[s]Still need to finish the Military and History sections, but:[/s] EDIT: Now just the history section! [HIDER=White Flower Democracy (WIP) ] [center] [color=FFB300][b][h2]White Flower Democracy[/h2][/b][/color] [img]https://i.imgur.com/wukK9zS.jpg[/img] [color=FFB300][b]Government Form[/b][/color]: Direct Democracy [color=FFB300][b]Demographics[/b][/color]: While all Flowers are human, there remains a demographic split in the form of faith. 88% of post-revolutionary citizens remain secular, however, a growing 12% have converted to the popular new religion of Mixtism. (This divide has caused a major split within some votes.) While not officially citizens, there also remains a small community of Supremus Apes, native to the Khanate of the Apes, who have taken up residence on Bezia. A vote to offer them citizenship is currently being processed. [color=FFB300][b]Population[/b][/color]: 1.2 Billion [/center] [color=FFB300][b]Planet Name and Description[/b][/color]: [center] [img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/32/56/a8/3256a896cf3c2e62cb942d6eddeaf28a.jpg [/img] [sub][color=00aeef]On a scorching day, the ruin-filled deserts can glow like molten gold[/color][/sub][/center] Bezia- sometimes called "New Hollywood"- is a once-ruined world that has since been given new life. The original inhabitants, nicknamed "Bezians," are thought to be the same aliens who colonized the homeworld of the One. But sadly, few things about them can really be confirmed: except that they used to be here, they are no longer, and they left nothing but dust, rust and ruins behind them. So when the first human colonists arrived, that's all they found. A planet filled with cities that nobody lived in. Monuments of creaking, decaying metal. Water was scarce, and all native life was fully extinct. An endless wasteland. The perfect blank canvas. Before the revolution, New Hollywoodites were deeply focused on preserving and restoring the aspects of Old Earth life. To find a world so barren might have disheartened some other peoples, but it gave the early colonists a perfect starting place towards restoring the world they'd lost. Terraforming tech was heavily invested in, and as progress continues today, the world of Bezia is becoming more and more like a mirror image of Earth. And though hot, alien deserts remain the norm in large swathes of the world, plant life is creeping in even there, turning the world green. In order to bring moisture back to the surface, vast amounts of H2O are currently being released into the atmosphere. This causes frequent rains. [color=FFB300][b]History[/b][/color]: It all starts with the first Savant, Chun Zhang. Or well, no, it doesn't. But he'd convince you that it does. Chun Zhang was a masterful speaker and beautiful propagandist- as befitting of someone who grew up in Hollywood. He always portrayed himself as the epitome of a cultured genius: intelligent and charming, determined and impulsive, stormy and mysterious. It was that personality- along with other things- which later won him leadership of the early colony. Prior to that, the real facts of his life on Earth are blurry- unusually so, given the famous accuracy of Bezia's records, almost as if someone had scrubbed them. A handful of details are salient. He was born to Chinese immigrants, he lived in LA his entire life, and he worked as a part-time actor in his youth. Post-revolution, more formerly locked records have been released to the public, revealing that a California university did indeed list him as the highest graded student in his freshmen class. Does that, perhaps, add some legitimacy to his claims of intellectualism? Maybe. It is still unknown what exactly he studied. And his grades dropped every year after, so that his GPA at the age of graduation was barely above 2.0. One teacher wrote "Chun is a genius, if he would just work like one." Genius or no, he managed to end up on the [i]Champion.[/i] This [i]Champion[/i] was a rare breed of colony ship. It didn't belong to one nation nor one company, but instead was a mix of the finest minds of two powerhouse countries who had both led the world in scientific progress at one point or another: China and the United States. Achieved scientists and engineers from either nation could join the [i]Champion's[/i] journey; the seats filled up quickly. [b][DATA INCOMPLETE] [/b] Chun spoke both. [color=FFB300][b]Culture and Society[/b][/color]: [center][img]https://images.ctfassets.net/rporu91m20dc/30B36AnSDLmkzaVdQgb7RJ/dda2c0975630e514c35fc495e7286cc9/Starfield_Neon.jpg?q=70&fm=webp[/img] [sub][color=00aeef]The slums of New Rome are a busy, tragic place[/color][/sub][/center] Media-obsessed. Romanticist. Escapist. These words described the people of the ECU, and still largely describe the people of the WFD. The average citizen spends all of their free time engrossed