The general idea I have for my faction will be a civilization of slimy critters who hull themselves up in clean, glistening shells who are absolute germaphobes who have accrued considerable amounts of power in the vacuum the Orionics left. I'll put slow work on them, but I intend to really get into this NRP after June 10th since that's when I get tons of free time. (Current app is WIP)
@Dinh AaronMk Seconded, it pays to at least have some regard for astronomy in a sci-fi setting even if it's a space opera. I find the Universe Atlas maps pretty useful for that.
@Willy Vereb It's hard to write accurate scaled galactic scale sci-fi. Which was why I experimented with single star system sci-fi NRPs. Not much of an audience though since the people who want that already have eclipse phase.
@Dinh AaronMk Seconded, it pays to at least have some regard for astronomy in a sci-fi setting even if it's a space opera. I find the Universe Atlas maps pretty useful for that.
@Willy Vereb It's hard to write accurate scaled galactic scale sci-fi. Which was why I experimented with single star system sci-fi NRPs. Not much of an audience though since the people who want that already have eclipse phase.
-Expect a flag eventually-
The metasyndicate is a society of scavengers and technophilic upstarts built on a very highly materialistic outlook of the universe. Ran by an oligarchy of Fosskemians fused with AI minds, yet infused with an outlook that demands conflict and chaos as fundamental aspects of the universe even as they simultaniously seek open, free trade with others and a general obsession with increasing the flow of data whatever the content.
The denizens of the Metasyndicate have come to prominence mostly in the wake of the collapse of the Orionic Empire as one of the various “xeno barbarian” forces out there. The Metas themselves tend to view themselves much more as a fire in the dark, finally free to spread across the volatile environment left behind by the storm of the collapse. The entities of the metasyndicate are notorious for their scavenging, piracy, tendency to go basically anywhere they see fit and their advanced information warfare capabilities. The metasyndicate has been, like with other alien forces, a common go-to for other civilizations for mercenaries as it is well known that that the most common species of the metasyndicate does not fear death.
Only silence.
A syndicate within syndicates is the way it is usually described. A greater organization of self-aware space craft runs a large shadow government within the system of organizations that the metasyndicate consists of. These organizations act as independent organs of the Greater Metasyndicate government with private initiatives and goals within the framework system that the metasyndicate itself creates for its inhabitants. While claimed to be a free trade society, intervention by the Anvayat class is a regular feature of their society without really much accountability. The oligarchic nature of this society is complicated by the local sector polities being usually either monarchic or anarchic with little in between. They are usually described as a federation of sorts as a result, though with organizations having much more power within the system than local governments and their private armies who tend to play off these organizations.
The general structure looks like a web more than a pyramid with the metasyndicate government itself meddling frequently, but not to the kind of institutional degrees most governments do.
This weak control on what local actors within the greater metasyndicate means the metasyndicate as a federal force has been very unstable an actor, at times behaving more like a massive terrorist organization than as a coherent government with their ideology seeing the fall of the Orionic empire as one of the greatest things to ever happen in galactic history.
The Metasyndicate have very overt AI custodianship like other civilizations in the region, though these AI systems are unique in how they don’t hide themselves and tend to be more manipulators of the overall metasyndicate. These AIs don’t really have borders and have been known to attempt to meddle in the affairs of other societies as well. These AI systems have a relationship with the Fosskemians that is described below.
The early interstellar societies the Metasyndicate descends from were not really societies as we think of them. Instead they were drone swarms, with AI systems mining aggressively across a portion of the galaxy to create ever larger machine swarms. Said AI swarms were slaughtered by the Orionic empire long before the Orionic Empire fell however and that ended the enigmatic first generation of AIs known as only the Harlapa. It is still unclear if they are of human or alien origin. Theories range from them being some alien civilization that had a grey goo catastrophe to something rogue human colonists from ancient times. The exact truth remains nebulous and hard to discover due to lots of lost records and data, made worse with the Orionic Empire’s collapse.
Fast forward a several centuries and a remnant population of these AIs comes across a civilization of beings who suffered a nuclear catastrophe of their own making- the ancient Fosskemians in their Opulence Era that ended nearly in their extinction. This remnant AI population was a weird one- it instead of euthanizing this species uplifted them, giving them warp drive technology and the ability to make an interstellar empire on the fringes of imperial space. The remnant AIs became beings fused with the Fosskemians known as the Anvayat, whose general motives beyond their borderline nihilistic outlook include the propagation of harmonious thought. This society developed with some imperial incursions, but by this time the Empire had its hands much too full to handle some peripheral xeno barbaric force. And so, the network of societies that converged into the metasyndicate developed as did the web work of infrastructure for their confederate union of interstellar organizations. However, the institution of the Auditor only appeared after the Orionic Collapse just 150 years ago.
