tundrafrog1124
ERode
Sunny Suzuki
Thunder999999
Xaltwind
Dark Cloud
Izurich
strawbsandsugar
Zapdos
Teyao@Irredeemable
Nation Name: The Cambrian Constellarate Republic (aka: CCR)
Government Form: Democratic Pseudo-Unitary Federal Republic
(Has sub-regional parts that manage their own day to day and report back and such, but the Federal Government is centralized and has powerful unitary capabilities and powers and such. Hence “pseudo-unitary”.)
Demographics:
-Humans
Population: 1.65 Billion
Planet Name and Description: (So where did your Colony end up? What's the environment like?)
-Cambria: A vast, warm ocean world 9x wider than Earth and covered in salt water oceans all over. Weather such as rain and thunderstorms are common when the skies are not clear or filled with non-storming clouds of some kind, though super-storms and incredible hurricanes beyond anything back on Earth do frankly occur as well. Underwater volcanoes do exist, but tend to be very deep underwater and to never breach the surface before burning out, suffering underwater erosion, and ultimately collapsing or crumbling over time for one reason or another. As such no actual land naturally exists on the planet’s surface, and there are no ‘shallows’ to safely build up a more naturally-formed artificial island from using sand and such. In the far north and far south there are icebergs and bone-chilling temperatures year-round, with the expected snow at times and some vast frozen ice sheets, but most of the planet itself is warm and covered in water.
The planetary ocean itself is incredibly deep and filled with life from its very bottom to even near the surface, ranging from tiny microbial life, to species that humanity can isolate and put into hydroponic farms as livestock, all the way up to even titanic beings of a more than mythological scale hiding lurking in the deepest and most isolated depths that have yet to be grasped or understood. The atmosphere most resembles that of Old Earth, albeit with some minute and slightly less minute differences here and there, but which remains breathable enough for human beings. In this it could be said to be an incredible miracle of life, a one in a trillion shot at finding somewhere to live that did not require crazy adaptations in order to simply breathe and live there on the part of human beings. A veritable miracle for those who sought to live there, which scientists have used to name the world when they dubbed it “Cambria” in a literal manner and as a symbolic gesture.
History:
Cambria as a potential world for human settlement had far more potential than most other planets in the galaxy, perhaps, but it was far from an easy area to colonize. Yet it was the world that those on the Colony Ship the NSF Cordelia would be left to deal with. For those who first emerged from the gateway near enough to the planet, it was at first glance a potential paradise after losing everything back on Earth. For those who first tried to live down there and beyond that point, it was a nightmare they had to conquer.
The lack of land and the presence of far stronger storms in this ocean world presented the first great hurdle for any attempt at forming a liveable space there. Deep-underwater habitats and fleets of interlocking-capable ships, as deep-underwater mines would provide plenty of metals and materials for making ships and habitats, would be the first attempts to get something to ‘work’ for some of the initial colonists over the first few decades. Ultimately, however, deep-sea anchors would be used to build up and try to make artificial islands to live on…albeit many of these would prove hard if not impossible to keep intact due to how deep the planet’s ocean waters were and due to the ferocity of the worst storms the planet could produce making such places hard to protect. Ultimately, the hurdle would only really be overcome as artificial gravity would be implemented to ‘anchor’ non-physically-anchored artificial islands.
Through the development of metastable negative mass metamaterials, and electromagnetic centrifugal gravity generators, scientists and the best minds on the colony ship would generate the first means of creating artificial gravity. In fact, they would come bit by bit to form the ‘full quantum theory of gravity’ itself, a scientific marvel stemming from the initial breakthrough into it by the late 23rd century United Kingdom physicist Josiah L. Holmes who was aboard the colony ship at the time. In turn this would lead to the eventual discovery of gravitons as quantum technologies became more well-understood, leading from the more ‘bulky and power-intensive’ original artificial gravity ‘anchors’ and into the realm of far smaller and far more power-efficient ones to be installed into most other artificial islands built on the planet. This technology, at this level, would go about keeping them from being moved or pushed out of place or frankly drifting constantly about on the waves from place to place. However, all of this simply solved how to ‘anchor’ the islands without dragging them underwater or other disastrous results of that sort. It was far from the only solution.
To protect the islands from weather and the incredible storms would be the other matter, and frankly also remained an important issue for any ships that would be sailing on the planet’s waters in general if they didn’t want to have to be constantly moving about to try to avoid bad weather (which was never 100% successful at that). In this realm of things, the initial idea was deployable ‘armored domes’ that would rise up around a city, limiting its size harshly but protecting it from storms. Such measures were found to be successful in a number of cases, whilst the most severe storms would force out the weaknesses and costly need to update and repair them. However, the development of hologram technology would actually come to alleviate the issue as the area of ‘hard light’ projection technology would finally be breached. Highly durable large-scale hard light projectors would be far easier to protect, adapt, and maintain than the more resource-taxing armored dome system. It would also allow artificial islands to build out and grow without having to redesign their protection system and investing untold finances into it.
Between these technologies, developments in power generation, and augmenting ship designs, the planet of Cambria would achieve the hope of settlement and civilization. It would lead to a great boom in artificial island building and settlement after those first 60 years of research and tough time, though prior to this point a good many had decided to take up more nomadic lives on the sea. In fact, to many this remained a seemingly favorable option to avoid the issues and distrust the struggles of the first 60 years gave them in artificial islands and the like. Some had even gone pirate and ultimately raided such ‘vulnerable’ places they felt wouldn’t last the test of time. Yet as civilization took its hold on the seas in floating cities and towns and so forth over the next 130 years, as well as deep underwater, it would begin to put pressure on these nomadic groups and fleets and ships that roamed the waters. Advances in technology, stable power and food sources, and the like would be fostered faster on the artificial islands, and the union of them into a new and growing nation would provide further support and infrastructure and stability in the movement of goods and resources that would push them even farther. In the end it would lead to the twenty years of this century-and-a-half time period becoming what was known as ‘The Nomad War’. In this very much on-and-off conflict rather than a constantly ‘hot’ one, with many of the last holdout groups of nomads and many nomadic pirates, not consisting of all of the remaining nomads at all mind, tried to push back against rapidly-gaining ground of the ‘island dwellers’ before their fears of becoming obsolete or pushed out of any liveable waters in favor of more artificial islands and underwater facilities came to fruition.
