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    1. Serpentine88 10 yrs ago

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And so it begins.

Doux Belisar's sheet is going well, though due to my own character sheet writing habits and how much I will have to write about for this kind of larger-than-life character, it may take a while. I will put a Wip up soon either in the OOC or my own character dump.

I am also considering working on the map some more, giving it texture and so on to make it appear like a proper fantasy genre map.
It has come!
@neogreggory

Concerning gladiators:

I was handed out the commission of Belisar, the Doux of Syrome (One of the islands), basically the hypercompetent chancellor to incompetent king Orso of Tautum. Tautum itself doesn't have proper gladiatorial combat beyond the private audience of the king, though it has a lot of rabble street-fighting and ad-hoc gladiator-esque fighting. Syrome is the Tautom!lite, more organised and imperialistic half-brother of Tautum due its closer cultural loyalty to Heavenly Kingdom traditions/beliefs, as the actual 'true' Not!Romans. Syrome still practices genuine gladiatorial combat, arena and all.
Reporting in as usual. I see you added some text to my map I drew for you.

tl;dr: This is an interest check for a kind of survival-orientated voting RP where all the players cooperate to control a single protagonist/person try and survive (for as long as possible) through a deeply dangerous political-drama/thriller sci-fi setting, car bombs, assassins and so on. Think non-anime "Long Live The Queen" combined with House of Cards but in space.


Per Aspera Ad Astra.
The motto of the United Nations Orion Mandate is one of great and perhaps twisted irony, for beyond the troubled early centuries of the third millennium, humanity has thrived unhindered towards the stars. Propelled forward by the inventions of artificially and uniquely genius minds, singulatarian advances in technology and an enormous reservoir of cosmic luck, humanity found a galaxy both bountiful with life yet totally absent of alien intelligence… let alone competing spacefarers. Besides the niches of obsessed alien enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists and the ravings of fringe intelligentsia, mankind has blissfully taken the Milky Way by default, for wherever it reached out, it took unopposed.

While the vast majority of the galaxies’ worlds remain unsettled, humanity reaches from from one end of the galaxy to the other. Trillions of humans, hundreds of thousands of worlds, nearly all have been blessed with centuries of peace and prosperity. From the cradle of mankind, Earth’s parliamentarians rule the greatest democracy in the galaxy, the sole recognised nation of man - the United Nations Orion Mandate. Encompassing approximately a fifth of the galaxy, it rules over ninety percent of the human race. All other nations are but mere pretenders.

It is within this great nation that resides you. A single human, perhaps a stately minister of the Parliamentary Assembly, or a stern officer of the Peacekeeping Navy, or even a secretive agent of the ORISEC Paramilitary Division. You have lived your life in service of this great nation… and watched as the last years of its golden age dimmed.

The year is 2891, and with the final decade of the 29th century, the peaceful days of the past are coming to an end. In a galaxy beset with economic woes, separatism, technological disruption and drastic cultural and ideological rifts, you can see the storm clouds coming. As the Assembly on Earth spirals into public brawls and deadlock, pirates peck at the borders, and terrorists crawl out of the woodwork, you look on to the treacherously bright and clean cities of the future, the utilitarian white of the space-decks and the soft faces of men and women who have never seen war.

Will any of it survive?
Will you?


Quest Information:


What is a Quest?
A Quest is a type of specialised CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) popular on websites like Space Battles and Sufficient Velocity. Essentially, the GM leads the story and crafts the events/setting/npcs, while the majority of players either vote from a list of given actions or different players create plans (actions) for their controlled character to and then vote on which plan to use. There is a degree of statistics, usually in the form of attributes, some modifiers and dice rolls. This is mostly to allow a degree and randomness and chance - an important element of this Quest, since it deals with chaos in a period of conflict and the uncertainty of survival. Players work cooperatively (or in competing voting blocs) in the control of a single protagonist.

Do we actually RP or not?
While not a conventional play-by-post RP, there are still elements of RPing involved here. This particular Quest will be using the PLAYER-CREATED PLAN method, so you guys will get to decide what the protagonist does (Though certain events will have hardcoded choices, usually events that give you statistical boons or rewards). When you craft plans to vote on, you may add paragraphs or phrases to be added to the actual ‘lore/IC post’ that I post. Beyond this, players may also write their own ‘omake’ posts, additional side-story material (As per Quest-tradition, good omakes will provide bonus’ to rolls success chances). Players will be playing as preset characters, however they will have leeway to modify the protagonist's personality and opinions, and major opportunities will be provided to enable players to shift the character towards what they want (Within reason).

What are the writing standards of this RP?
I set myself to a high standard of writing, so I would say ‘advanced’. That said, players can provide plans casually or even just vote and otherwise have little involvement if they so wish. Omakes should meet advanced standards though.

So, what kind of Quest is this then?


  • Political-drama/thriller hybrid. Think House of Cards (Particularly the Politician path) in Space with elements of Spy Fiction (Particularly the Agent path), Cyberpunk and Military Science Fiction (Particularly the Captain path).


  • The aesthetics of this setting is bright, clean and utilitarian. Think Mass Effect or Halo rather than Warhammer 40k - that said, it is also a grim setting in terms of spirit, more like the latter franchise.


  • There are three pre-set characters to choose from to be your collective ‘protagonist’. They are ‘The Politician’, ‘The Captain’ and ‘The Agent’. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages and peculiarities, so choose wisely (And hope the others do too). Your very first vote will be choosing which of them to pick, and will be provided character sheets for each to look over.


