the very utmost, fifty standard years, not in the least because of lifespan limitations, the rulers of Iurthelath are a very notable exception. It is the only recorded case in Coalition history in which the title of Plasmator has been officially claimed not by an individual, but a group of researchers. The Iurthelathl Combine, as they are known, have remained in their position almost since it first appeared, and some suspect they simply found a loophole in the newly established rules. However this may stand, the Combine is an exceptionally diverse group, even including some N’vall, and its ever-evolving military designs are highly prized by Nodule controllers and fabricators alike. Less so by the inhabitants of the system, who, despite the official rules, constantly fear lest they be accidentally obliterated by the latest prototype.

- Nodule Nl-03: While political and military power alike is mostly more or less evenly distributed among the Nodules, with some variations due to the population and resource yield of given sectors, Nl-03 greatly outclasses it fellows. The reason for this is that it is perhaps the closest the modern Coalition has to a true Nucleus; a staging point for the forces of several outer sectors, and a few of the core ones as well. This degree of centralisation, previously unheard of in Yrrkelthar, has been forced upon it by the onslaught of the Daisan, and the speed with which it was put into practice is laudable by any standards. In less than three years, the previously scattered armies of the northern systems have been assembled here, ready to be deployed wherever the invaders might show themselves - though the strategic closeness of Nl-03 to the Imperial border has been a source of some perplexity.

- Mlan’entel E’thuur (lit. “The Fleet Lastborn”): N’vall wandering fleets are an impressive sight, hundreds, if not thousands, of large vessels of alien design glimmering through the void with the manifold eyes of their incomprehensible lights. Few of them, however, can rival the Mlan’entel E’thuur, “last” (which, in N’vall culture, is the most honourable position) of all. Its size is such that, were it not for the distinctly green light it radiates, it would often be mistaken for a nebula, and the power wielded by its outlandish armaments is such to have given pause even to the united fleet that stopped the Daisan advance. It is said that the mightiest of the I’nler reside on it, and that it occasionally seeks out the other N’vall congregations to conduct unnamed transactions; and none may guess where it is at any given moment.

- Vollnetlleayrrkeltharl (lit. “Dead space of Yrrkelthar”): While any starmap will make the Coalition appear rather impressive in terms of controlled territory, the truth is that very little of it beyond the core regions is inhabited. Most of it is vollnetlle - empty and lifeless. Graveyards of desolate planets float dimly between uncharted nebulae, and nameless stars burn out their course without having ever been perceived by living organs. Yet this does not mean that this space is quiet, and, worst of all, not put to use. Fleets of drone ships patrol it without cease, and uncountable myriads of machines restlessly work to strip the uninhabited worlds of as many resources as possible. The fate that befalls others is worse yet: failed experiments are left on them and left to rot, or, which is worse, multiply; they are transformed into vile, infernal “death worlds” by the destructive mechanical armies stationed there; or, most fearsome of all, are used as testing targets for new methods of planetary destruction and hostile terraforming. The expanses within and between systems are clogged by debris or exhausted weapons, and so much as venturing into these regions is a deadly risk.







Ekhrilthur:


These fungal creatures, hailing from a largely barren and inhospitable, but mineral-rich planet, have a long history of struggling with hostile environments, which, combined with their lengthy gestation period, frequently threatened to thin their numbers almost to the point of extinction. Consequently, there remains in them an atavistic aversion to being exposed to physical danger, and a proportional willingness to decrease the chance of such an occurrence as far as possible. As their soft, malleable pseudopods, which can, in various circumstances, exert a firm grip or perform fine manipulations, render them naturally suited for occupations wherein such flexibility can be vital, Ekhrilthur industry is the Coalition’s finest in terms of mechanical implements and technological advancement, its wares widely available on any inhabited world. Despite this, the Ekhrilthur themselves are seldom seen outside the core regions, preferring to remain in the safety of their territories, despite the latter often amounting to little more than planet-spanning factories and mining facilities.

Their homeworld is especially notable for the vast, continent-spanning subterranean cavernous formations, wherein most of its life-form population evolved. As a consequence of developing in an atypically dark and humid environment, the Ekhrilthur are particularly susceptible to light and dry climates, causing them to be seldom seen in the open, or indeed at all, on worlds close to a their orbital star; conversely, they appear to thrive on those near a system's rim. These beings appear as rough spheroids composed of grey gelatinous matter, moving and manipulating objects by the means of a variable number of malleable pseudopods which can, when necessary, exude a viscous substance.

Skirol:


The inquisitive Skirol developed in a rich and complex ecosystem, the entirety of which they still suspect they have not yet quite understood. Such a wealth of life never ceased to fascinate a great many of them, and, ever since the dawn of their civilisation, lead them to wonder how marvellous the world of organic forms might be if it were guided by a wise, calculating intellect - such as their own. Since the Skirol seldom hesitate before passing from words to action, there scarce can be found a life-form in Coalition space which they have not experimented upon, and the products of their biological engineering are slowly yet steadily making their way toward wholesale employment in the civilian sector as well as the military. Skirol are a rather common sight throughout the Coalition, especially about the fringe, where exploration expeditions are occasionally undertaken.

The Skirol are odd creatures exhibiting both arthropodal and molluscoid physiological traits, as well as certain others whose analogues have not been encountered in any other known animal. They visually resemble some form of arachnid or crustacean, encased in black segmented exoskeletons and possessing tentacular appendages extending from the frontal section of their heads.

N’vall:


Cryptic beings that appeared from unknown recesses of the galaxy during the Yrrkeltharl War, and have since become a constituent member of the Coalition, despite refusing to settle on any planet or stationary superstructure and living exclusively on their ships. Comparatively little is known about the N’vall, but something that is certain is that they are members, perhaps the last, of a species that sought to attain physical perfection. Having long abandoned natural procreation in favour of the precisely controlled artificial procedures enabled by their significant level of technological advancement, N’vall are “born” from a genetic fusion encoded into biomass growing around a metallic endoskeleton. Some of them possess strong psionic abilities, but it has not yet been determined what factors cause their development.

If seen in their customary garments, the N’vall might appear to a casual observer to be almost humanoid. However, their true anatomy is neither such nor even bipedal. They possess four arms, two of which usually remain folded under their cloaks, and lack any sort of hind limbs, instead relying on magnetic propulsors and somewhat arthropod-like mechanical prosthetics, and, should those fail, their own robust muscles, to move in a hovering or crawling fashion. N’vall hands have four digits, one of which appear opposable, but can be bent or rotated sideways with ease to provide a grip upon objects.



Despite centuries of cohabitation, the three species of the Coalition have, over time, remained rather distinct in their social and cultural domains. Mingling has, to this day, remained limited to a macroscopic scale, since even when Ekhrilthur and Skirol share a planet, their environmental requirements and preferences drive them to settle separate locations. Nonetheless, time and regular trade have smoothed out any hostilities between them (a factor contributing to a comparatively rapid construction of peaceful relations was that, due to their biology and consequent social structures, none of the Yrrkeltharl inhabitants are familiar with the concept of trans-generational guilt). Overall, the Coalition’s society is, though as diverse as its geography, rather firmly unified, even though a casual observer might not see any immediate traces of unity proper in it.

The Ekhrilthur, being strongly inclined towards individualistic and materialistic attitudes, as well as possessing almost irrationally strong latent self-preservation instincts, mostly live in utilitarian, unsightly yet functional urban centers, large parts of which reach deep underground. Roads, streetways and passages between buildings take on the form of enclosed tunnels, making the cities fully self-contained pockets of space with only a scarce few entryways and aeration openings connecting them to the outside. Personal dwellings are typically small, narrow insulated capsules, with little, if any, decorations - indeed, in contemporary times ornaments are considered distasteful, and how pristine a home is is a clear sign of the owner’s status - and few visible furnishings. Common pastimes include electronic sensory stimulation, with chemical or biological drugs being rare, and mechanical design aided by small personal assembling devices.