It was a bloody affair that would see both sides hurt, bring many independent nomad groups not in the opposition to the side of the artificial islands for good, cause many refugees from the opposition to settle on artificial islands for good, and at the very least make a surprise show of stubborn tenacity and strength on the nomads’ part. Both sides would later be recalled in songs and history books for valor, but for those who grew up during this time it was far from pleasant. It would also lead to the remaining nomads becoming integrated into the nation itself, but it would leave its scars that would only fade into memory and the history books in time.
Yet only ten years after the end of this time period, three large asteroids would be discovered to be headed towards the planet on a crash trajectory. It was theorized they were parts of a destroyed planet or other such phenomenon, though some theorized they had been weaponized long ago but long missed their mark before being sent hurtling through space on their own. Some even thought it was all a fake ruse to cover up a massive government project gone awry or such. Etc. Yet calculating the time frame before impact, and the catastrophic damage that would arise from each, work began on a planet-wide defense network in the year 220 (2520 in the Old Earth Calendar). It would lead to twenty-five years of long hard work, high investment, and much blood, sweat, and tears. Also a small rebellion by those against the system who thought it was just a big waste of space for a 'lie'. Work was completed in 247, and the resulting system was used in 250 as the asteroids arrived to avoid catastrophic damage and results planetside. Some damage still did occur, however, and ironically in the aftermath the system would silently remain and be integrated into the military for anti-air, beyond-orbit, and even anti-surface (not underwater) capabilities. Since then, things have remained generally peaceful outside of the general issues a massive planetary nation would have to deal with.
Culture and Society:
(Mostly just dotted as a list of facts in this section to try to make it easier to jot down and write it out.)
-Tank tops and tube tops and other swimsuit-like garb or modern-style clothing based on some traditional Hawaiian garb, among other loose or otherwise breathable clothing, are very common in general on this planet. This is, simply put, due to the hot and humid weather that is so very common and nigh-ubiquitous on its surface. To cover up too much is to overheat when you are outside here, at least such is the common mindset. (Also means the planet has invested into super scifi A/C units to boot! XD)
-Short-skirt modern-style kimono and yukata, blended with some ideas from the west, have become the type of garb worn for various festivals and celebrations and holidays that are held on the planet. Such holidays and celebrations and festivals are either local or are passed down or blended from their own historical events and precursor cultures from Old Earth, leading to both things that those of Old Earth would find both familiar and unfamiliar in their contents. Also these clothing ideas were adopted as they became seen as very fashionable and just stuck hard enough in the long run.
-Warmer clothing is worn in deep underwater habitats and in colder above-water regions as well. People aren’t alien to the idea of cold and cold weather on the planet of Cambria.
-The colony ship that settled the planet was filled up as part of one effort by the United States in the Pacific Region, done in conjunction with some allies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (and maybe one or two NATGO nations as well, idk), to basically prepare a ‘cultural preservation ship’ that could carry a number of people over. (Why might NATO ever be involved? Potentially due to conflicts arising as word of the dying world spread around.) The exact nature of this history is left vague to avoid messing other peoples’ backstories up for this NRP if possible. (@_@).
-“Terrestrial Meat” is a rarer and generally luxury item on Cambria, with things such as beef and pork and chicken being things only grown in hydroponic livestock farms and the rare occasional land farm created purposefully on an artificial island somewhere out there. Hydroponic plants and crops are entirely far more common, mostly as the hydroponics technology best fits growing and producing these on larger scales alongside the omnipresent seafood on the planet. Good steaks and poultry and pork are focused on hard when they do arise, not because of being prolific but because they are seen as luxury items and are rarer to find and get than seafood or vegetables/fruit and such.
There’s even popular cheaper seafood-based ‘substitutions’ seasoned and cooked and prepared to imitate terrestrial meats, a thing that has become a widespread concept due to its wider availability than the ‘real thing’ in turn. It has also been seen by some as ‘fashionable’ in some capacity after/since it first emerged onto the food scene.
-(more to be added later as it is figured out during the IC or before it or etc along the way)
Governance and Politics:
(To One Day Be Added To More, Maybe, Over The Long Term Even After The IC Had Been Made)
The democratic process in Cambria is a generally stable, properly functional sort, though the peculiar nature of its federal government does lend a unique flavor to how politics works here overall. A certain level of autonomy regionally allows for the easier management of local affairs in each region, especially due to the size of the planet itself, though having a certain level of centralized power within the federal government has been asserted to help keep things united along a single 'thread' of overall organization and control. It is a careful balance between flexibility and centralization that has generally lent itself to keeping the peace and order over the years, and the citizenry have become well accustomed to it for the most part. The dangers of potential tyranny of the federal versus over-decentralization of the system have always presented themselves in the various political extremes in some manner or another, who are vocal minorities themselves, though the majority lean toward the middle of the road politically by current times and have continued to vote and behave in line with this manner. The planet uses a multi-party system as mandated by law, mostly after the old concept of a "two party system" that some tried to initially assert in the budding nation fell through before it could even try to gain proper ground due to corruption and frankly being unpopular among the majority of the first citizens of the nation as it first rose up. It was generally inspired by Old Earth Parliamentary Systems, but converting the idea over to a sort of government familiar to where a number of the colonists originally came from (aka: a Federal System).
Technology Overview: (What have your people invented? Or have they forgotten anything?)
-Gravitech (Gravity-Altering Technology): From gravity tethers holding artificial islands in place with incredible power, to handheld or wrist-mounted artificial gravity modules (imagine the kinesis module from dead space) used by workers on the job or people at home, to uses of it in keeping vehicles and places stable during rough weather or over rough terrain, to even applications in military, medical, and underwater as well as space travel, this area of technology has become a very important one in regards to Cambrian society.
-Hard Light/Hologram Technology: From entertainment hard light holograms used for various family-friendly and even very much ‘adult’ or ‘red light district’ uses in bigger cities, to the rather limited military uses of it certain hard light hologram tools or larger-scale non-personal-level defenses (too power taxing for individual-level stuff), to even medical applications of it for surgeries and patient care and such alongside highly-sophisticated non-sentient A.I. technology, this area of technology in general has seen even more uses ranging from city-level shielding above and below the water all the way down to making tiny incisions in bodies during an operation that no metal scalpel could hope to match. A well-integrated technology in many ways by current times. Not a highly militarized technology from a practicality standpoint.