  • Your primary objective is to survive as long as possible. That doesn’t seem difficult at first, however a little important note: This is going to be a setting where everything is trying to kill you. You live in a deceptively deadly galaxy and there is a genuine chance you will die horribly. The Quest is separated into ‘Chapters’ and after the completion of each chapter, players are rewarded for surviving that long. In the event of death, the players may switch to one of the other pre-set characters. If all three die, you lose the Quest and I laugh at myself and you guys for failing.


  • Besides surviving, players are rewarded for various side-objectives, some known and others hidden. Players overall can pursue their own goals as well, be that having a family, winning battles/elections/whatever or taking over the galaxy (good luck) or what have you.


  • The Front page of the OOC will have a summarised overview of basic information on the setting, however most of the information about the setting will come in ‘infodumps’ (that will be posted in the character sheet tab) following actions/completed plans by the players. These infodumps will be targetted towards what the players are doing (e.g: The Politician will likely get an infodump on political parties while The Captain would get one on naval ship-classes)


What is the statistical system that this Quest/CYOA uses?
This Quest will use a relatively simple system, based on the CK2 Attributes (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning). Each character have values in these attributes, and the attributes determine the probability of success and failure in rolls for actions associated with these attributes, usually against another character’s attributes (E.g: How easy it is to convince someone of something with use your diplomacy attribute and a dice roll, and put it against the other person’s diplomacy attribute and roll). There will also be certain skills, traits and special abilities that will act as modifiers for this system, so not all rolls will be simple attribute vs attribute matters. Throughout the Quest, it is possible to alter your attributes/traits/skills, so they are not hardcoded.
tl;dr: This is an interest check for a kind of survival-orientated voting RP where all the players cooperate to control a single protagonist/person try and survive (for as long as possible) through a deeply dangerous political-drama/thriller sci-fi setting, car bombs, assassins and so on. Think non-anime "Long Live The Queen" combined with House of Cards but in space.


Per Aspera Ad Astra.
The motto of the United Nations Orion Mandate is one of great and perhaps twisted irony, for beyond the troubled early centuries of the third millennium, humanity has thrived unhindered towards the stars. Propelled forward by the inventions of artificially and uniquely genius minds, singulatarian advances in technology and an enormous reservoir of cosmic luck, humanity found a galaxy both bountiful with life yet totally absent of alien intelligence… let alone competing spacefarers. Besides the niches of obsessed alien enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists and the ravings of fringe intelligentsia, mankind has blissfully taken the Milky Way by default, for wherever it reached out, it took unopposed.

While the vast majority of the galaxies’ worlds remain unsettled, humanity reaches from from one end of the galaxy to the other. Trillions of humans, hundreds of thousands of worlds, nearly all have been blessed with centuries of peace and prosperity. From the cradle of mankind, Earth’s parliamentarians rule the greatest democracy in the galaxy, the sole recognised nation of man - the United Nations Orion Mandate. Encompassing approximately a fifth of the galaxy, it rules over ninety percent of the human race. All other nations are but mere pretenders.

It is within this great nation that resides you. A single human, perhaps a stately minister of the Parliamentary Assembly, or a stern officer of the Peacekeeping Navy, or even a secretive agent of the ORISEC Paramilitary Division. You have lived your life in service of this great nation… and watched as the last years of its golden age dimmed.

The year is 2891, and with the final decade of the 29th century, the peaceful days of the past are coming to an end. In a galaxy beset with economic woes, separatism, technological disruption and drastic cultural and ideological rifts, you can see the storm clouds coming. As the Assembly on Earth spirals into public brawls and deadlock, pirates peck at the borders, and terrorists crawl out of the woodwork, you look on to the treacherously bright and clean cities of the future, the utilitarian white of the space-decks and the soft faces of men and women who have never seen war.

Will any of it survive?
Will you?


Quest Information:


What is a Quest?
A Quest is a type of specialised CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) popular on websites like Space Battles and Sufficient Velocity. Essentially, the GM leads the story and crafts the events/setting/npcs, while the majority of players either vote from a list of given actions or different players create plans (actions) for their controlled character to and then vote on which plan to use. There is a degree of statistics, usually in the form of attributes, some modifiers and dice rolls. This is mostly to allow a degree and randomness and chance - an important element of this Quest, since it deals with chaos in a period of conflict and the uncertainty of survival. Players work cooperatively (or in competing voting blocs) in the control of a single protagonist.

Do we actually RP or not?
While not a conventional play-by-post RP, there are still elements of RPing involved here. This particular Quest will be using the PLAYER-CREATED PLAN method, so you guys will get to decide what the protagonist does (Though certain events will have hardcoded choices, usually events that give you statistical boons or rewards). When you craft plans to vote on, you may add paragraphs or phrases to be added to the actual ‘lore/IC post’ that I post. Beyond this, players may also write their own ‘omake’ posts, additional side-story material (As per Quest-tradition, good omakes will provide bonus’ to rolls success chances). Players will be playing as preset characters, however they will have leeway to modify the protagonist's personality and opinions, and major opportunities will be provided to enable players to shift the character towards what they want (Within reason).

What are the writing standards of this RP?
I set myself to a high standard of writing, so I would say ‘advanced’. That said, players can provide plans casually or even just vote and otherwise have little involvement if they so wish. Omakes should meet advanced standards though.

So, what kind of Quest is this then?


  • Political-drama/thriller hybrid. Think House of Cards (Particularly the Politician path) in Space with elements of Spy Fiction (Particularly the Agent path), Cyberpunk and Military Science Fiction (Particularly the Captain path).


  • The aesthetics of this setting is bright, clean and utilitarian. Think Mass Effect or Halo rather than Warhammer 40k - that said, it is also a grim setting in terms of spirit, more like the latter franchise.