Ekhrilthur society is the basis for the Coalition’s own technocratic system. With the all-pervasiveness of safety system in everyday life, technicians and engineers are the ones who hold the effectively greatest responsibilities, and consequently authority, among them, their influence rivalled only by that of the military (which, being entirely automated, is controlled by technicians itself). Ranks and standing are determined by skill and merit, with examinations and probation periods being required to pass from one of the standardised “levels” to the other. Egoism is not only sanctioned, but indirectly encouraged in these meritocratic communities. While small-scale corruption is not uncommon, nepotism is not practiced by the Ekhrilthur, as they reproduce by sporogenesis and do not entertain family ties.

It might be odd to hear that the notoriously materialistic Ekhrilthur are not only open to religion, but have even produced a faith of their own. In fact, the Creed of the Ultimate Truth is not so much a religious confession as a philosophical stance. In simple terms, those who subscribe to it believe that there is, concealed somewhere in the cosmos, a notion that, if discovered, would explain all uncertainties there exist on the nature and origin of the universe. The innumerable interpretations of this basic axiom have birthed almost as many schools of thought within the Creed, which incessantly contend themselves through discussions and debates.

Skirol, on the other hand, are strongly communal. They congregate in groups known as Trezklin, which can be loosely translated as “Swarm” or “Blight”, numbering anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand individuals, and only a rare few eccentrics are known to live in comparative isolation. The Trezklin is the foundation of the average Skirol’s life, providing at once a family, working environment and circle of friends, or “hunting-mates”. The internal hierarchy of these communities is, while mostly similar across the general Coalition-wide population, so bizarre and intricate as to be largely incomprehensible to outsiders. As far as anyone can tell, one’s authority is accrued proportionally with age, but even then it is in no way uncommon to have younger members significantly outrank older ones.

Trezklin are, as a rule, stationed in the wild, be it flatlands countryside, forests and jungles, swamps, mountain ranges, archipelagos or even shallow bodies of water if their members are augmented to survive in it. Some are nomadic, but the majority remain in the territories where they were originally founded. Skirol habitations, commonly named bio-pods, are semi-organic constructions incorporating one or more non-sentient living membranes draped over a synthetic structure, providing the advantage of a heat-preserving barrier that can be regulated in its various aspects. The standard bio-pod is a large, if sleek, edifice, either housing numerous inhabitants or containing some facility or the other; individual ones are uncommon and reserved for notable persons.

Similarly to the Ekhrilthur, Skirol do not have true religions, but rather philosophical ideologies. The overwhelmingly prevalent one is that of the Cyclic Equilibrium, whose broadly-worded mandate is to find and spread balance to all life. The interrogative of what exactly this balance is has perhaps as many answers as there are planets inhabited by Skirol. Some believe that this means all life-forms should be equal, and modify themselves in entire Trezklin to fit an “universal” biological template; others, on the contrary, see it as an exhortation to increase diversity, and surround themselves with all sorts of strange creatures; others yet think that only some select life-forms should be allowed to exist, and the others be either altered or eliminated. Whatever interpretation they may follow, the Skirol are usually drawn to active experimentation, and do not waste time before putting their views into practice.

Of the N’vall, not much is known. Without exception, they keep to their ships, never setting foot (even figuratively, given their ability to move by hovering above the ground) on any planet or structure not built by themselves and refusing entry aboard their vessels to all but high-standing Coalition officials and scientists. Communications with them are usually carried out by transmitter, or through their slave proxies. What little has filtered down indicates that the entirety of their fleets is ruled by a hierarchy of the psionically endowed, known as I’nler’attul, or I’nler (roughly translatable as “they who dominate/shape” and “dominating/shaping [ones]”), and that they have not relinquished their forebears’ quest of attaining perfection. Though they themselves acknowledge they have not yet reached that stage, they nonetheless see themselves as superior to other beings, and make no effort to conceal it.



With the decline of the power of the Nucleus, two main influences swiftly rose to replace the mighty central authority, as they had been preparing to do for a rather long time - the scientific community network and the military controllers, which is little more than a formal subsection of the former. With defense and ease of force deployment being one of the local authorities’ main tasks, the military immediately established a strong hold on them, eventually growing to fill them altogether. While the Nucleus still participates in the administration of the core regions, it is now quite clearly of secondary importance.

That said, despite controlling the highly strategically important local centers of governance, known as Nodules, the armed forces to not take active part in the governance of systems and sectors. Instead, they limit themselves to enforcing peace, watching the borders and appointing planetary or system governors, called Plasmators. Tying back to the original extremity of the influence shift, Plasmators are chosen from noteworthy scientists and researchers. Their administrative duties are purely nominal, as planets have their own organs of government, the selection and maintenance of which, while vaguely following a standard structure (designed prevalently with the objective of making them as unobtrusive into the Plasmators’ work as possible) is mostly left to the populace. Rather, what their appointment means is that they and their supporting staff have free rein to employ their territory’s space and resources as their work and experiments require it. There are but a few major rules they must abide by lest the Nodules intervene, and the period of allotment is flexible enough.

While the N’vall are technically subject to the global laws of the Coalition, the fact that the latter are so few and loose leaves them significant freedom of action. Their fleets are free to wander about as they please, any empty system, as long as it is not hosting some Plasmator’s experiments, is open for them to exploit as necessary, and the Nodules do not interfere with the rule of the I’nler. Nonetheless, in times of war with an external enemy, they, as well as the rest of the Coalition, are bound to contribute a share of their forces for the common effort - something which they have thus far never disagreed with.





It might at first appear that, much like its society, the Coalition’s work and accomplishments in the technological field are divided following the species of those who work on them - after all, many practices are to this day still exclusive to their respective inventors. However, upon a somewhat closer examination, it becomes clear that technology has intermingled far more than its creators. Hybrid designs are perfectly commonplace, and Skirol and N’vall energy sources have long since supplanted anything else in use. An explanation for this can be found in the nature of the contact between the Coalition’s members: while trade and commerce are slow in conducting cultural exchanges, scientific and technological ones flow much faster.

Nevertheless, a noticeable degree of historical specialisation does remain. Ekhrilthur technology is chiefly oriented towards mechanics and engineering, and about two hundred years ago has begun foraying into nanotechnology. It is notable, though, that virtual programming has never been their strong point: while they have been able to create some highly complex virtual constructs, the latter are mostly linear in their concept and functioning and lack much potential beyond the minimal necessary versatility. Ekhrilthur components are widely used in Skirol semi-organic constructs, and are occasionally sought after as mechanical prosthetics.

The Skirol are best known for their biological and genetic manipulations. Over the centuries, the number of species created by them through selection, hybridisation, genetic fusion or simply direct grafting has likely grown to exceed that of life-forms naturally found in Yrrkelthar. Ghastly though their amalgams might appear, it is undisputed that they are immensely useful in sectors ranging from medicine and agriculture to spacefaring and, of course, the armed forces. Among other things, the Skirol are responsible for the invention of two of the tools most famed within the Coalition and infamous without - bacterial tubes and engineered plagues. Body augmentations, practical or merely cosmetic, are likewise a common application of their arts.

Most arcane and relatively advanced of all, N’vall technology could appear to hail from another galaxy altogether. The principles it operates upon are either new but irrefutable, or known but having long been deemed unsuited for practical application. Theirs are the traction-core system, used either for highly efficient energy production or the construction of such fearsome weapons as vacuum rippers or gravity mauls, the secrets of neural melding, which subjugates those subjected to it to the will of the I’nler, magnetic levitation and the cloning of vat-grown biomass. The N’vall are likewise responsible for introducing the hyperspace drive into Yrrkelthar.



