-Genetic Modification/Engineering: A common technology deeply incorporated into the medical field and very highly regulated and restricted to here. Medically it applies mostly in regards to things such as genetic therapies, treating genetic disorders, adapting people to receive fully-organic artificially-made replacement organs/limbs, growing said replacement limbs and organs, helping people with badly atrophied muscles, and creating less-invasive non-infectious disease and surgical-style treatments and so forth. It has also been involved in product testing and so forth underneath tight guidelines, leading to ‘safer’ product testing methods and some cheaper product prices and so forth. Accessibility in regards to medical uses of it is rather smoothed out and well-streamlined in general, but has a good bit of oversight and regulation and precautions taken in regards to it indeed.
Note #1 ) In the first 150-200 years of colonization and building up on Cambria, this technology ran more rampant and free. Only in time would stricter and stricter regulations emerge, and only as the dangers proved themselves to the population and growing government in turn. Cruel experiments, abominable creations, and snake-oil-salesman style business and their effects, and a small minority of pirates who used it to terrifying effect during the nomad war would become driving forces to the great restrictions placed.
Note #2 ) The legacies of the aforementioned time period resulted in: Two human subspecies emerging (alongside anti-genetic/species-discrimination laws), genetic damages lingering for generations as a ripple effect, and the occasional aberrations being rediscovered from the past, uncovered currently (rare illegal genetic 'chop shops' made by pirates or such criminals), and being either contained or exterminated upon making contact. There is even a whole classification system for aberrations used to determine their danger level and what to do, and steps are taken to study and learn about them to better deal with future aberrations in turn. Then again, uncommonly it is just a false identification of a native species as one due to how many local species and ludicrous/absurd varieties of life that frankly exist in the planet's oceanic ecosystem at all levels.
Bioweapons are a taboo for Cambrians, highly illegal, highly prosecuted, and seen as inhumane in nature.
-Power Production Technologies: Range from advanced forms of thermal and other ocean-powered means of safe power generation that are more than potent and plentiful on the planet, to advanced large fusion-power reactors that power many cities, and rechargeable and all the way down to potent advanced miniaturized energy cells that can power potent futuristic handled weaponry and other smaller-scale kinds of devices or machines (in part based on the size and type of energy cell in particular).
Military Overview:
-Standard Soldiers: When it comes to the Infantry, Marines, and so forth, troops from each area are armed and organized with their particular roles and capabilities in mind. Yet overall, there is a pattern to how they are usually geared out. An exoskeleton of some kind, and self-replicating medical nanites injected into their bodies for augmentation and support. This is a very generalized pattern of things, not talking about the specialized exoskeletons and so forth that are unique to or simply differ in lesser ways between branches and missions and units and so forth.
In terms of weapons, rail-based weapons ranging from rifles to SMGs to machine guns and even pistols are the go-to. Firing modes depend on the weapon and range from semi-auto to burst fire to even full-auto firing modes as well. There are also underwater (naturally) and underwater-suppressed weapons, ones designed for use in space, and so forth to fit certain battlefields.
Gravitech-based ‘flight packs’ are able to be used in and out of water and even space flexibly, mostly for added versatility in movement for certain types of soldiers in each branch who are forced to deal with battles in differing places and environments respectively. This bit of tech isn’t for every soldier, mind, which is the point. However, things such as personal gravity field devices (PGFD) are added to soldiers’ armaments for thing such as moving nearby objects in a room to create cover and so forth (gaining it the common nickname “TK Pack” or “Telekinesis Pack”).
Standard explosive and shrapnel producing, high-power concussive (underwater), and similar types of explosives and grenades are employed by soldiers depending on the environment and where one is being deployed for battle. For example, a gas grenade might be used when boarding an enemy ship in space…but a proper shrapnel-producing grenade might be used in a planetside battle on land. Etc.
Lighter armor such as sci-fi-tier kevlar equivalents and such is worn underneath any sort of exoskeleton, mostly as a backup in case the exoskeleton is rendered inoperable and one must exit it for battle. Soldiers are trained in and out of their exoskeletons in order to drill in what to do during such scenarios, utilizing hard light and environmental-tech vivid replications of various environments from Old Earth and Cambria itself in order to try to best prepare them for various unexpected scenarios as well as the most common and frequent ones they might encounter. That is ‘try’ to prepare them for the unfamiliar and uncommon scenarios, as they like any best-prepared troops would still be fish out of water in environments and conditions that are too alien for them anyway.
-Elite Soldiers: Elite troops who use higher-grade equipment than their standard compatriots, the specialists and few high-grade generalists in terms of troops who all use improved or more potent exoskeletons and such things, weapons specifically constructed for particular roles, and so forth. Range from espionage and sabotage agents or behind-enemy-lines hit squads all the way up to specialized soldiers/squads and the like who can be deployed on a range of battlefields. Less in number than standard troops, inherently of course, they cost more but are trained far harder and have a greater effectiveness when deployed and made use of.
Each branch of the military that exists has a form of these in some way or another, if not multiple elite groups for certain types of missions or tasks.
-Land Vehicles: Unironically the most badly-lacking area of the Cambrian Military, due to the lack of any kind of natural land on their homeworld. Consists of mostly flight-capable and ground-level capable hovercraft. Generally simple, transport troops onto artificial islands (the only land of any sort on the planet) and are otherwise made for urban and suburban warfare by and large. Usually have smaller-scale rocket/missiles weapons and mostly rail-based weapons for use in and out of bad weather alike. Heck, there isn’t even room for giant robots or such to do much considering the entire lack of different land terrains on the planet itself.
-Air Vehicles: Armed with missiles and rail weapons to bombs and torpedoes and point defense and such, they range from fast-moving latest generation fighters and similar craft to long-range helicopter-like craft that can hover in midair and last rather long times in the air (a unique local design out of raw necessity in all honesty). Roles range from dogfighters to anti-ship to anti-surface and other varied roles. They are generally seen and act as the second greatest area of the Cambrian Armed Forces, and are generally just as varied and about as well-equipped.
