Recommended that we use Notebook.ai for organiational purposes. I've even created a universe for people to add their stuff to, if they so wish:
notebook.ai/plan/universes/120032Taybusan Commonwealth of Jordun
Race:
Proper terms:
Taybuse [singular]
Taybusen [plural]
Taybusian
Tayb [colloquial, singular]
Taybee [colloquial, plural]
An alien race that externally resembles Earthen reptilians, even though they share characteristics of mammals, reptilians, and amphibians.
NATURAL ATTRIBUTES:
Height: 4' 6" --- 5' 9"
Weight: ~175 --- ~250
Lifespan: ~55 --- ~80
Avg IQ: ~133 --- ~144
Eyes: Slit pupil, any warm color
Skin: Skin is black or darker shades of grey
Scale: Any color with the majority of the saturation pulled out of it; generally just 'grey.' Can be dull or shiny based on diet.
Build: Lean, wiry, dense.
Speed: 26mph average, 38 mph record
Arms: 4 total, individually are slightly weaker than a human's, individual finger strength is superior, clawed
Legs: 2 total, bipedal, designed for longer, strides, awkward during strafing movements
Biology:
Carbon-based lifeform, breathes higher concentrations of oxygen. Cold-blooded, can be kind of sluggish and slow in cooler environments, but grow notably more excited in hotter environments, and in situations that get adrenaline pumping. Very much a race that needs some time to start moving quickly.
Diet:
Requiring sugars, vitamins, proteins, etc., just like humanity, with the added requirement of an increased need for iron or other kinds of metal, and a variety of herbs that are extremely acidic given the right conditions.
Special biology:
Uses local homeworld herbs to produce an extremely powerful acid inside a special stomach; when consuming metals, such as iron, steel, silver, or gold, the Tayb's scale-stomach breaks down the material and uses it to grow scale. Strength, hue, and shine of scale is reliant on the metal consumed.
History, Abbrievated:
The Taybee evolved on a planet that, where humanity saw more skin and fur after the extinction of large-scale reptilian creatures, such an event did not happen. Those dinosaurs that existed on the homeworld of the Taybee, in their high-oxygen environment, were never wiped out. The high oxygen content let such creatures exist easily, though evolution saw the creation of what would eventually because the modern Taybee; given twp thousand years, the Taybee ruled over their planet, and the great psuedo-dinosaurs of their homeworld only survived in reservations, as pets, exhibits, or trained warbeasts.
Given another four thousand years, and the Taybee have created a competitive and capitalistic society, ruled over by a monarchy that was formed some five hundred years earlier from the five largest corporation-governments dissolving into a single, five-branched line of royalty. Surrounded with the upper echelons of lesser royalty- those who are of the ruling families of similarly powerful and large corporations- they compete for power and influence across their planets, moons, asteroids, etc.
Modern-day, these fleet-minded creatures have a heavy reliance on their politics and economy, boasting an extremely robust system for both absorbing independent colonies that left the homeworld and its split governments behind many decades before, and for producing everything from industry to agriculture. Only three branches of the primary monarchy remain, whom compete each generation for their Heir to be King or Queen.
Government:
Oligarchical monarchy. They rule and have rulers based on a 'royalty' and 'nobility,' though these royals and nobles are raised to such status because of their economic prosperity rather than some sort of god-given right, or might-makes-right ideal.
Military:
Powerful, modern ships in moderate amounts. The vast majority of ships are freighters, and only a relative few are warships.
Squadron = 5 ships
Ship type list:
- SDN- Superdreadnought (No ships, schematics) - Superheavy warships boasting the most guns, armor, and fleet control.
- FBB- Battleship (1 squadron) - Massive warships featuring the biggest guns, and some of the heaviest armor.
- FCV- Fleet Carrier (4 ships) - Extremely large warship boasting armor and launch tubes for deploying smallcraft.
- FDN- Dreadnought (4 squadrons)
- ECV- Escort Carrier (2 squadrons)
- FHC- Heavy Cruiser (2 squadrons)
- FBC- Battle Cruiser (6 squadrons)
- FLC- Light Cruiser (8 squadrons)
- FSC- Support Cruiser (20 squadrons)
- FDM- Missile Destroyer (22 squadrons)
- FDE- Escort Destroyer (30 squadrons)
- FCA- Corvette (34 squadrons)
- FFF- Freighters: (Ranging from century-old ships to modern, updated ships-- they have very long lifespans)
- FFH- Heavy/Maxicarry Freighter
- FFS- Medium 'Superspeed' Freighter
- FFM- Medium Freighter
- FFL- Light Freighter
- FFP- Passenger liner
- FFY- Pleasure Yacht
Carrier-launched craft:
- Gunboat (4 squadrons per FCV, 1 squadrons per ECV)
- Plasma Space Fighter (8 squadrons per FCV, 5 squadrons per ECV, 2 squadrons per heavy/superheavy warship)
- Shuttle (3 squadrons per FCV, 2 squadrons per ECV, 2 squadrons per heavy/superheavy warship, 1 squadron per medium warship, 2-4 per light warship)
- Inter-atmospheric Multirole Fighter (3 squadrons per FCV, 1 squadrons per ECV)
- Inter-atmospheric Gunship/Armed Transport (3 squadrons per FCV, 2 squadrons per ECV, 2 squadrons per heavy/superheavy warship)
Religion:
None. They see the concept of faith in something they cannot test anything of to be largely foreign.
Specialization:
Heavy industry: these are resourceful creatures who are intent on competitive, capitalistic expansion. Industry such as cloudscoops in orbit of gas giants, for harvesting helium-3 and other gases, orbital industry nodes for processing asteroids pushed into planetary orbit, industry nodes for constructing basic items, and shipyards are common and used often.
Advanced Manufacturing: If something is hard to produce, requiring long hours of specialized craftsmen, it's going to be these guys that produce it. Given their claws, their four arms, and their thought speed, they work well with delicate processes that require an intelligent touch. Advanced machines and electronics are easier for these creatures, and it shows in their high quality and success rate with such things.
Black Hole Exploitation: With excessive research, these creatures know how to exploit black holes both as a source of energy, or propulsion. They have the specifics down with both theory and experience.
Notable Technologies:
Faster than Light travel:
- Hyperdrive: This is a moderately sized device that is used to accelerate ships on a level above realspace propulsion, such as chemical or electrical propulsion, but definitely only for interplanetary travel. Generally a percentage of lightspeed, or just slightly over c.
- Warpdrive: This is a moderately large device that is used to leave realspace and travel, at extremely high speeds, across a 'compressed' version of realspace. Allows for extremely fast travel, up to several times c.
- Foldingdrive: This is an advanced, delicate, and extremely powerful device which requires a singularity, a very large energy source, and extreme caution. Instantaneous travel, because of its ability to 'fold' realspace and cross immense distances by threading between the fold from one place to another. If unlucky, side effects will trigger: 1-9 hour period of unconsciousness, grogginess, exhaustion, temporary memory loss, shock. While it is instantaneous, it is still dangerous.
Drive Core
- This device is similar to a shield generator and a reactor core at the same time. It projects a field around a ship, and provides propulsion via advanced and difficult technology. Drive Cores, or Drive Nodes, are used instead of thrusters, to accelerate a ship. The downside to them being contained within the hull, without needing to be placed on the rear of a ship, is that they produce more heat, require more energy to operate, and have a certain resonance to each drive node. Ships can be identified by recording this resonance. Furthermore, damage to the ship's reactors can simultaneously damage drive cores-- abrupt power loss, failure, or overcharge can damage delicate systems within Drive Nodes.
Anti-material Pulse Cannon
- This is a somewhat simple combat design, reminiscent of a plasma weapon, with an inner containment field, a special, delicate series of field generators, and a nozzle to project the containment fields' contents out of. Layered far more heavily with armor than anything else on the ships it inhabits, its also designed to project any blast inside of it outwards- outside of its mount, there's usually a secondary shield between the turret and hull of the ship to prevent any cannon malfunctions and detonations from harming the hull. The reasoning is simple: The containment fields are used to fire tiny amounts of antimatter. The containment field briefly extends out a hundred meters from the barrel, and small particle beams arrayed around the barrel itself fire to damage shields and clear space of any stray particles, to allow for the small amount of antimatter to hit its target without detonating prematurely on space debris of any sort.
Quantum Engineering
- The Taybee have become skilled in using quantum mechanics, from instantaneous communication nodes to quantum computing.
Neural Engineering
- The Taybee have designed and specialized tools, both for war and economy, that uses or requires a neural uplink. Due to extensive research, such technology is stable and safe; anywhere from neural implants to allow remote, mentally-commanded access to the datanet to power armor that links with special combat implants to be controlled by the mind, the Taybee have taken great advantage of their psychology-- that is, due to having six limbs, their minds are more accepting of being able to operate more complex machines than a creature that only has four limbs.
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Recommended that we use Notebook.ai for organiational purposes. I've even created a universe for people to add their stuff to, if they so wish:
notebook.ai/plan/universes/120032
Name of nation:
The Qits Swarms
Species:
The Qits are the sole race that makes up the swarm - However, depending on your definitions of "race" or "Species," the Qits could be dozens of species that all share very similar genetic code, and fall under the same name. The Qits currently are in the ballpark of dogs-to-elephants in terms of size, and all possess characteristics reminiscent of insects, such as an exoskeleton and multiple eyes. Some characteristics that are very common include:
Black, beady eyes.
Exoskeletons in darker shade of color.
Very little, if any, hair.
Cold-blooded.
What makes the species unique are two genetic traits that they possess - The ability to selectively pass on genetic material, and the psionic power that the rulers of the species possesses. These gifts have allowed the Qit to become unrivaled on two planets, and allow the Qit to copy and steal genetic information from other species and organisms. For examples of specific Qit units, please see Military and Technology overviews.
Description of government:
The Qit Queens are connected via an incredibly powerful psionic connection, allowing them to speak at all times, and think in unison. This means all decisions are deliberated on for a few seconds, before the intelligent queens settle on an appropriate action. This is done for nearly every action that the queens take, from the establishment of a new hive, to the production of a different type of unit.
The Qits are a Direct Democracy.
Description of military:
Qit military is almost exclusively based on close-quarter combat, with almost no air support. Qit military strategy usually involves attacking from below via burrowers, and then quickly swarming opponents. With no ships, they are unable to participate in ship battles, but are nearly unbeatable when boarding.
Despite their threatening appearance, the teeth are completely harmless – they are meant to assist in reducing drag and remove earth. The Burrower is covered in insanely thick armor, comparable to that of ships. In addition to this, it's streamlined design and relatively light body make it very fast, allowing it to dig at speeds that are unbecoming of the creature's size. Other than its armor and speed, however, the burrower lacks any traditional weaponry, relying on the units it carries with it in order to defend itself. They possess a drill-like tongue (5 Meters in Height and Width), which is easily able to dig earth and is nearly the Burrower's body length. This tongue can be controlled during hibernation, and is generally low-cost energy-wise, used to dig smaller tunnels when Queens are busy.
By far the largest creature that is mass produced in the Swarms, The burrower is over 100 meters in length, and 30 meters in diameter. These monsters are based off of a small worm found in the planets soil, which is capable of digging through solid stone. After increasing its size massively, along with its speed and ability to dig, the Burrower was born. The Burrower is without a doubt one of the strongest assets to the Qit in an invasion scenario – their ability to dig tunnels are unparalleled, even by the most advanced mining equipment. A Burrower does not need to breath, can withstand insane pressures, and can dig/swim 60 mph, 100 if they are straining themselves. They were the creatures that created the tunnel and caverns throughout Nesnora 25L, and should a single burrower get into the soil of a planet, removing a Qit presence becomes exponentially more difficult. A burrower is mostly empty, which allows them to have such gargantuan size while being relatively light. The largest organ being its Transport Stomach – Which can hold a truly staggering number of units.
Stingers are reminiscent of earth wasps – if children had nightmares about giant, murderous wasps. They possess 4 wings, which vibrate quickly to allow the Stinger flight. They possess weak legs, mostly used for carrying larvae and eggs rather than supporting the Stingers weight. When sleeping, they simply land onto the ground, and begin flying again once they have finished resting. The most pronounced part of their bodies are the thorax and stinger, the thorax being a repository which contains roughly 20 stingers at a time. Powerful muscles located at the stinger base, along with chemical reactions and a buildup of gases all work together to allow the Stinger to launch its payload across large distances with strength and accuracy. Unfortunately, it's only real defenses are its shields – the regular exoskeleton is weaker than average, and can be damaged with small arms fire. The Claws above the shield are difficult to use in combat, but are able to cut through trees and similar materials with relative ease, similar to an axe.
One of the few fliers within the Swarms, the Stingers dominate the skies of Nesnora 25L. They are similar in size to a Soldier, but are not bipedal. And are relatively weak at lifting. In exchange, however, Stingers can shoot with surprising strength at long distances, and are some of the only aerial support the Qit has. They are the closest thing the Qit has to artillery, and the Stinger, while slow, has a maximum altitude of nearly 1 mile. A Stinger needs only an hour of sleep a day, and possess excellent senses, making them a good scouting unit. Along with this, they can secrete paralyzing toxins from their stingers, allowing them to take down larger prey alive. Due to their weak leg strength, they are unable to land and be fed by Feeders, which means they must either hunt their own food, or a queen must use another unit to collect the feed and give it to the Stinger. A stinger eats as much food as two humans.
Resembling a cockroach, the Soldiers are an impressive 2 Meters tall, and have a thick exoskeleton defending them from harm. They have strong teeth, which not only allow them to eat nearly any material, but also look creepy to most creatures. They do not possess eyes, instead relying on echolocation and their psionic connection to others in order to "see". This, however, will cause them to be very disorientated in underwater environments, or if sound is unable to travel. Soldiers are constantly grinning, and are known to be eaten by other Qit in times of famine. They taste like chicken, but with less fat and more muscle. The muscles of a soldier can, when pushed hard enough, crack their exoskeletons, and they are usually killed since regrowing an exoskeleton takes too long.
The most basic unit in the Swarms, the Soldier is a melee infantry that is meant to double as a worker or drone. They specialize in combat in an enclosed space where they can make use of their Legs and Claws – Like a tunnel. The Swarms uses them as swarming units, and can take down very large prey using this simple tactic. Coupled with the Soldier's relatively high strength, they make the perfect swarming unit. They have one of the lowest energy costs in the entire Swarms, being able to survive off of half of what normal humans need. They can usually be found underground, digging tunnels, moving food and larvae, or hunting above ground. Soldiers also possess small wings that are used to assist their jumps, which can reach up to 30 feet at maximum. Their claws can dig into steel, allowing them to climb metals that are weaker than or are as strong as steel.