in media of one flavor or another: films, music, plays, holograph-enabled videogames, social media, news. They are materialistic and love entertainment. The culture of Bezia is also still geared, just as it was back when it was called New Hollywood, towards the preservation of Old Earth cultures. Most citizens have what is known as a "Chosen Cultural Expression," or CCE, that they take very seriously. A citizen's CCE represents not only his favorite Old Earth cultures, but the ones he most identifies with, that he considers to be [i]him[/i]. They dress accordingly. They listen to their music accordingly. When they speak, they'll likely put on an accent that fits it. [i](OOC: For context, readers, Tanaka's CCE was American Western, and Abadi's is "Arabic with British and American influences." This is just a fancy new term for a concept I've been using from the start.)[/i] You might call it performative, but a Flower (or a New Hollywoodite, for that matter) would argue that all culture is performative: they just happen to be the first ones to embrace it. What [i]has [/i]changed, when it comes to Bezia/Hollywoodite culture, is their stance on outsiders. The ECU was puritanical in ideology, xenophobic in character. Their nature was one of fear: fear of the alien, of the cyborg, of the mutant. But after exposure to so, so many foreign cultures, the more open-minded have begun to accept that not all peoples could stay as unchanged as they did, and- perhaps- that is not their fault. Outside of xenophobia, there is one other aspect of culture that has been greatly altered: religion. Religion is a touchy subject for the Flowers, having been illegal under the ECU. The old Oligarchs didn't like having competition over the minds and hearts of the populace. Because who can compete against a god? What can move a man's spirit more than faith? So it was illegal, with the largest religious group- the Mixtists- being driven out of the cities and into the wilderness, or else being driven into hiding their faith from the world. But now that the restrictions are lifted and they've finally been reunited, the Mixtists are beginning to realize that they aren't all the same any more. [hider=Ruinists] [quote= Interview with a Mixtist, by Martina Ward][i]"The early Mixtists, you know, their name comes from an Old English word, 'mix.' They accepted almost every Old Earth faith as true in some sense or some other, and tried to smash them all together. This is what made the Noocracy angry with them. Made them chase us out of the cities. Earth religion never had such a unity, so the ECU will not accept it now." "But why?" I asked her, "Isn't unity good?" "Maybe," she answered. "But New Hollywood will not have a thing which Earth didn't have. But besides, back when I was still young, we were... over-enthusiastic. Living out in these ruins has made us more discriminating. Perhaps every faith does have some echo of the Truth. But- but- there can still only be one Truth. It is our mission to find it."[/i][/quote] There are few things more hardening than life in a wasteland. Cast out from the cities, the Mixtists had to survive on less than nothing. Earlier, they tried to mix all Earth religions into a cohesive whole. The desert made them abandon that folly. Throwing aside a million faiths, these Mixtists- often called Ruinists- have come to believe that there can be only one, whole Truth to the world. Shadows of the Truth may be found in many places- and indeed, in many hearts. But there is still only one. They must find it where they can, and serve it as they must. Putting aside the poetic language for a moment: the Ruinists are monotheists, believing that one god created the universe and maintains it. Because they do not have a name for this god, they simply call it "Truth." The customs for worshipping Truth are derived from many different Old Earth faiths, especially monotheistic ones, creating a distinct blend of religious practice found only among the Ruinists. [/hider] [hider=Masonists] The more mysterious half of that two-headed dragon called Mixtism. The Masonists are those who, rather than being dragged out into the wastelands, managed to hide themselves "under cover" in secular society. They hid it with secret passcodes and occult rituals nobody else could identify. Life was harsh for them, just as it was for the Ruinists, but in a different way: they had to cozy up to criminals to keep themselves hidden. For years, the Masonists worked alongside gangs, bribed officials, did all they could to stop the protectors from breathing down their necks. Only in those few, free hours, early in the morning or late at night, could they truly practice their faith- which become more esoteric and secretive every year. By now, it's all wrapped up in doublespeak, with hidden meanings and inscrutable rituals at every corner. They