-Sea Vehicles: The planet is an ocean world 9x larger than Earth and yet smaller than Jupiter, covered in everything from harsh humid days to icy poles to monstrous storms found nowhere else to pirates and other armed to to frankly titanic underwater gargantuan liveforms beyond most other worlds’ comprehension who occasionally pop their head up from the darkest deep depths and so forth. Combatting anything from the air to naval landings on artificial islands to the deepest undersea scenarios, the Navy and Marines of the Cambrian Military is simply their best and by far the strongest area of the military by a longshot when it comes to vehicles and such that they implement and use. Torpedoes are top-notch and sophisticated as well, underwater boarding parties can be sent onto other craft or underwater habitations of equal or lesser qualities with frightening ease, and in the practical sense they see by far the most action and get the most experience. The Air Force of the planet is a very solid and experienced second place after them, but the gap between them is large simply due to the nature of the planet of Cambria itself leading inherently to this.
-Space Military Vehicles/Army: Nonexistent. Civilian tier vessels, ones for transporting goods, basic non-armed space stations, and so forth exist. Had no need of one at all yet, so no reason to invest in one. That and the next thing below took up all of that potential money, alongside being great defensively.
-M.O.A.I. System: Standing for "Multitargeting Orbital Acquisition & Interception System", it was the defense system built to initially protect from three rather large meteors on a crash course with the planet. It exists as a series of many artificial islands with 7 large railguns on each of them, potent cooling systems and multiple supercomputers and ammo stores and barracks and stabilizing systems on each island alone, and each railgun possessing beyond-orbit-capable range as well as incredible high firepower and frighteningly fast target acquisition (made to blow up thousands of falling chunks of three rather large meteors as well as blow apart said meteors up on the first place) and rapid planetwide coordination and high-speed/multi-island synchronization capabilities. These islands also have their own full-time garrisons/population and infrastructure, and each island has a lot of overlap in their effective range/area as well. They can also be used by design as a potent anti-air and anti-ship/surface system.
It is the single greatest feat of Cambrian engineering and technology to date in its whole history. It has a very important reason to be built, and even now is well-maintained and tested and used in lesser ways and so forth to keep it functioning like a well-oiled machine. It is a superweapon in its own right, as well as a point of both national pride and some admitted contention to boot.
((Basically a set of military bases/planetary defensive railgun island hybrids. To make a reasonable comparison, think of a bunch of islands built like “Stonehenge” from the Ace Combat fictional universe (as a means of illustrating the concept more simply). Also is far too expensive to leave sitting around gathering dust.))
Additional Info: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.) (To Be Added To)
Nation Name: The Cambrian Constellarate Republic (aka: CCR)
Government Form: Democratic Pseudo-Unitary Federal Republic
(Has sub-regional parts that manage their own day to day and report back and such, but the Federal Government is centralized and has powerful unitary capabilities and powers and such. Hence “pseudo-unitary”.)
Demographics:
-Humans
***Homo sapiens sapiens - (Standard Human Beings) (The gender ratio has not fully recovered here, or for the aquatica subspecies, remaining a solid 60-40 split by current times after taking that long to get back to that level in the first place.)
***Homo sapiens sapiens homogena - A subspecies of human that emerged on the planet of Cambria, being uniquely a subspecies of female-appearing human hermaphrodites rather than some form of mixed-intersex or androgynous alternatives that did not. They remain generally compatible with others subspecies within Homo Sapiens in general, just as the aquatica subspecies does, but rose into existence rapidly due to the widespread use of a genetic therapy adapted from the genetics-splicing genes of an organism living at the bottom of the planet’s seas. This particular alien organism used its capabilities to splice in advantageous genes from prey or same-species rivals it would eat as food in the dark abyss, ensuring individual survival and passing on desirable traits to the next generation and shunting out older genes and adapting its body over the long term. It was seen as a miracle cure for some issues and genetic disorders at the time, though this was also in the earlier days of genetic engineering/modification technology existing on the planet itself.
After initial testing of its applications as a potential therapy for genetic and tweaking other non-infectious diseases/conditions, alongside a few other substances or ‘tweaks’ or such to make it work for humans of course, it seemed highly promising since individuals were not adversely affected and indeed had improved health overall as their conditions were seemingly reversed. Of course, this seeming miracle cure became widely distributed to the population and taken up by most as a common ‘cure’ medicine that would assist in many major conditions. Yet it would have its long-term side effects, most especially due to how fast the medicine worked. In the original organism, this genetic mechanism was paired with a long-term adaptation of its body to adjust over to the new genes. Bit by bit, to avoid goofing things up. As the medicine was much more concentrated and faster-working in the short-to-moderate term, there was inevitable bleed-over of the contents into the gamete-producing areas of the human body. For men, this excessive amount of these ‘curative’ enzymes led to splicing between their X and Y chromosomes, resulting in mutations and grafting of parts of the Y chromosome onto the X and vice-versa. It led to many a potential male child not being born or that would instead have genetic issues on the Y chromosome only sometimes hidden by the X mutations, and likewise any lingering amount of the ‘cure’ within the uterus would further tweak the genome of children as it tried to do as it was programmed to ‘stabilize’ the genetics. Within three generations these changes culminated in the rise of the homogena subspecies itself.
A number of lawsuits against the inventors who made it and those who sold it became widespread in the following decades, but the long-term effects on the genetics of much of the population and other unintended changes that came as a side effect were there to stay.
***Homo sapiens sapiens aquatica - Another human subspecies that originated from many individuals getting sea-adaptable genetic modifications as the technology arose and grew, starting to emerge in some presence about the time the homogena started their rise into existence and being badly affected by the issue that led to their fellow subspecies arising as well during those times. They mainly only differ in terms of possessing gills (which seal up airtight on land and remain moistened by the body like the secondary underwater-only set of ‘lungs’ they are) and traits for moving about and functioning more adeptly underwater. They aren’t mer-people who have webbed hands and such, looking like normal humans entirely basically aside from added underwater functionalities and the visible sign of one’s tightly-closed gills on each side of their neck when on land and such. Many became or were nomads over the long-term, though they live on artificial islands for the most part be current times.
***Homo sapiens sapiens homogena - A subspecies of human that emerged on the planet of Cambria, being uniquely a subspecies of female-appearing human hermaphrodites rather than some form of mixed-intersex or androgynous alternatives that did not. They remain generally compatible with others subspecies within Homo Sapiens in general, just as the aquatica subspecies does, but rose into existence rapidly due to the widespread use of a genetic therapy adapted from the genetics-splicing genes of an organism living at the bottom of the planet’s seas. This particular alien organism used its capabilities to splice in advantageous genes from prey or same-species rivals it would eat as food in the dark abyss, ensuring individual survival and passing on desirable traits to the next generation and shunting out older genes and adapting its body over the long term. It was seen as a miracle cure for some issues and genetic disorders at the time, though this was also in the earlier days of genetic engineering/modification technology existing on the planet itself.