  • There are three pre-set characters to choose from to be your collective ‘protagonist’. They are ‘The Politician’, ‘The Captain’ and ‘The Agent’. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages and peculiarities, so choose wisely (And hope the others do too). Your very first vote will be choosing which of them to pick, and will be provided character sheets for each to look over.


  • Your primary objective is to survive as long as possible. That doesn’t seem difficult at first, however a little important note: This is going to be a setting where everything is trying to kill you. You live in a deceptively deadly galaxy and there is a genuine chance you will die horribly. The Quest is separated into ‘Chapters’ and after the completion of each chapter, players are rewarded for surviving that long. In the event of death, the players may switch to one of the other pre-set characters. If all three die, you lose the Quest and I laugh at myself and you guys for failing.


  • Besides surviving, players are rewarded for various side-objectives, some known and others hidden. Players overall can pursue their own goals as well, be that having a family, winning battles/elections/whatever or taking over the galaxy (good luck) or what have you.


  • The Front page of the OOC will have a summarised overview of basic information on the setting, however most of the information about the setting will come in ‘infodumps’ (that will be posted in the character sheet tab) following actions/completed plans by the players. These infodumps will be targetted towards what the players are doing (e.g: The Politician will likely get an infodump on political parties while The Captain would get one on naval ship-classes)


What is the statistical system that this Quest/CYOA uses?
This Quest will use a relatively simple system, based on the CK2 Attributes (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning). Each character have values in these attributes, and the attributes determine the probability of success and failure in rolls for actions associated with these attributes, usually against another character’s attributes (E.g: How easy it is to convince someone of something with use your diplomacy attribute and a dice roll, and put it against the other person’s diplomacy attribute and roll). There will also be certain skills, traits and special abilities that will act as modifiers for this system, so not all rolls will be simple attribute vs attribute matters. Throughout the Quest, it is possible to alter your attributes/traits/skills, so they are not hardcoded.
The Posthuman Eusociate of Perseus


“We will steal fire from the gods”


Brief Description: The Posthuman Eusociate of Perseus, formerly the Sector of Perseus, is a former Orionic Empire sector that through desperate and all-consuming total war held onto parts of the Perseus Arm against the Zuukid horde. They did anything to survive the 250-year long war, even progressively using the Zuukind’s alien technology against them. The Great Existential War, the conflict that the Eusociate is built around, acted as the utilitarian justification for the mass use of genetic engineering and other forms of superscience. The Perseusian humans went further and further into the spiral of ever escalating bio-warfare and engineering, until by the time the humans were aware of the danger of their own weapons, rabid fringe extremists had already taken control of the apparatus of state. In a great coup of humanity, these radicals instituted a ‘Eusocial Revolution’, forcibly modifying the increasingly modified population into a posthuman species completely alien to anything humanity ever was. Now with a massive eusocial hive of former human monsters as their tools, a crazed group of self-modifying elites and former humans seek to become the ultimate hyper predator lifeform, redeeming humanity of its failures and inherent weakness.

Claim


Blue = Eusociate Government claim but doesn't actually control in any significant way (including claims on top of the Zuukid Empire)
Red = Actual borders of the Posthuman Eusociate


Government

The Posthuman Eusociate is a nation of eusocial posthumans divided into castes and given very specific and often lifelong purposes for existing (and bodies and minds to match their purpose). All these castes serve their creators and masters, a formerly human elite of techno-aristocrats that through mad bio-engineering superscience have transformed themselves into posthuman eldritch abominations, with the overall objective of achieving a singularity event by becoming an 'ultimate lifeform' and galactic hyperpredator. The so-called 'Ultimates' as they are called are a relatively hands-off bunch, being hyper-individualistic ubermensch who consider themselves a nation-in-of-themselves, and many consider their Eusocial posthuman creations as a physical extension of their own being rather than citizens or even slaves. The Eusocial Posthumans in contrast are hyper-collective, being neurologically shaped to extreme cooperative behaviour and thought.

A particularly important caste below the Ultimates are the Breeder caste, which act in a similar manner to most Eusocial species, being centralised matriarchial breeder-governors, however with the difference being that they are often designed in a manner to force them to be reliant on their Ultimate creators, often through certain neurological triggers or biological instincts built into them, much like the other castes below them.

In terms of legislation or judiciary, there is very limited legislative action taken outside of ad-hoc councils or 'moots' made by the Ultimates who occassionally come to agree to change laws, or triggers, which are then carved into their creations to follow. A judicial system of sorts exists to deal with unintentional mutant outliers in the population, as well as aliens and humans who are not absorbed into the eusocial caste system. Prisons do not exist, and instead those deemed criminals or mutant outliers are often shortlisted for quick genetic and neurological modification. The Judiciary system is mostly managed by the breeder caste. For more information, see 'Genecastes' under the culture section.

History


We are the destiny of mankind

Pre-War:
The Posthuman Eusociate once upon a time was known as the Imperial Sector of Perseus, the largest sectorial sub-government of the Orion Empire on the Perseus Arm. Once a safe, cultured, and wealthy region of the Orionic Empire, it was home to many aristocrats and villas of the Imperial family as well as headquarters of the Imperial Institute of Xenobiology, The Academy of Higher Sciences, the Society for Learned Gentry and other scientific and intelligensia gathering areas. it prospered from its proximity to Sol and relative distance from the borders with the xenos, that is until the Zuukid Crusades in 495 I.E.

The Great Existential War: Perseus did not avoid the Zuukid's by a long shot, even if it avoided its initial mass push into Orion and Sagittarius. For five short years of extreme and relentless total war, the Perseusians were slowly and surely pushed back by the advancing Zuukid and other xeno hordes. During this five bloody years, the Perseusian humans delved into the reverse-engineering of the alien's technology, in particular their methods of applying bio-engineering to war. The remnants of Perseus' great academic schools, facilities, intistutes and scientists were put to work in a conflict which would continue long after the fall of the Orionic and even Zuukid Empires... The Great Existential War.