The main body is fairly small, with most of the weight coming from the tail of the Parasite. A hard exoskeleton adorns the body, while the tail retains a fleshy composition. The tail itself is significantly larger and stronger than the rest of the body, capable of launching the Parasite several meters at rapid speeds. It's razor sharp legs are meant for crawling along surfaces, and as such, make traversing soft materials like carpet or soft soil more difficult. There are two ovipositors on the Parasite – one on the ventral side of the body, and one in the lower half of the Tail. The tail ovipositors are far less uncomfortable to be injected with then the body.
The Parasite was created in order to act as an assassination and recon unit. It is able to move more quickly and remain harder to find than nearly any other Qit, and possesses a razor-sharp tail in order to slice vital parts of creatures. It's staple, however, is implanting an undeveloped Qin embryo into the target – this embryo was altered in order to explode upon the mental command of a queen. The organic explosive will also go off should it exit the Queens psionic range. This organic bomb has several methods of assassination, depending on the strain – Spreading incredibly thin wires throughout the veins of a creature and thrashing wildly on command, releasing acidic blood to melt it from the inside, to even just exploding with force comparable to C4. Due to it's small size and relative fragility, however, it is generally not used in direct conflictt. Delivery of the embryo can be done orally, through the ventral ovipositor, or via injection, as the Bladed tail acts similarly to a syringe. A single Parasite can hold 5 embryos at a time and can regenerate them given time, but are usually killed off after finishing a single mission. They eat half of what a soldier does, but do not generally live long enough to feed.
Technological Overview:
The Qit, most likely due to their incredible focus on biotechnology, do not use traditional tech. Instead, they use biological counterparts. They are not unwilling to use traditional tech, however, it seems that they do not wish to create their own.
The average queen stands at roughly 2 and a half meters tall, and is capable of flight. While the original queens were made primarily for reproduction and organization, modern Queens include wings in order to allow swift movement. They possess a poisonous spittle, both to protect themselves, and also to assist burrowers in digging the caverns. They have well-developed arms and hands in order to carry units across long distances or over obstacles, allowing mobility when there is no access to the tunnels. These hands are dexterous enough to allow complex manipulation of objects.
The Intelligent rulers of the Qit, the Queens engage in combat just like any other unit in the Swarms. They spend the majority of their time underground laying eggs, but several Queens will usually follow a group of other individuals. They are one of the few units in the Swarms capable of commanding the other Qit, and as such, any individual that exists in a Swarm must remain relatively close to a queen in order to live – The average queen has a range of control of about 10 miles, until her psionic abilities begin to taper off. They are the only units in the Swarms with intelligence, and unlike their minions, are actually willing to compromise and be diplomatic. They are comparable to living computers in terms of processing power, allowing them to think/make decisions quickly, and control the creatures she has dominion over. A Queen is capable of telepathy with non-Qit creatures, thanks to years of evolution in their psionic ability. This allows them to communicate with sentient beings, but this telepathy can be easily blocked out should the recipient wish to ignore the queen. Commands and orders from a queen on a non-Qit are, as expected, completely useless. They consume roughly as much as 3 humans.
The Ziz, unlike most Qit, lacks a direct bug-like appearance. Instead, it has an almost rocky exoskeleton, and barely looks biological at all. Internally, it shares many similarities with the Swarms other units. Many small tumors dot it's surface - these are the drop pods, ready to launch upon mental command. These drop pods are capable of surviving another full month apart from the ziz, but can only contain a small number of Qit The tail provides no speed at all, instead being used to latch onto larger ships and launch drop pods directly inside the ship. The armor on the creature actually acts as 1-way glass - light can get in, and photosynthesis is possible, but it cannot escape, creating the rocky-texture.
Without a doubt the second largest organic being in the known universe, following the Collective itself, the Ziz is the Swarms attempt to traverse the very stars. The Ziz was created after decades of specialization to survive the vacuum of space - and yet, it can only last a month or two before dying. Qit within the Ziz rapidly produce Methane, which the Ziz in turn uses for respiration, releasing oxygen as a waste product. This respiration, along with the along with the presence of feeders, allow the ziz to survive without feeding. Unfortunately, it's exterior can only survive so long without protection from the vacuum.
When spawned, the energy needed for the larva is condensed into a hyper-dense sphere, which is inside of the egg. The egg, overtime, floats up via a methane-filled balloon sac, slowly rising until it eventually escapes the atmosphere. As it does so, the egg grows steadily larger, and eventually, the egg hatches - the massive creature then immediately extends several large, tentacle-like organs to the ground, where the Qit can flow in. The Ziz is in hibernation a short time after hatching, waiting until feeders are planted inside of it before it awakens.
The ziz can move itself quickly by releasing various gasses, and while it's maneuverability and acceleration is poor because of this, it can reach absurd maximum, sub-light speeds (Up to .45C before death). Unfortunately, deceleration is also a slow process, making hard turns and stops impossible for the Ziz. As expected, it is meant for transport, rather than combat.
One of the larger Qit, the Feeder is a combination of both plant and animal. The large sack on top of them is a specialized organ, which can inflate with an incredibly nutritious and calorie-dense pus. The opening below this is the siphon, from which a proboscis can exit. Upon receiving psionic commands, it can eject this pus from the proboscis, usually into a Qit's mouth. They are anchored into the ground via chitin-covered tendrils, which given time, could even burrow into solid steel. Underneath the Feeder is a large pit, where waste and biomass can be put into. Slowly, this is digested by the Feeder, becoming more pus.
About 6 meters in size, the Feeder is more of a structure than an actual Qit. This being is an amalgamation of many different plant species of Nesnora 25L. While most are highly poisonous, Qit genetic manipulation has allowed the Swarms to remove these qualities. Instead, the Feeder possesses insane cultivation abilities – it is capable of thriving in nearly any conditions. While it primarily relies on photosynthesis, it is more than capable of producing puss solely from nutrients in the soil, or even gases in the atmosphere via chemosynthesis. The life cycle of a feeder is as follows: A larvae, receiving enough food and a mental command, forms an egg around itself. Then, the egg sprouts secrete a corrosive acid, which slowly burrows the egg into a pit In the ground. Upon hatching, Tendrils begin to grow, and lift the Feeder. This is a 3-week period, and during it, the Feeder lays down root-like structures into the pit, along with an animal-like stomach. After these three weeks, the creature is fully grown, and begins to produce pus. A single feeder could supply food for 20 Humans daily if given sunlight, but only half as much if it must rely on chemosynthesis or Nutrients. With a steady supply of biomass and sunlight, they could produce enough pus to feed 30 Humans a day, but this is pushing the creature to it's limits, and could only be sustained for a week at most before it dies.
A soft, segmented creature, seemingly lacking any weapons. It possesses two "spines," which painlessly connect itself when it is inside of the host, usually along the stomach wall. Upon doing so, it slowly shifts until the two long spines are deep in the host, allowing the smaller spines to connect to the nervous and circulatory system. The fin-like protrusions are actually stores of chemicals and bacteria, which help adjust hormone levels and even act as a second immune system for the host. These chemicals can be any that the Qit has already consumed, but synthesis of harmful chemicals is impossible. Within each segment is a "Suicide organ," which kills the creature on command and slices it into many, very small chunks, allowing it to be digested and expelled from the body with waste. The mouth, Legs and eyes are leftovers from various species that form the symbiote, which were too hard-wired in the DNA to remove. As such, they are vestigial and useless.
The symbiote is the Qit's attempt to create a "gift" for other species. It is the only creature in the swarms capable of altering other beings besides the Qit, and does so from within the body. By connecting to the nervous system, it is able to directly interface with the brain, and force the hosts brain to use DNA provided by the Symbiote to alter itself. The extent which the host is able to alter itself is limited – they are able to make minor changes like increasing muscle mass and changing hair color incredibly easily, but something like introducing acidic blood, or beginning to grow chitin is beyond the Symbiote's current capabilities. Still, organs that are inside of a creature can be created by the Symbiote – such as creating organs for transplant that are identical to the host, and pose no risk or rejection. Unfortunately, new limbs or any major external feature is currently unavailable. Along with these, however, the Symbiote also acts similar to a stim pack – it can release any chemical that the Qit has consumed before, except poisonous ones. This allows an immediate introduction of morphine or adrenaline in a combat situation, should the Qit discover these substances. Finally, the Symbiote acts as a second immune system, being far more efficient at it as well – most diseases are completely eradicated by it, and several can be prevented by it as well, such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
Despite these boons, there are several drawbacks to using a Symbiote. They are not costly to create, however, supporting them is the hosts duty – even before altering the host, the hosts caloric requirement increases by 250 simply by hosting the creature. This increases dramatically the more alterations the hosts have. Additionally, while they act as an immune system, certain biological weapons would require intense research in order to counter, and may even be impossible to prevent. The process of actual implantation takes several hours, and is incredibly painful – the symbiote must enter through the hosts mouth, slowly crawling along until it reaches the stomach. The pain is so much that the host usually must be put under in order to endure – luckily, the recovery process is only a matter of days, less for races that have a fast regeneration speed. The symbiote dies after 3 year, when constant reproduction of STEM cells places too much stress on the creature. As such, any organs or alterations by the symbiote will slowly fade away, unless a new one is introduced.
Notable Technologies:
Genetic Information Storage
- Less of a technology and more of a use of the Collective. Should a queen ever consume biological matter, she is capable of identifying the genetic structure of it, and send a blueprint via the psionic connection, where it can be accessed by any other queen. This is stored in the Collective until it is needed.
Chitin Mastery
- The chitin of the Qit are impossible without the Qits direct influence - capable of stopping light arms fire easily, and withstanding extended exposure to medium arms fire, it can be sharp enough to cut through steel, and is relatively light. It is the material most exoskeletons and weapons are made of in the swarm.
Cultural Overview:
The Qits lack any real sense of culture - all members of the species aside from the Queens are essentially brain dead, unable to perform basic functions without the constant presence of a queen. The only sense of culture that the Qits possess are their food - they are surprisingly well adapted chefs, and regularly produce gourmet masterpieces from the various Qit species.
Despite their lack of culture, individual queens are very interested in many things - some are in love with gardening, while others write plays and use the various Qit they control to act them out. However, these activities are mediocre at best, and the Qits are starved for culture. An easy alliance could be earned by simply allowing the queens to visit a show or try a new meal.
History:
Nesnora 25L was relatively normal in terms of habitable planets - it was covered in jungles, with small lakes dotting the surface to provide water, and a massive desert on one of the continents. Despite the incredibly high levels of biomass, it remained uncolonized for various reasons. Perhaps the wildlife was too dangerous, or they simply didn't see the point of colonizing a planet with no large bodies of water. For whatever reason, however, Nesnora 25L was left alone - which also allowed the Qits to rise.
The Qits, even before forming the swarms, were the dominant life of Nesnora 25L. Ever since they first evolved, the possessed the ability to pass on certain genetic traits consciously, resulting in incredible specialization as the primitive Qits grew farther apart in terms of appearance. Some didn't even stay entirely animals, as several evolved into stationary plants, subsisting off of their star - Dars. One strain of the Qits, however would eventually prove it's superiority over the others - these were the first queens.
Originally a strong and large hunter, the first Queen was given a higher level of intellect by it's progenitor - the reasons for why are unknown. However, this allowed the queen to realize the true potential of the Qits - and also discover the power of psionics. By using a once vestigial part of the Qit brain, the Ordo Link Index, The first queen was able to establish a weak domination over other Qits. This control was weak, and before long, the queen began to reproduce, focusing on giving the next generation of Queens a better grasp on their psionic abilities, and also increase their intelligence. Very soon, the entire planet was covered with Queens, all of whom were controlling and making more subservient minions.
Everything changed with the discovery of the Collective. Roughly 204 years ago, a queen discovered a massive volcano, just between the desert continent and the edge of the forests - it was nearly indistinguishable from the mountain range it was a part of. Sending a psionic message down, seeing if any queen was already present, she and every other queen were immediately connected mentally - Queens could communicate, regardless of distance, via telepathy. This was the start of the hive mind, and this unification allowed the establishment of the Qits Swarms.
Burrowers were created only a few years later, allowing even the underground to be dominated by the Qits. Soon, the only life remaining on the planet were Qit based, and the Qits recently created their first space craft - The Ziz. It was incredibly difficult to use, considering the difficulty of space flight using biological matter, but it lasted long enough for The Qits to colonize the only other habitable planet in their system - Tholla JW5. Now, with no other method of further colonization, The Qits simply remain on their planets, occasionally sending out signals to the voids of space, and desperately trying to develop longer lasting ships.
Other:
While Qits possess strong psionic powers, they have not weaponized them, with the most direct attempts at using it interspecies being the occasional psionic signal they send into space.
Qits have not experienced first contact.
The collective is a massive Qit, most likely one of the first to exist. It lives in the mantle of Nesnora 25L, and destroying it would mean the complete destruction of the Qit Swarms.
The Qits Swarms
Species:
The Qits are the sole race that makes up the swarm - However, depending on your definitions of "race" or "Species," the Qits could be dozens of species that all share very similar genetic code, and fall under the same name. The Qits currently are in the ballpark of dogs-to-elephants in terms of size, and all possess characteristics reminiscent of insects, such as an exoskeleton and multiple eyes. Some characteristics that are very common include:
Black, beady eyes.
Exoskeletons in darker shade of color.
Very little, if any, hair.
Cold-blooded.
What makes the species unique are two genetic traits that they possess - The ability to selectively pass on genetic material, and the psionic power that the rulers of the species possesses. These gifts have allowed the Qit to become unrivaled on two planets, and allow the Qit to copy and steal genetic information from other species and organisms. For examples of specific Qit units, please see Military and Technology overviews.
Description of government:
The Qit Queens are connected via an incredibly powerful psionic connection, allowing them to speak at all times, and think in unison. This means all decisions are deliberated on for a few seconds, before the intelligent queens settle on an appropriate action. This is done for nearly every action that the queens take, from the establishment of a new hive, to the production of a different type of unit.
The Qits are a Direct Democracy.
Description of military:
Qit military is almost exclusively based on close-quarter combat, with almost no air support. Qit military strategy usually involves attacking from below via burrowers, and then quickly swarming opponents. With no ships, they are unable to participate in ship battles, but are nearly unbeatable when boarding.
Despite their threatening appearance, the teeth are completely harmless – they are meant to assist in reducing drag and remove earth. The Burrower is covered in insanely thick armor, comparable to that of ships. In addition to this, it's streamlined design and relatively light body make it very fast, allowing it to dig at speeds that are unbecoming of the creature's size. Other than its armor and speed, however, the burrower lacks any traditional weaponry, relying on the units it carries with it in order to defend itself. They possess a drill-like tongue (5 Meters in Height and Width), which is easily able to dig earth and is nearly the Burrower's body length. This tongue can be controlled during hibernation, and is generally low-cost energy-wise, used to dig smaller tunnels when Queens are busy.