After initial testing of its applications as a potential therapy for genetic and tweaking other non-infectious diseases/conditions, alongside a few other substances or ‘tweaks’ or such to make it work for humans of course, it seemed highly promising since individuals were not adversely affected and indeed had improved health overall as their conditions were seemingly reversed. Of course, this seeming miracle cure became widely distributed to the population and taken up by most as a common ‘cure’ medicine that would assist in many major conditions. Yet it would have its long-term side effects, most especially due to how fast the medicine worked. In the original organism, this genetic mechanism was paired with a long-term adaptation of its body to adjust over to the new genes. Bit by bit, to avoid goofing things up. As the medicine was much more concentrated and faster-working in the short-to-moderate term, there was inevitable bleed-over of the contents into the gamete-producing areas of the human body. For men, this excessive amount of these ‘curative’ enzymes led to splicing between their X and Y chromosomes, resulting in mutations and grafting of parts of the Y chromosome onto the X and vice-versa. It led to many a potential male child not being born or that would instead have genetic issues on the Y chromosome only sometimes hidden by the X mutations, and likewise any lingering amount of the ‘cure’ within the uterus would further tweak the genome of children as it tried to do as it was programmed to ‘stabilize’ the genetics. Within three generations these changes culminated in the rise of the homogena subspecies itself.
A number of lawsuits against the inventors who made it and those who sold it became widespread in the following decades, but the long-term effects on the genetics of much of the population and other unintended changes that came as a side effect were there to stay.
***Homo sapiens sapiens aquatica - Another human subspecies that originated from many individuals getting sea-adaptable genetic modifications as the technology arose and grew, starting to emerge in some presence about the time the homogena started their rise into existence and being badly affected by the issue that led to their fellow subspecies arising as well during those times. They mainly only differ in terms of possessing gills (which seal up airtight on land and remain moistened by the body like the secondary underwater-only set of ‘lungs’ they are) and traits for moving about and functioning more adeptly underwater. They aren’t mer-people who have webbed hands and such, looking like normal humans entirely basically aside from added underwater functionalities and the visible sign of one’s tightly-closed gills on each side of their neck when on land and such. Many became or were nomads over the long-term, though they live on artificial islands for the most part be current times.
Population: 1.65 Billion
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Planet Name and Description: (So where did your Colony end up? What's the environment like?)
-Cambria: A vast, warm ocean world 9x wider than Earth and covered in salt water oceans all over. Weather such as rain and thunderstorms are common when the skies are not clear or filled with non-storming clouds of some kind, though super-storms and incredible hurricanes beyond anything back on Earth do frankly occur as well. Underwater volcanoes do exist, but tend to be very deep underwater and to never breach the surface before burning out, suffering underwater erosion, and ultimately collapsing or crumbling over time for one reason or another. As such no actual land naturally exists on the planet’s surface, and there are no ‘shallows’ to safely build up a more naturally-formed artificial island from using sand and such. In the far north and far south there are icebergs and bone-chilling temperatures year-round, with the expected snow at times and some vast frozen ice sheets, but most of the planet itself is warm and covered in water.
The planetary ocean itself is incredibly deep and filled with life from its very bottom to even near the surface, ranging from tiny microbial life, to species that humanity can isolate and put into hydroponic farms as livestock, all the way up to even titanic beings of a more than mythological scale hiding lurking in the deepest and most isolated depths that have yet to be grasped or understood. The atmosphere most resembles that of Old Earth, albeit with some minute and slightly less minute differences here and there, but which remains breathable enough for human beings. In this it could be said to be an incredible miracle of life, a one in a trillion shot at finding somewhere to live that did not require crazy adaptations in order to simply breathe and live there on the part of human beings. A veritable miracle for those who sought to live there, which scientists have used to name the world when they dubbed it “Cambria” in a literal manner and as a symbolic gesture.
History:
Cambria as a potential world for human settlement had far more potential than most other planets in the galaxy, perhaps, but it was far from an easy area to colonize. Yet it was the world that those on the Colony Ship the NSF Cordelia would be left to deal with. For those who first emerged from the gateway near enough to the planet, it was at first glance a potential paradise after losing everything back on Earth. For those who first tried to live down there and beyond that point, it was a nightmare they had to conquer.
The lack of land and the presence of far stronger storms in this ocean world presented the first great hurdle for any attempt at forming a liveable space there. Deep-underwater habitats and fleets of interlocking-capable ships, as deep-underwater mines would provide plenty of metals and materials for making ships and habitats, would be the first attempts to get something to ‘work’ for some of the initial colonists over the first few decades. Ultimately, however, deep-sea anchors would be used to build up and try to make artificial islands to live on…albeit many of these would prove hard if not impossible to keep intact due to how deep the planet’s ocean waters were and due to the ferocity of the worst storms the planet could produce making such places hard to protect. Ultimately, the hurdle would only really be overcome as artificial gravity would be implemented to ‘anchor’ non-physically-anchored artificial islands.
Through the development of metastable negative mass metamaterials, and electromagnetic centrifugal gravity generators, scientists and the best minds on the colony ship would generate the first means of creating artificial gravity. In fact, they would come bit by bit to form the ‘full quantum theory of gravity’ itself, a scientific marvel stemming from the initial breakthrough into it by the late 23rd century United Kingdom physicist Josiah L. Holmes who was aboard the colony ship at the time. In turn this would lead to the eventual discovery of gravitons as quantum technologies became more well-understood, leading from the more ‘bulky and power-intensive’ original artificial gravity ‘anchors’ and into the realm of far smaller and far more power-efficient ones to be installed into most other artificial islands built on the planet. This technology, at this level, would go about keeping them from being moved or pushed out of place or frankly drifting constantly about on the waves from place to place. However, all of this simply solved how to ‘anchor’ the islands without dragging them underwater or other disastrous results of that sort. It was far from the only solution.