In the current era of darkness, the Metasyndicate has thrived in the general chaos of the collapse with not much in the way of their ability to explore the galaxy, harvest ancient technologies for their own use or intervene in the affairs of others for the end of preventing anything like the Orionic Empire from arising again. Ongoing tensions with other xenobarbaric forces have continued to make the metasyndicate itself use whatever options they have on the table when dealing with others in this shattered galaxy.
(Anything more I add to this will be collaborative)
I am using this section for both military and technology since with the Metasyndicate, civilian tech and military tech have no defined lines. Civilians can become militias in many cases within the Metasyndicate, and so what you will get here is a grab bag of various Fosskemian tech products and some lore connected to them.
The military of the metasyndicate has no real standardization due to multiple factions and the tendency to use tons of self-organizing smaller squad groups whose general movements often are loosely coordinated with the intent of increasing uncertainty for their opponents. This is what they do instead of the traditional armadas. The general tech the metasyndicate uses is usually reverse engineered and taken from other factions when it isn’t based on older designs from the AI era plastered over with various artistic touches by the pilots.
In general, the Metasyndicate’s military is not known for being well organized or competent even with the professionalism to which the major factions try to hold their members. However, it does make use of some shockingly developed means of subterfuge and interception of communication systems. The Metasyndicate's military technology is instead strongly rooted in amplifying their power through a powerful array of espionage based technologies.
--Multipurpose tech--
--Spaceship Classes--
((Very incomplete for now as the metasyndicate is meant to have all sorts of powerful, peculiar gadgetry and that takes time to percolate. That being said the general gist has been given, I doubt it is enough to qualify as "enough" for IC positng however.))
As a free minded society, Anchorism nor Kineticism has had much bearing on the Fosskemians of the Metasyndicate with the dominant belief system being more a mode of thought than any actual spirituality. This mode of thought comes from a centuries old proto-auditor whose ravings and rants are regularly played known as Auditor Rovii. Rovii is often retroactively considered the first auditor despite being centuries old, long before the institution of auditor even existed. The basic tenets of Harmonious Action are that silence and stability are fundamentally connected within the triangular moral gradient that is silence, harmony and dissonance. The harmony the "intellectuals" of the Metasyndicate frequently go on public rants about effectively must do with the loose pattern of ebbs, flows and concerted shifts to which all civilization follows. Large, stable empires are viewed in general as an unnatural state and the Metasyndicate is structured in a fashion usually described as a mixture of logocractic and corporatist governance. However, mob rule also tends to be a common feature of the metasyndicate on a local level.
With the high degree of automation seen in their civilization, citizens usually tend to do a lot of very strange activities to keep harmonious and not dull themselves. One example is that highly suicidal stunts are a very common trend among their citizens. For the weak fear of death mixed with the moral system that pervades the metasyndicate encourages behavior of this nature. Coming from a desire for “resonance”- something often confused for “legacy” means dying in a gruesome, but beautifully impossible to ignore way is a common behavior among their citizens. Disturbingly enough, even by other species assimilated into the harmonious/Rovite mindset.
The metasyndicate is also characterized by being highly cosmopolitan a civilization, with inhabitants from all over even with the fosskemians being in the majority due to their high reproduction rates (they’ve industrialized their egg fertilization). The Fosskemians as a species value communication and being able to communicate to others highly and so lack the degree of xenophobia other species may have even if they press their worldview onto every other species, even animals.
Variations within the Metasyndicate exist, mainly due to the different organizations that act as the organelles for the greater metasyndicate.
----- Examples ----
The Boundless Association are the most widespread group of Metasyndicate denizens, being both a research organization and a historical society that have a significant share of the industrial-military complex of the Metasyndicate and make use of their military to harass societies for their tech, artifacts and such when they don’t make use of their spy networks to get said resources for themselves. The Boundless Association makes use of a specialized group for these spy networks known as the Collectors who have found use by the Hargonians, the Kazzlehorf and the Waywards. The Boundless view themselves as the vanguards of information collection and as the prime innovators of the Metasyndicate, with a deeply prideful outlook missing from the other factions and a sense of optimism and seemingly idiotic wonder for the galaxy in general. They are always friendly even towards their enemies and victims as everyone to them are friends and having company that wants to change your state forcefully (killing) is still preferable to no company. The boundless are also dogmatic recruiters for the metasyndicate and indeed get viewed as the “outside interaction group” while the Hargonians and Waywardians get viewed as much more domestic in nature. The boundless are the most common grouping of Metasyndicate civilizations other factions will come across as they explore the furthest out.