The power of the Coalition, scientific and military alike, is entirely founded on the strength of its industry. Planets and asteroids are torn open every day to feed the insatiable metallic monster, and many thousands of varyingly automated factories regurgitate tools, wares, instruments, equipment, but most of all ships, drones and frames for semi-organic constructs. The vollnetlle is littered with their hideous forms, but they likewise abound in the core regions, and Ekhrilthur space in particular. Indeed, the Ulvarith system-complex, a mass of interconnected megastructures fully dedicated to pounding metal into uniform shapes, is the species’s pride, and many worlds inhabited by the fungi show signs of efforts to emulate this great work on great and small scales alike.





The most notable feature of the Coalition military is that no member of the three constituent species ever takes to the field in person. All of its forces are composed of remotely controlled constructs, with the sole exception of Skirol and N’vall ships, which, however, are rather rare. No creature, be it living or mechanical, in its ranks is fully autonomous, since the Yrrkeltharl species are as distrustful of anything they cannot directly command as they are unwilling to descend into battle. This reliance on its creations rather than its population itself, and thus industry rather than reproduction, often grants the Coalition an immense numerical advantage. While its troops might be unwieldy and slow on the move, they are so many that enemy armies, whatever they might be, may easily find themselves dwarfed, and the foul contamination they spread as they advance further tips the scales of attrition in their favour.



Navy Doctrine: Sometimes called “pillar drill” after an ancient Ekhrilthur siege engine, the Coalition war fleets’ typical approach to battle seeks to make best use of the strengths of each of its vessel types. The innumerable lesser and medium Ekhrilthur drone craft seek to pin enemy fleets in place by surrounding them from all sides, hurling themselves forward with weapons blazing regardless of any damage or losses they might suffer. Once the foe is thus encircled, the “drill” proper, formed by heavy drone ships alongside the titanic Skirol semi-organic vessels and the powerful N’vall auxiliaries, advance upon it, releasing new waves of strikecraft and firing fearsome weapons such as vacuum rippers, giant unmakers and spinal beam projectors. With nowhere to turn, the enemy would ideally be at the mercy of this unstoppable force.









Ground Doctrine: While fleet tactics, distinctive though they might be of the Coalition, do not bear much of a mark in the way of its, so to say, flavour, the doctrine followed by its Planetary Invasion Forces appears to take pride in displaying the worst of its destructive and corrupting tendencies. Officially named “Transformative Assimilation”, it consists in radically altering the terrain and environment around its immense armies of metal and biomass via the use of hostile terraforming. In addition to being necessary for the troops to operate at full effectiveness, as they are expressly built to do battle in such hellish conditions, it corrodes and weakens any resistance the enemy might offer, so that it might easily be swept away by the unwavering advance of the soulless tide.

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The Interstellar Union of Collectives is a relatively new nation, having risen from less fortunate circumstances to become a veritable power in the region. Although a naturally individualistic species they have become collectivist in their political and ideological thought, almost entirely unaccepting of foreign political ideas. The Union is a partially hidden society, although there is no real attempt to close their society to foreign peoples, they are not opening it to them either.











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Anti-Psionic technology: Since the ‘Ysh’ do not have any Psionic abilities, and large segments of the population seem to have large amount of weakness and aversion to it, the ‘Ysh’ have put effort into and successfully developed technology to limit and stop Psionic powers, as well as detecting their use. This has sometimes said to be painful for some Psions, however, the ‘Ysh’ are very enthusiastic in its use.

Bomb-Pumped Grasers: Unable to generate gamma ray lasers using more conventional methods a weapon designed for much shorter ranges than other energy weapons Union Bomb-Pumped Grasers are normally mounted either as payloads of torpedoes or in a few specially designed craft utilizing a nuclear device and a chamber to direct gamma rays as a coherent beam towards a target. Significant control issues have limited their range as well as deployment.

Gravitic Sublight Drive: The only mentionable Union sublight drive system, it provides reasonable acceleration and max speed on vessels however it's primary advantage is its ability to allow vessels to quickly change the orientation of their craft.

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Official Name: Confederation of the Corpis Sector States (CCSS)
Common Name: Corpis Confederation
Government: Federal Direct Democracy
Dominant Species: Humans
Capital: Arcem
Systems Owned: 24 (11 inhabited)
Planets Owned: 13 inhabited
Population: 34 billion





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The societal situation of the Confederation is a somewhat complex issue. Much like the Aurolian Federation, the much larger Human state bordering the Confederation, the culture and practices of people often vary between not only worlds, but regions.

But one thing stands above all. The notion known that all are created equal, a utmost belief of egalitarianism and liberty. Individual thought and the dream of something ahead always is what drives the Confederation’s society forward.

The economic situation of the Confederation is extremely sound. With minimal internal dissent, extensive worker’s compensation, and an abundance of agricultural, manufacturing, military, and desk jobs, most civilians are placed in the middle class territory, with an ability to improve their situation by diligence.

The Confederation forms a direct democracy in which every citizen is entitled to a vote for the President, Vice President, and Parliamentary Representatives. While the Confederation was once a Federal Republic, the nuisance that once was the electoral system was abolished due to the sufficient ability to take accurate censuses every few years, the common access to sufficient election information by citizenry, and the ability for the citizenry to annually make it to polling locations.

Composing of the government itself firstly is the branch which is executive. Named as the Cabinet of the President, it is headed by the Head of State & Government, the President, with his deputy, the Vice President. Under them is a long slew of advisors and department heads which micromanage every aspect of Cabinet activities.

Next is the legislative branch, with power vested to draft and pass laws. Formed as a parliament, it is composed of a single house. This house, sometimes called the Senate, is comprised of 39 representatives/senators, with 3 representatives for every established planet in the Confederation. These representatives are voted in by waves, though this only happens once every four years, coinciding with the election of the President and Vice President. On these election years, a representative is elected every four months. Each cycle allows candidates (and the incumbent, provided they haven’t reached their term limit) four months to campaign, and the votes are collected over a two-day period.

Lastly is the Federal Court. Presided by seven justices, each appointed by the President and approved by the Parliament, this body interprets all laws as per the Corpis Sector Charter, which governs all Confederation territory. Under this Federal Court is a series of planetary judicial districts, which are located on each planet under their own branches and divided equally between provinces.



While neither the most advanced, the Confederation is definitely not the most primitive. While only having been with slipspace travel for 63 years now, the other aspects of technology within the Confederation were quite advanced.

In the military field, mass accelerators have been mastered. Caseless ammunition has been refined and is now the primary ammunition type of most military and security institutions. Medical advances allow for basic cloning and the ability to effectively combat previously terminal illnesses such as cancer. Construction advances allow for ‘supertowers’ which house entire communities in a single building, with entire sections being dedicated to housing, shops, offices, schools, and recreational areas.




The industrial capability of the Confederation is quite adequate for its size. While primarily dedicated to civilian applications due to the last two decades of relative peace, the massive presence of manufacturing creates a plethora of jobs for a sizeable portion of the Confederation’s citizens.



As a rather sizeable force with the primary objective of defending the Confederation from enemies both foreign and domestic, the Confederation Armed Forces exist as a deterrent. Though small, mainly due to the limited size of the Confederation itself, this force allows a great deal of power projection backed by effective tactics and troops.







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Though it currently remains a mystery as to whether or not the Daisan Order is wholly synthetic behind their Droid armies, they would not be the first non-organic life to inhabit the Galaxy; that honor possibly goes to the Crodvan Unity, a stellar empire of synthetic lifeforms that live off the principles of industrial progress and efficient design. Having abruptly ceased their colonization efforts after a period of rapid expansion outwards from their capital planet of Ratvar, the Crodvan are reclusive isolationists that seek to build an efficient, machine-like state that's coming off the heels of their unknown creators.