To protect the islands from weather and the incredible storms would be the other matter, and frankly also remained an important issue for any ships that would be sailing on the planet’s waters in general if they didn’t want to have to be constantly moving about to try to avoid bad weather (which was never 100% successful at that). In this realm of things, the initial idea was deployable ‘armored domes’ that would rise up around a city, limiting its size harshly but protecting it from storms. Such measures were found to be successful in a number of cases, whilst the most severe storms would force out the weaknesses and costly need to update and repair them. However, the development of hologram technology would actually come to alleviate the issue as the area of ‘hard light’ projection technology would finally be breached. Highly durable large-scale hard light projectors would be far easier to protect, adapt, and maintain than the more resource-taxing armored dome system. It would also allow artificial islands to build out and grow without having to redesign their protection system and investing untold finances into it.
Between these technologies, developments in power generation, and augmenting ship designs, the planet of Cambria would achieve the hope of settlement and civilization. It would lead to a great boom in artificial island building and settlement after those first 60 years of research and tough time, though prior to this point a good many had decided to take up more nomadic lives on the sea. In fact, to many this remained a seemingly favorable option to avoid the issues and distrust the struggles of the first 60 years gave them in artificial islands and the like. Some had even gone pirate and ultimately raided such ‘vulnerable’ places they felt wouldn’t last the test of time. Yet as civilization took its hold on the seas in floating cities and towns and so forth over the next 130 years, as well as deep underwater, it would begin to put pressure on these nomadic groups and fleets and ships that roamed the waters. Advances in technology, stable power and food sources, and the like would be fostered faster on the artificial islands, and the union of them into a new and growing nation would provide further support and infrastructure and stability in the movement of goods and resources that would push them even farther. In the end it would lead to the twenty years of this century-and-a-half time period becoming what was known as ‘The Nomad War’. In this very much on-and-off conflict rather than a constantly ‘hot’ one, with many of the last holdout groups of nomads and many nomadic pirates, not consisting of all of the remaining nomads at all mind, tried to push back against rapidly-gaining ground of the ‘island dwellers’ before their fears of becoming obsolete or pushed out of any liveable waters in favor of more artificial islands and underwater facilities came to fruition.
It was a bloody affair that would see both sides hurt, bring many independent nomad groups not in the opposition to the side of the artificial islands for good, cause many refugees from the opposition to settle on artificial islands for good, and at the very least make a surprise show of stubborn tenacity and strength on the nomads’ part. Both sides would later be recalled in songs and history books for valor, but for those who grew up during this time it was far from pleasant. It would also lead to the remaining nomads becoming integrated into the nation itself, but it would leave its scars that would only fade into memory and the history books in time.
Yet only ten years after the end of this time period, three large asteroids would be discovered to be headed towards the planet on a crash trajectory. It was theorized they were parts of a destroyed planet or other such phenomenon, though some theorized they had been weaponized long ago but long missed their mark before being sent hurtling through space on their own. Some even thought it was all a fake ruse to cover up a massive government project gone awry or such. Etc. Yet calculating the time frame before impact, and the catastrophic damage that would arise from each, work began on a planet-wide defense network in the year 220 (2520 in the Old Earth Calendar). It would lead to twenty-five years of long hard work, high investment, and much blood, sweat, and tears. Also a small rebellion by those against the system who thought it was just a big waste of space for a 'lie'. Work was completed in 247, and the resulting system was used in 250 as the asteroids arrived to avoid catastrophic damage and results planetside. Some damage still did occur, however, and ironically in the aftermath the system would silently remain and be integrated into the military for anti-air, beyond-orbit, and even anti-surface (not underwater) capabilities. Since then, things have remained generally peaceful outside of the general issues a massive planetary nation would have to deal with.
Culture and Society:
(Mostly just dotted as a list of facts in this section to try to make it easier to jot down and write it out.)
-Tank tops and tube tops and other swimsuit-like garb or modern-style clothing based on some traditional Hawaiian garb, among other loose or otherwise breathable clothing, are very common in general on this planet. This is, simply put, due to the hot and humid weather that is so very common and nigh-ubiquitous on its surface. To cover up too much is to overheat when you are outside here, at least such is the common mindset. (Also means the planet has invested into super scifi A/C units to boot! XD)
-Short-skirt modern-style kimono and yukata, blended with some ideas from the west, have become the type of garb worn for various festivals and celebrations and holidays that are held on the planet. Such holidays and celebrations and festivals are either local or are passed down or blended from their own historical events and precursor cultures from Old Earth, leading to both things that those of Old Earth would find both familiar and unfamiliar in their contents. Also these clothing ideas were adopted as they became seen as very fashionable and just stuck hard enough in the long run.
-Warmer clothing is worn in deep underwater habitats and in colder above-water regions as well. People aren’t alien to the idea of cold and cold weather on the planet of Cambria.
-The colony ship that settled the planet was filled up as part of one effort by the United States in the Pacific Region, done in conjunction with some allies such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan (and maybe one or two NATGO nations as well, idk), to basically prepare a ‘cultural preservation ship’ that could carry a number of people over. (Why might NATO ever be involved? Potentially due to conflicts arising as word of the dying world spread around.) The exact nature of this history is left vague to avoid messing other peoples’ backstories up for this NRP if possible. (@_@).
-“Terrestrial Meat” is a rarer and generally luxury item on Cambria, with things such as beef and pork and chicken being things only grown in hydroponic livestock farms and the rare occasional land farm created purposefully on an artificial island somewhere out there. Hydroponic plants and crops are entirely far more common, mostly as the hydroponics technology best fits growing and producing these on larger scales alongside the omnipresent seafood on the planet. Good steaks and poultry and pork are focused on hard when they do arise, not because of being prolific but because they are seen as luxury items and are rarer to find and get than seafood or vegetables/fruit and such.
There’s even popular cheaper seafood-based ‘substitutions’ seasoned and cooked and prepared to imitate terrestrial meats, a thing that has become a widespread concept due to its wider availability than the ‘real thing’ in turn. It has also been seen by some as ‘fashionable’ in some capacity after/since it first emerged onto the food scene.
