Stepford Psycho

Sci-fi Sandbox

Already edited them in.

Sci-fi Sandbox

Trade Agreements and Other Political Documents.

Galactic Federation of United Nations

Conditions to Join the GFUN:
-The nation must be capable of communication.
-The nation must be capable of spaceflight.
-The nation must control at least three celestial bodies.
-The nation must have a military.
-The nation must not be at war with any other GFUN nations.
-The nation must be willing to open trade agreements with other members of the GFUN.
-The nation must pass a full governmental security check, completed by members of the Galactic Intelligence Agency (GIA).
-The nation must be voted in by a majority of the other current members of the GFUN Council.

Requirements for Current GFUN Members:

-Members must open trade with all other members of the GFUN.
-Members must appoint 1 (one) member of their government to be their official representative in the GFUN council.
-Members must be willing to donate a select amount of soldiers or artillery to the Galactic Alliance Army (GALA) or Galactic Alliance Navy (GANA) in times of galactic crisis or in the case of a GFUN Draft.
-Members must pass a full governmental security check once every 10 (ten) standard galactic years.
-Members must agree and carry out any trade restrictions of any kind which are passed by the GFUN Council.
-Members must not endorse the trafficking of goods made illegal by a GFUN agreement, such as illegal weapons or drugs.
-Members must not destroy any planet which bears sentient life unless either (1) said life proposes a genuine immediate threat to the member in question or (2) the GFUN gives its explicit permission to that member to proceed with the destruction of the planet.
-Members must not declare war on any other GFUN nation.
-Members must vote in the election of a GFUN chancellor.

Current Members:
-Lumien Consulate (Founder)
-Chimerian Federation (Founder)
-Ackyrjult Republic (Founder)
-United States of Earth (Founder)
-Improbable Science Research Stations (Founder)
-Unagi Community of Interspecies Affairs (Founder)
-Republic of the Arts
-Krytocracy of Azulu

Sci-fi Sandbox

By the way, don't think that because I make my sheets super long and obsessively detailed that you need to do the same. I already have my stuff developed. If you're still working out what you want conceptually that's perfectly fine. Just state that you haven't decided and then edit it later. The whole point of this is to help you figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Sci-fi Sandbox

He is in the cartoon series. Never heard of Diamanda Hagan. Thanks for the introduction, it looks funny.

I'm kind of detail oriented so I may or may not have mathematically calculated approximately how many people she should have killed by that age, assuming crime rates expanded proportionally to population, that she killed only specific kinds of criminals, and only when she had the free time to do so, the total came up to 433.333 so I just rounded down because it's slightly less frightening. Slightly.

I swear she's the only one that's this bad. The other's are less that five standard deviations away from normal.

@Darked13 Yes you may.

Sci-fi Sandbox

Thanks. I have no idea whether or not you're making a reference but I'll take it as a compliment regardless.

What's really annoying me right now is the fact that I just finished formatting the nation and species sheets with pictures and graphs and everything, and then the internet goes out and I gotta reconstruct everything on my phone and add the pictures later since they won't format properly. >:|

Oh well.

Wait, I'm a dummy, the Joker is Irish. Ha ha.

Sci-fi Sandbox

Narrators

Mine:

Agatha Durrem

Name(s):
Agatha Durrem

Alias: Tessa Koffmat

Tabloid Nick Name: The Janitor.

Age (if applicable): 46

Species/amalgamation: Azulian

Sex (or not): Female

Appearance:

Lots of pictures.

Personality(ies):

[+]

She has two distinct modes of thought. One she uses around people she trusts implicitly, and one that she uses around everyone else.

The first mode is very calm. She says what she’s going to do before she does it, she tries to be, in her own way, considerate of other people’s emotions and sensitivities. She’s crap at it for the most part but she does have her moments. Her adopted children see it as mere stupidity but it’s actually a lot more sinister than that. She wasn’t properly socialized as a child, in fact, she was deliberately and violently conditioned to be a sociopath. As a result, while she can vaguely get the sense of things like empathy or remorse, it’s extremely rudimentary and easily turned off and so she has to consciously fake a lot of interactions.