Official Name: Crodvan Unity
Common Name: The Crodvan, The Unity
Government: Totalitarian Oligarchy
Dominant Species: Crodvan
Capital: Ratvar, Yagrozsch System
Systems Owned: ~200
Planets Owned: Unspecified.
Population: Also unspecified and meaningless. Could be over 700 billion.






The Unity is situated on the eastern side of the region, resting just underneath the cluster of nations that include the Federation and the Empire. It's worth noting that the Crodvan Unity does not share any official borders with any other political entity on the eastern side. This is because of the significant band of empty space surrounding the Unity and separating itself from the region. Though there hasn't been any indication of this empty space somehow being an extension of the Unity's influence, it is known that the Unity maintains a constant closed-border policy. The eerie patrol fleets of the Ynj Snpgv'ba will pursue unauthorized foreign vessels with extreme prejudice.










The Unity is only populated by a single "race" -- the Crodvan. However, the Crodvan race and it's Unity is structured in such a way that each Caste (and sometimes a sub-caste) has a specific design for the Crodvan working within it. This results in Crodvan coming in many different shapes and sizes, constructed with a specific purpose. One could argue that Worker Crodvan, Martial Crodvan, and Government Crodvan are all different "sub-races" due to the disparity of their appearances and behavior.

The population is split between three major castes -- the Worker, Martial and Government castes. The population within each individual caste is then further divided into a number of unique sub-castes -- Miners, Army, Researchers, ect.

The current caste/sub-caste demographic looks something like this. With how population control in the Unity function, these percentages remain constant as the total population of the Unity shifts.

Jbexvat Crbcyr (Worker Caste) - 50% of total population.


Svtugv'at Crbcyr (Martial Caste) - 40% of total population.


Gu'axvat Crbcyr (Government Caste) - 10% of total population.



Crodvan society is, as shown above, dogmatic and mechanical in it's design. They live in a strict caste-based society that is built around purpose. The Crodvan are ruled by the philosophy of the Great Clockwork -- every aspect of themselves and the Unity that they reside in mimics the idea of forming the most orderly state.

Crodvan do not have a traditional sense of family, due to how they reproduce. Instead, the Yretchzan and Great Clockwork imply that all Crodvan are like siblings to one another. Crodvan live their lives knowing that they were created and made to serve a purpose within the Great Clockwork. By looking upon the bigger picture and realizing that they play a role in promoting the common good for all Crodvan, even the most pitiful Crodvan worker will think that they make the difference. This is peculiar, though -- why aren't the lower Crodvan just mindless drones? What sets Crodvan apart from the organic understanding of synthetic society is that the Crodvan preserve some sense of individuality. When a Crodvan is created, it is acknowledged among even the most loyalist of Animavat Crodvan that there is the presence of the "ghost in the machine". A Crodvan will naturally develop their own personality and consciousness -- they will feel emotions, they will have ambitions, dreams and the capacity to think and reason. This is the unique gift that the Crodvan believe was bestowed upon them by the Creators. Though there has been talk in the past of limiting the Anima Core capacity in the Worker and Martial castes in order to promote better cohesiveness, this was deemed a violation of the Tenets of Yretchzan, as they state that Crodvan are to be set above the standards of synthetics made by other organics. The Primarchs believed that self-awareness is a quality that sets the Crodvan above the rest.

To be given the gift of thought and then have it taken away. . . it would be blasphemous.

However, the Yretchzan didn't say anything about tooling the Crodvan into serving the collective through propaganda and dogmatic teachings. This is how the Great Clockwork plays into Crodvan society, and why it is so important to the well-being of the Unity.

The extent of the Crodvan caste system and the caste hierarchy will be elaborated in a separate document.



In a shocking turn of events, the Crodvan government is mandated by the Government Caste, which includes a number of sub-castes that deal with research and development, planetary government, foreign policy, and law enforcement. At the top of the Government Caste, and by extension all individuals within the Unity stands the Primarch Consensus. The Consensus is an oligarchical board of five Primarchs, with the responsibility to make large-scale decisions and ultimately direct the national focus of the Crodvan Unity. A Primarch-type Crodvan is unique in almost every way -- they possess the most individual behavior of all Crodvan and, due to the being the ultimate power among the Crodvan, lack any instinctual obedience. They have no one to answer to besides themselves. Primarchs are not created in the same manner as other Crodvan -- a maximum of five Primarchs can be active in the universe at one time. If one Primarch becomes inactive or incapable of executing their responsibility to communicate and lead with it's fellow Primarchs, then by the agreement of all active Primarchs, a new Primarch will be constructed on Ratvar. The construction of a new Primarch is ceremonious, and will see an audience of all other active Primarchs. The new Primarch will be given some time to adjust and accept their role within Crodvan society, before being officially considered at all gatherings of the Primarchs.

The Consensus as a whole holds all executive, legislative and judicial power within the Unity. They interpret the Yretchzan, inscribe new work orders and directives, and use their superiority to ensure that the Clockwork runs without any errant gears. The Yretchzan facilitates a traditional modus operandi for everything and anything within the Unity, allowing lesser government entities to make basic decisions based on how things were always run, without needing the Primarchs to intervene. Developing an existing colony, maintaining current production flow or any routine diplomatic actions don't require the Primarchs to meet. However, if a significant decision must be made (the colonization of a new world, large-scale direction of the martial caste, large-scale production orders, declarations of war, ect), the Primarch Consensus will convene within the Genesis Hall, where they will discuss and decide on what to do.

Put simply, when all resources the Unity has must be directed towards a national focus, the Primarchs will meet.

There are five positions on the Primarch Consensus -- three mandate the three major castes, one mandates foreign policy, and the other mandates internal enforcement and protection of the Yretchzan. These positions don't lend the Primarchs any power within their respective fields, but rather, they represent their field. Power over the castes only manifests when all Primarchs agree on a decision.

For example, the Martial Primarch does not have any power within the Martial Caste or it's chain of command, but rather, it represents the needs of the Caste and is supposed to report military-related data to the Consensus when a meeting is called. When the Consensus wishes to do something relating to the Martial Caste, like declaring war on another nation, the Martial Primarch will have some added significance to it's words during the meeting, due to having data and information that the other Primarchs may not have.

When all Primarchs agree on a decision, the decision will be passed. If it is a significant order, then the order will be relayed throughout the entire Unity through the Hierphant Network. The message will be first passed to all relevant Crodvan that possess the appropriate Command Number, and then that Crodvan will pass down the order to all relevant inferior Crodvan, moving down the appropriate chain of command.

For example, when the Primarch Consensus has agreed to mobilize the Martial Caste towards a nation, all L3 Martial Crodvan will receive the message, across all sub-castes. In this scenario, the Army Sub-Caste L3 Crodvan will then briefly communicate with one another to confirm, and then relay the data to their respective Legions. L2 Crodvan within the Legions will do the same and pass it down to L1s within their Centuries, so on and so forth.

All Crodvan are functionally immortal, but signs of age do manifest on their Anima cores. A Crodvan can constantly be maintained and retrofitted to ensure that it remains in proper working condition, but if the Anima core burns out after this time, then the Crodvan is lost and a new one must be made. This happens to Primarchs, and it happens more often than your average Worker Crodvan.

It's unknown why this happens to Primarchs more frequently. Is it an internal function that prevents Primarch-type Crodvan from remaining active for too long, or is it just the stresses of leadership that cause a Crodvan to break down? Either way, the Consensus is refreshed over the years due to this.


At a glance, the Crodvan don't appear to be very advanced at all despite being synthetic lifeforms. Their appearance and aesthetic hide the true nature of their technological prowess. The Crodvan derive much of their technology from ruins and remnants left behind by their creators. Much of what they have can be easily compared to other nations of equal size and age, but these common technologies have a unique spin that separates them from technologies of organic creation.