-(more to be added later as it is figured out during the IC or before it or etc along the way)
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Governance and Politics:
(To One Day Be Added To More, Maybe, Over The Long Term Even After The IC Had Been Made)
The democratic process in Cambria is a generally stable, properly functional sort, though the peculiar nature of its federal government does lend a unique flavor to how politics works here overall. A certain level of autonomy regionally allows for the easier management of local affairs in each region, especially due to the size of the planet itself, though having a certain level of centralized power within the federal government has been asserted to help keep things united along a single 'thread' of overall organization and control. It is a careful balance between flexibility and centralization that has generally lent itself to keeping the peace and order over the years, and the citizenry have become well accustomed to it for the most part. The dangers of potential tyranny of the federal versus over-decentralization of the system have always presented themselves in the various political extremes in some manner or another, who are vocal minorities themselves, though the majority lean toward the middle of the road politically by current times and have continued to vote and behave in line with this manner. The planet uses a multi-party system as mandated by law, mostly after the old concept of a "two party system" that some tried to initially assert in the budding nation fell through before it could even try to gain proper ground due to corruption and frankly being unpopular among the majority of the first citizens of the nation as it first rose up. It was generally inspired by Old Earth Parliamentary Systems, but converting the idea over to a sort of government familiar to where a number of the colonists originally came from (aka: a Federal System).
Technology Overview: (What have your people invented? Or have they forgotten anything?)
-Gravitech (Gravity-Altering Technology): From gravity tethers holding artificial islands in place with incredible power, to handheld or wrist-mounted artificial gravity modules (imagine the kinesis module from dead space) used by workers on the job or people at home, to uses of it in keeping vehicles and places stable during rough weather or over rough terrain, to even applications in military, medical, and underwater as well as space travel, this area of technology has become a very important one in regards to Cambrian society.
-Hard Light/Hologram Technology: From entertainment hard light holograms used for various family-friendly and even very much ‘adult’ or ‘red light district’ uses in bigger cities, to the rather limited military uses of it certain hard light hologram tools or larger-scale non-personal-level defenses (too power taxing for individual-level stuff), to even medical applications of it for surgeries and patient care and such alongside highly-sophisticated non-sentient A.I. technology, this area of technology in general has seen even more uses ranging from city-level shielding above and below the water all the way down to making tiny incisions in bodies during an operation that no metal scalpel could hope to match. A well-integrated technology in many ways by current times. Not a highly militarized technology from a practicality standpoint.
-Genetic Modification/Engineering: A common technology deeply incorporated into the medical field and very highly regulated and restricted to here. Medically it applies mostly in regards to things such as genetic therapies, treating genetic disorders, adapting people to receive fully-organic artificially-made replacement organs/limbs, growing said replacement limbs and organs, helping people with badly atrophied muscles, and creating less-invasive non-infectious disease and surgical-style treatments and so forth. It has also been involved in product testing and so forth underneath tight guidelines, leading to ‘safer’ product testing methods and some cheaper product prices and so forth. Accessibility in regards to medical uses of it is rather smoothed out and well-streamlined in general, but has a good bit of oversight and regulation and precautions taken in regards to it indeed.
Note #1 ) In the first 150-200 years of colonization and building up on Cambria, this technology ran more rampant and free. Only in time would stricter and stricter regulations emerge, and only as the dangers proved themselves to the population and growing government in turn. Cruel experiments, abominable creations, and snake-oil-salesman style business and their effects, and a small minority of pirates who used it to terrifying effect during the nomad war would become driving forces to the great restrictions placed.
Note #2 ) The legacies of the aforementioned time period resulted in: Two human subspecies emerging (alongside anti-genetic/species-discrimination laws), genetic damages lingering for generations as a ripple effect, and the occasional aberrations being rediscovered from the past, uncovered currently (rare illegal genetic 'chop shops' made by pirates or such criminals), and being either contained or exterminated upon making contact. There is even a whole classification system for aberrations used to determine their danger level and what to do, and steps are taken to study and learn about them to better deal with future aberrations in turn. Then again, uncommonly it is just a false identification of a native species as one due to how many local species and ludicrous/absurd varieties of life that frankly exist in the planet's oceanic ecosystem at all levels.
Bioweapons are a taboo for Cambrians, highly illegal, highly prosecuted, and seen as inhumane in nature.
-Power Production Technologies: Range from advanced forms of thermal and other ocean-powered means of safe power generation that are more than potent and plentiful on the planet, to advanced large fusion-power reactors that power many cities, and rechargeable and all the way down to potent advanced miniaturized energy cells that can power potent futuristic handled weaponry and other smaller-scale kinds of devices or machines (in part based on the size and type of energy cell in particular).
Military Overview:
-Standard Soldiers: When it comes to the Infantry, Marines, and so forth, troops from each area are armed and organized with their particular roles and capabilities in mind. Yet overall, there is a pattern to how they are usually geared out. An exoskeleton of some kind, and self-replicating medical nanites injected into their bodies for augmentation and support. This is a very generalized pattern of things, not talking about the specialized exoskeletons and so forth that are unique to or simply differ in lesser ways between branches and missions and units and so forth.
In terms of weapons, rail-based weapons ranging from rifles to SMGs to machine guns and even pistols are the go-to. Firing modes depend on the weapon and range from semi-auto to burst fire to even full-auto firing modes as well. There are also underwater (naturally) and underwater-suppressed weapons, ones designed for use in space, and so forth to fit certain battlefields.
Gravitech-based ‘flight packs’ are able to be used in and out of water and even space flexibly, mostly for added versatility in movement for certain types of soldiers in each branch who are forced to deal with battles in differing places and environments respectively. This bit of tech isn’t for every soldier, mind, which is the point. However, things such as personal gravity field devices (PGFD) are added to soldiers’ armaments for thing such as moving nearby objects in a room to create cover and so forth (gaining it the common nickname “TK Pack” or “Telekinesis Pack”).
Standard explosive and shrapnel producing, high-power concussive (underwater), and similar types of explosives and grenades are employed by soldiers depending on the environment and where one is being deployed for battle. For example, a gas grenade might be used when boarding an enemy ship in space…but a proper shrapnel-producing grenade might be used in a planetside battle on land. Etc.
Lighter armor such as sci-fi-tier kevlar equivalents and such is worn underneath any sort of exoskeleton, mostly as a backup in case the exoskeleton is rendered inoperable and one must exit it for battle. Soldiers are trained in and out of their exoskeletons in order to drill in what to do during such scenarios, utilizing hard light and environmental-tech vivid replications of various environments from Old Earth and Cambria itself in order to try to best prepare them for various unexpected scenarios as well as the most common and frequent ones they might encounter. That is ‘try’ to prepare them for the unfamiliar and uncommon scenarios, as they like any best-prepared troops would still be fish out of water in environments and conditions that are too alien for them anyway.