By far the largest creature that is mass produced in the Swarms, The burrower is over 100 meters in length, and 30 meters in diameter. These monsters are based off of a small worm found in the planets soil, which is capable of digging through solid stone. After increasing its size massively, along with its speed and ability to dig, the Burrower was born. The Burrower is without a doubt one of the strongest assets to the Qit in an invasion scenario – their ability to dig tunnels are unparalleled, even by the most advanced mining equipment. A Burrower does not need to breath, can withstand insane pressures, and can dig/swim 60 mph, 100 if they are straining themselves. They were the creatures that created the tunnel and caverns throughout Nesnora 25L, and should a single burrower get into the soil of a planet, removing a Qit presence becomes exponentially more difficult. A burrower is mostly empty, which allows them to have such gargantuan size while being relatively light. The largest organ being its Transport Stomach – Which can hold a truly staggering number of units.
Stingers are reminiscent of earth wasps – if children had nightmares about giant, murderous wasps. They possess 4 wings, which vibrate quickly to allow the Stinger flight. They possess weak legs, mostly used for carrying larvae and eggs rather than supporting the Stingers weight. When sleeping, they simply land onto the ground, and begin flying again once they have finished resting. The most pronounced part of their bodies are the thorax and stinger, the thorax being a repository which contains roughly 20 stingers at a time. Powerful muscles located at the stinger base, along with chemical reactions and a buildup of gases all work together to allow the Stinger to launch its payload across large distances with strength and accuracy. Unfortunately, it's only real defenses are its shields – the regular exoskeleton is weaker than average, and can be damaged with small arms fire. The Claws above the shield are difficult to use in combat, but are able to cut through trees and similar materials with relative ease, similar to an axe.
One of the few fliers within the Swarms, the Stingers dominate the skies of Nesnora 25L. They are similar in size to a Soldier, but are not bipedal. And are relatively weak at lifting. In exchange, however, Stingers can shoot with surprising strength at long distances, and are some of the only aerial support the Qit has. They are the closest thing the Qit has to artillery, and the Stinger, while slow, has a maximum altitude of nearly 1 mile. A Stinger needs only an hour of sleep a day, and possess excellent senses, making them a good scouting unit. Along with this, they can secrete paralyzing toxins from their stingers, allowing them to take down larger prey alive. Due to their weak leg strength, they are unable to land and be fed by Feeders, which means they must either hunt their own food, or a queen must use another unit to collect the feed and give it to the Stinger. A stinger eats as much food as two humans.
Resembling a cockroach, the Soldiers are an impressive 2 Meters tall, and have a thick exoskeleton defending them from harm. They have strong teeth, which not only allow them to eat nearly any material, but also look creepy to most creatures. They do not possess eyes, instead relying on echolocation and their psionic connection to others in order to "see". This, however, will cause them to be very disorientated in underwater environments, or if sound is unable to travel. Soldiers are constantly grinning, and are known to be eaten by other Qit in times of famine. They taste like chicken, but with less fat and more muscle. The muscles of a soldier can, when pushed hard enough, crack their exoskeletons, and they are usually killed since regrowing an exoskeleton takes too long.
The most basic unit in the Swarms, the Soldier is a melee infantry that is meant to double as a worker or drone. They specialize in combat in an enclosed space where they can make use of their Legs and Claws – Like a tunnel. The Swarms uses them as swarming units, and can take down very large prey using this simple tactic. Coupled with the Soldier's relatively high strength, they make the perfect swarming unit. They have one of the lowest energy costs in the entire Swarms, being able to survive off of half of what normal humans need. They can usually be found underground, digging tunnels, moving food and larvae, or hunting above ground. Soldiers also possess small wings that are used to assist their jumps, which can reach up to 30 feet at maximum. Their claws can dig into steel, allowing them to climb metals that are weaker than or are as strong as steel.
The main body is fairly small, with most of the weight coming from the tail of the Parasite. A hard exoskeleton adorns the body, while the tail retains a fleshy composition. The tail itself is significantly larger and stronger than the rest of the body, capable of launching the Parasite several meters at rapid speeds. It's razor sharp legs are meant for crawling along surfaces, and as such, make traversing soft materials like carpet or soft soil more difficult. There are two ovipositors on the Parasite – one on the ventral side of the body, and one in the lower half of the Tail. The tail ovipositors are far less uncomfortable to be injected with then the body.
The Parasite was created in order to act as an assassination and recon unit. It is able to move more quickly and remain harder to find than nearly any other Qit, and possesses a razor-sharp tail in order to slice vital parts of creatures. It's staple, however, is implanting an undeveloped Qin embryo into the target – this embryo was altered in order to explode upon the mental command of a queen. The organic explosive will also go off should it exit the Queens psionic range. This organic bomb has several methods of assassination, depending on the strain – Spreading incredibly thin wires throughout the veins of a creature and thrashing wildly on command, releasing acidic blood to melt it from the inside, to even just exploding with force comparable to C4. Due to it's small size and relative fragility, however, it is generally not used in direct conflictt. Delivery of the embryo can be done orally, through the ventral ovipositor, or via injection, as the Bladed tail acts similarly to a syringe. A single Parasite can hold 5 embryos at a time and can regenerate them given time, but are usually killed off after finishing a single mission. They eat half of what a soldier does, but do not generally live long enough to feed.
Technological Overview:
The Qit, most likely due to their incredible focus on biotechnology, do not use traditional tech. Instead, they use biological counterparts. They are not unwilling to use traditional tech, however, it seems that they do not wish to create their own.
The average queen stands at roughly 2 and a half meters tall, and is capable of flight. While the original queens were made primarily for reproduction and organization, modern Queens include wings in order to allow swift movement. They possess a poisonous spittle, both to protect themselves, and also to assist burrowers in digging the caverns. They have well-developed arms and hands in order to carry units across long distances or over obstacles, allowing mobility when there is no access to the tunnels. These hands are dexterous enough to allow complex manipulation of objects.
The Intelligent rulers of the Qit, the Queens engage in combat just like any other unit in the Swarms. They spend the majority of their time underground laying eggs, but several Queens will usually follow a group of other individuals. They are one of the few units in the Swarms capable of commanding the other Qit, and as such, any individual that exists in a Swarm must remain relatively close to a queen in order to live – The average queen has a range of control of about 10 miles, until her psionic abilities begin to taper off. They are the only units in the Swarms with intelligence, and unlike their minions, are actually willing to compromise and be diplomatic. They are comparable to living computers in terms of processing power, allowing them to think/make decisions quickly, and control the creatures she has dominion over. A Queen is capable of telepathy with non-Qit creatures, thanks to years of evolution in their psionic ability. This allows them to communicate with sentient beings, but this telepathy can be easily blocked out should the recipient wish to ignore the queen. Commands and orders from a queen on a non-Qit are, as expected, completely useless. They consume roughly as much as 3 humans.
The Ziz, unlike most Qit, lacks a direct bug-like appearance. Instead, it has an almost rocky exoskeleton, and barely looks biological at all. Internally, it shares many similarities with the Swarms other units. Many small tumors dot it's surface - these are the drop pods, ready to launch upon mental command. These drop pods are capable of surviving another full month apart from the ziz, but can only contain a small number of Qit The tail provides no speed at all, instead being used to latch onto larger ships and launch drop pods directly inside the ship. The armor on the creature actually acts as 1-way glass - light can get in, and photosynthesis is possible, but it cannot escape, creating the rocky-texture.
Without a doubt the second largest organic being in the known universe, following the Collective itself, the Ziz is the Swarms attempt to traverse the very stars. The Ziz was created after decades of specialization to survive the vacuum of space - and yet, it can only last a month or two before dying. Qit within the Ziz rapidly produce Methane, which the Ziz in turn uses for respiration, releasing oxygen as a waste product. This respiration, along with the along with the presence of feeders, allow the ziz to survive without feeding. Unfortunately, it's exterior can only survive so long without protection from the vacuum.
When spawned, the energy needed for the larva is condensed into a hyper-dense sphere, which is inside of the egg. The egg, overtime, floats up via a methane-filled balloon sac, slowly rising until it eventually escapes the atmosphere. As it does so, the egg grows steadily larger, and eventually, the egg hatches - the massive creature then immediately extends several large, tentacle-like organs to the ground, where the Qit can flow in. The Ziz is in hibernation a short time after hatching, waiting until feeders are planted inside of it before it awakens.
The ziz can move itself quickly by releasing various gasses, and while it's maneuverability and acceleration is poor because of this, it can reach absurd maximum, sub-light speeds (Up to .45C before death). Unfortunately, deceleration is also a slow process, making hard turns and stops impossible for the Ziz. As expected, it is meant for transport, rather than combat.
One of the larger Qit, the Feeder is a combination of both plant and animal. The large sack on top of them is a specialized organ, which can inflate with an incredibly nutritious and calorie-dense pus. The opening below this is the siphon, from which a proboscis can exit. Upon receiving psionic commands, it can eject this pus from the proboscis, usually into a Qit's mouth. They are anchored into the ground via chitin-covered tendrils, which given time, could even burrow into solid steel. Underneath the Feeder is a large pit, where waste and biomass can be put into. Slowly, this is digested by the Feeder, becoming more pus.
About 6 meters in size, the Feeder is more of a structure than an actual Qit. This being is an amalgamation of many different plant species of Nesnora 25L. While most are highly poisonous, Qit genetic manipulation has allowed the Swarms to remove these qualities. Instead, the Feeder possesses insane cultivation abilities – it is capable of thriving in nearly any conditions. While it primarily relies on photosynthesis, it is more than capable of producing puss solely from nutrients in the soil, or even gases in the atmosphere via chemosynthesis. The life cycle of a feeder is as follows: A larvae, receiving enough food and a mental command, forms an egg around itself. Then, the egg sprouts secrete a corrosive acid, which slowly burrows the egg into a pit In the ground. Upon hatching, Tendrils begin to grow, and lift the Feeder. This is a 3-week period, and during it, the Feeder lays down root-like structures into the pit, along with an animal-like stomach. After these three weeks, the creature is fully grown, and begins to produce pus. A single feeder could supply food for 20 Humans daily if given sunlight, but only half as much if it must rely on chemosynthesis or Nutrients. With a steady supply of biomass and sunlight, they could produce enough pus to feed 30 Humans a day, but this is pushing the creature to it's limits, and could only be sustained for a week at most before it dies.
A soft, segmented creature, seemingly lacking any weapons. It possesses two "spines," which painlessly connect itself when it is inside of the host, usually along the stomach wall. Upon doing so, it slowly shifts until the two long spines are deep in the host, allowing the smaller spines to connect to the nervous and circulatory system. The fin-like protrusions are actually stores of chemicals and bacteria, which help adjust hormone levels and even act as a second immune system for the host. These chemicals can be any that the Qit has already consumed, but synthesis of harmful chemicals is impossible. Within each segment is a "Suicide organ," which kills the creature on command and slices it into many, very small chunks, allowing it to be digested and expelled from the body with waste. The mouth, Legs and eyes are leftovers from various species that form the symbiote, which were too hard-wired in the DNA to remove. As such, they are vestigial and useless.
The symbiote is the Qit's attempt to create a "gift" for other species. It is the only creature in the swarms capable of altering other beings besides the Qit, and does so from within the body. By connecting to the nervous system, it is able to directly interface with the brain, and force the hosts brain to use DNA provided by the Symbiote to alter itself. The extent which the host is able to alter itself is limited – they are able to make minor changes like increasing muscle mass and changing hair color incredibly easily, but something like introducing acidic blood, or beginning to grow chitin is beyond the Symbiote's current capabilities. Still, organs that are inside of a creature can be created by the Symbiote – such as creating organs for transplant that are identical to the host, and pose no risk or rejection. Unfortunately, new limbs or any major external feature is currently unavailable. Along with these, however, the Symbiote also acts similar to a stim pack – it can release any chemical that the Qit has consumed before, except poisonous ones. This allows an immediate introduction of morphine or adrenaline in a combat situation, should the Qit discover these substances. Finally, the Symbiote acts as a second immune system, being far more efficient at it as well – most diseases are completely eradicated by it, and several can be prevented by it as well, such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
Despite these boons, there are several drawbacks to using a Symbiote. They are not costly to create, however, supporting them is the hosts duty – even before altering the host, the hosts caloric requirement increases by 250 simply by hosting the creature. This increases dramatically the more alterations the hosts have. Additionally, while they act as an immune system, certain biological weapons would require intense research in order to counter, and may even be impossible to prevent. The process of actual implantation takes several hours, and is incredibly painful – the symbiote must enter through the hosts mouth, slowly crawling along until it reaches the stomach. The pain is so much that the host usually must be put under in order to endure – luckily, the recovery process is only a matter of days, less for races that have a fast regeneration speed. The symbiote dies after 3 year, when constant reproduction of STEM cells places too much stress on the creature. As such, any organs or alterations by the symbiote will slowly fade away, unless a new one is introduced.
Notable Technologies:
Genetic Information Storage
- Less of a technology and more of a use of the Collective. Should a queen ever consume biological matter, she is capable of identifying the genetic structure of it, and send a blueprint via the psionic connection, where it can be accessed by any other queen. This is stored in the Collective until it is needed.
Chitin Mastery
- The chitin of the Qit are impossible without the Qits direct influence - capable of stopping light arms fire easily, and withstanding extended exposure to medium arms fire, it can be sharp enough to cut through steel, and is relatively light. It is the material most exoskeletons and weapons are made of in the swarm.
Cultural Overview:
The Qits lack any real sense of culture - all members of the species aside from the Queens are essentially brain dead, unable to perform basic functions without the constant presence of a queen. The only sense of culture that the Qits possess are their food - they are surprisingly well adapted chefs, and regularly produce gourmet masterpieces from the various Qit species.
Despite their lack of culture, individual queens are very interested in many things - some are in love with gardening, while others write plays and use the various Qit they control to act them out. However, these activities are mediocre at best, and the Qits are starved for culture. An easy alliance could be earned by simply allowing the queens to visit a show or try a new meal.
History:
Nesnora 25L was relatively normal in terms of habitable planets - it was covered in jungles, with small lakes dotting the surface to provide water, and a massive desert on one of the continents. Despite the incredibly high levels of biomass, it remained uncolonized for various reasons. Perhaps the wildlife was too dangerous, or they simply didn't see the point of colonizing a planet with no large bodies of water. For whatever reason, however, Nesnora 25L was left alone - which also allowed the Qits to rise.
The Qits, even before forming the swarms, were the dominant life of Nesnora 25L. Ever since they first evolved, the possessed the ability to pass on certain genetic traits consciously, resulting in incredible specialization as the primitive Qits grew farther apart in terms of appearance. Some didn't even stay entirely animals, as several evolved into stationary plants, subsisting off of their star - Dars. One strain of the Qits, however would eventually prove it's superiority over the others - these were the first queens.