Her second mode only appears calm. It’s a façade that allows her to maintain the element of surprise as all her responses are calculated. One can never tell when she’s angry, which is her intent. You could point a gun in her or any of her family member’s faces and she wouldn’t so much as blink. However, the second you gave her the opportunity, she’d rip your head off and mount it on a spit. In public, she’s one of those deceptively calm people whose quietly planning to kill you or attack you when she know no-one is looking. Tick her off enough and she’ll publically eviscerate you, though it takes a lot to make her go completely bizerk. One sure fire way of doing that is to violate one of the few moral sensibilities she has left. Brag about raiding villages, killing the women and raping the men (or whatever order that goes in for your species) and you’re guaranteed to die right then and there.

As a result she has a rather bipolar reputation. Either people revere her as a sort of avenging super power, or they fear her as a sociopath and a violent dictator incapable of both forgiveness and mercy. Often both beliefs exist simultaneously.

Her personal history as a revolutionary who staged a successful coup and singlehandedly defeated a terrorist sect, before going on to be an extremely successful hitman (some would argue serial killer), then a lawyer, then a dictator, means that other members of the GFUN council find her absolutely terrifying as while they were elected to or inherited their position, she got hers but climbing up the mound made by her enemies corpses, and there’s no reason to assume that she wont add them to her list.

Nationality:
Azulian.

Role in society:
Chief Justice of Azulu, which, because Azulu is a meritocracy and a krytocracy, makes her functionally their dictator.

History:

[+]

She was raised by her mother, a sadistic cult leader who was extremely abusive and forced her to kill people who didn’t follow the Code of Avola. (Children who were born in sets of three, men who grew their hair out after marriage, defective girls who wouldn’t join the military. Members of foreign countries and belief systems.) This didn’t do what her mother expected and make her into a psychopath who could carry on her legacy, instead it caused disillusionment and eventually a nigh suicidal escape attempt that landed her in a foreign jail as a POW. Due to what she had already been through at the hands of her mother, no form of interrogation was effective as at that point she really didn’t care what happened to her. The only thing that would get her to talk was if the let her out of solitary confinement.

Then she made them let her walk around town (with security, obviously), then she demanded they give her a citizenship. Because she had reliable and valuable intel, they grudgingly obliged, making her wear a tracking device and stay within a specific range. She later demanded they remove that as well, and they countered that if she acted as a part of their military and actively took out members of her mother’s cult, they would still track her movements, but she wouldn’t have a range. She agreed to this, and became their personal hitman.

They planned to kill her eventually and blame her for a number of war crimes they committed, but she was shot down during an attempted assassination of her mother. One of the soldiers she worked closely with (Ellis) took the opportunity to remove the tracking device, and claim that she had been killed by an IED before dragging her to safety and calling her in as a civilian casualty. Because she didn’t have an ID, the paramedics ran a DNA screen to find her next-of-kin resulting in her father being notified of her existence.

Obviously, he realizes who her mother is, and what kind of mess that entails, but chooses not to say anything. He even goes so far as to pretend that he doesn’t know when he claimed that she lived at his house and went to the neighboring country to research something for her classes. This of course is suspicious given that she had clearly been malnourished before she was shot and had some suspicious old injuries, but the hospital was too swamped with other issues to worry about it. As a result, her father ends up taking in someone who he knows next to nothing about. Luckily at that point she’s not mobile enough to be a threat, and by the time she recovers is more or less functional as a person and knows what medications to take to help manage her PTSD, but functional is very far from ‘normal’ and after a few months her father realizes he’s in way over his head and endangering his other children who are all more or less terrified of her.

She leaves on her own accord and quickly goes right back to hunting down and killing cult members. Her father realizes what she’s doing when reports of ‘The Janitor’ start popping up in the news. He tries to confront her about it and stumbles into the middle of a sting operation instead. This prompts Agatha to use him as bait for her mother, Taba. As a result he not only sees her violently take out a number of henchmen, cut off his ex-wife’s head and throw it into a crowd of petrified bystanders, he’s nearly killed a number of times as well. To say he avoided her after that would be an understatement. He didn’t go so far as to help the police catch her, but certainly didn’t want anything to do with her.

Once the cult is killed and more or less deteriorates because of its leader being dead, she decides to go after the criminal justice system that thought it was a bright idea to put her in solitary confinement, use unethical interrogation methods, use her as their personal hitman and then plan on killing her afterwards. She goes to law school by day and disappears people at night.