When talking traditional industrial prowess, there are few that can answer to the Crodvan Unity. Over 70% planets in the Unity are "forge worlds" or "deep worlds" -- massive, planet-spanning industrial complexes that add on to the industrial prowess of the Unity, or provide a steady supply of mineral resources to all planets within the Unity. Industrial production within the Unity is owned and entirely mandated by the government, whom direct the Worker Caste (over 50% of the entire population) in the event of a mass production order. Otherwise, the Worker Caste follows tried-and-true standard construction templates and advanced industrial algorithms to automatically determine the most efficient route to follow in order to achieve completion of a template. Crodvan workers are tireless and functionally immortal, and live in a society where money and personal agendas are almost non-existent, and they are instinctual inclined to work. Overpopulation and under-population are forcibly manhandled and a complete non-issue. New workers and positions are filled instantly due to an on-demand population. Mining operations have extended to mass strip mining of asteroids in and around Unity space, and have also led to deep core fracking operations of rare-earth materials located around a planet's core. Standard construction templates and steady supply routes allow for multiple forge worlds and deep world colonies to be founded, developed and functional in under a year. During wartime, a fully-equipped Legion of Infantry Crodvan can be churned out in a few months time -- and an entire naval fleet in a year or so -- provided every Forge World has received the production order.

The Great Clockwork turns endlessly, and with every tick, the Engine roars louder.

The Crodvan Unity are dedicated towards their goal to build the Perfect State. To this end, they will stop at nothing to become the industrial power of the galaxy.


Much like their industrial strength, the Crodvan war machine is a terrifying foe to encounter. The Martial Caste stands as the sword, shield, and anti-tank rifle of the Unity, responsible for maintaining tranquility and equilibrium within the Unity's borders and neutralizing any outside forces that may disrupt the Great Clockwork. The Martial Caste is split between two main sub-castes -- the Army and the Navy. These two sub-castes contain the "regular" units of the Crodvan military, representing the Brass Legions and the Brass Armada. The other two sub-castes are the specialist units of the Crodvan military that relate to both planetary war and space warfare -- the Knights and the Marines, respectively. Much of the Crodvan industry is spent towards maintaining a very large, replaceable military that can be easily directed and tempered in the event of war.



Navy Doctrine: Secure and Salvage

Crodvan naval doctrine is heavily based around the concept of ending naval battles as quickly as possible and maintaining the structural integrity of the enemy ship. The goal becomes the hostile capture of enemy vessels rather than destruction, due to the Crodvan neccesity for salvaging resources and fueling the war machine. This doctrine places much emphasis on closing distance and boarding enemy craft. This is accomplished through forcing the enemy fleet into a close range brawl -- thermal cannons are most effective at close range, and cyberwarfare options via the Synth-Plague allow for the rapid disablement of enemy craft, which then lead to the deployment of Crodvan marines. One the marines are in, an empty craft is all that will remain. Defensive tactics are employed on larger Crodvan ship classes in order to maintain integrity as they close distance. Smaller classes are split between defending larger vessels and harassing enemy vessels with the goal to break enemy cohesion and isolate individual ships for boarding.



Ground Doctrine: The Clockwork March

Fighting a ground-war with a Brass Legion of the Unity is almost comparable to fighting against the Daisan, in that they follow the doctrine of a slow, patient assault. The Brass Legions are highly organized units of Crodvan infantry and armored units, and with the perfection of rapid transmission of data, the Legions don't see many surprises when on the battlefield. Because of this, they incorporate elements of shock and awe in their military tactics. Large shows of force are common in order to intimidate the enemy, and when that doesn't work, the force is then employed mercilessly. Crodvan forces will slowly march on the enemy position, making use of their natural durability and lack of self-preservation to use their long-range Rivet weaponry to safely strike enemy infantry as they make their approach. Crodvan forces are always hybridized between infantry, armor, artillery, cavalry and Knights.

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General Information

Overview

Official Name: Das Grösses Mortereich aller Todestern (Gothic), Imperium Magni Morte (archaic Mortean)
Common Name: Morte Imperium, Mortereich, Morte Empire
Government: Elected Centralized Totalitarian Monarchy
Dominant Species: Morte (100%)
Capital: Mortis, Toderstern System
Systems Owned: 7
Planets Owned: 4 (rest are uninhabitable)
Population: 85,569,242,144 (according to last year's census)

The Morte Imperium is the most dominant power within the isolated and deadly Stormlosweg Sector, controlling over 70% of it. Stormlosweg is a death world plagued by exotic radiation, antimatter winds and most of its once habitable planets were reduced to wastelands. Yet some of the most resilient civilizations managed to survive, including the Morte. Morteans are grim and pragmatic people whose entire history involved fighting with the environment while fending off other civilizations in their war for survival. They are isolated and extremely militaristic yet for over a century now they experience relative peace. As a result their population boomed and now they struggle with overpopulation to the extreme. In order to alleviate this the Empire intends to explore the stars outside the Stormlosweg Sector to find habitable planets for the Morte to expand.

History

Due to the chaos of the Kilonova Catastrophe there are no proper records of the Pre-Mortean years and even the early centuries have sparse sources. Some historians support that prior to the catastrophe their homeworld was called Lieberland and it seemed to be lush green planet with a prospering civilization. Everything changed when the Kilonova Catastrophe hit. About 1500 years ago a pair of white dwarves violently collided, producing a massive kilonova right in the center of what is now called the Stormlosweg Sector. The spike in common and exotic forms of radiation accompanied by neutron star fragment impacts changed the fate of this sector forever. [to be continued...]

Starmap Information

Galactic Location

Star Systems: Toderstern, Bekrieger, Heissessen, Brennenweg, Schmelzer, Grossernicht, Saltzricht
Green area signifies parts of the Stormlosweg Sector that aren't under Morte control.

Major Holdings

[to be continued...]

Social Information

Racial Overview

Until just recently the Morte Imperium was an isolated civilization within the Stormlosweg Sector. As such it is unsurprising that the one and only sapient species within the Empire are the Morteans. Morteans are humanoid creatures with blueish skin, red eyes that might glow in the dark, sharp teeth and slightly pointed ears. They are at average shorter in stature (~ 160 cm) due to malnutrition but at times they can grow above 2m in height. Due to the effects of radiation they have an alarmingly high percentage of mutations which is sometimes very visible. Unlike humans the Mortean blood is colored cyan. Morteans have human-like body makeup but there are considerable differences in their chemical system. Mortean bones are made of various bio-steels, enhancing their durability and tolerance to radiation. Though the not so amazing side effect is that Morteans can get stuck to sufficiently strong magnets. Their sharp teeth are capable of chewing through many things and it isn't impossible for a Morteans to chew on rocks and ores (though not the most nutritious choice for sure). Mortean stomachs are versatile and work by different reactions and this generally applies to their entire system. Toxins that could be lethal to humans may be even considered nutrients. In reverse the Morteans have a number of harmful and deadly toxins specific to their physiology. Biologically the Morteans can live for 200 years but in effect the mutations and awful living conditions reduce the average life expectancy to 40 years. Due to their relatively well-adopted physiology to their environment there's a popular theory that the Morteans were actually engineered this way. Though due to the lack of documentation from the Dark Ages and beyond it's currently impossible to determine.Due to the effect of radiation, birth defects and mutations are relatively common and according to statistics 27.4% of the children die at (or before) birth. For every Mortean death is a common experience which swayed their society into an unique direction. Morteans neither fear death nor welcome it. They accept death as a natural element of their lives and strive to serve their community during the short time they're given. Morteans are utilitarians to the extreme, working precisely like cogs in well-oiled machine. In the eyes of others Morteans themselves do appear almost machine-like, having little in the way of personal goals and instead striving to complete their duties to the community as a whole. This unique mindset also makes Morteans numb to the feeling of loss other species experience. Morteans are capable of boundless cruelty without the slightest emotion behind. Compassion in its typical sense is almost completely foreign to them. On the other hand their higher orientation towards logic means Morteans always do things with reason. They have a clear view on risks and benefits which makes negotiations with Morteans surprisingly simple.