Originally a strong and large hunter, the first Queen was given a higher level of intellect by it's progenitor - the reasons for why are unknown. However, this allowed the queen to realize the true potential of the Qits - and also discover the power of psionics. By using a once vestigial part of the Qit brain, the Ordo Link Index, The first queen was able to establish a weak domination over other Qits. This control was weak, and before long, the queen began to reproduce, focusing on giving the next generation of Queens a better grasp on their psionic abilities, and also increase their intelligence. Very soon, the entire planet was covered with Queens, all of whom were controlling and making more subservient minions.
Everything changed with the discovery of the Collective. Roughly 204 years ago, a queen discovered a massive volcano, just between the desert continent and the edge of the forests - it was nearly indistinguishable from the mountain range it was a part of. Sending a psionic message down, seeing if any queen was already present, she and every other queen were immediately connected mentally - Queens could communicate, regardless of distance, via telepathy. This was the start of the hive mind, and this unification allowed the establishment of the Qits Swarms.
Burrowers were created only a few years later, allowing even the underground to be dominated by the Qits. Soon, the only life remaining on the planet were Qit based, and the Qits recently created their first space craft - The Ziz. It was incredibly difficult to use, considering the difficulty of space flight using biological matter, but it lasted long enough for The Qits to colonize the only other habitable planet in their system - Tholla JW5. Now, with no other method of further colonization, The Qits simply remain on their planets, occasionally sending out signals to the voids of space, and desperately trying to develop longer lasting ships.
Other:
While Qits possess strong psionic powers, they have not weaponized them, with the most direct attempts at using it interspecies being the occasional psionic signal they send into space.
Qits have not experienced first contact.
The collective is a massive Qit, most likely one of the first to exist. It lives in the mantle of Nesnora 25L, and destroying it would mean the complete destruction of the Qit Swarms.
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DRACHENREICH
Also called the Dragonrealm it describes an ancient culture of wanderers who spend most of their lives in space habitats. They're spread out and only sporadically make contact with outsiders. They refer to their species as "Asterians" or the children of stars and are known to have a vaguely feudalistic government lead by the Kaiser.
Cultural Overview
Asterians believe in the fact that living on planets and other large astrological bodies with notable gravity would weight down their souls and lead to their moral/ethical ruin. As such they prefer to live in artificial environments of the space habitats, albeit dwarf planets and asteroids ae also acceptable. They are often nomadic, preferring to not remain at the same place for long. Nobody knows the time when they've left their homeworld as history record from the early age are scarce if even non-existent. Some think it was deliberate erasure by the current government while others believe it could've been an accident. Drachenreich subjects in general are xenophobic and don't trust outsiders and even fellow Asterians from distant colonies have a hard time to warm up to each other. They live in a relatively rigid social system of commoners (Landsmanner) and nobles (Edel) with one of the most appreciated values being one's magic aptitude. Through intermarriage and other customs for millennia the nobles have a much higher magic potential in general and they use this fact to claim genetic superiority. On the other hand Asterian culture doesn't really have a much of a distinction between genders when it comes to jobs or even titles. A girl in Asterian society can equally inherit a noble house's properties and a considerable number of Drachenreich's rulers were female under the title of Kaiserin.
As for timekeeping the Asterians use cycles instead of days which equals roughly 10 terrestrial hours. Work and rest is usually in different cycles altogether albeit for better efficiency they invented quarter-cycles and even tenth-cycles (decicycle, roughly equivalent to an hour). Decicycles are split to 100 milicycles and those to 100 moments. As such an "asterian day" (cycle) is 4 quartercycles or 10 decicycles, or 1000 milicycles or 100000 moments depending on which measurement unit you use. An Asterian "week" is 10 cycles and usually is referred as "Decans" an abreviation of decacycles. Their "months" are 100 cycles and referred as "Periods", each named after an Asterian mythological figure. An asterian "year" is always 1000 cycles long and while it can be called kilocycle its more common names include Alt, Yahr or just simply year. Asterian calendar takes the date of the Reich's foundation as its "zero date" anything before that is "vor dem Reich" (before the Realm, abbreviated as VR) and anything after it is "in dem Reich" (within the Realm, abbreviated as IR). The current date (during the RP's start, at least) is IR 12497. When writing down exact dates they use a simple system (for example the 10th cycle of Drachonar (3rd decan) in IR12497 would be: IR 12497.0310). This can even go down to subcycles as say during the same cycle 12497.03100543 means that it's past the fifth decicycle and at the 43rd milicycle. For ease they at times divide the different types with full stops (like for example: 12497.03.10.05.43) but this isn't the standard everywhere. The reason for such clinically neat system is simple, Asterians are space travelers with no fix reference point for time aside from computers counting its passage. In addition given the distance it isn't rare for the calendars of faraway colonies to diverge to a considerable amount. To avoid this going overboard Drachenstadt's time is taken as the global standard and periodically all colonies synchronize to them. That being said there are rare cases when distant colonies fail to contact/synchronize with Drachenstadt for years. And of course rouge colonies and other factions not officially part of Drachenreich no longer synchronize with the capital's calendars. This is of course the source of a myriad of nuanced issues.
Asterians, the star children, are considered a humanoid race especially as far as appearances go. Their outward looks are strikingly similar to humans with the only obvious difference being the pointed ears. That being said in terms of skin tone and hair colors the Asterians have a wide range of faint metallic tones, blue hair or even skin aren't that unusual for them. Physiologically though the Asterians are very divergent from humans, only sharing a similar setup/function for vital organs but not even their chemical makeup. Asterian bones for example are made up from a metallic material not native on Earth and their bloodstream flows with a brownish yellow liquid. Though it does worth noting that high magical aptitude can change the color of blood to glowing cyan blue, a common indicator of noble heritage. Average height for Asterians is in the range of 150-170cm and life expectancy is around 90-120 years albeit gifted and wealthy individuals might live for hundreds of years. In spite of their appearance it's impossible for a human and an Asterian to have children together.
Giant cylindrical space vessels vaguely resembling O'Neill type of rotating space habitats. Their typical dimensions being 6km wide and 36km long albeit this can vary a lot. There are small colonies that are only 8km long and there's Drachenstadt which is 120km long at total and has specialized facilities that can assemble new colonies from scratch. Building a colony doesn't necessarily require Drachenstadt's facilities and many aristocrats expand their territory through starting their own colony building projects but the capital has by far the most efficient means.
The interior walls of a colony are planted with soil and have blooming vegetation, animals and overall an enjoyable biosphere for the inhabitants. Artificial gravity, generated by centrifugal force, is around half that of Earth's albeit this can vary per design, so does the atmospheric pressure. Light is artificially generated and inhabitants usually can watch a virtual sky projected from the center. The central portion is under zero gravity and is usually reserved for large scale production facilities. A colony is always under the jurisdiction of a noble, usually at least medium rank, and can be equated to medieval age fiefs. The population of a colony varies, mostly depends on size, facilities, taxes and age. While they have propulsion and FTL capability a space habitat is no combat vessel, nor is it practical to mount anything but perhaps the most basic defenses on it. As such these ships in spite of their immense size contribute nothing directly to combat and it's the duty of the defense fleet to protect them. Also while colonies are by far the most common dwelling for Asterian population, it isn't the only one. Asteroid colonies or other mining facilities also have their workforce and occasionally they even live on planets. Still, even those usually wish to live on the traveling colony ships the species is famous for.
Government Overview
Drachenreich is considered a monarchy, lead by the Kaiser or Kaiserin. This is an elected title granted through the support of the aristocracy and could be revoked any time using the same measures. Candidates are usually (albeit not always) are chosen from the Seven Great Houses. The feuds and alliances of these families determine much of the Dragonrealm internal politics. Infighting, coups and rebellions aren't uncommon. As a true feudalist system the majority of colonies are under the hold of the aristocrats, only Drachenstadt and the few core colonies surrounding it are the Crown's explicit property. The basic requirement of stable rulership requires the candidate to own considerable personal holdings and/or set up a strong web of alliances owning most property. Legislature is split between the upper and lower houses. Also referred as the High Council the upper house consists of the eldest active members of each Great House, the Kaiser/Kaiserin and the senior heads of other major owners. Edler (nobles) have the opportunity to request audience within the High Council and may even participate for a session if given the Kaiser's permission. Commoners though can only enter the halls if specifically invited and only as long as they're needed. Lower house describes the gathering and legislative body of local representatives, one for each colony or major outpost. Each vote is weighed by the count of lives within that property, at times with a multiplier weighing into the results. The latter is mostly used to give mining outposts a more realistic importance in votes as their economic influence can shape entire regions. Laws are always created in the upper house which the lower house only need to accept and make the preparations to enforce them. At times the lower house might not be satisfied with the details of the law and instead submit a modified version back to the upper house. Alternatively the lower house can give suggestions for new laws or royal actions. Unlike in many of the more democratic systems the lower house is weaker and does not have the authority to check and limit the upper house's power.
Technology Overview
Drachenreich is an ancient civilization with numerous discoveries and scientific achievements in the past. Correspondingly they have a fairly developed industry and relatively sophisticated technology. On the other hand their social structure is often even makes them opposed to any meaningful innovation which rendered their technological level mostly stagnant. While they have kept refining their technology for those millennia the most significant scientific developments were through adopting technology from others. Their industry generally thrives on exploiting nebulas and asteroids for their resources and rather than improving the efficiency they're more inclined to just raise the sheer quantity of collectors. Another common sector is agriculture which tends to use relatively traditionalist farms. Synthetic foods are incredibly uncommon, only used when all else is unavailable. AI technology exists and helps industrial processes but they aren't advanced enough to replace all forms of manual labor, nor there's an interest to do that. Small scale manufacture is also likes using live workforce but when it comes to larger scale projects the automatization grows immensely. Most Asterian colonies have a large mile-wide if not larger cylindrical portion in their center dedicated to nothing but heavy industry, often while abusing the benefits of near-vacuum and zero gravity environment. And these literal giants of industry are supported by a flood of resource collection units and transports ferrying materials from interstellar distances. Drachenreich has a stagnant technological environment but only because their current level of development is more than sufficient to sustain or even keep on growing. That and dramatic changes to technology would undoubtedly change their society, a notion which the nobility is outright afraid of.
- Atomic Reactors: An evolution of nuclear reactors which relies on advanced forcefield and magic crystal technology to use any of the common materials as nuclear fuel and with high efficiency. The system is highly regulated, safe and widespread in use. For such reasons Asterians don't seem to rely on solar energy at all as nuclear power practically always worth it for them.
- Thermokinetic Engines: A complex powerplant which can turn kinetic and thermal energy into electric power or in reverse. At large scale this is often used as secondary power generation and efficiency improving measures while the reverse has common use for locomotion in ground vehicles.
- Mechanocells: Also referred as kinetic battery, it's a power storage method which uses nano scale surfaces and spring mechanism to store pure mechanical energy. When required this power can be converted to electricity thus providing a lightweight and compact alternative to classic batteries.
- Annie: Carbonic material with specially engineered electron structure to produce an electric field sufficient to hold antimatter particles. Antimatter Neutral Medium or "Annie" is effectively a fuel source used for simple applications like powering smaller rockets.
- Positronic Capacitors: High-powered energy storage method which turns electricity into positrons. As matter-antimatter annihilation occurs within femtoseconds it allows extremely fast impulse energies necessary for certain high energy applications including FTL drives and even weaponry.
- Nanolathes: By using forcefields as a 3D blueprint and inject nanoparticles it's possible to produce complex objects relatively quickly and without the usual upfront costs for acquiring the right machinery. Nanolathes are energy demanding processes but are highly popular and modified versions are even used for research purposes. That being said nanolathes can't replace all industrial processes or not without sacrificing quality. As such classic construction methods are still in use.
- Durametals: A large group of engineered transuranic metals that have massive densities along with various unique properties. Durasteel for example is a standard high strength material used in almost anything for structural reasons. Durabar on the other hand has excellent radiation absorption properties. Over the millennia durametals went from a niche into widespread use and the only cheap objects are made from lighter materials. Even when weight is considered the Asterians developed Duramesh which is a spongy metal foam. This both saves resources and can result in a much lighter body.
- Inertial Control Devices: To handle accelerations at warp speeds Asterians developed a technology which could control weight and redirect inertia from specific parts of the vessel. This isn't much different from similar technologies introduced by other spacefaring civilizations and as others they also made use of it in other fields like hovertech or lifting heavy objects. Inertia manipulation also found military uses like the iconic Gravity Blades that help delivering greater blows through manipulating the mass behind each strike.
- Jumpdrive: The simplest FTL drive known, commonly used by many other civilizations. Jumpdrives work by traveling through subspace which effectively allows going from one point of realspace to the other while traveling considerably less. The drawback is that, at least for Asterian variants of the drive, it has limited operation time which ultimately restricts this to shorter ranges.
- Hyperdrive: A variant of jumpdrives which dwelves deeper into subspace called the "hyperspace". This effectively allows faster travel albeit restricting it to the so-called "hyperlanes". It's like traveling in stable corridors within the chaotic swirl of imaginary space. As such distances in realspace might not equate for the same in hyperspace. Neighboring star systems might be more distant in hyperspace than another coordinate hundreds of lightyears away. This also explains the dispersed nature of Dragonrealm colonies. While any sufficiently well-equipped vessel can have a Jumpdrive the Hyperdrives are restricted to only colony ships and the largest vessels. This is due to their complexity and horrible energy demands.
- Thermokinetic Engines: A complex powerplant which can turn kinetic and thermal energy into electric power or in reverse. At large scale this is often used as secondary power generation and efficiency improving measures while the reverse has common use for locomotion in ground vehicles.
- Mechanocells: Also referred as kinetic battery, it's a power storage method which uses nano scale surfaces and spring mechanism to store pure mechanical energy. When required this power can be converted to electricity thus providing a lightweight and compact alternative to classic batteries.
- Annie: Carbonic material with specially engineered electron structure to produce an electric field sufficient to hold antimatter particles. Antimatter Neutral Medium or "Annie" is effectively a fuel source used for simple applications like powering smaller rockets.
- Positronic Capacitors: High-powered energy storage method which turns electricity into positrons. As matter-antimatter annihilation occurs within femtoseconds it allows extremely fast impulse energies necessary for certain high energy applications including FTL drives and even weaponry.
- Nanolathes: By using forcefields as a 3D blueprint and inject nanoparticles it's possible to produce complex objects relatively quickly and without the usual upfront costs for acquiring the right machinery. Nanolathes are energy demanding processes but are highly popular and modified versions are even used for research purposes. That being said nanolathes can't replace all industrial processes or not without sacrificing quality. As such classic construction methods are still in use.
- Durametals: A large group of engineered transuranic metals that have massive densities along with various unique properties. Durasteel for example is a standard high strength material used in almost anything for structural reasons. Durabar on the other hand has excellent radiation absorption properties. Over the millennia durametals went from a niche into widespread use and the only cheap objects are made from lighter materials. Even when weight is considered the Asterians developed Duramesh which is a spongy metal foam. This both saves resources and can result in a much lighter body.