The most notable is the Hargonian Dynasty, an ancient Fosskemian dynasty that has claims all the way back to the Opulence Era that makes use of queens and a nobility that consists of many ‘princess’ Fosskemians who come from the eggs of the queen Fosskemian. The Hargonites of the current era have gained notoriety for there being multiple self-proclaimed Hargonite queens and selling their “royal” eggs on the market knowing full well they can be externally fertilized. The hargonites generally aren’t taken seriously by the other factions, mainly being viewed more as a source for viewing screens than as a actual society- a massive endless drama play the other organizations have to deal with from time to time when they start wars with others. Still, they are a pretty significant faction of the metasyndicate and have attempted all matter of diplomatic action with other societies despite being aliens who can’t cross breed to make heirs for any marriage alliances. They often suggest an AI heir instead in such cases. The Hargonians are also distinct in how they are more sedentary than the other two major groups.
The Waywardians are a group whose general mindset is that of dysfunctionality and a form of nihilism much stronger than the Rovite ethics traditionally followed by the other groups. The Waywardians fear determinism and so act in ways intentionally arbitrary as a means of fighting the deterministic nature of the universe itself. They have experimented with vast ranges of peculiar technologies they stole from the Boundless, (of whom stole from other societies) to try to break reality itself and have also figured out enhanced warp drive systems that were quickly copied by other societies before the Waywardians were able to get any major advantage. The waywardians as a group also make a heavy use of cloning, with usually the general desire of watching new individuals sprout from the process. Still, their society is perhaps the most Anvayat infiltrated of them and the most directly ran by them beyond the traditional meddling and so the Waywardians get often viewed as just a test bed for the Anvayat’s endless search for a purer harmonious state.
((More to come, I can always extend this))
Fosskemian 67%
The Fosskemians are tall creatures, around 7-8 feet in height on Average. However, they aren't strong creatures due to their biomechanics not being apt for strength. Their prehensile limbs are weak compared to ours, and this has affected how they interact with the environment around them by making them prone to using smaller tools or working in aquatic environments; they tend to craft underwater.
The Fosskemians have adapted to using their 'wings' as a versatile type of "leg" which allows them to skid, slide and gallop around their environment which has a denser atmosphere than our own. The Fosskemians breathe through their skin for the most part, with the blow holes in their backs being more for their wing systems more than actual respiration. The Fosskemians have a small, sharp beak at the front of their long heads. They hear vibrations from the ground better than we do, but have difficulty hearing high pitched sounds.
The Fosskemians are amphibious beings, which is how they colonized so much of their world so fast as they literally drifted to other land masses. Their long history of civilization, stretching over 12000 years is something often neglected by their own kind- especially since a lot of this history is revised on a regular, persistent basis with lots of lost knowledge about ancient times for them. The Fosskemian have 15-20 year generations instead of 30 year generations even today, and can have children as early as 7 years of age. The Fosskemians in general are shorter lived than us and this may factor into their mentality of resonance on a fundamental level; they live short existences after all.
The Fosskemian are L-handed beings like us, and so there is some compatible food products. Their nutrition is like ours except in certain areas, primarily in fibers. They seem to eat proteins just like we do, although Terran plant matter is not nutritious for them (and likewise, Vopallian balloon matter lack nutritional value for us).
Fosskemian sub-species are rare; most have already converged. Communities of non-common Fosskemian such as the spotties or the pink Fosskemian tend to isolate themselves in distance around the galaxy, usually being literally thousands of light years from the common Fosskemian. The common Fosskemian, being comprised of multiple sub-species have quite a bit of genetic variation (I may have to draw this).
The Fosskemians are a species who lays eggs, with males being the caretakers of said eggs. The Fosskemian tend to live in large groups, in multiple mass nests and sets of complexes. These colonies tend to contain internally functional markets which trade with other nests in global networks somewhat like nation-states, but much more tightly knit and with less centralized authority. These complexes can be highly dangerous for the surrounding environment, as they tend to leak waste into the surrounding area. There is no real single male-female mate; it is more a series of mates’ females have, males tend to communally take care of eggs and raise children along with expand the nest.
Females tend to leave the nests far more frequently than males, although females taking males where they go is all too frequent (since having a consistent system of places in society is too hard for them, even if there is blatant gender roles in their species. The Fosskemian don't seem to recognize they even exist, despite how painfully obvious it is to human observers. Males that question this have highly varied consequences, sometimes ignored, sometimes ostracized, other times socially humiliated in public). There isn't really much consistency in authority or law; there is very little concept of law to begin with, just guidelines that change depending on what the local auditor, princess or plutocrat says is the rules now. Their science is rife in a range of psuedoscientific madness that is only tempered by obsessive experimentation by scientifically minded Fosskemian that tends to find new technologies to play with. Science in the Fosskemian sense is really a range of experiments made not to solve problems, but to have new things to possess.