By 500 I.E and the sacking of Mars, the Imperial Sector of Perseus was already well on its way towards forming the Eusociate. Mass use of transhuman supersoldiers and retrofitted warships with organic biomechanical grafts, mass snap-cloning of expendable soldiers. The pure imperial human majority was gradually pressured into numerous mass modification campaigns by the government and the needs of the war effort. These changes were seamless at first, ranging from slight biological modifications to raise fertility rates and increase resilience to chemical weapons, starvation or certain diseases. The modifications escalated, the majority population soon becoming transhuman rather than human. Even after the Orionic Empire's collapse following the sacking, the war against the Zuukid Empire and later its successor states and unaffiliated xeno-barbarians continued.

Post Fall: Even after the fall of the Orionic Empire, Perseus continued to stubbornly refer to itself as the Imperial Sector of Perseus, as part of the Orionic Empire. It never forgot the 'betrayal' of the Martian State abandoning the war effort, or the religious rebels overthrowing imperial space in the form of the Ecumene. Perseusian resentment over this betrayal has remained for the coalition even to this day, even long after the Perseusians themselves have long since abandoned their humanity.

The Imperial Sector of Perseus though at the time, still loyal to Orion and humanity, continued the war. An alliance was forged between itself and the nascent Aurolian Republic, as well as the Empire of Astrana. This 'post-imperial' military league continued the war against the xenos for another twenty years. Perseusian, Aurolian and Astranan forces were eventually able to stabilise its front, the Zuukid advance slowly and finally ending since its own empire unravelled in 507, following their emperor's assassination and succession crisis.

Resurrectionism and the Eusocial Revolution: It is often wondered by human historians what would have become of the Alliance of Imperial Remnants (Aurolia, Astrana and Perseus) had Ressurectionism not rose to prominence in 520IE Cygnus-Orion. With the advent of Resurrectionism, human purity, both culturally and ethnically, moved to the forefront of political and social concerns across the ex-Orionic galaxy... and this concern was not felt anywhere more severely than in the Imperial Sector of Perseus, where the minority of pure humans left and the larger swaths of humanist-transhumanists realised with increasing fear that they had handed their nation over to radicals that were corrupting everything that was human.

As the Resurrectionist Spring swept forth to spread the word of Elias Daley, moving human citizens to mass protest and rioting, the humanist forces within Perseus plotted to stage a last-ditch effort to save humanity from the ambitions of their military and government leadership. They saw said leaders to be so transfixed by its ever-escalating biological arms race with the Zuukids, that they no longer considered the sacrifices made from the losses to human culture or the species existence. This was particularly important now that the Zuukid threat had greatly diminished following its 507IE implosion, with much of the war being one of reconquest rather than defence. The government and military on the other hand, saw these moves as suicidal by the humans, dooming Perseus at its moment of glory, right before it was at the very cusp of victory against the declining Zuukids, who by this point were made up of numerous infighting successor states.

A great deal of foreign meddling was involved in this brief but intense crisis, with both the young Resurrectionist States providing armaments and support to the human populists, and on the other side the Free Nests, fearing the expansion of the human supremacist Resurrectionists, provided support to the Perseusian government. The human uprising coincided with an attempted Zuukid counter-offensive by one of the empire's successor states, the Armterni Union, which eventually led to both sides of the Perseusian crisis to conclude that their civil war must be rapid and decided in a single event, else the Zuukids will conquer the nation with it split. At the climax of this crisis, elements of the Perseusian army and navy attempted a coup at the capital of the Imperial Sector, and then after seven hours were defeated. Mass arrests, political and military purges and intense propaganda followed.

The victory for the government of Perseus came at an enormous cost, as their victory in this coup was dependent upon a deal with the devil - that devil being The most extreme wing of the Intelligentsia and military-science, ardent posthumanists hell-bent on replacing humanity with an ultimate form. In the following months, this posthuman wing of the government and military assumed control of the apparatus of state, beginning what would eventually become the Eusocial Revolution, as the many humans that were mass-arrested were subject to the first biological and neurological modifications that would eventually form the new Eusocial Posthuman.

The Eusociate: With the Posthuman Intelligentsia now running the country and the state-mandated eusociality modifications forced first on the Resurrectionist rebels, and then the wider populace and military (the latter already heavily modified transhumans), the Imperial Sector was remade into the Posthuman Eusociate and its claims to be a remnant of the Orionic Empire abandoned. In the following years, the Republic of Aurolia distanced itself from its increasingly totalitarian and nightmarish ally, eventually abandoning in full and going on to become a founding member of the Coalition. The Alliance with Astrana too faded, not so much out of fear but it becoming unnecessary, as the Zuukid Empire's fall was so severe that it ceased being a galactic threat. 305 years since its initial invasion, the Zuukid Empire's remnant states are now the defender against Eusociate advances, seeking to reclaim what was once lost. The Eusociate has in the last century launched a number of great offenses, and in the present day has completely destroyed the Armterni Union, with most of its former territory reconquered by the Eusociate or lost to its successor-state rival, the Teramentai Sovereignty, which is now the main Zuukind successor fighting in defence against the advancing Eusociate.

Technology




Military


Doctrine: The Eusociate uses a combination of overwhelming numerical superiority, attritional warfare and subversive tactics in its war making. In particular, its biotech is geared towards sustaining long-term conflicts and resistance, including such things as organically grown projectiles, regrowing hulls and armour, troops and armour that can be born and grown on the battlefield (and easily replaced) at rapid rates, warships that can grown in far-off frontline systems or even isolated ones, and various hardened counter-measures to common weapons used against them in past wars - in particular biological warfare as well as advanced A.I technology. Its methods are cheaper and provided in large number, though overall is of lesser quality to those 'quality over quantity' doctrine militaries. This is not to say the Eusociate has no higher quality forces, but it tends in general to aim towards lower quality, cheaper and higher quantity armies.