- Inertial Control Devices: To handle accelerations at warp speeds Asterians developed a technology which could control weight and redirect inertia from specific parts of the vessel. This isn't much different from similar technologies introduced by other spacefaring civilizations and as others they also made use of it in other fields like hovertech or lifting heavy objects. Inertia manipulation also found military uses like the iconic Gravity Blades that help delivering greater blows through manipulating the mass behind each strike.
- Jumpdrive: The simplest FTL drive known, commonly used by many other civilizations. Jumpdrives work by traveling through subspace which effectively allows going from one point of realspace to the other while traveling considerably less. The drawback is that, at least for Asterian variants of the drive, it has limited operation time which ultimately restricts this to shorter ranges.
- Hyperdrive: A variant of jumpdrives which dwelves deeper into subspace called the "hyperspace". This effectively allows faster travel albeit restricting it to the so-called "hyperlanes". It's like traveling in stable corridors within the chaotic swirl of imaginary space. As such distances in realspace might not equate for the same in hyperspace. Neighboring star systems might be more distant in hyperspace than another coordinate hundreds of lightyears away. This also explains the dispersed nature of Dragonrealm colonies. While any sufficiently well-equipped vessel can have a Jumpdrive the Hyperdrives are restricted to only colony ships and the largest vessels. This is due to their complexity and horrible energy demands.
Military Overview
Like the government, Drachenreich's military is in the hands of nobles. Every Lord has obligations to maintain an army for defense. Yet more often than not these are insufficient for anything more than internal security. As such for over a millennia it's a common practice for Lords to rent the services of knight orders. Knights (Ritter) are a portion of the nobility who dedicate their lives for warfare. They generally do that by joining one of the myriad of knight orders starting as a mere apprentice, squire and then become a fully fledged knight. Landeritters are the lowest rank who are little more than common troops while Rittermeister (Knight Lords) are managing an entire Mobile Castle (Kriegschloss). The supreme leader of each knight order are called the Hochmeister (Grandmaster). Since reliable interstellar travel required massive vessels they invented the Mobile Castles (Kriegschlösser) which serve as a mobile fortress and base of operations. They carry both troops and service staff required for long campaigns and some of these castles are indeed on permanent patrol duty. Of course as a mobile base the Kriegschlösser aren't fit to be general frontline vessel and instead they use small ships for that purpose. Yet during combat in space the primary focus is on the Eisenreisen (meaning: Iron Giants), 8+ meters tall giant mechs with capability to fight in space and even inside colonies.
250-1000m long armored compact space colonies and battle fortresses that serve as the knights' primary base of operation. Due to its size it doesn't have the same amenities as civilian colonies and relies entirely on artificial gravity instead of the old method of centrifugal force. These vessels are well-protected with the mix of gravity barriers and thick duracomposite armor plates and of course equipped with numerous weapon stations for self-defense. Most castles also have a large durasteel spike used for ramming attacks albeit some prefer giant energy cannons. That being said their primary role is to be the mobile habitat of knightly forces and their servants. As such they have lot of space for equipment, docks for larger vessels, refineries, factories and everything to wage war and to be relatively self-sufficient.
Used to be the backbone of Asterian space forces they are nowadays closer to fire support and battle carriers. They are powerful yet don't approach the sheer versatility of Eisenreise which makes their combat role only secondary yet just as necessary.
Giant humanoid machines that form the backbone of knightly forces. Their appearance is synonymous with the Ritter title and their contribution to battles is the subject of nearly every legend. Their ultracompact atomic reactors give them considerable power while the combination of impulse drives along with inertia control mechanism give it phenomenal agility in space. Their combat role roughly equals that of space fighters albeit with a lot more focus on agility and fighting techniques. They also have a tendency to choose close combat where their Gravity Blades and Gravity Lances can turn their momentum and energy reserves to devastating strikes. There are various models and different regions tend to prefer different models as their standard. Commoners who piloted Eisenreise usually received outdated models while a Landeritter would use amore up to date yet standard variant. Distinguished knights often customized their mechs and some even went for higher grade machines built directly to their specs. Such aces are often the pride and greatest asset of a knightly order.
Simply referred as armed vehicles, this is a category for mostly ground vehicles. Since the Dragonrealm is diverse this is reflected back the most in the chaos that accounting for various ground vehicle variants. They can range from repurposed civilian vehicles to mass-produced vehicles unique to a certain house or even entirely custom battlewagons sparing no cost in their construction. As such rather than trying to reconcile these Crown had introduced an universal standard system categorizing these vehicles.
Most land vehicles have conventional propulsion like wheels and threads and use thermokinetic engines powered by either Annie or mechanocells rather than atomic reactors. When a vehicle is hover-capable it's signified with an S (Schwebend) letter at the end, ie: Wwgn-10S. Similarly if it's flight-capable but still mostly considered a surface vehicle than aircraft it gains the F letter, Flügend. If a vehicle has an ultracompact atomic rather than traditional powerplant then it gains the N designation, Nuklearen.
Vehicle Examples:
Origin: Drachenstadt
Year of Adoption: IR9807
Length: ~ 6m
Weight: ~ 60 metric tons
By the 10th millennium the Realm had over a hundred different tank designs with different sizes, weights and entirely different components. That was fine until the XXXIX Crusade declared against the Sectoids. With the largest land offensive known in millennia the colonies transported their myriad of different combat vehicles to assist the cause. Yet the result was nothing but chaos as the logistical nightmare of servicing so many kinds of vehicles became apparent. While the Realm narrowly escaped the embarrassment the Crown soon focused on developing new standards for vehicles to avoid similar issues in the future. Part of that involved the development of the new stanard tank, the Löwe. Compact, cheap and reliable. These were the main characteristics of the vehicle. It's been over 2000 years since the vehicle's debut but with constant upgrades and modifications it remains the mainstay tank of the Realm, known in over a thousand different variants.
Official Name: Allseitigskampfpanzer 11948 (advertised as the "Generalpanzer", also referred as AKP)
Origin: Walstadt
Year of Adoption: IR11948
Length: 5.432m
Weight: 108.921 metric tons
The so-called "Universal Tank" designed by the large factory complex of Walstadt under the authority of the Bernfried Family, this vehicle soon gained both fame and notoriety. Designed as a versatile and powerful battle tank it has the latest advancements in duracomposite technologies to give it the greatest armor coverage for surface area. In addition it sports the latest sensors and a blistering arsenal of 4 different weapons. Its main armament is a compact macro particle cannon which necessitated an atomic reactor. The gun has a co-axial Maschinbolzer for conserving power against lighter targets. On the turret's sides it mounts a rotary heavy bolter and a railgun each. Being an oversized Bolzer with multiple barrels and special cooling to achieve huge rate of fire it's effective against both infantry and aircraft. The railgun on the side is an improvement over a weapon almost deemed archaic by this date. It has limited ammo but the capability to rapidly fire rounds that can threaten even Eisenreise in combat. As its title says this vehicle was meant to handle all threats it could face while defending a colony. In a sense this vehicle gave commoners the ability to fight nobles on equal footing and this made the rest of the Great Houses outraged. Currently the Generalpanzer is banned in all colonies save for the ones owned by the Bernfrieds and there are new restrictions put on the technology of surface combatants that aren't Eisenreise.
Official Name: Schebendkraftmakropartikelgeschütz 10921 (nicknamed "Hellengeist")
Classification: Wwgn-100SN (nuclear powered, hover capable, 100-ton class)
Origin: Zhingstadt
Year of Adoption: IR10921
Length: ~ 12m
Weight: ~ 88 metric tons
A relatively simple yet powerful type of "artillery" produced by merging a large macro particle cannon to the frame of a large hovercraft. The result was a versatile platform that can be used for multiple purposes. Depending on adjustments the macro particle stream can be focused to punch through defenses and detonate its unstable material within or widen it to cover a large area in deadly sub-microscopic fragments. While similar vehicles emerged before by far Zhingstadt's variant proved the most popular and by the 11th millennium most colonies adopted licensed variants for their own defense. Specialized variants with better sealed frame are also employed on the outer hull of colonies for fending off spacecraft. One of the design's main weaknesses is protection as it sacrifices armor for internal space, ease of maintenance and mobility. As such these vehicles are the most effective when escorted by other units. Another problem is that while considered artillery by the Drachenreich this weapon is only capable of firing at its direct line of sight. Anything in its path may interfere with the weapon. This is less of an issue when most "surface combat" takes place within the interior of space colonies but it would limit the range considerably when a planet's curvature is involved.
- Wwgn-1: Ultralight vehicles with the maximum weight of 1 ton.
- Wwgn-10: Light vehicles with the maximum weight of 10 tons.
- Wwgn-25: Intermediate class vehicles with up to 25 tons of weight.
- Wwgn-50: Medium-class vehicles with up to 50 tons.
- Wwgn-100: Heavy vehicles up to the 100-ton range. Often battletanks or heavy artillery.
- Wwgn-100+: Superheavy combat vehicles with over 100 tons of weight. They are usually custom-made and rare.
- Wwgn-1000+: Not an official classification but semi-popular for referring to gigantic mobile constructs that stretch the meaning of vehicle.
Most land vehicles have conventional propulsion like wheels and threads and use thermokinetic engines powered by either Annie or mechanocells rather than atomic reactors. When a vehicle is hover-capable it's signified with an S (Schwebend) letter at the end, ie: Wwgn-10S. Similarly if it's flight-capable but still mostly considered a surface vehicle than aircraft it gains the F letter, Flügend. If a vehicle has an ultracompact atomic rather than traditional powerplant then it gains the N designation, Nuklearen.
Vehicle Examples:
Origin: Drachenstadt
Year of Adoption: IR9807
Length: ~ 6m
Weight: ~ 60 metric tons
By the 10th millennium the Realm had over a hundred different tank designs with different sizes, weights and entirely different components. That was fine until the XXXIX Crusade declared against the Sectoids. With the largest land offensive known in millennia the colonies transported their myriad of different combat vehicles to assist the cause. Yet the result was nothing but chaos as the logistical nightmare of servicing so many kinds of vehicles became apparent. While the Realm narrowly escaped the embarrassment the Crown soon focused on developing new standards for vehicles to avoid similar issues in the future. Part of that involved the development of the new stanard tank, the Löwe. Compact, cheap and reliable. These were the main characteristics of the vehicle. It's been over 2000 years since the vehicle's debut but with constant upgrades and modifications it remains the mainstay tank of the Realm, known in over a thousand different variants.
Official Name: Allseitigskampfpanzer 11948 (advertised as the "Generalpanzer", also referred as AKP)
Origin: Walstadt
Year of Adoption: IR11948
Length: 5.432m
Weight: 108.921 metric tons
The so-called "Universal Tank" designed by the large factory complex of Walstadt under the authority of the Bernfried Family, this vehicle soon gained both fame and notoriety. Designed as a versatile and powerful battle tank it has the latest advancements in duracomposite technologies to give it the greatest armor coverage for surface area. In addition it sports the latest sensors and a blistering arsenal of 4 different weapons. Its main armament is a compact macro particle cannon which necessitated an atomic reactor. The gun has a co-axial Maschinbolzer for conserving power against lighter targets. On the turret's sides it mounts a rotary heavy bolter and a railgun each. Being an oversized Bolzer with multiple barrels and special cooling to achieve huge rate of fire it's effective against both infantry and aircraft. The railgun on the side is an improvement over a weapon almost deemed archaic by this date. It has limited ammo but the capability to rapidly fire rounds that can threaten even Eisenreise in combat. As its title says this vehicle was meant to handle all threats it could face while defending a colony. In a sense this vehicle gave commoners the ability to fight nobles on equal footing and this made the rest of the Great Houses outraged. Currently the Generalpanzer is banned in all colonies save for the ones owned by the Bernfrieds and there are new restrictions put on the technology of surface combatants that aren't Eisenreise.
Official Name: Schebendkraftmakropartikelgeschütz 10921 (nicknamed "Hellengeist")
Classification: Wwgn-100SN (nuclear powered, hover capable, 100-ton class)
Origin: Zhingstadt
Year of Adoption: IR10921
Length: ~ 12m
Weight: ~ 88 metric tons
A relatively simple yet powerful type of "artillery" produced by merging a large macro particle cannon to the frame of a large hovercraft. The result was a versatile platform that can be used for multiple purposes. Depending on adjustments the macro particle stream can be focused to punch through defenses and detonate its unstable material within or widen it to cover a large area in deadly sub-microscopic fragments. While similar vehicles emerged before by far Zhingstadt's variant proved the most popular and by the 11th millennium most colonies adopted licensed variants for their own defense. Specialized variants with better sealed frame are also employed on the outer hull of colonies for fending off spacecraft. One of the design's main weaknesses is protection as it sacrifices armor for internal space, ease of maintenance and mobility. As such these vehicles are the most effective when escorted by other units. Another problem is that while considered artillery by the Drachenreich this weapon is only capable of firing at its direct line of sight. Anything in its path may interfere with the weapon. This is less of an issue when most "surface combat" takes place within the interior of space colonies but it would limit the range considerably when a planet's curvature is involved.
Drachenreich infantry can be listed under two categories guardsmen and the knights. Guardsmen are commoners equipped with simple armors of the breastplate, helm and chainmail variety made of duramaterials. Their weaponry varies depending on the culture and wealth of the region but they most commonly use Feuerbolzers. Their sidearms are referred as "GG Blades" with the first two letters being an acronym for "Gravis Gladii". That is because they are effectively compact Gravity Blades using a tiny inertia control device to deliver powerful blows while an extremely thin durasteel edge gives them unparalleled cutting ability. Commoner issue GG Blades usually don't rely on magic and instead need a button press to activate the field which suddenly increases the weight of the blade to 5-50 times that of normal (depending on design and personal preferences). Special weapons are rare for those who were only tasked with policing and town watch duties. Common infantry affiliated with Knights often have teams centering around a specific heavy weapon like Maschinbolzers, missile launchers, mortars or portable macro particle cannons. Specialists groups may even use backpack mounted rocket engines for higher mobility or to operate outside the colonies (while wearing armor/outfit modified for space use).
While not impossible for Knights to fight on foot they more commonly wear power armor called the Panzerharnisch which gives them extra firepower, mobility and of course protection. The armor is well-sealed and equipped with life support, allowing operation both in and outside the colonies. Weaponry wise they usually have Maschinbolzer strapped to one hand while carrying an upscaled GG Blade in the other. Some variants of the armor can carry extra weapons, missile pods or to be modified to wield large two handed guns. Personal shields on a Panzerharnisch are uncommon but not impossible and nearly all variants have at least a degree of active protection and countermeasures. Lastly it does worth noting that all Eisenreise mechs are designed to interact with the owner's Panzerharnisch. That means these mechs are piloted while the operator is also wearing the Panzerharnisch and should the mech turn inoperable or unable to enter narrow areas the pilot can eject with their power armor to continue the battle. Also it can be said that in a sense Eisenreise are nothing but larger power armors to wear.