Fosskemian psychology on the whole has many human-like traits, though there is a couple significant deviations. The most significant being their fear of silence and not fearing death. This fear of silence is usually viewed in terms of "lacking noise" and has informed their cultural beliefs/norms throughout their history, manifesting in a wide array of different means. The Metasyndicate being just one example of this.
Humans 11%
Humans, often from the Aurorian Republic or the USS Chaim who have been a part of the metasydnicate and even before with older generations of imperial exiles making for a diverse and colorful community of humans of many backgrounds. Who tend to really not like each other, some even have made identitarian organizations trying to assert their home faction's ideals in alien territory.
Others TBA
Characters: (You don't need to go that in depth in the NS, but once we get to IC, definitely have them fleshed out, at least mentally.)
Relations: (Talk to people! This section in NRPs often goes neglected, but it's important for other characters making their own NSs.)
Habitation: The Fosskemians as a species are traditionally amphibians and this shows in their infrastructure, with lots of water pools just to stay wet and their control pads being built for them to use machines they operate lying down with their huge flippers stretched out instead of standing up. The Fosskemians also use their massive flippers to make all matter of bar and friction based infrastructure that wouldn’t make sense with a human body plan. Having to make this different infrastructural need work with the more humanoid (or otherwise) species of the galaxy has been one of the great headaches of Metasyndicate architects.
((Probably could include way more detail here, I promise pics on this in the future)).
Overview
The metasyndicate is a society of scavengers and technophilic upstarts built on a very highly materialistic outlook of the universe. Ran by an oligarchy of Fosskemians fused with AI minds, yet infused with an outlook that demands conflict and chaos as fundamental aspects of the universe even as they simultaniously seek open, free trade with others and a general obsession with increasing the flow of data whatever the content.
The denizens of the Metasyndicate have come to prominence mostly in the wake of the collapse of the Orionic Empire as one of the various “xeno barbarian” forces out there. The Metas themselves tend to view themselves much more as a fire in the dark, finally free to spread across the volatile environment left behind by the storm of the collapse. The entities of the metasyndicate are notorious for their scavenging, piracy, tendency to go basically anywhere they see fit and their advanced information warfare capabilities. The metasyndicate has been, like with other alien forces, a common go-to for other civilizations for mercenaries as it is well known that that the most common species of the metasyndicate does not fear death.
Only silence.
Government
A syndicate within syndicates is the way it is usually described. A greater organization of self-aware space craft runs a large shadow government within the system of organizations that the metasyndicate consists of. These organizations act as independent organs of the Greater Metasyndicate government with private initiatives and goals within the framework system that the metasyndicate itself creates for its inhabitants. While claimed to be a free trade society, intervention by the Anvayat class is a regular feature of their society without really much accountability. The oligarchic nature of this society is complicated by the local sector polities being usually either monarchic or anarchic with little in between. They are usually described as a federation of sorts as a result, though with organizations having much more power within the system than local governments and their private armies who tend to play off these organizations.
The general structure looks like a web more than a pyramid with the metasyndicate government itself meddling frequently, but not to the kind of institutional degrees most governments do.
This weak control on what local actors within the greater metasyndicate means the metasyndicate as a federal force has been very unstable an actor, at times behaving more like a massive terrorist organization than as a coherent government with their ideology seeing the fall of the Orionic empire as one of the greatest things to ever happen in galactic history.
The Metasyndicate have very overt AI custodianship like other civilizations in the region, though these AI systems are unique in how they don’t hide themselves and tend to be more manipulators of the overall metasyndicate. These AIs don’t really have borders and have been known to attempt to meddle in the affairs of other societies as well. These AI systems have a relationship with the Fosskemians that is described below.
History
The early interstellar societies the Metasyndicate descends from were not really societies as we think of them. Instead they were drone swarms, with AI systems mining aggressively across a portion of the galaxy to create ever larger machine swarms. Said AI swarms were slaughtered by the Orionic empire long before the Orionic Empire fell however and that ended the enigmatic first generation of AIs known as only the Harlapa. It is still unclear if they are of human or alien origin. Theories range from them being some alien civilization that had a grey goo catastrophe to something rogue human colonists from ancient times. The exact truth remains nebulous and hard to discover due to lots of lost records and data, made worse with the Orionic Empire’s collapse.
