[hider=The Aveterriat] [img]https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Insculpo/Sandbox_Galaxy/Galactic/Stellar_Abyss_Setting_Bible/Photo_Directory/Aveterriat.png[/img] The Aveterriat are small, highly reproductive beings around the size of a housecat when full grown. [url=https://github.com/Insculpo/Sandbox_Galaxy/blob/master/Stellar_Abyss_Setting_Bible/2_Sapients/Aveterriat.md]Here's the details[/url] [/hider] [hider=The Vmiskii Empire] The Vmiskii Empire [b]0- Overview -0[/b] The Vmiskii Aveterriat brought themselves out of the hellish mold of earlier existence, emancipating themselves from the determiners fully to make a society where all Aveterriat can find their way not through random chance, but through methodical and empirical testing of all individuals to find what they are truly great at. [b]0- Beliefs -0[/b] Vmiskii Aveterriat are hard to describe with precision. Using human ideological terms can leave one baffled from contradicting forms of governance such as "Theocratic technocracy", "Meritocratic oligarchy" and so forth. It is best to understand their mindset from their perspective or you'll be lost. Truly a lesson for all civilizations, but the egotism of humans is beyond comparison. Especially since the Aveterriat are not the only Vmiskii species, they're around 90% of the population but there are noticeably other species that were integrated to the Vmiskii mode of existence. They system is supreme, propagation of the system is supreme. Aveterriat are at most, the founders of the system, but the Vmiskii system is not the Aveterriat. It has grown beyond them, into a force of nature in of itself. The Vmiskii melded into their minds the concept of rebirth and ascendant through industry, work. Far more dogmatic is a belief system unique to them, that of universal reincarnation between all acknowledged intelligent life. Vmiskii seek to integrate all intelligent life into their system of life and existence, as it is the ideal state. The Vmiskii state of thought. The Vmiskii is hard to pin down, but there are those who call it a political party and an faith at the same time. The Vmiskii system is what defines their civilization, multiple Vmiskii based sub-societies exist (usually from other species adapting their cultures into the Vmiskii outlook from whatever Insann codes they prefer), but the Empire is what has propagated their system the most thoroughly. The plans written by their planners span billions of years and depict ambitions to ultimately subdue the galaxy and assimilate all to their way in order to renew existence itself when the time comes. The clients of the Vmisk are forced into this system and their old culture perverted to fit the needs of the Vmisk. Species who remain useless to them for too long usually die off from failing to meet standards. Vmiskii communities are communal much like in many aveterriat societies, but the technocracy is brutal and demanding of all to never stop functioning. Death is not an excuse to stop to the Vmiskii. The Vmiskii drive to work persistently and with absolute determination towards their goals, be it the subduing of enemies, the creation of new military weapons, doing inspections on neighboring societies or finding the next world state to mark for invasion. Vmiskii culture is focused deeply on endless efforts as an ends in of themselves. Iterate, iterate, labour till you die, be born again, continue to labour more against the inevitable death is how the Vmiskii understand existence. This mindset has led to a degree of nihilistic outlook among some of their inhabitants. For instance, an idea of entertainment to the Vmiskii involves systemic massacres of wild life on planets and making it rain flesh, for all is material. The violent undertones of their civilization has not abated their ability to engage in trade with others, of which the traders are characteristic in their paranoia that they fail to meet their quotas with trading mostly centered around rare minerals and exotic minerals. [b]0 - Culture - 0[/b] Vmisk common life is rigid and time-based, life is centered around a endless procession of quotas from birth to death, Failure to follow the quotas can be deeply punishing to the point of death to the aveterriat who are irredeemably unable to carry out quotas. Freedom of choice comes from using one of the law sets and abiding by those laws in parallel to others who may follow other law sets. Law sets are altered only by the professionals who have proven their nature to be best suited to draft new codes, of which than get iterated and updated over time to be more “pure” by other professionals. Code alteration is most intensively watched, massive arguments and infighting can break out by any alteration of the Insann codes too radical. Freedom of choice in work and the existence of a genuine meritocracy that is kept in order by everyone keeping each other in check (the professionals codominant the whole society with genuine groups who keep everything accountable) is one of the major appeals of the Vmisk to outsiders. The sheer rigidity of the system and its disregard for individual life however is quite alienating to democrats. Freedom of work in their sense means you get raised by the community as a whole instead of by a family and that education is used to determine what one is best suited for in life, being expected to try all fields and judging on the amount of productivity they achieve in each field, are than able to pursue specialized paths. Extremely similar to the education systems of other species, except that it is literally done from birth and leaves no room to fuck around. The Vmisk aveterriat do not live in spires, instead they live in sprawling spine structures centered around planet wide mass transit networks with many nodes where centers of industry, lots of various augmented nudist projects and ongoing learning