Society

Mortean society is all about order and hierarchy. The lines of leadership are clearly defined and Morteans work together like cogs in a well-oiled machine. Questioning the authority of your superiors is unheard of and everyone is under constant supervision of their peers to act like a respectable Morte. On the other hand incompetence is not tolerated and subordinates can and will send in reports about any misdeed of their boss. Advancing through the leadership is possible but difficult and at times certain social groups could be outright class-like. Mortean citizens know and use money with their official currency being the Reichsmark. At the same time a lot of commodities are rationed which means each person only entitled to a limited amount during shortages. Thankfully many of these rations are leased during the hundred years of peace but people are aware these can be reinstated on a moment of notice. The official language of the Mortereich is the Gothic. This effectively splits into two distinct languages. High Gothic is a borderline forgotten language used for ceremonial purposes. It strangely resembles Latin from ancient human civilization but the connection is unlikely. Low Gothic is the common language of Mortean,tt resembles German. There are also 3 other major dialects and even more minority dialects within the population which can range from slight mutation to something that doesn't even sound like the same language.

Government

The Mortean government is imperial, formed under necessity during the early centuries to fend off the Luxans and other crazy invaders. Initially it was a typical monarchic government with the rule of Karl von Metzel and his descendants. However this soon changed and for 800 years now the Kaiser is an elected title which currently only assumed for the length of 2 years. It's possible to get re-elected but no more than 4 times in a row (so a total of 10 years of rule). Since the title is elected technically anyone can become a Kaiser, provided they pass the rigorous selection method for candidates. There are a few days of promotion and campaign and then the candidates get voted on. There are no solid political parties, albeit siding with certain social groups may provide benefits at the election. After appointed as the Kaiser he or she has absolute power to do anything for the good of the Empire. Yet the Kaiser is tightly monitored and after 2 years pass he or she is thoroughly evaluated and potentially punished for any misconduct (sometimes even executed). The Empire also have ministers and other political leaders with their own powers and responsibilities. Their conditions are similar to that of the Kaiser but to a lesser extend. In Morte everyone watches the other and ready to report wrongs straight back to the authorities. This complex relation of hierarchy and keen supervision what defines Morte social structure the most. In terms of foreign politics since every new civilization they've encountered became hostile it's practically non-existent. That being said while the government is paranoiac they don't reject the idea of coexisting with other species, it was generally down to the other party. As such the first ever Mortean expedition outside the Stormlosweg sector is watched with great anticipation.

Technological Information

Technology Overview

After experiencing their paradise rapidly turning into a radioactive hell the Morteans doubled their efforts toward technology. Their first priorities were shielded homes and developing means to grow food in their changed environment. Over the centuries as Mortean society transformed, their affinity towards technology grew further. Advanced medicine, gene engineering for special plants that grow in radioactive environments, robotics, self-improving computers and so on. The achievements of the Morteans were impressive, especially compared to its neighbors within the uncharted regions. On the other hand with no contact with other advanced civilizations, their scientific development could be overall be described as average or even below average compared to the better known factions in the galaxy.

Development wise as being isolated within the Stormlosweg Sector the Mortean technology is of course somewhat unique. Just as Toderstern most stars turned into eccentric green stellar bodies producing winds of antimatter. This is the sector's curse but perhaps also its greatest boon as resourceful civilizations can gather metric tons of antimatter with relative ease. Indeed for the Morte antimatter is a rare and valuable resource used for almost every piece of technology. They are a simple and convenient medium for tasks that require compact and highly energetic sources of power. Aside from this Mortean experiences with exotic matter and easily accessible high energy source inspired them to advance their material sciences, although undoubtedly they also stole a lot of advanced from the Dorvec. Speaking of stealing the Mortean faster-than-light technology builds entirely on developments from other races. The warp drive was invented by the Karan'esh, centuries before Kilonova Catastrophe. The hyperdrive in particular was derived from the Luxan, whose drive was a biomechanical imitation of a looted ancient hyperdrive design appropriated during their raids. Being imitation of an imitation, Mortean hyperdrives have severe issues and until recently they had massive reliability problems which prevented their widespread use.

Major Techs

Industry

TBA

Military Information

Military Overview

With almost a thousand years of constant warfare with outside aggressors Morte became a militaristic nation where soldiering is part of every citizen's duty. Just prior to reaching adulthood all Morteans regardless of gender receive combat training and discipline. The best of the trainees are offered to become part of the Reichswehrmacht which, given the overall better living conditions of soldiers, is an offer not many refuses. Even after the training adult Morteans are obliged to periodically refresh their soldiering skills and accept to be drafted in a moment of notice. This kind of social structure aided Morte to eventually triumph over their technically superior enemy, very much drowning them in numbers. On the other hand having a hundred years without war the Morte civilization faces the greatest crisis since their foundation: Peace and prosperous growth.

Space Forces

The Reichskriegsflotte (Imperial Fleet) is the Reichswehr's special branch dealing with starships and generally the region of space. Like for any interstellar civilization an absurd majority of their territory is space thus the Imperial Fleet has a prominent role of securing it. Since the Mortean triumph in Lux the Imperium haven't faced any existential threats and enjoys a relative peace. Of course there are always Karan'esh pirates, Dorvec remnants or rouge Luxan raiders to worry about yet at their current strength the navy is way prepared to deal with them. In order to reduce maintenance problems the PAX Accords were signed which currently limits the Mortean navy to 2500 warships, most of them being "Attack Frigates" a newly invented class for what is essentially fast traveling light cruisers. 2500 is the minimal count required for the Morte to secure their borders and that's only because the new faster ships permit them such low size. At the same time large amount of old starships are mothballed but preserved enough that they can return to battle upon any demand.
Smallcraft:
Escorts:
Warships:
Starbases:
TBA

Planetary Forces

Irdishstreitkrafte der Mortereich (Planetary Armed Forces of the Morte Imperium) is a virtual term describing three different military branches: Reichsheer (Imperial Army), Reichsgrenadierkrafte (Imperial Grenadier Force) and Volkswehr (People's Defense AKA Militia). Reichsheer is the main army of the Empire with exactly 2 billion troops (mandated by the PAX Accords from IR1121). This is their bare minimum and any loses are to be recovered within a week. As per the Morte attitude to recruitment, every Morte who passes the physical tests are considered "reserves" to the Heer thus in times of crisis this number can increase considerably. In the current "peacetime" days their purpose is defensive but they also form the numbers for every major invasion. Reichsgrenadierkrafte is effectively the "marines" of the Morte, they are elite highly mobile force constantly traveling aboard starships. They are the primary response of the Morte during peacetime and the spearhead of major assaults. Volkswehr is an institution rather than an outright military branch, used during crisis when the regular military isn't present or requires backup. By its nature the Volkswehr is poorly equipped if not forced to use improvised weapons but they can compensate with their sheer numbers and fanaticism.

Morte ground combat doctrine focuses on massed infantry formations supported with a great deal of artillery. Morte likes fortifications and defensive combat as their wars frequently involved the other side as the primary aggressor. Armor is generally what each army division has asigned to them. It often provides fire supports but there are pure armored forces for breakthrough and maneuvering combat. Air force is a bit of a maligned child in Mortean warfare. Both Reichsheer and Reichsgrenadierkrafte has aerial detachments that can be linked with any division for support but usually their number is insufficient. This is often reinforced by space fighters from the Reichskriegsflotte but the different chain of command is a source of other issues.