Fast forward a several centuries and a remnant population of these AIs comes across a civilization of beings who suffered a nuclear catastrophe of their own making- the ancient Fosskemians in their Opulence Era that ended nearly in their extinction. This remnant AI population was a weird one- it instead of euthanizing this species uplifted them, giving them warp drive technology and the ability to make an interstellar empire on the fringes of imperial space. The remnant AIs became beings fused with the Fosskemians known as the Anvayat, whose general motives beyond their borderline nihilistic outlook include the propagation of harmonious thought. This society developed with some imperial incursions, but by this time the Empire had its hands much too full to handle some peripheral xeno barbaric force. And so, the network of societies that converged into the metasyndicate developed as did the web work of infrastructure for their confederate union of interstellar organizations. However, the institution of the Auditor only appeared after the Orionic Collapse just 150 years ago.
In the current era of darkness, the Metasyndicate has thrived in the general chaos of the collapse with not much in the way of their ability to explore the galaxy, harvest ancient technologies for their own use or intervene in the affairs of others for the end of preventing anything like the Orionic Empire from arising again. Ongoing tensions with other xenobarbaric forces have continued to make the metasyndicate itself use whatever options they have on the table when dealing with others in this shattered galaxy.
(Anything more I add to this will be collaborative)
Military/Technology
I am using this section for both military and technology since with the Metasyndicate, civilian tech and military tech have no defined lines. Civilians can become militias in many cases within the Metasyndicate, and so what you will get here is a grab bag of various Fosskemian tech products and some lore connected to them.
The military of the metasyndicate has no real standardization due to multiple factions and the tendency to use tons of self-organizing smaller squad groups whose general movements often are loosely coordinated with the intent of increasing uncertainty for their opponents. This is what they do instead of the traditional armadas. The general tech the metasyndicate uses is usually reverse engineered and taken from other factions when it isn’t based on older designs from the AI era plastered over with various artistic touches by the pilots.
In general, the Metasyndicate’s military is not known for being well organized or competent even with the professionalism to which the major factions try to hold their members. However, it does make use of some shockingly developed means of subterfuge and interception of communication systems. The Metasyndicate's military technology is instead strongly rooted in amplifying their power through a powerful array of espionage based technologies.
--Multipurpose tech--
Spoofers are the main stay of Fosskemian gadgetry, they are small energy teleportation devices that are the basis of much of their civilization. It is one of the main achievements of the reverse engineering efforts of Metasyndicate researchers building off the prior attempts at this tech and making a heat sucking device. The implications of Spoofers are massive- they allow for wireless energy transfer in their devices for instance allowing them to get away with set ups normally limited by needing to transport batteries around or having to carry a power generator as they can source the power through spoofers.
Spoofers have a military application not just logistically- they can overclock a missile with more or less energy dynamically thanks to spoofers allowing for tiny bombs with far more massive explosions than first expected.
Spoofers are limited by light lag however, and do not exhibit FTL properties.
Spoofer energy transmissions are interceptable if you know where one is, something the metasyndicate knows well and so much of Fosskemian tech does whatever it can to obscure the location of a spoofer to make it harder to flood out the media it is using to transmit the heat.
Spoofers have a military application not just logistically- they can overclock a missile with more or less energy dynamically thanks to spoofers allowing for tiny bombs with far more massive explosions than first expected.
Spoofers are limited by light lag however, and do not exhibit FTL properties.
Spoofer energy transmissions are interceptable if you know where one is, something the metasyndicate knows well and so much of Fosskemian tech does whatever it can to obscure the location of a spoofer to make it harder to flood out the media it is using to transmit the heat.
Zippers are amphibious flycrafts used by the Fosskemians that can be deployed from orbit and dive down into the depths of a world's oceans. Zippers are called such because of their incredible manuverability and speed, being mostly used as scout craft, smuggling crafts and as hit and run crafts. Their craft makes them a bit pricy, but the Metasyndicate has organizations dedicated to their production that has tried to satitae demands for the Zippercrafts and their mixed and flexible capabilities.
Better skins are a series of various exosuit systems made from very flexible materials to help with navigating higher gravity environments. They also act as a still suit for the amphibious fosskemians in more arid environments where they would normally risk dying from drying up. Most better skins are non-powered suits, but Spoofer powered bettwer skins have been used in their militaries in many cases.
Wavekill is one of the more bizarre tech systems- if a vessel is unshielded or some part of their infratsurture is vulnerable this device can launch disruptive waves to destabilize the infrastructure of vital components of whatever it hits, be it a car, a building or anything with many sensitive parts. It is wide reaching in use- for instance if used on a biological creature, it can give them heart attacks, intense pain and profuse internal bleeding.
Wavekill systems have also found usage in therapy for various neuro-disorders (mainly since light wavekills can cause a 'jump starting' effect within the target) and encyrpted communications.