exist. [b] 0 - Vmiskiinomics / Economics - 0[/b] The Vmisk currency is based around favors more than anything else, working for others with your talent set is expected and Aveterriat are trained from birth to work for the sake of working, favors being a reward because it means they can work more on alternative tasks from their own role. Overworking is not seen as a problem at all to them, after all. This comes with a lot of other benefits since there is no cost to food beyond the rations alloted which are pretty generous as the Vmiskii Empire is a space faring civilization that is actually a post-industrial civilization that had a massive crisis of purpose that led them down this route instead of mass suicides to return to Sidilico like what happened on Invyuss, but let's not fret that, okay? Aveterriat who are trusted to set up these institutions do so with a dedicated power base in a almost corporate fashion, except that they all pledge allegiance to the Vmisk Empire and must keep in line with the code they have subscribed to. These institutions also aren’t profit based, instead they are based around generating and producing for the sake of producing and generating material with wealth being minimal and highly distributed. The institution system is universal and occupies the niche that humans would normally occupy with corporations. It is this system that is used to designate the many tasks the Vmiskii may take. [b]0 - Structure - 0[/b] The Vmiskii are not a caste society like the other Aveterriat societies. Instead they're a hierarchical system with a lot of social mobility where everyone is born a nudist and has the potential to work their way up into being a professional. The Codominant and the twelve code sets are the foundations of their government, morality comes from the Professionals and prevalent belief systems on reincarnation. They also connect the power of work and effort to moral success; failure is the result of laziness. Mass executions, that are often public and carried out without warning tend to result from military or diplomatic failures. They do have trials, of which are carried out by overworking the defendant in multiple tasks associated with its path in life to prove their innocence. Hard workers who murder lazy Vmiskii are acceptable, but a lazy Vmiskii who murders a hard worker is viewed as having no proper punishment other than dulling. Vmiskii education is centered around the concept of internal talent Aveterriat and other species of the Vmiskii are given a general education in many fields, the fields they perform best in are the ones they are set to specialize further in if they are to ascend in the hierarchy. Gifted Vmiskii may specialize in multiple fields and rank up faster because of it. Failures are executed. Vmiskii do not have parents, instead they have numerous sets of caretakers as the parents are never certain. The nudists reproduce when they want than all responsibilities are taken over by the higher ranked Vmiskii than advanced in mind to attain higher states of living. Nudists occupy lower parts of the hierarchy, but are expected to advance until they are able to be merge to a shell. Nudists who fail to advance into machinist ranks and get too old are allowed to be killed at the will of higher ranking Vmiskii, Aveterriat or otherwise for any reason. A Machinist is a fusion of flesh and metal to create the ultimate being. Cyborgs are a status symbol and a second level of hierarchy exists for these cybernetic Vmiskii known as augmented Nudists who work harder than the nudists, carrying out a range of functions that keep local communities afloat. They are semi-Machinists and generally get a higher age cap on how old they're allowed to get before getting death marked. Laziness means death as all are watching and all are prepared to tear you apart if you fail to do your part. There is no actual uniform law in the Vmisk Empire, instead there is a set of ethical values descended from the Insann codes. They are rigidly assembled by law makers to fit into what the current systemic agenda is, but no single set of law is followed at all ranks. Machinists in the Vmiskii Empire can switch some of the laws they ascribe to through the build up of favors and using said favors to switch the laws they ascribe to. But they are constrained to the laws that are from the Insann codes and cannot contrive new laws. At most, law makers are allowed to alter laws. All these laws are quite draconian and engineered to maximize productivity be it through endless work or be expected to periodically “play” hard as well. Vmiskii ideas of play mind you, means ritual slaughtering of outsiders. Flesh art is a major cultural product of the Vmisk as well. Vmiskii are not really ruled by any single individual, instead the Vmiskii way is enforced by everyone watching each other at all times. The Machinists in the highest echelons of their society never stop working to codominate the empire held together by ideology and hard power alone. Rebellions are frequent, the codominant combine forces to violently crush rebellions. They aren’t all that expansionist, despite their unpredictable interventions in outside affairs and intent to spread the Vmiskii System across the entire galaxy. Vmiskii trade is uncommon outside their empire, more often trading with other aveterriat instead of other species. Their xenophobia hasn’t stopped some from still finding trade opportunities with other species, mainly in any unique minerals that are in relative abundance elsewhere in the galaxy or in exchange for test subjects and slaves. Interacting with them is a very strange game of manipulating their collective views and doing anything you can to avoid making them see you as a threat to their existence. [b]00 - Outline of the Vmiskii System - 00[/b] - Lost Causes (Rank -Infinity to -12) Don't become one of these. You aren't born