Lusus Naturae Freak of Nature
Member
Seen
7 yrs ago
From Stardust...
Name of nation: <<Specimen_002>> (Seeing as they are not a nation but actually one being, they still collectively refer themselves as <<Specimen_002>>
Species: <<Specimen_002>> - <<Specimen_002>> is the remnants of a sentient biological and technological virus created to evolve into the perfect lifeform. The results were unsatisfactory and and the project, planet and <<Specimen_001>> were all destroyed, however they were not careful enough in destroying <<Specimen_001>> and a dying strain was left on the Nullworld where in its final moments gave life to its successor <<Specimen_002>> who lay in a dormant state until it gained enough energy to awaken and start its life.
<<Specimen_002>> can mentally be regarded as a child, It knows little to nothing of the galaxies around it and has not moved from the Nullworld from the time it was born. As it has never had any contact with other lifeforms it does not know of a way to communicate yet. The specimen at the moment does need oxygen to breathe but the air doesn't have to be a pure air as it absorbs pure oxygen, making it immune to any form of gas or dangerous atmosphere. <<Specimen_002>> can take on many forms to get different jobs done and all of these forms are able to duplicate themselves as will(however larger formations take longer to duplicate and twice as long to build from scratch.). (Formations will be listed in another hider)
This entity learns new things through its ability to consume material, living or otherwise and learn from that. For example if it consumed a living being, it would learn and retain anything that creature knew including languages and skills and it would also learn about the biology of the creature. Eg, if it consumed a Firefly, it would understand how it glows through its biology and can replicate it and even create its own version of it as a new form.
Description of government: Singular Entity, Hivemind;
Description of military: <<Specimen_002>>
Technological Overview:
Cultural Overview:
History:
Other:
Species: <<Specimen_002>> - <<Specimen_002>> is the remnants of a sentient biological and technological virus created to evolve into the perfect lifeform. The results were unsatisfactory and and the project, planet and <<Specimen_001>> were all destroyed, however they were not careful enough in destroying <<Specimen_001>> and a dying strain was left on the Nullworld where in its final moments gave life to its successor <<Specimen_002>> who lay in a dormant state until it gained enough energy to awaken and start its life.
<<Specimen_002>> can mentally be regarded as a child, It knows little to nothing of the galaxies around it and has not moved from the Nullworld from the time it was born. As it has never had any contact with other lifeforms it does not know of a way to communicate yet. The specimen at the moment does need oxygen to breathe but the air doesn't have to be a pure air as it absorbs pure oxygen, making it immune to any form of gas or dangerous atmosphere. <<Specimen_002>> can take on many forms to get different jobs done and all of these forms are able to duplicate themselves as will(however larger formations take longer to duplicate and twice as long to build from scratch.). (Formations will be listed in another hider)
This entity learns new things through its ability to consume material, living or otherwise and learn from that. For example if it consumed a living being, it would learn and retain anything that creature knew including languages and skills and it would also learn about the biology of the creature. Eg, if it consumed a Firefly, it would understand how it glows through its biology and can replicate it and even create its own version of it as a new form.
Description of government: Singular Entity, Hivemind;
Description of military: <<Specimen_002>>
Technological Overview:
Cultural Overview:
History:
Other:
coGM
Keyguyperson Welcome to Cyberhell
Member
Seen
1 yr ago
Planetary Alliance Datapacket 229, Priority Ver. To be carried on all Alliance starships in the event of peaceful alien contact. Omission or editing of details is permitted at the discretion of the highest ranking nearby officer (so long as it adheres to sections 89-95 of the Historical and Political Codex). Any such changes should be reported to the Legislative Council to ensure no misunderstandings occur should a delegation visit Alliance space.
The Tougpasa are a bipedal species, likely of slightly shorter stature than other such species due to the high gravity of their homeworld of Wusdafu. It is tidally locked to its sun, a red dwarf star dubbed Shav'nefo (which translates to "sun"), and as a result only has a thin strip of land that is a rainforest, bordered by savanna and steppes. At it's Solward and Antisol poles it is completely uninhabitable, and winds constantly blow from one side of the world to the other. The Shav'nefo system itself is approximately 20 kilo-lightyears from the galactic core.
Ironically, the hells on either side of the world give way to a near paradise at the Solar equator in the middle. A lush rainforest covers the landscape, with most plants having massive leaves to soak up as much of the rare sunlight as possible. The constant, planetary-scale hurricane caused by the nature of the planet gives rise to an almost constant rain within the so-called twilight rainforest. The impact of this environment upon Tougpasa evolution is obvious.
First of all, it is seen in their most prominent feature that sets them apart. The Tougpasa have large, pointed, furry, feline-like ears on the top of their head. They have impressive control over said ears, with countless muscles being dedicated to rotating and turning them to track a sound. Furthermore, their ears have the most nerve endings out of any place on their bodies. This gives them an uncanny ability to hear in their generally rather soundproof native habitat. They also function as heat radiators for Solward inhabitants (the Tougpasa developed better heat dissipation techniques since the Antisol side of the planet is devoid of conventional plant life, and thus only very sparsely populated). It is worth noting that there is a Tougpasa race with smaller, furrier ears that originated on the Antisol side of the planet. The large ears of the majority of the Tougpasa, after all, would have been a liability in an environment which demands maximum heat retention.
Second is their eyesight, which has evolved similar to that of other Wusdafan felines. Their eyes contain a tapetum lucidum-a reflective layer that allows them to see easily at night and in dark areas, with the side effect of making their eyes seem to glow in the dark. This is an adaptation to the heavily wooded rainforests of Wusdafu, as most trees have gigantic leaves in order to soak up as much sunlight as possible, making the ground extremely dark closer to the Antisol side (since less sunlight can reach it). This combined with their hearing has made the Tougpasa excellent hunters, and later on excellent warriors. Also complementing their fighting ability are tails, which allow them to better maintain balance and prevent falling (which is dangerous in Wusdafu's high gravity).
Within their body, they have a variety of different adaptations to their homeworld that aren't immediately noticeable. First of all are their bones, which are notably larger and more robust than those of the fauna on neighboring worlds due to the high gravity of Wusdafu. Their muscles, too, are of a higher density but not physically larger (which tends to make the Tougpasa seem to be impossibly strong on lower gravity planets). Their lungs are also fairly large, as is their heart, in order to allow their bodies to more effectively circulate air and blood in high gravity.
The Tougpasa have no inherent need for sleep. The lack of a day/night cycle on Wusdafu does not lend itself well to lying on the ground unable to respond to any threats for eight hours every day, so like almost all other animal species on Wusdafu they are capable of living their whole lives without sleeping. "Capable" and "Normally", however, are two very different things. Sleep greatly increases Tougpasa lifespans and heightens brain function, and for this purpose most Tougpasa sleep up to five hours a day. It should be noted that, to a species that requires sleep due to a day/night cycle on their homeworld, a Tougpasa may appear to have impeccable memory.
Finally, Tougpasa reproduction is somewhat strange compared to that of other species. An only child for a Touspasa is almost unheard of, and the gestation period is short at approximately 1/5th of a Wusdafan year. The tradeoffs, however, are obvious. A pregnant female flat out cannot fend for themselves, and as hunter-gatherers the Tougpasa would stop in the same general area for the entirety of mating season (and then some) to ensure that all children would be born healthy. The body of a Tougpasa female will always favor itself over her child during gestation, and a shortage of nutrients would harm the growth of the baby in favor of keeping the mother alive. As a result, miscarriages were extremely common. To combat this, the Tougpasa actually have two separate mating seasons every (long) year. If there is a famine in one, then the second may have better conditions.
The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance is a supranational organization that has jurisdiction over all colonial operations, and acts as a governing body for Wusdafu itself. Its operations are voted on my all of its member states, but a small group of five representatives known as the Legislative Council (colloquially, the "Council of Five", or in a derogatory connotation "The Order of Five" or "Round Table") is elected every two years. This council is placed in control of all Alliance military operations (both in the colonies and at home).
Under the council's purview are a number of separate organizations, such as the International Bank and Fund, the Science and Technology Administration, the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, the International Court, and the Alliance Emergency Management Agency. The actions of all these organizations can be controlled directly by the Legislative Council, and the decisions of other national representatives related to these organizations can be vetoes by the Legislative Council.
The Planetary Alliance is the foremost force for good among Tougpasa society. It represents the collection values of the species, and has raised countless millions out of poverty through the Colonial and Solward Development Committee and International Bank and Fund. Though there exist those that fear the Alliance's far-reaching power and influence, their fears are unfounded. The Alliance represents all that is good about the Tougpasa.
Though it would be impossible to fully explain the full extent of Tougpasa culture, some broad generalization can be drawn regarding the current cultural climate.
Power on Wusdafu (and, indeed, all of Alliance space) is focused in the central rainforest strip of the planet. Through a strong cultural zeitgeist of individuality and a strong work ethic, the nations of this are have become the most prominent and populous in the world. They are massively economically prosperous, and using the technologies developed in them they share this prosperity with the solward and antisol regions of the world. Should you be reading this datapacket, it is likely that the one who sent it was born here.
Towards the sun there lie the lands of the savanna and desert, which are rich with natural resources. The large concentrations of negative mass liquid beneath the ground there have driven planetbound politics for centuries, and led to the ancient lands being regrettably colonies by the nations of the central strip. Following the Long War, however, these culturally rich lands have been accepted into the fold of Tougpasa culture as equals. They are the "Solward" part of the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, and are a major focus of economic development efforts. Through the construction of new factories and housing by the Development Committee, the central strip nations are repaying their debt.
Finally, on the antisol side of the world there are the old troublemakers of Wusdafu. It is here that the Tougpasa Union made its final stand against the Planetary Alliance, attempting to wrest control of the entire species and place them under their iron heel of tyranny. It was their defeat that ended the Long War. The people of this land have been hardened by both their harsh environment and the decades of brutal rule they were made to endure, and have proved to be an excellent addition to the Planetary Alliance.
To all captains: Take the utmost care to ensure that no interstellar incidents occur during alien contact. Omit any and all information you feel might jeopardize peaceful relations.
Tougpasa history begins in the rainforests of Wusdafu, where they lived as hunter gatherers. The first evidence of Tougpasa society and technology can be found in the massive trees of the rainforest, some of which were hollowed out by early Tougpasa to be used as dwellings. Primitive tools can also be found, which give insight as to how these societies lived. Long, hooked poles were used to pick the abundant fruits of the same trees. Interestingly, this also seems to be the first example of Tougpasa agriculture, as large leather sacks suggest that they actively watered the same trees during droughts.
Later on, there is evidence of early inhabitation of the savanna area closer to the sun. At around the same time, the Tougpasa began to actively plant and raise domesticated plants. In the rainforest, they would chop off the leaves of the larger trees to plant ones of the same species for their fruit, but intentionally keep them small so as to manage them easier. In the savanna, Tougpasa settlers domesticated various grasses in the area. One of which closely resembles the various species of Terran rice, and in modern times has become a staple of the Tougpasa diet.
The savanna was the first place in which the Tougpasa constructed buildings themselves, and an ancient civilization arose along one of the major rivers in the region. At some point, for unknown reasons, its influence exploded across Wusdafu. Coinage from it has been found at both the Solward and Antisolar poles of the planet, which suggests that they were significantly milder at some point in Wusdafu's history. Ruins from that civilization, dubbed the Shaslag Efol (first ones) can be found all across the planet. The few remaining cities show clearly that they were highly advanced for their time, with roads being laid out in grids, made wide enough for carts, and being built mostly only on sturdy ground.
At some point during the reign of the Shaslag Efol, however, a catastrophe befell Wusdafu. A truly massive hail of asteroids (speculated to have been made up of upwards of a thousand individual objects) slammed into the planet at almost exactly the same time. This caused a mass extinction event, during which all of Tougpasa civilization was wiped out alongside numerous other species. Immediately after the impact, radiation levels were found to spike across the planet. It is thought that this is the result of said asteroid hail being rich in exotic matter, as relasol concentrations in the savanna and solward desert rose sharply and evidence of the first widespread use of relasol is found shortly afterwards. Though relasol was already abundant on the planet (and indeed affected the evolution of various species), this event made it easily accessible for all Tougpasa populations.
The population numbers of the Tougpasa gradually recovered, and another civilization rose up in the rainforest in tandem with one in the tundra. These two civilizations, the Sidore and the Miji respectively, formed the cultural basis from which all current Tougpasa society evolved. The Miji were a highly advanced culture, and were very nearly the first to industrialize at numerous points in history. This was always prevented, however, by internal or external strife.
The Sidore, on the other hand, were a largely stagnant empire that spanned countless different cultures which were crushed beneath the monolith that was the Empire. It was only well after it had fallen that the "South ring" rainforest cultures industrialized. The main drive to do so lay within the largely unexplored continent of Hassa, which was surrounded by a ring of ocean. The constant cross-planetary wind made it night impossible to cross in any reasonable time from one side, and on the other a constant storm caused by the anomalous weather patterns surrounding Hassa made it too dangerous to sail through. With the advent of steam power, however, nations from both sides were able to send expeditions.
The coasts of Hassa were raped and plundered by the industrial empires, the native populations were almost entirely eliminated by disease and firearm. In the ruins of their societies rose colonial towns, cities, and trade hubs. After the independence of these colonies was won, they chose to band together in a confederacy rather than fight each other and turned their eyes inward. The different regions of the continent-created by its unique position-were all conquered. Desert, plains, two of the few mountain ranges found on the entire planet, all were made the domain of the descendants of Sidore.
As time went on, Tougpasa technology advanced further and further as their politics became more and more charged. Liberal regimes replaced monarchies as the power of steam and later oil made its way out from the rainforest towards and away from the sun. The population of the planet exploded without restraint, it had become clear that no natural force could possibly stop the Tougpasa. Their rapid reproduction and new technology turned villages into towns and towns into metropolises. Countless wars were fought, but none could compare to the one that would come to define the very calendar of the Planetary Alliance.
"The Long War", as it was called, officially began in 93 YBT with the Miji Revolution. The last of the Miji dynasties was toppled, the entire royal family being slaughtered in the name of the revolutionary Mahn Ne. He had initially vocally opposed the industrialization of Miji, but as it became more and more entrenched he had no choice but to accept it and, in his words, "minimize the impact on the everyman". By ridding the nation of nobles and capitalists, he argued, they could prevent industrialization from harming them and instead turn it into a force for good.