Wavekill systems have also found usage in therapy for various neuro-disorders (mainly since light wavekills can cause a 'jump starting' effect within the target) and encyrpted communications.
--Spaceship Classes--
There is no one kind of these spaceships, the main thing to know about them is their mixture of ceremonial and organizational roles in ceremonial hargonian fuedal conflicts. Noble Spacecrafts are literally called this because they are the spacecraft only hargonian princesses get to pilot in theory. In practice they get auctioned off all the time by princesses who are needing money or found a new spaceship to make into a Noble Spacecraft.
The general idea is similar to that of military officers on their horses from earlier human eras- a specialized craft that says "I am the one in charge here" and is made intentionally to incite direct engagement with a rival princess. It is also because it increases ratings when rival princesses destroy each other in "honorable" space combat instead of the normal kind.
Despite being blatantly ceremonial, they have still been used by Hargonians in battles with other societies in the galaxy to varied, varied results- and the princesses tend to take these spaceships everywhere, even on foreign meetings despite often being armed enough to wipe out a continent. Hargonian princesses tend to not to like leaving their spaceships as is, living in them much like hermit crabs live in shells. This is not due to security alone- it is also due to how communications filled their ships are and because it makes them feel more powerful to be in a spaceship and very weak and pitiful to not be in a spaceship.
The general idea is similar to that of military officers on their horses from earlier human eras- a specialized craft that says "I am the one in charge here" and is made intentionally to incite direct engagement with a rival princess. It is also because it increases ratings when rival princesses destroy each other in "honorable" space combat instead of the normal kind.
Despite being blatantly ceremonial, they have still been used by Hargonians in battles with other societies in the galaxy to varied, varied results- and the princesses tend to take these spaceships everywhere, even on foreign meetings despite often being armed enough to wipe out a continent. Hargonian princesses tend to not to like leaving their spaceships as is, living in them much like hermit crabs live in shells. This is not due to security alone- it is also due to how communications filled their ships are and because it makes them feel more powerful to be in a spaceship and very weak and pitiful to not be in a spaceship.
Energetic-Class Vessels are a Boundless innovation and their signature vessels, made of a mixture of reverse engineered tech their main property is that they are able to absorb energy, transfer energy between other ships within a brigade and make use of particle array cannons alongside semi-automatic railguns. Such high powered, hard hitting and heavily shielded ships ranging from frigate to cruiser sizes (up to 1 Km for their long journey mothercraft) are a specialty within the Metasyndicate and are used by the Boundless as exploration vessels since the kind of exploation the boundless do sometimes requires being able to bring worlds to submission with one squadron of spacecraft. They can absorb energy from the kinetic force of weapons that hit their shields even as it also harms said shields and can absorb energy more when near a star. This allows them to go on long distance expeditions where they stop by bright stars to recharge on energy.
And so the Energetic Vessel was made.
Still, sustained fire on one ship can cause other ships to also take damage to their own shielding systems to due to the interdependent energy distribution systems used by other ships within their brigade group.
And so the Energetic Vessel was made.
Still, sustained fire on one ship can cause other ships to also take damage to their own shielding systems to due to the interdependent energy distribution systems used by other ships within their brigade group.
Starbodies are what Anvayat store themselves within and control through possession, their fused AI interfacing with them and their spaceship as they feel themselves as the spaceship itself in a state of extreme intimacy. The Starbodies become themselves and they act as such- the Starbodies very often overtake the Anvayat identity.
The technical capabilities of the Starbodies are wide ranging, having a spinal mount mass driver mixed with particle array systems and multiple layers of shielding making for a much more resistant, hard to destroy ship made all the worse by spoofer energy flow allowing them to constantly get more energy for their shield systems. Still, if you can find ways to disrupt spoofer energy flows, they become somewhat weaker. But still will prove hell to deal with, starbodies are made to take over the infrastructure of a local world and can also make attempts at hijacking the tech of other spacecraft through wave based means to destabilize their reactor cores or life support.
The technical capabilities of the Starbodies are wide ranging, having a spinal mount mass driver mixed with particle array systems and multiple layers of shielding making for a much more resistant, hard to destroy ship made all the worse by spoofer energy flow allowing them to constantly get more energy for their shield systems. Still, if you can find ways to disrupt spoofer energy flows, they become somewhat weaker. But still will prove hell to deal with, starbodies are made to take over the infrastructure of a local world and can also make attempts at hijacking the tech of other spacecraft through wave based means to destabilize their reactor cores or life support.
((Very incomplete for now as the metasyndicate is meant to have all sorts of powerful, peculiar gadgetry and that takes time to percolate. That being said the general gist has been given, I doubt it is enough to qualify as "enough" for IC positng however.))