-Elite Soldiers: Elite troops who use higher-grade equipment than their standard compatriots, the specialists and few high-grade generalists in terms of troops who all use improved or more potent exoskeletons and such things, weapons specifically constructed for particular roles, and so forth. Range from espionage and sabotage agents or behind-enemy-lines hit squads all the way up to specialized soldiers/squads and the like who can be deployed on a range of battlefields. Less in number than standard troops, inherently of course, they cost more but are trained far harder and have a greater effectiveness when deployed and made use of.
Each branch of the military that exists has a form of these in some way or another, if not multiple elite groups for certain types of missions or tasks.
-The Depth Chargers: (An example subgroup.) An elite group of underwater soldiers who are usually called in for major deep-ocean missions. Not the largest group, but one that has fought many of the mightiest creatures seen so far in the planet's darkest and most unknown depths as well as fought underwater battles in many scenarios. Anything from subs to depths charges and so forth are familiar to them, though the hijinks of the more extreme minority of the group have become something of legends within the naval forces on Cambria over the years. Their motto is: "To Delve Where No One Else Can, To Protect The Nation And Its People, And To Face The Darkness With Valor".
They also (at the moment) utilize a deep ocean vehicle or tool known as the "Deepsea Semi-Mech", which mostly acts as an extension of them and can rapidly move in the water with incredible agility. It is a cross between armored suit and mech, protecting the pilot and allowing them a small range of weapons alongside the capability to rapidly move from the surface or even hovering over the surface of the water to going right down to very dark depths and back up without any need to wait. The Auto-Regulator System of these things allows them to do this without negative effects to the pilot or others nearby to boot. Once a relatively new technology five decades ago, discussion about these has begun to snowball more and more over the years begun to drum up about specializing these suits into variants for each branch as well as for the very real potential use for space exploration. Not as large as some mech, but larger and more protective than a single power armor...naturally with the costs that would come with this of course. Some even feel this technology just needs some event, some small trigger or push that would plunge the technology into more widespread use and development.
They also (at the moment) utilize a deep ocean vehicle or tool known as the "Deepsea Semi-Mech", which mostly acts as an extension of them and can rapidly move in the water with incredible agility. It is a cross between armored suit and mech, protecting the pilot and allowing them a small range of weapons alongside the capability to rapidly move from the surface or even hovering over the surface of the water to going right down to very dark depths and back up without any need to wait. The Auto-Regulator System of these things allows them to do this without negative effects to the pilot or others nearby to boot. Once a relatively new technology five decades ago, discussion about these has begun to snowball more and more over the years begun to drum up about specializing these suits into variants for each branch as well as for the very real potential use for space exploration. Not as large as some mech, but larger and more protective than a single power armor...naturally with the costs that would come with this of course. Some even feel this technology just needs some event, some small trigger or push that would plunge the technology into more widespread use and development.
-Land Vehicles: Unironically the most badly-lacking area of the Cambrian Military, due to the lack of any kind of natural land on their homeworld. Consists of mostly flight-capable and ground-level capable hovercraft. Generally simple, transport troops onto artificial islands (the only land of any sort on the planet) and are otherwise made for urban and suburban warfare by and large. Usually have smaller-scale rocket/missiles weapons and mostly rail-based weapons for use in and out of bad weather alike. Heck, there isn’t even room for giant robots or such to do much considering the entire lack of different land terrains on the planet itself.
-Air Vehicles: Armed with missiles and rail weapons to bombs and torpedoes and point defense and such, they range from fast-moving latest generation fighters and similar craft to long-range helicopter-like craft that can hover in midair and last rather long times in the air (a unique local design out of raw necessity in all honesty). Roles range from dogfighters to anti-ship to anti-surface and other varied roles. They are generally seen and act as the second greatest area of the Cambrian Armed Forces, and are generally just as varied and about as well-equipped.
-Sea Vehicles: The planet is an ocean world 9x larger than Earth and yet smaller than Jupiter, covered in everything from harsh humid days to icy poles to monstrous storms found nowhere else to pirates and other armed to to frankly titanic underwater gargantuan liveforms beyond most other worlds’ comprehension who occasionally pop their head up from the darkest deep depths and so forth. Combatting anything from the air to naval landings on artificial islands to the deepest undersea scenarios, the Navy and Marines of the Cambrian Military is simply their best and by far the strongest area of the military by a longshot when it comes to vehicles and such that they implement and use. Torpedoes are top-notch and sophisticated as well, underwater boarding parties can be sent onto other craft or underwater habitations of equal or lesser qualities with frightening ease, and in the practical sense they see by far the most action and get the most experience. The Air Force of the planet is a very solid and experienced second place after them, but the gap between them is large simply due to the nature of the planet of Cambria itself leading inherently to this.
-Space Military Vehicles/Army: Nonexistent. Civilian tier vessels, ones for transporting goods, basic non-armed space stations, and so forth exist. Had no need of one at all yet, so no reason to invest in one. That and the next thing below took up all of that potential money, alongside being great defensively.
-M.O.A.I. System: Standing for "Multitargeting Orbital Acquisition & Interception System", it was the defense system built to initially protect from three rather large meteors on a crash course with the planet. It exists as a series of many artificial islands with 7 large railguns on each of them, potent cooling systems and multiple supercomputers and ammo stores and barracks and stabilizing systems on each island alone, and each railgun possessing beyond-orbit-capable range as well as incredible high firepower and frighteningly fast target acquisition (made to blow up thousands of falling chunks of three rather large meteors as well as blow apart said meteors up on the first place) and rapid planetwide coordination and high-speed/multi-island synchronization capabilities. These islands also have their own full-time garrisons/population and infrastructure, and each island has a lot of overlap in their effective range/area as well. They can also be used by design as a potent anti-air and anti-ship/surface system.
It is the single greatest feat of Cambrian engineering and technology to date in its whole history. It has a very important reason to be built, and even now is well-maintained and tested and used in lesser ways and so forth to keep it functioning like a well-oiled machine. It is a superweapon in its own right, as well as a point of both national pride and some admitted contention to boot.
((Basically a set of military bases/planetary defensive railgun island hybrids. To make a reasonable comparison, think of a bunch of islands built like “Stonehenge” from the Ace Combat fictional universe (as a means of illustrating the concept more simply). Also is far too expensive to leave sitting around gathering dust.))
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Additional Info: (Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there.) (To Be Added To)