It came as no surprise that Mahn Ne's radical ideology led to a reaction from the more solward powers, and in 87 YBT a small coalition of rainforest nations attempted an invasion of Miji. Not only were they easily held off by Miji, they found themselves occupied and turned into puppets. Fearful that they would be next, the majority of the powerful rainforest empires banded together and declared war on the Miji on the pretext of liberating their brothers. Their charges were met with entrenched machine gun fire, and thus began the hell that was the Long War.
For the next seventy years, the two juggernaut alliances slammed into each other. The war had an unimaginable effect on the societies of both, as the supreme weapon of war changed again and again throughout the decades. First it had been the machine gun, then the "Coalition Powers" as the rainforest nations chose to call themselves suffocated a section of the Miji lines with poison gas. The airplane turned from a fragile reconnaissance mount into a platform for dealing death behind the lines. The mounted charges of old were replaced by hulking metal beasts that lumbered across trenches, which soon became vehicles far faster than a man.
The social norms of old broke down as more and more men were cut down in battle, and it wasn't long before the same was asked of women. An entire generation of rainforesters were raised by their governments, as they were either born on the front or their parents had died on it. Every single aspect of society adapted to service the war effort. The stalemate only showed signs of breaking by 18 YBT, when the Hassa Confederacy officially entered. Even so, the Miji showed no signs of surrender.
Finally, in 3 YBT, a small Confederate airship force broke through to the Miji capital and carried out the first atomic bombing of the war. Dozens more would follow, with the Confederacy looking upon the Miji homeland as nothing more than a testing ground. The Miji were finally forced to surrender, and with that surrender the Tougpasa Planetary Alliance was created.
Initially dubbed simply the Wusdafu Alliance, it was formed mainly to manage the now-occupied territories on the Miji side of the conflict. As space exploration truly came into its own following the war (where it had been used solely to deliver the last few nuclear strikes), it was the Planetary Alliance that stepped in to act as overseers for each nation's space program. It was only after the first colony on Kusfala (the third planet of the Shav'nefo system and closest other planet to Wusdafu) that the Alliance became the "Planetary Alliance" so as to include the new denizens of Kusfala.
As time went on, the Planetary Alliance became more than a simple occupation force and transitioned to become a true species-wide government. Cultural and economic globalization led to the downfall of individual national governmental power, which led to the rise of the Planetary Alliance as the dominant political force in Tougpasa space. War between developed nations became a thing of the past as their economies (and cultures) gradually merged into one, and the job of the Planetary Alliance military soon became to ensure that the grip of the developed nations on their colonies and the Solward nations remained tight.
The Tougpasa are, in comparison to most other spacefaring species, rather primitive. Their technological development was strange from the beginning, as their homeworld of Wusdafu has streams of negative mass flowing underground. Though it is unknown if these streams somehow occurred naturally, or are the result of previous inhabitation by an advanced species, their presence caused the Tougpasa to develop along an unexpected path. Indeed, artifacts from ancient times show that tribal hunters would wear backpacks filled with the liquid negative mass to allow them to leap through the trees of the rainforest to catch their prey.
As a result, the Tougpasa make widespread usage of negative mass in their technology. Since the invention of the sail they have launched airships kept aloft by it, and today they use it to lift massive aerial battleships as well as spacecraft. It has also found domestic uses (such as in most cars) as well as more military uses in the creation of antigravity harnesses for soldiers based upon those same ancient "lifting packs".
Aside from the fairly advanced nature of their negative mass-based technology, the Tougpasa are behind the times in most other areas. This is easily visible in their spacecraft, which contain obvious large habitation wheels, general structures reminiscent of early human spacecraft, and often nuclear pulse drives. Their infantry still make heavy use of firearms, and only anti-material weapons (or the newest heavy anti-infantry ones) use electromagnetism (though both lasers and railguns are commonplace on spacecraft and naval vessels). They have no passive shielding technology whatsoever, relying on active defenses such as the Shockwave Dissipation System and Plasma Arc Projectors to prevent damage.
The field in with the Tougpasa is least advanced (or perhaps the field which evolved the strangest, depending on who you ask) is electronics. Most households have computers on par with those seen in the human 1990's, but they are not self-contained units. Instead, they are simply terminals connected to a central computer in the regional capital that is housed in a gigantic skyscraper. This is largely because Tougpasa computer development halted in 10 YBT, with all available resources being poured towards the "practical war effort" rather than code making and breaking. As a result, the Tougpasa equivalent of a personal computer is a hot, whirring mess of cables the size of an entire city apartment. The vast majority of citizens understandably choose to just use a terminal connection, but some eccentrics still use self-contained units.
The main method of FTL for the Tougpasa lies in their affinity for the use of negative mass (Relasol, as they call it). Using it, they are capable of folding space around a spacecraft and enabling it to appear to travel faster than the speed of light. Most combat vessels are designed to be able to travel at immense speeds, or even tear a direct semi-stable wormhole should the need arise, but protocol (not to mention safety regulations and common sense) limits them to under 15c in normal circumstances.
The Planetary Alliance maintains a unified military force, drawing its personnel and equipment from all of its member nations. It is divided into three branches, the Army, Navy, Vinkasa, and Starfleet.
Army
A Planetary Alliance special operative (note his clipped ears) takes cover behind a wall during Operation Unified Protector in the Solward nation of Ash'tahkhal. Alliance forces deposed a potential dictator and installed a friendly regime that properly protected the rights of the nation's citizens. Operation Unified Protector was just one of countless similar operations that stabilized the war-torn Solward nations and returned peace and prosperity to the region.
The Alliance Army is by far the least standardized of all the Planetary Alliance Military forces, oftentimes simply demanding to be given a specified number of divisions by any given member nation. Supply lines are, unsurprisingly, a bit of a nightmare given the large variety of equipment and ammunition required by deployed forces. As a result, most major contributing nations tend to design their equipment and vehicles to be as reliable as possible so as to make breakdowns rare.
The Alliance holds the power to draft any individual necessary from a member nation into the Alliance Army in order to ensure the security of the Alliance, any one of its member nations, the citizens of a foreign power, or the Tougpasa species.
Navy
An Alliance battleship deployed in the oceans surrounding Hassa launches the first missile of a salvo, targeting terrorists in the failed state of Maani. Maani was torn apart by ethnic conflicts following the collapse of the nation's dictatorial and totalitarian regime, which was replaced with numerous benevolent and democratic states created by the Alliance. Alliance interventions began with a bombing campaign of the former capital, targeting military installations. No civilians were harmed in the bombing, or in subsequent strikes.
The Alliance Navy, though operating on the same model as the Army, is significantly more standardized in terms of equipment simply due to the fact that only one member state actually provides vessels for it. The Hassa Confederacy supplies all Alliance warships, and indeed its own navy is considered a direct part of the Alliance Navy. It has long maintained the largest navy on Wusdafu by virtue of its seabound position. It still maintains a large number of battleships and aircraft carriers, the majority of which are nuclear-powered.
The Navy truly shines in its ability to bombard land targets. A great deal of research and development goes to inventing newer and more efficient ways to deal death as far inland as possible. This is no surprise, as the navy has not needed to face an equal opponent on the open seas since the end of the war. Their main purpose is to support land forces against insurgent activities and provide a more precise alternative to carpet or nuclear bombing of densely populated targets.
Vinpasa
An Alliance fleet approaches Var'khun during the Second Ishkh War, in which the populace of Var'khun and surrounding provinces of Ishkh began a nationalist rebellion against their colonial government. Ultimately, the nation fell to the rebels and a totalitarian regime was installed. Recent trade deals have helped democratize the nation and open it up to the rest of the world, which has welcomed it with open arms.
The Vinkasa (a word which directly translates to "Sky warriors", though perhaps more properly means "Air Force") has a long history with the Tougpasa. With effective antigravity technology being available since early in their history thanks to the existence of negative mass (Relasol) on their homeworld, airships came into use at the same time as their naval counterparts. Sail airships are still in use above the rainforest canopy in less developed areas, where there are in fact entire towns built above the canopy.
The Vinkasa is the least organized of all the Alliance military forces, and generally the Vinkasa will simply draw forces from a member nation for one specific operation before disbanding the fleet and sending it back home. This was seen in the collapse of Maani, where the Alliance put together a few fleets from donated ships for the bombing campaigns and disbanded them once the job was done.
Starfleet
An Alliance vessel opens fire on a pirate ship prowling interplanetary trade routes. Though the Starfleet is best known for its ringed, behemoth interstellar warships, the majority of vessels fielded by it are incapable of FTL flight.
The Alliance Starfleet has under its purview all interstellar operations, both military and civilian. All Alliance supply vessels and colony ships sail under a military flag to ensure that no anti-Alliance group manages to create a base of power outside the home system. All colonies-in system and out of system-are garrisoned by Starfleet marines and protected by Starfleet patrol boats. The vast majority of Starfleet vessels are in-system, and range from small destroyers to battleships and dreadnoughts.
More iconic, however, are its interstellar warships. They are almost always large-scale vessels, the smallest common classes are considered pocket battleships. A few one-off destroyer and light cruiser types exist (mainly for responding to incidents in interstellar space and emergency relief for exosolar colonies), but the majority of interstellar vessels are capital ships. A common feature of any Alliance interstellar task force is a carrier, which will carry fighters and larger screening craft into the battle rather than necessitate other FTL capable screening ships. All Tougpasa interstellar craft are equipped with two large, fat rings for the purpose of directing relasol in the proper way so as to warp space and allow for seemingly FTL travel.
Tougpasa
The Tougpasa are a bipedal species, likely of slightly shorter stature than other such species due to the high gravity of their homeworld of Wusdafu. It is tidally locked to its sun, a red dwarf star dubbed Shav'nefo (which translates to "sun"), and as a result only has a thin strip of land that is a rainforest, bordered by savanna and steppes. At it's Solward and Antisol poles it is completely uninhabitable, and winds constantly blow from one side of the world to the other. The Shav'nefo system itself is approximately 20 kilo-lightyears from the galactic core.
Ironically, the hells on either side of the world give way to a near paradise at the Solar equator in the middle. A lush rainforest covers the landscape, with most plants having massive leaves to soak up as much of the rare sunlight as possible. The constant, planetary-scale hurricane caused by the nature of the planet gives rise to an almost constant rain within the so-called twilight rainforest. The impact of this environment upon Tougpasa evolution is obvious.
First of all, it is seen in their most prominent feature that sets them apart. The Tougpasa have large, pointed, furry, feline-like ears on the top of their head. They have impressive control over said ears, with countless muscles being dedicated to rotating and turning them to track a sound. Furthermore, their ears have the most nerve endings out of any place on their bodies. This gives them an uncanny ability to hear in their generally rather soundproof native habitat. They also function as heat radiators for Solward inhabitants (the Tougpasa developed better heat dissipation techniques since the Antisol side of the planet is devoid of conventional plant life, and thus only very sparsely populated). It is worth noting that there is a Tougpasa race with smaller, furrier ears that originated on the Antisol side of the planet. The large ears of the majority of the Tougpasa, after all, would have been a liability in an environment which demands maximum heat retention.
Second is their eyesight, which has evolved similar to that of other Wusdafan felines. Their eyes contain a tapetum lucidum-a reflective layer that allows them to see easily at night and in dark areas, with the side effect of making their eyes seem to glow in the dark. This is an adaptation to the heavily wooded rainforests of Wusdafu, as most trees have gigantic leaves in order to soak up as much sunlight as possible, making the ground extremely dark closer to the Antisol side (since less sunlight can reach it). This combined with their hearing has made the Tougpasa excellent hunters, and later on excellent warriors. Also complementing their fighting ability are tails, which allow them to better maintain balance and prevent falling (which is dangerous in Wusdafu's high gravity).
Within their body, they have a variety of different adaptations to their homeworld that aren't immediately noticeable. First of all are their bones, which are notably larger and more robust than those of the fauna on neighboring worlds due to the high gravity of Wusdafu. Their muscles, too, are of a higher density but not physically larger (which tends to make the Tougpasa seem to be impossibly strong on lower gravity planets). Their lungs are also fairly large, as is their heart, in order to allow their bodies to more effectively circulate air and blood in high gravity.
The Tougpasa have no inherent need for sleep. The lack of a day/night cycle on Wusdafu does not lend itself well to lying on the ground unable to respond to any threats for eight hours every day, so like almost all other animal species on Wusdafu they are capable of living their whole lives without sleeping. "Capable" and "Normally", however, are two very different things. Sleep greatly increases Tougpasa lifespans and heightens brain function, and for this purpose most Tougpasa sleep up to five hours a day. It should be noted that, to a species that requires sleep due to a day/night cycle on their homeworld, a Tougpasa may appear to have impeccable memory.
Finally, Tougpasa reproduction is somewhat strange compared to that of other species. An only child for a Touspasa is almost unheard of, and the gestation period is short at approximately 1/5th of a Wusdafan year. The tradeoffs, however, are obvious. A pregnant female flat out cannot fend for themselves, and as hunter-gatherers the Tougpasa would stop in the same general area for the entirety of mating season (and then some) to ensure that all children would be born healthy. The body of a Tougpasa female will always favor itself over her child during gestation, and a shortage of nutrients would harm the growth of the baby in favor of keeping the mother alive. As a result, miscarriages were extremely common. To combat this, the Tougpasa actually have two separate mating seasons every (long) year. If there is a famine in one, then the second may have better conditions.
The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance
The Tougpasa Planetary Alliance is a supranational organization that has jurisdiction over all colonial operations, and acts as a governing body for Wusdafu itself. Its operations are voted on my all of its member states, but a small group of five representatives known as the Legislative Council (colloquially, the "Council of Five", or in a derogatory connotation "The Order of Five" or "Round Table") is elected every two years. This council is placed in control of all Alliance military operations (both in the colonies and at home).
Under the council's purview are a number of separate organizations, such as the International Bank and Fund, the Science and Technology Administration, the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, the International Court, and the Alliance Emergency Management Agency. The actions of all these organizations can be controlled directly by the Legislative Council, and the decisions of other national representatives related to these organizations can be vetoes by the Legislative Council.
The Planetary Alliance is the foremost force for good among Tougpasa society. It represents the collection values of the species, and has raised countless millions out of poverty through the Colonial and Solward Development Committee and International Bank and Fund. Though there exist those that fear the Alliance's far-reaching power and influence, their fears are unfounded. The Alliance represents all that is good about the Tougpasa.
Culture
Though it would be impossible to fully explain the full extent of Tougpasa culture, some broad generalization can be drawn regarding the current cultural climate.
Power on Wusdafu (and, indeed, all of Alliance space) is focused in the central rainforest strip of the planet. Through a strong cultural zeitgeist of individuality and a strong work ethic, the nations of this are have become the most prominent and populous in the world. They are massively economically prosperous, and using the technologies developed in them they share this prosperity with the solward and antisol regions of the world. Should you be reading this datapacket, it is likely that the one who sent it was born here.