one ever, but hyper-demotion is a form of mass shaming done in the Vmiskii Empire. Lost causes usually are executed on streams, sold as food to alien societies, just arbitrarily tortured or otherwise just plain killed in a cruel and arbitrary way. - Nudists (Rank -12 to 12) [The Aveterriat use base-12 counting] Nudists are the lowliest forms of Vmiskii adherents. The Vmiskii was formed from Aveterriat belief systems, and so has reincarnation built into it. Whatever your species, you are born a nudist if you die. Complete and total reset on default, but if you had a harsh enough punishment you are given an even lower rank than 0. Common learning is usually done here. - Augmented Nudists (Rank 12 to 24) Augmented nudists are cybernetic nudists who make up a large set of domestic society. A large share of Vmiskii are augmented nudists. Specialized learning usually is done here. - Machinists (Rank 24 to 48) Machinists are the higher form of Vmiskii, being able to use shells with all the higher order technology that comes with it. They often take on less domestic roles and whenever the Vmiskii invade, they use Military Machinists. - Professionals Professionals are the highest achieving Vmisk who spread their knowledge to all. They are part of the Codominant and despite being professionals also adhere to the Insann codes. It is a position of extreme power and extreme risk in a system as cutthroat as the Vmiskii system. They are always watched, at all times by lower ranked Vmiskii. [b]0 - Tech - 0[/b] Vmiskii technology is extremely iterative and notable for being obsessively detailed in glyphs that reiterate the spoken words of regional professionals. Vmiskii industry is vast, with 100% employment since all are assigned purpose from the egg, all will find their purpose in existence or be euthanized so they may be reborn again and maybe do things right next time. They make use of carbon computing with algorithmic AIs who tend to be integrated into machinists. - Shells Shells are spherical, hyper resistant spheres that fully immerse the user into a core that can roll around and boost like a large wrecking ball. So even an unarmed Machinist Core can be used for demolition applications. These shells are a modular apparatus given a wide range of components to carry out tasks connected to their jobs, regardless of what these tasks are. Aveterriat engineering is incredibly advanced in general, the engineering of the Vmiskii empire integrated from a wide range of Aveterriat World States being the height of it. -Particle Accelerators The Vmiskii have a strong understanding of magnetism, so strong that they figured out ways to accelerate tiny particles to rapid velocities. Such weaponry is mainly used by machinists and have heating problems that limit them to quick, burst fire usage. -Vmiskii Hypermetals Vmiskii engineers make hull systems that can absorb energy weapons with ease, being able to divert the heat from super heating to charge their plasma cell systems. Vmiskii spaceships are able to also have energy barrier systems that can hold off attack with low failure rates. -Antimatter Power The Vmiskii Empire attained the power of anti-matter to some level. They use them in limited fashions, however since the stability of antimatter is still suspect especially at the quantities needed to weaponize or otherwise sustain energy with them, not even considering the fallout of a reactor meltdown. -Antigravity (?) Antigravity technology is something Vmiskii Engineers have managed to such an impressive extent they have sky cities that act as hubs to the stars for local worlds. Often occupied worlds get a sky city that is also a military outpost from which management and survelliance is carried out from. [b]0 - Military - 0[/b] 0 - Miner-Killers Miner-Killers are the standard interplanetary combat shell units utilized by the Vmiskii Empire. Their namesake comes from their dual role approach, being used as small but effective mining vessels due to their high penetration pulverizing missiles happening to also be useful for mining asteroids with their interception systems being also useful as mining lasers. In combat, they are usually assault craft that act in small formations of 6 units that coordinate with each other to deep-strike enemy positions, taking advantage of fusion engines and the metallurgical prowess of Aveterriat Engineering to do hard hitting hit and run strikes. The quality based approach however, means that loses are hard to replace and repairs can be outright tedious. Not that the augmented nudist engineers mind, since it means more labour, more favor and more rank to get to repair a Machinist vessel. They are overall, more inclined to being combat vessels with their uses in mining limited compared to more dedicated mining vessels, the secondary function being more or less the task assigned in "peacetime". 0 - Demolitions Demolition Vessels are a dedicated combat vessel that are used mainly in planetary assaults. They are equipped with a wide range of missiles and bombs, including aptly named Earthquake bombs that induce earthquakes, cause infrastructural damage and can even cause Tsunamis. They are a strategic ship, mainly focused on shock and awe tactics to force opponents into submission while shaking their infrastructure up to give them some work to do once taken over. 00 - Pulverizers Pulverizers are the heavy assault ships of the Vmiskii Empire. They have particle accelerators for close range burst-fire barrages of rapid, hard hitting dust particles and lots of missiles, mainly of the fusion variety. High ranking Rippers do at times even use anti-matter missiles but the risks associated with them make it rather uncommon. In peace time, rippers usually are used for plain old demolition or in Vmiskii style art works. 