Culture

  • Eusociality Eusociality, the extremely collective-cooperative form of society observed in certain insectoid species was never natural to humanity as it was to species like the alien Loxonoi, so it is by far the most unique trait of the Eusociate Posthumans that they have artificially shaped Eusociality into their very being through genetic and neurological engineering. Eusociality in Posthumanity includes such things as hardwired genetic castes defined by specialised purposes, with brains hardwired towards obsessively centralising their entire lives around these specialised purposes. An example of this is a worker only achieving a sense of existential satisfaction and security through mining. Another trait of Eusociality is the existence of three hardwired genders, the centralised female and male supported by the aesexual and sterile majority toiling away at the periphery, each gender specific for specific tasks. Each Eusocial member is given a body and neurological makeup specifically tailored for their role, including fabricated instincts and hormonal drives. The family unit is replaced by mass communal care, and communities are based around a very few (and often singular) female breeder caste governor, who in turn is designed as a manager for the driving will of the Eusociate, the Ultimate caste.

  • The Genecastes: Also known as simply the castes, these are the genetic specialisations that posthumanity are divided into by birth (or in special cases, modification from another caste). There are many hundreds of niche castes, however broadly speaking they fit into the main castes seen below:
    -The Ultimate Caste: Unplugged from Eusociality, the singulatarian techno-aristocracy that rules the Eusociate. They do as their whims demand though most are self-improvement fanatics attempting to become gods. They have very distant views of politics and the world, as well as morality, though they are also in charge ultimately of all the genetic designs and decisions of the Eusociate - The Driving Will.
    -The Breeder Caste: All-female breeder-queens and centers of any hive-community. Their specialisations include purely breeding, administrative and government work, the genetic-judiciary (mostly dealing with mutant outliers) and the scientific branch of the medical/bionengineering sciences. In the absence of the highly flighty Ultimates, they are the apparent rulers and managers of the Eusociate, and as such nominally the Eusociate is run as a matriarchial social model (though in truth is more complicated).
    -The Adjutant Caste: All-male caste originally designed as primary a breeding caste orientated around the actual breeding caste, they are also given sub-caste roles revolving around the social-sciences and economic activity of the Eusociate, as such they player a similar managerial role as the Breeding Caste, though are more along the lines of middle-ranking managerial staff, finance and industry.
    -The Militant Caste: Dominated by mostly by members of the Eusex infertile third-gender, the Militant Caste is the primary caste that makes up the military of the Eusociate, though other castes are also represented to some degree in the military. Perhaps the most diverse and hyper-specialised of all the castes (outside of the Ultimates), the Militant Caste live and die solely for war.
    -The Social Caste: The Social Caste is dominated by members Eusex infertile third-gender and mostly exist as a combined role of nurse, communal caregiver, teacher, social-services and scientist. They primarily serve the role of ensuring the correct raising of new Posthuman generations, the continued development and transference of additional genetic memory and new knowledge not encoded into new Posthumans at birth and the continued health and development of Eusocial society. Though understated by the Eusociate itself, non-eusocial foreigners take particular interest in the fact that they also are designed with a heightened interest in culture and creative expression... being the closest to what could be an artisan caste.
    -The Worker Caste: A Worker Caste entirely comprised of members of the Eusex infertile third gender, the worker caste are the endless small cogs in the greater whole, performing the many millions of tiny small tasks of little note. The Worker Caste is notable for being hyper-specialised like the Militant Caste, including biological factories and people-equippment. The Worker Caste also serves a large role in the military, working alongside the the Militant Caste both in combat roles and (more often) logistical roles.
    -The Exo Caste The most out of place caste, the Exo-Caste are 'incomplete' or imperfect members of the Eusociate, referring to those who are exo-humans, or externally still 'human'. They are either humans that have joined the Eusociate and have only taken on minor internal modifications like eusocial neurology or are those in the process of joining and still haven't even been modified. Most Exo-humans were unwilling, however of those that willingly joined, they usually did so due to various personal issues like a desire for a purpose in life which eusociality promises them. The Exo Caste also includes a very new wing of the Eusociate, being experimental efforts to convert intelligent xeno-lifeforms into posthumans, as well as the swaths of xeno-lifeforms that have been conquered by the Eusociate but not yet actually integrated into the caste system, so are essentially shoehorned into the exohuman caste even though they are not even human.
    -

  • Religion: Religion in the Eusociate is in a state of disrepair, with much of the leading ‘ultimate’ caste abiding by either existentialist or materialist-atheistic philosophies (or self-worship) and see religion as a weak fantasy of the humans and aliens. This is particularly notable with the fact that the overarching societal goal of the Eusociate is to achieve a singularity lifeform and to ‘become gods’. The eusocial castes below the ultimates however are still capable of spiritualist beliefs to some degree, however find it physically difficult to achieve the same neurological/hormonal feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction from religious belief as normal humans, due to how their brains have been rewired for Eusociality, and so there is less incentive to regularly practice organised religion. Kineticism of all the religions has a continued presence in the Eusociate, though greatly warped. Highly altered Universalist Kineticism as such is allowed to continue its practice in state-approved and observed temples, mostly due to the historical presence of the faith since the Orionic Empire. It should be noted though that its presence is more cultural than genuinely religious, as many of its Eusocial members are particularly inattentive and lacking in religious expression. For more, see Posthuman Universalism.