Towards the sun there lie the lands of the savanna and desert, which are rich with natural resources. The large concentrations of negative mass liquid beneath the ground there have driven planetbound politics for centuries, and led to the ancient lands being regrettably colonies by the nations of the central strip. Following the Long War, however, these culturally rich lands have been accepted into the fold of Tougpasa culture as equals. They are the "Solward" part of the Colonial and Solward Development Committee, and are a major focus of economic development efforts. Through the construction of new factories and housing by the Development Committee, the central strip nations are repaying their debt.
Finally, on the antisol side of the world there are the old troublemakers of Wusdafu. It is here that the Tougpasa Union made its final stand against the Planetary Alliance, attempting to wrest control of the entire species and place them under their iron heel of tyranny. It was their defeat that ended the Long War. The people of this land have been hardened by both their harsh environment and the decades of brutal rule they were made to endure, and have proved to be an excellent addition to the Planetary Alliance.
To all captains: Take the utmost care to ensure that no interstellar incidents occur during alien contact. Omit any and all information you feel might jeopardize peaceful relations.
History
Tougpasa history begins in the rainforests of Wusdafu, where they lived as hunter gatherers. The first evidence of Tougpasa society and technology can be found in the massive trees of the rainforest, some of which were hollowed out by early Tougpasa to be used as dwellings. Primitive tools can also be found, which give insight as to how these societies lived. Long, hooked poles were used to pick the abundant fruits of the same trees. Interestingly, this also seems to be the first example of Tougpasa agriculture, as large leather sacks suggest that they actively watered the same trees during droughts.
Later on, there is evidence of early inhabitation of the savanna area closer to the sun. At around the same time, the Tougpasa began to actively plant and raise domesticated plants. In the rainforest, they would chop off the leaves of the larger trees to plant ones of the same species for their fruit, but intentionally keep them small so as to manage them easier. In the savanna, Tougpasa settlers domesticated various grasses in the area. One of which closely resembles the various species of Terran rice, and in modern times has become a staple of the Tougpasa diet.
The savanna was the first place in which the Tougpasa constructed buildings themselves, and an ancient civilization arose along one of the major rivers in the region. At some point, for unknown reasons, its influence exploded across Wusdafu. Coinage from it has been found at both the Solward and Antisolar poles of the planet, which suggests that they were significantly milder at some point in Wusdafu's history. Ruins from that civilization, dubbed the Shaslag Efol (first ones) can be found all across the planet. The few remaining cities show clearly that they were highly advanced for their time, with roads being laid out in grids, made wide enough for carts, and being built mostly only on sturdy ground.
At some point during the reign of the Shaslag Efol, however, a catastrophe befell Wusdafu. A truly massive hail of asteroids (speculated to have been made up of upwards of a thousand individual objects) slammed into the planet at almost exactly the same time. This caused a mass extinction event, during which all of Tougpasa civilization was wiped out alongside numerous other species. Immediately after the impact, radiation levels were found to spike across the planet. It is thought that this is the result of said asteroid hail being rich in exotic matter, as relasol concentrations in the savanna and solward desert rose sharply and evidence of the first widespread use of relasol is found shortly afterwards. Though relasol was already abundant on the planet (and indeed affected the evolution of various species), this event made it easily accessible for all Tougpasa populations.
The population numbers of the Tougpasa gradually recovered, and another civilization rose up in the rainforest in tandem with one in the tundra. These two civilizations, the Sidore and the Miji respectively, formed the cultural basis from which all current Tougpasa society evolved. The Miji were a highly advanced culture, and were very nearly the first to industrialize at numerous points in history. This was always prevented, however, by internal or external strife.
The Sidore, on the other hand, were a largely stagnant empire that spanned countless different cultures which were crushed beneath the monolith that was the Empire. It was only well after it had fallen that the "South ring" rainforest cultures industrialized. The main drive to do so lay within the largely unexplored continent of Hassa, which was surrounded by a ring of ocean. The constant cross-planetary wind made it night impossible to cross in any reasonable time from one side, and on the other a constant storm caused by the anomalous weather patterns surrounding Hassa made it too dangerous to sail through. With the advent of steam power, however, nations from both sides were able to send expeditions.
The coasts of Hassa were raped and plundered by the industrial empires, the native populations were almost entirely eliminated by disease and firearm. In the ruins of their societies rose colonial towns, cities, and trade hubs. After the independence of these colonies was won, they chose to band together in a confederacy rather than fight each other and turned their eyes inward. The different regions of the continent-created by its unique position-were all conquered. Desert, plains, two of the few mountain ranges found on the entire planet, all were made the domain of the descendants of Sidore.
As time went on, Tougpasa technology advanced further and further as their politics became more and more charged. Liberal regimes replaced monarchies as the power of steam and later oil made its way out from the rainforest towards and away from the sun. The population of the planet exploded without restraint, it had become clear that no natural force could possibly stop the Tougpasa. Their rapid reproduction and new technology turned villages into towns and towns into metropolises. Countless wars were fought, but none could compare to the one that would come to define the very calendar of the Planetary Alliance.
"The Long War", as it was called, officially began in 93 YBT with the Miji Revolution. The last of the Miji dynasties was toppled, the entire royal family being slaughtered in the name of the revolutionary Mahn Ne. He had initially vocally opposed the industrialization of Miji, but as it became more and more entrenched he had no choice but to accept it and, in his words, "minimize the impact on the everyman". By ridding the nation of nobles and capitalists, he argued, they could prevent industrialization from harming them and instead turn it into a force for good.
It came as no surprise that Mahn Ne's radical ideology led to a reaction from the more solward powers, and in 87 YBT a small coalition of rainforest nations attempted an invasion of Miji. Not only were they easily held off by Miji, they found themselves occupied and turned into puppets. Fearful that they would be next, the majority of the powerful rainforest empires banded together and declared war on the Miji on the pretext of liberating their brothers. Their charges were met with entrenched machine gun fire, and thus began the hell that was the Long War.
For the next seventy years, the two juggernaut alliances slammed into each other. The war had an unimaginable effect on the societies of both, as the supreme weapon of war changed again and again throughout the decades. First it had been the machine gun, then the "Coalition Powers" as the rainforest nations chose to call themselves suffocated a section of the Miji lines with poison gas. The airplane turned from a fragile reconnaissance mount into a platform for dealing death behind the lines. The mounted charges of old were replaced by hulking metal beasts that lumbered across trenches, which soon became vehicles far faster than a man.
The social norms of old broke down as more and more men were cut down in battle, and it wasn't long before the same was asked of women. An entire generation of rainforesters were raised by their governments, as they were either born on the front or their parents had died on it. Every single aspect of society adapted to service the war effort. The stalemate only showed signs of breaking by 18 YBT, when the Hassa Confederacy officially entered. Even so, the Miji showed no signs of surrender.
Finally, in 3 YBT, a small Confederate airship force broke through to the Miji capital and carried out the first atomic bombing of the war. Dozens more would follow, with the Confederacy looking upon the Miji homeland as nothing more than a testing ground. The Miji were finally forced to surrender, and with that surrender the Tougpasa Planetary Alliance was created.
Initially dubbed simply the Wusdafu Alliance, it was formed mainly to manage the now-occupied territories on the Miji side of the conflict. As space exploration truly came into its own following the war (where it had been used solely to deliver the last few nuclear strikes), it was the Planetary Alliance that stepped in to act as overseers for each nation's space program. It was only after the first colony on Kusfala (the third planet of the Shav'nefo system and closest other planet to Wusdafu) that the Alliance became the "Planetary Alliance" so as to include the new denizens of Kusfala.
As time went on, the Planetary Alliance became more than a simple occupation force and transitioned to become a true species-wide government. Cultural and economic globalization led to the downfall of individual national governmental power, which led to the rise of the Planetary Alliance as the dominant political force in Tougpasa space. War between developed nations became a thing of the past as their economies (and cultures) gradually merged into one, and the job of the Planetary Alliance military soon became to ensure that the grip of the developed nations on their colonies and the Solward nations remained tight.
Technology
The Tougpasa are, in comparison to most other spacefaring species, rather primitive. Their technological development was strange from the beginning, as their homeworld of Wusdafu has streams of negative mass flowing underground. Though it is unknown if these streams somehow occurred naturally, or are the result of previous inhabitation by an advanced species, their presence caused the Tougpasa to develop along an unexpected path. Indeed, artifacts from ancient times show that tribal hunters would wear backpacks filled with the liquid negative mass to allow them to leap through the trees of the rainforest to catch their prey.
As a result, the Tougpasa make widespread usage of negative mass in their technology. Since the invention of the sail they have launched airships kept aloft by it, and today they use it to lift massive aerial battleships as well as spacecraft. It has also found domestic uses (such as in most cars) as well as more military uses in the creation of antigravity harnesses for soldiers based upon those same ancient "lifting packs".
Aside from the fairly advanced nature of their negative mass-based technology, the Tougpasa are behind the times in most other areas. This is easily visible in their spacecraft, which contain obvious large habitation wheels, general structures reminiscent of early human spacecraft, and often nuclear pulse drives. Their infantry still make heavy use of firearms, and only anti-material weapons (or the newest heavy anti-infantry ones) use electromagnetism (though both lasers and railguns are commonplace on spacecraft and naval vessels). They have no passive shielding technology whatsoever, relying on active defenses such as the Shockwave Dissipation System and Plasma Arc Projectors to prevent damage.
The field in with the Tougpasa is least advanced (or perhaps the field which evolved the strangest, depending on who you ask) is electronics. Most households have computers on par with those seen in the human 1990's, but they are not self-contained units. Instead, they are simply terminals connected to a central computer in the regional capital that is housed in a gigantic skyscraper. This is largely because Tougpasa computer development halted in 10 YBT, with all available resources being poured towards the "practical war effort" rather than code making and breaking. As a result, the Tougpasa equivalent of a personal computer is a hot, whirring mess of cables the size of an entire city apartment. The vast majority of citizens understandably choose to just use a terminal connection, but some eccentrics still use self-contained units.
The main method of FTL for the Tougpasa lies in their affinity for the use of negative mass (Relasol, as they call it). Using it, they are capable of folding space around a spacecraft and enabling it to appear to travel faster than the speed of light. Most combat vessels are designed to be able to travel at immense speeds, or even tear a direct semi-stable wormhole should the need arise, but protocol (not to mention safety regulations and common sense) limits them to under 15c in normal circumstances.
Military
The Planetary Alliance maintains a unified military force, drawing its personnel and equipment from all of its member nations. It is divided into three branches, the Army, Navy, Vinkasa, and Starfleet.
Army
A Planetary Alliance special operative (note his clipped ears) takes cover behind a wall during Operation Unified Protector in the Solward nation of Ash'tahkhal. Alliance forces deposed a potential dictator and installed a friendly regime that properly protected the rights of the nation's citizens. Operation Unified Protector was just one of countless similar operations that stabilized the war-torn Solward nations and returned peace and prosperity to the region.
The Alliance Army is by far the least standardized of all the Planetary Alliance Military forces, oftentimes simply demanding to be given a specified number of divisions by any given member nation. Supply lines are, unsurprisingly, a bit of a nightmare given the large variety of equipment and ammunition required by deployed forces. As a result, most major contributing nations tend to design their equipment and vehicles to be as reliable as possible so as to make breakdowns rare.
The Alliance holds the power to draft any individual necessary from a member nation into the Alliance Army in order to ensure the security of the Alliance, any one of its member nations, the citizens of a foreign power, or the Tougpasa species.
Navy
An Alliance battleship deployed in the oceans surrounding Hassa launches the first missile of a salvo, targeting terrorists in the failed state of Maani. Maani was torn apart by ethnic conflicts following the collapse of the nation's dictatorial and totalitarian regime, which was replaced with numerous benevolent and democratic states created by the Alliance. Alliance interventions began with a bombing campaign of the former capital, targeting military installations. No civilians were harmed in the bombing, or in subsequent strikes.
The Alliance Navy, though operating on the same model as the Army, is significantly more standardized in terms of equipment simply due to the fact that only one member state actually provides vessels for it. The Hassa Confederacy supplies all Alliance warships, and indeed its own navy is considered a direct part of the Alliance Navy. It has long maintained the largest navy on Wusdafu by virtue of its seabound position. It still maintains a large number of battleships and aircraft carriers, the majority of which are nuclear-powered.
The Navy truly shines in its ability to bombard land targets. A great deal of research and development goes to inventing newer and more efficient ways to deal death as far inland as possible. This is no surprise, as the navy has not needed to face an equal opponent on the open seas since the end of the war. Their main purpose is to support land forces against insurgent activities and provide a more precise alternative to carpet or nuclear bombing of densely populated targets.
Vinpasa
An Alliance fleet approaches Var'khun during the Second Ishkh War, in which the populace of Var'khun and surrounding provinces of Ishkh began a nationalist rebellion against their colonial government. Ultimately, the nation fell to the rebels and a totalitarian regime was installed. Recent trade deals have helped democratize the nation and open it up to the rest of the world, which has welcomed it with open arms.
The Vinkasa (a word which directly translates to "Sky warriors", though perhaps more properly means "Air Force") has a long history with the Tougpasa. With effective antigravity technology being available since early in their history thanks to the existence of negative mass (Relasol) on their homeworld, airships came into use at the same time as their naval counterparts. Sail airships are still in use above the rainforest canopy in less developed areas, where there are in fact entire towns built above the canopy.
The Vinkasa is the least organized of all the Alliance military forces, and generally the Vinkasa will simply draw forces from a member nation for one specific operation before disbanding the fleet and sending it back home. This was seen in the collapse of Maani, where the Alliance put together a few fleets from donated ships for the bombing campaigns and disbanded them once the job was done.
Starfleet
An Alliance vessel opens fire on a pirate ship prowling interplanetary trade routes. Though the Starfleet is best known for its ringed, behemoth interstellar warships, the majority of vessels fielded by it are incapable of FTL flight.
The Alliance Starfleet has under its purview all interstellar operations, both military and civilian. All Alliance supply vessels and colony ships sail under a military flag to ensure that no anti-Alliance group manages to create a base of power outside the home system. All colonies-in system and out of system-are garrisoned by Starfleet marines and protected by Starfleet patrol boats. The vast majority of Starfleet vessels are in-system, and range from small destroyers to battleships and dreadnoughts.
More iconic, however, are its interstellar warships. They are almost always large-scale vessels, the smallest common classes are considered pocket battleships. A few one-off destroyer and light cruiser types exist (mainly for responding to incidents in interstellar space and emergency relief for exosolar colonies), but the majority of interstellar vessels are capital ships. A common feature of any Alliance interstellar task force is a carrier, which will carry fighters and larger screening craft into the battle rather than necessitate other FTL capable screening ships. All Tougpasa interstellar craft are equipped with two large, fat rings for the purpose of directing relasol in the proper way so as to warp space and allow for seemingly FTL travel.
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