Religion/Culture
As a free minded society, Anchorism nor Kineticism has had much bearing on the Fosskemians of the Metasyndicate with the dominant belief system being more a mode of thought than any actual spirituality. This mode of thought comes from a centuries old proto-auditor whose ravings and rants are regularly played known as Auditor Rovii. Rovii is often retroactively considered the first auditor despite being centuries old, long before the institution of auditor even existed. The basic tenets of Harmonious Action are that silence and stability are fundamentally connected within the triangular moral gradient that is silence, harmony and dissonance. The harmony the "intellectuals" of the Metasyndicate frequently go on public rants about effectively must do with the loose pattern of ebbs, flows and concerted shifts to which all civilization follows. Large, stable empires are viewed in general as an unnatural state and the Metasyndicate is structured in a fashion usually described as a mixture of logocractic and corporatist governance. However, mob rule also tends to be a common feature of the metasyndicate on a local level.
With the high degree of automation seen in their civilization, citizens usually tend to do a lot of very strange activities to keep harmonious and not dull themselves. One example is that highly suicidal stunts are a very common trend among their citizens. For the weak fear of death mixed with the moral system that pervades the metasyndicate encourages behavior of this nature. Coming from a desire for “resonance”- something often confused for “legacy” means dying in a gruesome, but beautifully impossible to ignore way is a common behavior among their citizens. Disturbingly enough, even by other species assimilated into the harmonious/Rovite mindset.
The metasyndicate is also characterized by being highly cosmopolitan a civilization, with inhabitants from all over even with the fosskemians being in the majority due to their high reproduction rates (they’ve industrialized their egg fertilization). The Fosskemians as a species value communication and being able to communicate to others highly and so lack the degree of xenophobia other species may have even if they press their worldview onto every other species, even animals.
Variations within the Metasyndicate exist, mainly due to the different organizations that act as the organelles for the greater metasyndicate.
----- Examples ----
Boundless Association
The Boundless Association are the most widespread group of Metasyndicate denizens, being both a research organization and a historical society that have a significant share of the industrial-military complex of the Metasyndicate and make use of their military to harass societies for their tech, artifacts and such when they don’t make use of their spy networks to get said resources for themselves. The Boundless Association makes use of a specialized group for these spy networks known as the Collectors who have found use by the Hargonians, the Kazzlehorf and the Waywards. The Boundless view themselves as the vanguards of information collection and as the prime innovators of the Metasyndicate, with a deeply prideful outlook missing from the other factions and a sense of optimism and seemingly idiotic wonder for the galaxy in general. They are always friendly even towards their enemies and victims as everyone to them are friends and having company that wants to change your state forcefully (killing) is still preferable to no company. The boundless are also dogmatic recruiters for the metasyndicate and indeed get viewed as the “outside interaction group” while the Hargonians and Waywardians get viewed as much more domestic in nature. The boundless are the most common grouping of Metasyndicate civilizations other factions will come across as they explore the furthest out.
The Hargonian Dynasty
The most notable is the Hargonian Dynasty, an ancient Fosskemian dynasty that has claims all the way back to the Opulence Era that makes use of queens and a nobility that consists of many ‘princess’ Fosskemians who come from the eggs of the queen Fosskemian. The Hargonites of the current era have gained notoriety for there being multiple self-proclaimed Hargonite queens and selling their “royal” eggs on the market knowing full well they can be externally fertilized. The hargonites generally aren’t taken seriously by the other factions, mainly being viewed more as a source for viewing screens than as a actual society- a massive endless drama play the other organizations have to deal with from time to time when they start wars with others. Still, they are a pretty significant faction of the metasyndicate and have attempted all matter of diplomatic action with other societies despite being aliens who can’t cross breed to make heirs for any marriage alliances. They often suggest an AI heir instead in such cases. The Hargonians are also distinct in how they are more sedentary than the other two major groups.
Waywardians
The Waywardians are a group whose general mindset is that of dysfunctionality and a form of nihilism much stronger than the Rovite ethics traditionally followed by the other groups. The Waywardians fear determinism and so act in ways intentionally arbitrary as a means of fighting the deterministic nature of the universe itself. They have experimented with vast ranges of peculiar technologies they stole from the Boundless, (of whom stole from other societies) to try to break reality itself and have also figured out enhanced warp drive systems that were quickly copied by other societies before the Waywardians were able to get any major advantage. The waywardians as a group also make a heavy use of cloning, with usually the general desire of watching new individuals sprout from the process. Still, their society is perhaps the most Anvayat infiltrated of them and the most directly ran by them beyond the traditional meddling and so the Waywardians get often viewed as just a test bed for the Anvayat’s endless search for a purer harmonious state.