  • Posthuman Universalism: A deeply corrupted and intentionally modified version of Kineticist Universalism, the Ultimate caste of the Eusociate found particular parts of the religion suitable for their goals and ideals, so have since co-opted the faith. The universe is indeed unknownable to the weak human mind, so the purpose of all faithful beings is to achieve enlightenment through singularity, so they may truly be able to observe the true nature of Spiritus. The state operates as the extension of the temple (despite being itself secular) and will guide the faithful towards enlightenment - and this guidance states that enlightenment can be achieved only through self-perfection of the mind, body and soul, combined with ascetic dedication to a singular purpose (and alignment with their eusocial caste) and perfection of collective harmony and the common good.

  • Exohumanity:


Characters




Note: Heavily WIP, just putting this here for visibility.

The Posthuman Eusociate of Perseus


“We will steal fire from the gods”


Brief Description: The Posthuman Eusociate of Perseus, formerly the Sector of Perseus, is a former Orionic Empire sector that through desperate and all-consuming total war held onto parts of the Perseus Arm against the Zuukid horde. They did anything to survive the 250-year long war, even progressively using the Zuukind’s alien technology against them. The Great Existential War, the conflict that the Eusociate is built around, acted as the utilitarian justification for the mass use of genetic engineering and other forms of superscience. The Perseusian humans went further and further into the spiral of ever escalating bio-warfare and engineering, until by the time the humans were aware of the danger of their own weapons, rabid fringe extremists had already taken control of the apparatus of state. In a great coup of humanity, these radicals instituted a ‘Eusocial Revolution’, forcibly modifying the increasingly modified population into a posthuman species completely alien to anything humanity ever was. Now with a massive eusocial hive of former human monsters as their tools, a crazed group of self-modifying elites and former humans seek to become the ultimate hyper predator lifeform, redeeming humanity of its failures and inherent weakness.

Claim


Blue = Eusociate Government claim but doesn't actually control in any significant way (including claims on top of the Zuukid Empire)
Red = Actual borders of the Posthuman Eusociate


Government

The Posthuman Eusociate is a nation of eusocial posthumans divided into castes and given very specific and often lifelong purposes for existing (and bodies and minds to match their purpose). All these castes serve their creators and masters, a formerly human elite of techno-aristocrats that through mad bio-engineering superscience have transformed themselves into posthuman eldritch abominations, with the overall objective of achieving a singularity event by becoming an 'ultimate lifeform' and galactic hyperpredator. The so-called 'Ultimates' as they are called are a relatively hands-off bunch, being hyper-individualistic ubermensch who consider themselves a nation-in-of-themselves, and many consider their Eusocial posthuman creations as a physical extension of their own being rather than citizens or even slaves. The Eusocial Posthumans in contrast are hyper-collective, being neurologically shaped to extreme cooperative behaviour and thought.

A particularly important caste below the Ultimates are the Breeder caste, which act in a similar manner to most Eusocial species, being centralised matriarchial breeder-governors, however with the difference being that they are often designed in a manner to force them to be reliant on their Ultimate creators, often through certain neurological triggers or biological instincts built into them, much like the other castes below them.

In terms of legislation or judiciary, there is very limited legislative action taken outside of ad-hoc councils or 'moots' made by the Ultimates who occassionally come to agree to change laws, or triggers, which are then carved into their creations to follow. A judicial system of sorts exists to deal with unintentional mutant outliers in the population, as well as aliens and humans who are not absorbed into the eusocial caste system. Prisons do not exist, and instead those deemed criminals or mutant outliers are often shortlisted for quick genetic and neurological modification. The Judiciary system is mostly managed by the breeder caste. For more information, see 'Genecastes' under the culture section.

History


We are the destiny of mankind

Pre-War:
The Posthuman Eusociate once upon a time was known as the Imperial Sector of Perseus, the largest sectorial sub-government of the Orion Empire on the Perseus Arm. Once a safe, cultured, and wealthy region of the Orionic Empire, it was home to many aristocrats and villas of the Imperial family as well as headquarters of the Imperial Institute of Xenobiology, The Academy of Higher Sciences, the Society for Learned Gentry and other scientific and intelligensia gathering areas. it prospered from its proximity to Sol and relative distance from the borders with the xenos, that is until the Zuukid Crusades in 495 I.E.

The Great Existential War: Perseus did not avoid the Zuukid's by a long shot, even if it avoided its initial mass push into Orion and Sagittarius. For five short years of extreme and relentless total war, the Perseusians were slowly and surely pushed back by the advancing Zuukid and other xeno hordes. During this five bloody years, the Perseusian humans delved into the reverse-engineering of the alien's technology, in particular their methods of applying bio-engineering to war. The remnants of Perseus' great academic schools, facilities, intistutes and scientists were put to work in a conflict which would continue long after the fall of the Orionic and even Zuukid Empires... The Great Existential War.

By 500 I.E and the sacking of Mars, the Imperial Sector of Perseus was already well on its way towards forming the Eusociate. Mass use of transhuman supersoldiers and retrofitted warships with organic biomechanical grafts, mass snap-cloning of expendable soldiers. The pure imperial human majority was gradually pressured into numerous mass modification campaigns by the government and the needs of the war effort. These changes were seamless at first, ranging from slight biological modifications to raise fertility rates and increase resilience to chemical weapons, starvation or certain diseases. The modifications escalated, the majority population soon becoming transhuman rather than human. Even after the Orionic Empire's collapse following the sacking, the war against the Zuukid Empire and later its successor states and unaffiliated xeno-barbarians continued.