Infantry:


Ground Vehicles:

Artillery:
Aircraft:
TBA

Dun dun dun

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…. Five years ago the Daisan came to the Federation door step. Days prior to the surprise attack on the Urban Planet Anaria, word reached the fringe colonies of more mysterious activity in the deep space rim worlds; between governments collapsing and general panic, the center galaxy civilizations could only guess intense internal struggles, but little did they know.

Two days after the Anaria Star-Wide Gazette published their theory on the general unrest of the rim worlds a peculiar slipspace rupture was reported. In a matter of minutes a massive fleet appeared around the planet and launched massive factory spikes into the atmosphere, the fleet escort destroying any chance of space resistance. The spikes landed with such explosive power the touchdowns destroyed entire urban sprawls.

Quickly floods of battle droids exited the spikes and began to clean the planet of sentient life, construction and salvage droids quickly following. After the short battle of Anaria, little knew what happened next, the only escaping frigate barely able to give a believable report to the next Federal system over.

Soon more battles broke out between this unknown menace and the Federation, and soon the name “The Daisan Order” was leaked from military personnel despite never actually finding organic life behind the droids, with only subtle clues to makers and pilots.

Five years have since passed and only the combined might of the Empire and the Federation managed to slow down the progression of the Deep Space Menace, but where resistance was weak, they quickly washed over, leaving only completely cored planets and harvested suns in their wake, hives of space fighters and factories, and even strangely colonized planets.
Demonstration of the assault on Anaria




For hundreds of years the Daisan have been at their interstellar conquest. Five years ago they finally reached us, and their momentum is unbearable.






Mood music
Social findings about the droids armies of the Daisan, as recorded by Federal Researchers and Combat reporters:

“Interestingly enough, some of the Daisan droids exhibit social behaviors such as verbal communication, laughing, and to some extent comradeship (depending on the model). We aren’t too sure why they do any of these things, since we have salvaged wireless transmitters from the droids, showing they are capable of relaying suggestions to other droids. One theory is they have learned communication skills to be able to conduct dialogue with organic or verbal speaking life forms; however, there is no recorded incident where a Daisan droid has attempted to communicate with a non Daisan construct.”



Regards to a possible Daisan Society, as recorded by a Federal Professor.

“...It would seem possible for the Daisan to have or have had a society. Their droids clearly have a hierarchy, meaning their creators knew of at least primitive social constructs. The fact that the models are split into roles, and have different functions shows the ability to delegate and use tools. Whether or not the Creator Daisan still exist or not, there should be no question that they had formed a complex society of hierarchies, departments, and understood job delegation and efficiency.

I will admit it is hard to paint a picture of a homeworld Daisan’s life when all we have to go on is the obvious highly controlled military present. Whether or not home-life would be as rigorous as their military represents is definitely a question not easily answered.

However, I can propose a few theories on the creator Daisan’s absence: either they are dead, and the machines on autopilot, or they are alive and avoiding contact.”

Additional conclusions from Federal Professor.

“...in regards to IS there even a creator Daisan figure, I say yes. I do not believe these droids came upon themselves. Evidence suggesting a creator is evident in a few key areas which I will now demonstrate.

Found usually in larger invasion vehicles or starships, are ‘inserts’. These are potential cockpits or control centers, made uniformly seven feet tall and four to five feet wide, the all have four large holes in the back wall each four inches in diameter and six one diameter holes near the base in two groups of threes. Sensitive technology is found all along the walls of these holes and stretch about four feet back into the vehicle up top and a foot in the smaller holes. In in the front wall of these inserts are numerous potential displays and valves of all sorts, some oddly connected to the exhaust directly.

Oddly enough there is biomatter found on vehicles with inserts as well as in the air samples produced by the factory spikes (may the brave souls who collected these vital samples forever be remembered), it appears to be a bacteria unknown to our logs. While we are hesitant to allow someone full contact with these microorganisms in a control setting, some of our soldiers have come back from battles with the bacteria on their uniform or in their own system. Symptoms of infection vary but on the common human, the body tends to treat it almost like pollen, making pollen sensitive individuals cough or sneeze, but without any interior detriment to the body. Some species show no reaction to the relatively benign bacteria, but those with less developed or differently developed immune systems have in some occasions come down with common cold like symptoms but are easily treated with antibiotics. The bacteria itself can be described as similar to cynobacteria, yet heftier and airborne with the added ability to ‘gunk up’ rather quickly. The gravity of this discovery means that even if the Daisan Creators are not present, there is an organic lifeform being transported and cultured alongside the droid army, leading me to believe it is being done purposely, but for what purpose is only speculation. This evidence none the less leads most to believe in an organic run home-world.

Another piece of evidence is the verbal and written language present, used by the droids and machines, but what makes this important is that we are aware that new models of droids are currently still being produced and ever changing (evidence in itself), all with the ability to use this language, which leads me to believe that the master race is still alive and well, that or the droids have really taken to the elusive creator language of the Daisan.

Nonetheless, the search for the creator Daisan continues, and with only the images of the droids to assume their physiology, we have yet to know who we are indeed fighting, if anyone.”


(Describe your government here in detail. If you use something generic or just feel like there isn't enough to say you can merge this with the Society section under "Government/Society" and describe both here.)


(Describe your civilization's technology in general)








(Again, kinda optional. Do you wish to share with us how amazing your industry can be? This is the section for it! Major industrial methods, complexes and such can be also mentioned here.)


(Describe your military in general. For a select few types of civs this might be alone enough.)

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The Outer Rim has always been one of those vague, unexplored parts of the galaxy. In the interests of safety, nations refrain from sending large fleets into uncharted territory and the probes that are sent tend to wind up mysteriously vanishing. For the longest time, it was unknown how or why the Outer Rim was so unexplored.

Then the Sinnsyk appeared. At first glance these colorful, diminutive creatures don't seem like much of a threat. Who would be scared of a few hooded raiders? But they quickly established themselves as a fearsome pirate group. They could strike deep into the heart of hostile territories with nary a blip on the radar. Top secret military projects were somehow being fielded in enemy hands months before they were officially released. Unmanned probes and drones would suddenly go dark, their information lost. This was the legacy of the Sinnsyk. They went from another snotty pirate culture to fearsome thieves and phantoms of the night, with a ravenous desire for technology

To those who work with the Sinnsyk, they are determined engineers and programmers, machinists in the purest sense of the word. No code is to complex, no machine to big and their ability to find errors in such devices is uncanny. To their enemies, the Sinnsyk represent a subtle, mysterious threat. They strike deep in hostile territory practically unscathed, take what they want and leave. They have ears all over and the Network has its finger in every criminal underworld. This ability to avoid conflict, to hide from danger and to simply learn unprecedented amounts of information in short time spans more than makes up for their physical weaknesses.



TBC


TBC



Largest Starbases:
Stortvarmt
Litenkaldt
Solopp
Kaotiskgalskap
Behera

Held Planets from Largest to Smallest:
Paardveid
Breizh
Pfrerdreich
Ruiterji
Aishite
Huilebalk
Gesteente
Maanaw
Stenholm


The only race that occupies the Sinnsyk Star Network is the eponymous Sinnsyk. Sinnsyk are short humanoids, about four to five foot tall, with white skin, segmental heterochromatic eyes, fluffy, feathery hair that comes in a frankly obscene variety of colours and markings all up and down their body that glow colourfully. Weight swings between 6 to 9 stone by imperial measurements, due to excessively thin muscle and fat mass. Their bodies are covered in soft, supple skin that remains smooth from childhood to maturity. Colouration is always snow white with special markings of a single, bioluminescent color. These markings can range from a few short lines on the face to long complex patterns all over the face and body. They gain nutrition via oral consumption and are particularly dependent of fructose, glucose and sucrose, which they grow and consume in large quantities.
Mentally, Sinnsyk are known for their attachment to machines. This attachment has spread deep into their society, with machines of all sorts being used as currency and treasure. This has raised a point of contention amongst scholars; what the Sinnsyk did before discovering electricity is a mystery and no Sinnsyk history source goes back that far. They also have a disturbing reaction to violence - when threatened, they projectile vomit. This puke is highly corrosive and can blind and burn anyone it lands on, with the exception of the Sinnsyk themselves. Again, this is genetically hard coded into their DNA.
Disturbing evidence has been unearthed to suggest the Sinnsyk were deliberately genetically engineered, though who and why they did this is as of yet unknown. Their appearances, being highly effeminate by Human standards even amongst males, is consistent amongst them all. Even the most masculine of them is never much more than androgynous - some scholars suggest this points to deliberate genetic manipulation whilst others claim this could be a perfectly natural occurrence. Their consistent desire to gather more technology is present in 100% of specimens, a rate unheard of for a personality trait, even a culturally enforced trait, and their unusual racial unity even amongst different enclaves lacks the tribalism common amongst natural races.