((More to come, I can always extend this))
Demographics
Fosskemian 67%
The Fosskemians are tall creatures, around 7-8 feet in height on Average. However, they aren't strong creatures due to their biomechanics not being apt for strength. Their prehensile limbs are weak compared to ours, and this has affected how they interact with the environment around them by making them prone to using smaller tools or working in aquatic environments; they tend to craft underwater.
The Fosskemians have adapted to using their 'wings' as a versatile type of "leg" which allows them to skid, slide and gallop around their environment which has a denser atmosphere than our own. The Fosskemians breathe through their skin for the most part, with the blow holes in their backs being more for their wing systems more than actual respiration. The Fosskemians have a small, sharp beak at the front of their long heads. They hear vibrations from the ground better than we do, but have difficulty hearing high pitched sounds.
The Fosskemians are amphibious beings, which is how they colonized so much of their world so fast as they literally drifted to other land masses. Their long history of civilization, stretching over 12000 years is something often neglected by their own kind- especially since a lot of this history is revised on a regular, persistent basis with lots of lost knowledge about ancient times for them. The Fosskemian have 15-20 year generations instead of 30 year generations even today, and can have children as early as 7 years of age. The Fosskemians in general are shorter lived than us and this may factor into their mentality of resonance on a fundamental level; they live short existences after all.
The Fosskemian are L-handed beings like us, and so there is some compatible food products. Their nutrition is like ours except in certain areas, primarily in fibers. They seem to eat proteins just like we do, although Terran plant matter is not nutritious for them (and likewise, Vopallian balloon matter lack nutritional value for us).
Fosskemian sub-species are rare; most have already converged. Communities of non-common Fosskemian such as the spotties or the pink Fosskemian tend to isolate themselves in distance around the galaxy, usually being literally thousands of light years from the common Fosskemian. The common Fosskemian, being comprised of multiple sub-species have quite a bit of genetic variation (I may have to draw this).
The Fosskemians are a species who lays eggs, with males being the caretakers of said eggs. The Fosskemian tend to live in large groups, in multiple mass nests and sets of complexes. These colonies tend to contain internally functional markets which trade with other nests in global networks somewhat like nation-states, but much more tightly knit and with less centralized authority. These complexes can be highly dangerous for the surrounding environment, as they tend to leak waste into the surrounding area. There is no real single male-female mate; it is more a series of mates’ females have, males tend to communally take care of eggs and raise children along with expand the nest.
Females tend to leave the nests far more frequently than males, although females taking males where they go is all too frequent (since having a consistent system of places in society is too hard for them, even if there is blatant gender roles in their species. The Fosskemian don't seem to recognize they even exist, despite how painfully obvious it is to human observers. Males that question this have highly varied consequences, sometimes ignored, sometimes ostracized, other times socially humiliated in public). There isn't really much consistency in authority or law; there is very little concept of law to begin with, just guidelines that change depending on what the local auditor, princess or plutocrat says is the rules now. Their science is rife in a range of psuedoscientific madness that is only tempered by obsessive experimentation by scientifically minded Fosskemian that tends to find new technologies to play with. Science in the Fosskemian sense is really a range of experiments made not to solve problems, but to have new things to possess.
Fosskemian psychology on the whole has many human-like traits, though there is a couple significant deviations. The most significant being their fear of silence and not fearing death. This fear of silence is usually viewed in terms of "lacking noise" and has informed their cultural beliefs/norms throughout their history, manifesting in a wide array of different means. The Metasyndicate being just one example of this.
Humans 11%
Humans, often from the Aurorian Republic or the USS Chaim who have been a part of the metasydnicate and even before with older generations of imperial exiles making for a diverse and colorful community of humans of many backgrounds. Who tend to really not like each other, some even have made identitarian organizations trying to assert their home faction's ideals in alien territory.
Others TBA
Characters: (You don't need to go that in depth in the NS, but once we get to IC, definitely have them fleshed out, at least mentally.)
Relations: (Talk to people! This section in NRPs often goes neglected, but it's important for other characters making their own NSs.)
Habitation: The Fosskemians as a species are traditionally amphibians and this shows in their infrastructure, with lots of water pools just to stay wet and their control pads being built for them to use machines they operate lying down with their huge flippers stretched out instead of standing up. The Fosskemians also use their massive flippers to make all matter of bar and friction based infrastructure that wouldn’t make sense with a human body plan. Having to make this different infrastructural need work with the more humanoid (or otherwise) species of the galaxy has been one of the great headaches of Metasyndicate architects.
((Probably could include way more detail here, I promise pics on this in the future)).