Post Fall: Even after the fall of the Orionic Empire, Perseus continued to stubbornly refer to itself as the Imperial Sector of Perseus, as part of the Orionic Empire. It never forgot the 'betrayal' of the Martian State abandoning the war effort, or the religious rebels overthrowing imperial space in the form of the Ecumene. Perseusian resentment over this betrayal has remained for the coalition even to this day, even long after the Perseusians themselves have long since abandoned their humanity.

The Imperial Sector of Perseus though at the time, still loyal to Orion and humanity, continued the war. An alliance was forged between itself and the nascent Aurolian Republic, as well as the Empire of Astrana. This 'post-imperial' military league continued the war against the xenos for another twenty years. Perseusian, Aurolian and Astranan forces were eventually able to stabilise its front, the Zuukid advance slowly and finally ending since its own empire unravelled in 507, following their emperor's assassination and succession crisis.

Resurrectionism and the Eusocial Revolution: It is often wondered by human historians what would have become of the Alliance of Imperial Remnants (Aurolia, Astrana and Perseus) had Ressurectionism not rose to prominence in 520IE Cygnus-Orion. With the advent of Resurrectionism, human purity, both culturally and ethnically, moved to the forefront of political and social concerns across the ex-Orionic galaxy... and this concern was not felt anywhere more severely than in the Imperial Sector of Perseus, where the minority of pure humans left and the larger swaths of humanist-transhumanists realised with increasing fear that they had handed their nation over to radicals that were corrupting everything that was human.

As the Resurrectionist Spring swept forth to spread the word of Elias Daley, moving human citizens to mass protest and rioting, the humanist forces within Perseus plotted to stage a last-ditch effort to save humanity from the ambitions of their military and government leadership. They saw said leaders to be so transfixed by its ever-escalating biological arms race with the Zuukids, that they no longer considered the sacrifices made from the losses to human culture or the species existence. This was particularly important now that the Zuukid threat had greatly diminished following its 507IE implosion, with much of the war being one of reconquest rather than defence. The government and military on the other hand, saw these moves as suicidal by the humans, dooming Perseus at its moment of glory, right before it was at the very cusp of victory against the declining Zuukids, who by this point were made up of numerous infighting successor states.

A great deal of foreign meddling was involved in this brief but intense crisis, with both the young Resurrectionist States providing armaments and support to the human populists, and on the other side the Free Nests, fearing the expansion of the human supremacist Resurrectionists, provided support to the Perseusian government. The human uprising coincided with an attempted Zuukid counter-offensive by one of the empire's successor states, the Armterni Union, which eventually led to both sides of the Perseusian crisis to conclude that their civil war must be rapid and decided in a single event, else the Zuukids will conquer the nation with it split. At the climax of this crisis, elements of the Perseusian army and navy attempted a coup at the capital of the Imperial Sector, and then after seven hours were defeated. Mass arrests, political and military purges and intense propaganda followed.

The victory for the government of Perseus came at an enormous cost, as their victory in this coup was dependent upon a deal with the devil - that devil being The most extreme wing of the Intelligentsia and military-science, ardent posthumanists hell-bent on replacing humanity with an ultimate form. In the following months, this posthuman wing of the government and military assumed control of the apparatus of state, beginning what would eventually become the Eusocial Revolution, as the many humans that were mass-arrested were subject to the first biological and neurological modifications that would eventually form the new Eusocial Posthuman.

The Eusociate: With the Posthuman Intelligentsia now running the country and the state-mandated eusociality modifications forced first on the Resurrectionist rebels, and then the wider populace and military (the latter already heavily modified transhumans), the Imperial Sector was remade into the Posthuman Eusociate and its claims to be a remnant of the Orionic Empire abandoned. In the following years, the Republic of Aurolia distanced itself from its increasingly totalitarian and nightmarish ally, eventually abandoning in full and going on to become a founding member of the Coalition. The Alliance with Astrana too faded, not so much out of fear but it becoming unnecessary, as the Zuukid Empire's fall was so severe that it ceased being a galactic threat. 305 years since its initial invasion, the Zuukid Empire's remnant states are now the defender against Eusociate advances, seeking to reclaim what was once lost. The Eusociate has in the last century launched a number of great offenses, and in the present day has completely destroyed the Armterni Union, with most of its former territory reconquered by the Eusociate or lost to its successor-state rival, the Teramentai Sovereignty, which is now the main Zuukind successor fighting in defence against the advancing Eusociate.

Technology




Military


Doctrine: The Eusociate uses a combination of overwhelming numerical superiority, attritional warfare and subversive tactics in its war making. In particular, its biotech is geared towards sustaining long-term conflicts and resistance, including such things as organically grown projectiles, regrowing hulls and armour, troops and armour that can be born and grown on the battlefield (and easily replaced) at rapid rates, warships that can grown in far-off frontline systems or even isolated ones, and various hardened counter-measures to common weapons used against them in past wars - in particular biological warfare as well as advanced A.I technology. Its methods are cheaper and provided in large number, though overall is of lesser quality to those 'quality over quantity' doctrine militaries. This is not to say the Eusociate has no higher quality forces, but it tends in general to aim towards lower quality, cheaper and higher quantity armies.







Culture

  • Eusociality Eusociality, the extremely collective-cooperative form of society observed in certain insectoid species was never natural to humanity as it was to species like the alien Loxonoi, so it is by far the most unique trait of the Eusociate Posthumans that they have artificially shaped Eusociality into their very being through genetic and neurological engineering. Eusociality in Posthumanity includes such things as hardwired genetic castes defined by specialised purposes, with brains hardwired towards obsessively centralising their entire lives around these specialised purposes. An example of this is a worker only achieving a sense of existential satisfaction and security through mining. Another trait of Eusociality is the existence of three hardwired genders, the centralised female and male supported by the aesexual and sterile majority toiling away at the periphery, each gender specific for specific tasks. Each Eusocial member is given a body and neurological makeup specifically tailored for their role, including fabricated instincts and hormonal drives. The family unit is replaced by mass communal care, and communities are based around a very few (and often singular) female breeder caste governor, who in turn is designed as a manager for the driving will of the Eusociate, the Ultimate caste.