"This is not merely a madhouse designed by a madman, but a madhouse designed by many madmen, each with an intense hatred for the previous madman's unique flavour of madness."

Sinnsyk society is not a hard one to recognise. The colour gives them away. The colour grey apparently does not exist for Sinnsyk, since everything from clothes to ships is painted in bright, intense colours. Colour is present in all aspects of a Sinnsyk's life, and grey just bores the heck out of them, so dont expect to get much eye rest if you decide to visit.

Sinnsyk also enjoy duality and opposition, which makes up a large part of their philosophical culture. They believe that everything has at least two forms and that by changing between forms at the right time, one can construct something far greater than the sum of its parts. This duality can be something as simple as broken and functional, on and off or together and apart, or something far greater and more complex. This is one explanation as to why they wear such strange garments - the opposition of the bright colours and comfortable material with the fearsome, terrifying images that are worn on them. Some Sinnsyk use duality and opposition in a different way, such as adorning themselves with dead flowers, their sweet scent being sickening, or making tight, body-hugging suits that sexualise them out of hard, protective materials that prevent entry.

It wouldn't be a raider culture without something to raid. It is the technological, from simple mechanics right up to unimaginable technological wonders, that forms the centrepiece of Sinnsyk society. Every station has a massive electronic footprint, every Sinnsyk room is fitted with a workbench for taking apart and putting together devices. They trade in tech the way other races use currency. Machinery is the lifeblood of the Network and its a Sinnsyk's whole reason for being. Without it, they would have nothing.

Law and order in the Network is a simple affair. Sinnsyk are expected to flout the rules of any planet they set foot on - Such limits only slow them down in their mission. Rape and murder are always forbidden, but there is nothing stopping a Sinnsyk from fighting back if they were attacked first. "Purposefully drawing blood" - with exemption to medical grounds - is also forbidden. They often identify with local criminals and gangs, which often has hit and miss effects. Sometimes they set up large, successful smuggling rings. Sometimes they find themselves locked up sweatshops and brothels. Depends on the gang really.

Internal dissent is very limited, made up of a few small scale grudges or rivalries - nothing that threatens to overthrow the Network as a whole. Sinnsyk treat alien races mostly with respect, unless they have some tech they want. Then they become rivals, but even then Sinnsyk treat rivalries as big games and are never overly violent or cruel.


Sinnsyk have a very... loose government, which isn't the same as none at all. Generally, what happens is that a group of Sinnsyk will band together and work on a project together, then manage it between themselves. None of the Starbases, for example, were commissioned by a governing body by by groups of individual Sinnsyk who banded together to create what they created. Obviously a group of Sinnsyk who governs a Starbase or colonise a planet have more clout amongst the Network than than those who don't, but this disjointed system makes it hard to control certain individuals. It does, however, encourage Sinnsyk to work and achieve based on their own merits, so only the most diligent, most resourceful or most brilliant will climb to the top.


Tech is the lynchpin of Sinnsyk society. Its like currency to them. The whole society focuses on or strives to gain more technology. They cant get enough of the stuff, it's like an itch that they need to scratch.
As such, Technology amongst the Network is a bit chimeric. Nothing ever looks quite right. Its all taken from other nations, then experimented on and changed in ways that most people would either never have imagined or would never have dared. Every machine is unique, every device one of a kind, as every Sinnsyk who makes or steals has their own idea of what good tech is like. The Network thrives on its unique, crazy creativity and the abominations it creates because of it. Many innocent Sinnsyk have lost their minds to the desperate pursuit of more and more complex technology, constantly seeking bigger, better things. Confusingly, many Sinnsyk raiders constantly work on and improve technology purely for the purpose of stealing more technology. Improved stealth systems always get used for stealing things to improve their stealth system. God knows what would happen if the Sinnsyk ever created the ultimate version of something
Its not just machines or programmes either, but medicines, chemicals, elements... anything vaguely related to science or technology, they want their own spin on it. Being as chaotic and as unpredictable as they are, the Sinnsyk rarely produce the same thing in bulk and this can make trade a little confusing. They rapidly get bored of making the same things over and over, and turn to grander projects as their minds change, leaving long-term business partners in the lurch. That steady supply of plasma pistols may suddenly become plasma shotguns, then plasma sniper rifles, and they wont understand why you're so upset.


Hand Crank Energy Chargers: Ah, those ancient, obsolete methods everyone else abandoned long ago. How they are sadly underused. Sinnsyk energy weapons are powered by hand-crank batteries, meaning the charge can be easily refilled. On the plus side, this makes ammo logistics far easier, and ensures that Sinnsyk never run out of shot on the field. On the other hand, trying to hand crank a machine gun in the midst of combat aint exactly easy, or quick.


Its no secret that the Sinnsyk are some of the most diligent engineers and mechanics in the galaxy. Recruiting them is a difficult task but highly rewarding, and since many have connections as part of the Network, what you pay them usually finds its way into circulation back home. Since the concept of money is so foreign to them, these engineers end up driving down the value of nearby techies, whilst lowering costs and raising profit for whatever company employs them - so if a Sinnsyk comes to town, you'll want to snag them before your rivals do.

The split between planets and starbases is simple. Planets are agricultural, starbases are industrial. If you live on a planet, it is expected that you will grow and raise the crops of the Network, which is traded with Starbases for consumption. Some starbases have small agricultural regions, but these are only really present in those bases that are out the way. Starbases' usual product is the various machines, robots and tech that provide the backbone of the Network.

Sinnsyk often find work in the black markets of foreign nations, either as traders and scrappers or as runners. Their short stature and feminine appearances mean they can easily be mistaken for children at first glance, which makes smuggling a lot easier.




Navy Doctrine: The navy has a fondness for penetration stratagems. They strike deep into the core of the enemy territory, then go on a raiding spree. Of course this is done quietly and in a seemingly random order, which makes it hard to predict where they'll be next. Their ships are small and light, fast moving and equipped with high-quality stealth devices. This obviously drains from their armour and weapons systems - even the heaviest Network ship does little more than disable any ships and rarely destroys them outright.


Ground Doctrine: Sinnsyk ground tactics are characterised by their long range, cautious nature, and swift entrance and exit. They rarely attack directly, preferring instead to harass and frustrate enemies, wearing down morale and attacking supplies. They are keen practitioners of the Fabian Strategy, even on foreign ground, and a large part of their strategies rely on remaining undetected for as long as possible.
Tactically, they also use long-range harassment tactics. Small fire teams are deployed as opposed to large, overwhelming armies, and combat vehicles focus on speed and stealth, not armour. Even artillery sacrifices power for speed, so the whole theatre of war can be packed up and shipped out as soon as possible. fire team tactics include long-range fire then falling back or going into hiding, so as to frustrate and demoralise the enemy. Civilian casualties are avoided as much as possible.