certainly don't worship anything named Truth. But they do worship, and for them, that is enough. Right? [/hider] [center] --- [/center] [color=FFB300][b]Governance and Politics[/b][/color]: Although very new and deeply unstable, the new government of Bezia is quickly coming to resemble a "Direct Democracy." That is, it is becoming a system in which most laws and other affairs-of-state are decided not by rulers or representatives, but by votes direct from the people themselves. You see, most every citizen on New Hollywood owns a device called the infopad, a descendent of the smartphone of Earth's past. Under the ECU, these devices were used primarily (by the individuals) as entertainment and (by the government) as a surveillance device. However, the Flowers have justly appropriated them for the purposes of democracy. When a governmental decision must be made, New Hollywood citizens receive a prompting on their infopads, detailing the issue and allowing them to vote on it. Everyone gets a say on... everything. Now, you may wonder: who decides which votes are to be held? And who watches over the system altogether? That work is done via a mass [b]Bezia Bureaucracy[/b], the closest thing New Hollywood still has to a traditional government. Except that the bureaucrats are elected, if you can believe it, by lottery. Any citizen who volunteers can be randomly selected to serve as a bureaucrat. The bureaucrats serve for one year, and have a limit of two consecutive terms at a time. They work outside of offices, primarily from their infopads, to regulate the voting process. And this also works democratically: while any citizen can propose a vote, it must receive approval from a certain number of bureaucrats before the rest of the population is prompted to vote on it. These bureaucrats are random and numerous, to outweigh any personal bias one may have against a particular proposal. Therefore, the process goes as follows: A Flower citizen, let's call her Jane Doe, proposes a law that bans the use of tobacco within public spaces. The Anti-Tobacco Proposal is sent to a randomly-selected group of bureaucrats, with each one voting on whether the Proposal is [i]relevant [/i]and [i]possible[/i]. After receiving sufficient approval from many individual bureaucrats, the Proposal then appears before the citizens themselves, who vote en masse on whether the Proposal is [i]good[/i]. As infopad messages are near-instantaneous, this entire process can happen quickly, sometimes within an hour. AI is currently being developed to detect redundant laws. In this way, Bezia's population can now decide major issues with neither rulers nor representatives. No masters. No kings. Only the will of the people. It is [s]perfect[/s]. It is not perfect. The obvious problem with such a system is that humans, when in large groups, tend towards a mob-like mentality. Already, the punishments leveled on former protectors have been brutal and unusual- because the mob hates them. No education is required to vote, after all. You do not have to be smart, or understanding, or a good person. There are particular critics who point these flaws out. Very often. They come from the other side of screens- because they are, of course, embedded in the media. The old Oligarchs still have many sympathizers within the media groups that they used to own, who still attempt to divide the new democracy. And yet, those media anchormen who no longer care for the Oligarchs might just be worse. The news thrives on eye-catching, anger-inducing headlines. The kinds that naturally drive people towards political extremes. Many arguments are had between the viewers of different news stations who, for all intents and purposes, are beginning to live in different worlds. The headline of one station says this, and the headline of another says that. It splits the vote. How can they be reconciled? Division already wants to tear apart this new democracy. Time will tell if it does. [color=FFB300][b]Technology Overview[/b][/color]: [center][img]https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*cR8KdptBctKpwgz3l13dIQ.jpeg [/img] [sub][color=00aeef]A complex tower seeds the earth while releasing purifiers into the air[/color][/sub][/center] [b]Hardlight[/b]: Originally designed as touchable holograms, the hardlight of the ECU is currently being expanded for use in other fields, especially matters military. Holographic soldiers and hardlight shielding in particular are becoming trademarks of ECU defensive strategy. Micro-emitters, a new invention, enable the use of touchable holograms everywhere. As these holograms are replacing real workers at an alarming rate, socialist policies have become markedly more popular. A vote will be held about this. [b]Terraforming:[/b] From strategically releasing climate-altering gases into the atmosphere to building gigantic, sun-reflecting mirrors in space, the WFD understands terraforming. Their own world has been shifted remarkably, from a wasteland to a little almost-clone of Earth. It's great! And now the thought has come up to terraform other planets in the Bezia system as new colonies, or even- would we dare it?