00 - Saboteurs Saboteurs are light interceptor-type vessels that can also double as kamikaze vessels due to their use of anti-matter drives. To the point they often are regarded as a borderline hard to make and produce missile more than a formal kind of combat spaceship. Their purpose is very much niche, as specialized ships made to go behind enemy lines and destroy critical infrastructure in blitz assaults. They are capable of orbit-sky flight and often of questionable stability, to the point Saboteurs are used mainly in suicide missions. They make use of particle accelerators and have anti-matter missiles, but are unstable and can be rapidly destroyed if you can hit them before they can hit you. Unlike most ships, there is no peacetime applications for them except at best, as backup power generators. 0 Non-Combat 00 - Gestators Gestators are the largest ships in the Vmiskii Empire, they are akin to highly mobile shipyards that are mainly large transit vessels with all matter of trade activities and favors being dealt with. Many of them even have nudists working their way up the ranks, as it is often quicker to do so within a Gestator as a caretaker or engineer as the matinence and work demands of Gestators are high. They are where other ships are assembled using parts refined on the planets and melded together by the engineers about. With lower ranking Aveterriat using them in test flights to make sure it all is working and Machinists usually piloting them. They carry with them usually a few dozen military ships and whenever they go in, you know they mean business. 00 - Inspector Inspectors are technical crafts, they are high ranking Machinists usually and make use of various tools, algorithms and bits of equipment. They often come with data mining augmented aveterriat in small investigative crafts of noticeably lower quality than the ships usually encountered outside the Vmiskii Empire itself. Inspectors are ships made to go far distances and are equipped with higher end jump drives than the norm. Inspectors are used both within the Vmiskii Empire and outside of it for the same general purpose and so do the same thing they always do, war time or peace time. Inspectors usually are associated with the Institute for Galactic Stability. Inspectors are known to also do considerable amounts of espionage to gauge weaknesses of other societies, but the main use of the data is meant to be the gauge the productivity and entropic qualities of other space faring societies to see if they are in line with the ideal state of life or are destabilizing the universe further. 00 - Salvager Salvager ships are a common sight in Vmiskii Fleets, they are ships that act as backing ships mainly for morale often having various stimulants stocked up they hand the more direct fighter crafts. Salvager vessels come armed with some defensive weaponry, but nothing on the level of higher end ships and their lower rank is clear in how they usually are packed with augmented nudists at the controls. They can in peace times have traders on board instead, doing exchanges for salvaged metals from war sites or otherwise handing them to the factories and refineries in Vmiskii controlled space. Salvagers are important because valuable metamaterials are hard to make, so they usually try to collect whatever fragments of fallen comrades to recycle the material instead of having to go through the harder process of manufacturing said metamaterials. Salvager lasers can cut into hulls to slice them into smaller bits to carry on board, with augmented Nudists suited up and let out to go grab and take stuff from destroyed ships. 00 - Harvester Harvesters are dedicated mining vessels used mainly by augmented nudists. Harvesters often are under more stress and demand to succeed during war time when Miner-Killers aren't available to help pick up the slack. Harvesters are way better for mining regardless, as their mining crews and large storage capacities mean they actually can get loads of raw materials for the Vmiskii machine. 0 - Planetside 00 - Combat Constructs Combat constructs are the main assault units of the Aveterriat Militaries. Combat ships in orbit can fling them into critical places just fine thanks to the resilience and inertial dampening that goes into their machinist shells. These combat constructs often make use of gyrojet turrets and their own kinetic forces to bust into and destroy enemy formations to destabilize their discipline while other constructs mop up scattered enemy forces. 00 - Hunter Constructs Hunter Constructs are surface-air constructs that are highly specialized, making use of particle rifles and missiles against enemy air craft or as a means of sniping certain ground units. They can go between flight mode and land mode, but lack mobility while on land and only usually use land mode when trying to snipe. When flying the purpose is locating the target, when in land mode the purpose is picking off the targets deemed the 'heads'. They also can and do fly into larger enemy vehicles when desperate. 00 - Janitors Janitors are a peculiar kind of Machinist fighter, the name is deceptive, as while they do clean up, said clean up has to do with cleaning up stragglers. They are bulkier than your usual machinist, with plasma thrower to burn through heavily plated bunkers and a particle rifle to rip through whatever may be hiding. They survey areas to find an pick off whatever may survive or otherwise occupy areas to keep the enemy from retaking them. Their bulkiness and use of a plasma thrower also makes them decent mine sweepers. [/hider] [hider=Worlds of Interest] - [url= https://github.com/Insculpo/Sandbox_Galaxy/blob/master/Stellar_Abyss_Setting_Bible/1_Worlds_Systems/Sidilico.md]Sidilico[/url] [/hider] [hider=Other Aveterriat societies] -Various aveterriat world state NPCs who follow more rigid dual caste systems by default. -The Protectorate, which houses the Aveterriat Homeworld of Sidilico and is also an NPC [/hider]