  • The Genecastes: Also known as simply the castes, these are the genetic specialisations that posthumanity are divided into by birth (or in special cases, modification from another caste). There are many hundreds of niche castes, however broadly speaking they fit into the main castes seen below:
    -The Ultimate Caste: Unplugged from Eusociality, the singulatarian techno-aristocracy that rules the Eusociate. They do as their whims demand though most are self-improvement fanatics attempting to become gods. They have very distant views of politics and the world, as well as morality, though they are also in charge ultimately of all the genetic designs and decisions of the Eusociate - The Driving Will.
    -The Breeder Caste: All-female breeder-queens and centers of any hive-community. Their specialisations include purely breeding, administrative and government work, the genetic-judiciary (mostly dealing with mutant outliers) and the scientific branch of the medical/bionengineering sciences. In the absence of the highly flighty Ultimates, they are the apparent rulers and managers of the Eusociate, and as such nominally the Eusociate is run as a matriarchial social model (though in truth is more complicated).
    -The Adjutant Caste: All-male caste originally designed as primary a breeding caste orientated around the actual breeding caste, they are also given sub-caste roles revolving around the social-sciences and economic activity of the Eusociate, as such they player a similar managerial role as the Breeding Caste, though are more along the lines of middle-ranking managerial staff, finance and industry.
    -The Militant Caste: Dominated by mostly by members of the Eusex infertile third-gender, the Militant Caste is the primary caste that makes up the military of the Eusociate, though other castes are also represented to some degree in the military. Perhaps the most diverse and hyper-specialised of all the castes (outside of the Ultimates), the Militant Caste live and die solely for war.
    -The Social Caste: The Social Caste is dominated by members Eusex infertile third-gender and mostly exist as a combined role of nurse, communal caregiver, teacher, social-services and scientist. They primarily serve the role of ensuring the correct raising of new Posthuman generations, the continued development and transference of additional genetic memory and new knowledge not encoded into new Posthumans at birth and the continued health and development of Eusocial society. Though understated by the Eusociate itself, non-eusocial foreigners take particular interest in the fact that they also are designed with a heightened interest in culture and creative expression... being the closest to what could be an artisan caste.
    -The Worker Caste: A Worker Caste entirely comprised of members of the Eusex infertile third gender, the worker caste are the endless small cogs in the greater whole, performing the many millions of tiny small tasks of little note. The Worker Caste is notable for being hyper-specialised like the Militant Caste, including biological factories and people-equippment. The Worker Caste also serves a large role in the military, working alongside the the Militant Caste both in combat roles and (more often) logistical roles.
    -The Exo Caste The most out of place caste, the Exo-Caste are 'incomplete' or imperfect members of the Eusociate, referring to those who are exo-humans, or externally still 'human'. They are either humans that have joined the Eusociate and have only taken on minor internal modifications like eusocial neurology or are those in the process of joining and still haven't even been modified. Most Exo-humans were unwilling, however of those that willingly joined, they usually did so due to various personal issues like a desire for a purpose in life which eusociality promises them. The Exo Caste also includes a very new wing of the Eusociate, being experimental efforts to convert intelligent xeno-lifeforms into posthumans.
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  • Religion: Religion in the Eusociate is in a state of disrepair, with much of the leading ‘ultimate’ caste abiding by either existentialist or materialist-atheistic philosophies (or self-worship) and see religion as a weak fantasy of the humans and aliens. This is particularly notable with the fact that the overarching societal goal of the Eusociate is to achieve a singularity lifeform and to ‘become gods’. The eusocial castes below the ultimates however are still capable of spiritualist beliefs to some degree, however find it physically difficult to achieve the same neurological/hormonal feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction from religious belief as normal humans, due to how their brains have been rewired for Eusociality, and so there is less incentive to regularly practice organised religion. Kineticism of all the religions has a continued presence in the Eusociate, though greatly warped. Highly altered Universalist Kineticism as such is allowed to continue its practice in state-approved and observed temples, mostly due to the historical presence of the faith since the Orionic Empire. It should be noted though that its presence is more cultural than genuinely religious, as many of its Eusocial members are particularly inattentive and lacking in religious expression. For more, see Posthuman Universalism.

  • Posthuman Universalism: A deeply corrupted and intentionally modified version of Kineticist Universalism, the Ultimate caste of the Eusociate found particular parts of the religion suitable for their goals and ideals, so have since co-opted the faith. The universe is indeed unknownable to the weak human mind, so the purpose of all faithful beings is to achieve enlightenment through singularity, so they may truly be able to observe the true nature of Spiritus. The state operates as the extension of the temple (despite being itself secular) and will guide the faithful towards enlightenment - and this guidance states that enlightenment can be achieved only through self-perfection of the mind, body and soul, combined with ascetic dedication to a singular purpose (and alignment with their eusocial caste) and perfection of collective harmony and the common good.

  • Exohumanity:


Characters

-removed- please do not use my creation.
Monkey went over my sheet, and it is pretty much good enough to be accepted, except the history. For my history, I need to talk with my neighbours, however so many of them are either inactive or don't exist so I can't really do much about it. I am also waiting on @Goldeagle1221@Aristo@Isotope to sit down with me so we can figure out how the Tranquilist-Serenist holy wars went.

I have already spoken with Legion and we have come to an accord on our history. I do however need to talk to Lando again about our history.
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