- to terraform Earth itself back to life. But the decision has yet to be made. A vote will be held about this. [b]Psychological Programming:[/b] A dark secret, buried in the past that is the ECU, perhaps best left alone. They learned how to "brainwash" a person to obey specific commands at the hearing of specific trigger words. Their psychological warfare tactics have recently become infamous. The WFD has formally condemned the former, but holds a place in their armed forces for the latter. [color=FFB300][b]Military Overview[/b][/color]: The WFD fleet is growing quickly, and is no longer just Old Earth designs. If recent events have taught the masses anything, it's that a good military is a necessity; they've been shot at by enough people to learn. See, when the Oligarchs evacuated Bezia, they left their bank accounts behind. All currency and all assets- a staggering amount- have been seized by the Bezia Bureaucracy, to be used for funding public works. Like the navy. The navy is a public work. And due to the abundance of metal resources on Bezia, many ships can be constructed cheaply. The Flowers lean deep into this advantage to create countless, small ships, manned by one at a time. They are inexpensive in design, simply armed, but numerous. In fact, the one area where the Flowers have splurged is in hardlight shielding, leading to a new nickname for the Flower's one-man fighters: "Shield Ships." [center][img]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.quirkybyte.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F05%2Fxander-nova-corps.jpg&f=1&nofb=1[/img] [sub][color=00aeef]Shield Ships working collaboratively[/color][/sub][/center] The name is accurate to their strategies, as well. Shield Ships in combat often act collaboratively, generating group shields around themselves and important assets. When a larger, "warship" size Flower vessel enters the battle, its smaller comrades will be spotted swarming around it in a cylinder pattern, cloaking the warship in their shields. They can then deactivate shielding at key points to allow the warship to fire projectiles, reactivating it after the missile has passed through. This tactic can't go on forever- it is a huge drain on batteries- but for the moments it lasts, a Flower warship is nearly invincible. Finally, and borrowing again from ECU strategy, fighter ships often flood comm channels with random noise, making it difficult for enemies to coordinate- but, as a consequence, making it laughably easy to detect the ships doing the jamming. Really, they [i]expect[/i] to be detected. They have to fall back on that shielding to keep themselves safe. Being such a self-sacrificing role, AI is currently being developed to "autopilot" smaller vessels. But the Flowers are three centuries behind in AI development: they will need foreign aid to complete this project. [i][Side-note: Most Shield Ships are carried inside the warships themselves, to be released during combat] [/i] [center] [hider=Examples of Flower Ships] [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/846488243398246411/913282269681164318/shieldship.jpg [/img] [sub][color=00aeef]An M01 Lily Class; the classic "Shield Ship"[/color][/sub] [img]https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/external/6s634tWyOAo6VrWA_s0xOQaM8qjcod_pQfeifaqZIaQ/https/i.pinimg.com/originals/f2/8d/8e/f28d8e91d2821e43fb7c432dfce29154.jpg?width=509&height=430 [/img] [sub][color=00aeef]An M03 Wasp Class; a one-man fighter[/color][/sub] [img]https://images-ext-1.discordapp.net/external/UPCWWAdaayLqi0V-POsP2GyBMjfe1AcWQeJHfVIWpOo/%3F1519325117/https/slm-assets.secondlife.com/assets/19839314/lightbox/1c857cae-a4a0-451f-8966-b679e9b95e27_orig.jpg?width=622&height=388[/img] [sub][color=00aeef]An M01 Sunflower Class; a warship, used for docking the Wasps and Lillies.[/color][/sub] [/hider] --- [/center] [color=FFB300][b]Additional Info[/b][/color]: A search has began for the famous icon of the White Flower movement, Martina Ward, who was sentenced to exile by the ECU. She is likely somewhere in the ruins. She must be found and brought back to her people, to be told how much things have changed. The Scuttler's Gang, a Neo London criminal organization who helped the Flowers win, has become increasingly agitated by their lack of repayment. They pose a real threat to local security. A vote will be held about this. The more anti-cyborg Flowers still call Zetans "toasters," and refuse to stop even when it's making everyone else increasingly uncomfortable. [i]A vote will be held about this.[/i] [/hider]