She is then contacted by her father again and recruited to serve as her half-sister’s body guard due to the fact that Mave is albino and there are still a lot of people who think if they kill one it will give them magical abilities and cure them of their ailments. The way her father figures it, Agatha’s an atheist, hates religious people and seems to want to protect innocent people from evil and has no problem risking her own life to do so and her success at dealing with extremely dangerous high risk situations speaks for itself. So the risk she poses to Mave is essentially zero.

She serves as Mave’s body guard for all four years of Mave’s college education. Eventually they become friends and Agatha manages to fix things with her father. Things are going about as well as they can until Mave discovers something fishy about their civilization as a whole, eventually leading them to the conclusion that their civilization and species itself was created and put there by aliens. (Will be discussed in Mave’s sheet.) From there, the story breaks down depending on who you ask and what you’ll believe. Agatha claims she was sent back in time 14 years by the Acirians during which time she served as a lawyer under her pseudonym Tessa Koffmat, got herself elected president, married some psychologist who had also escaped from her mother’s cult when he was younger, adopted the daughter of one of her childhood friends who Taba had killed, and used her knowledge of future events to screw over the aliens controlling ‘her’ planet, steal their tech and then throw their leader ‘Zalphar’ out the airlock of it’s own ship. After which she used it’s time travel feature to establish and manage colonies on other planets in the past such that when it finally got to the year she was sent back, she had successfully propelled their civilization into the space age.

Problem with that story is that she has refused to provide evidence for the existence of said ‘time machine’ and the Acirians deny any involvement with the Azulians and claim such technology doesn’t exist. And that even if it did, they certainly wouldn't leave it lying around where space-Dexter could get a hold of it.

Thusly, Agatha and the Azulian Empire as a whole are surrounded by more outlandish conspiracy theories than the Clinton family.

Kill Count: 400+

Cupricality

Claymoor

Name:
Claymoor

Age (if applicable):
234 days as of roleplay commencement.

Species:
Silecutix [derived from the Latin words for rock and skin (Silex, cutis)]

Sex:
At least three.

Appearance:
Claymoor is a shapeshifter, so basically whatever Claymoor wants to look like, he* *(for ease of grammatical designation only)* can. Some limits though, his) cells (when living) cannot become more solid than bone, and cannot become more liquid than mucus.

Personality(ies):

[+]

A, Plenty of cells: Easygoing, incredibly smart, risk taking, can manipulate himself in and out of most confrontations, altruistic when it’s not detrimental. Claymoor has a developed sense of humor and enjoys messing with people through pranks and psychological manipulation. Firmly anti-antagonistic (overall). Sporadic kleptomaniac.

B, Reduced cell count: Easily irritated, more cautious than normal, less mental capacity (depending on cell loss), competitive, agoraphobic, venomously sarcastic, somewhat ‘unhinged’.

C, Massive cell loss: Self preserving, nearly animalistic, unintelligent, voraciously consumes nutritive material with little care for its origin, violent.

Nationality:
N/A

Role in society:
On the run, recent escapee.

History:

[+]

Claymoor was created in a lab, the ****** developed a biological weapon capable or wiping out other life from entire planets in a matter of days. It was designed to use silicon for its cell structure, and scavenge any biological molecules, carbon or silicon based, for material. The cells were controllable because, in the presence of oxygen ,genetic material would break down and trigger cell liquification after a week, leaving hollow silicon spheres and protein soup behind. Grey goo. The weapon was used to purge five pre-space age planets for colonization.

On the third planet purged, a group of cells persisted, originating from an unknown number of mutated variants which had sustained genetic damage from nuclear bombs used as countermeasure. The genetic tag that caused these cells to self destruct was apparently destroyed or inactivated by ionizing radiation. These cells quickly spread, allocating genetic information from various vanquished cells.

Generation two was largely unopposed in the near sterile soup of protein left by the first generation of cells. The ****** had already begun the setup of a colony when the second generation reached their location. The precautionary isolation suits were useless against and all but of the 253 ****** were consumed. The survivor escaped by dumb luck, having returned to the drop ship to retrieve his personal belongings.

The survivor passed by an external camera feed and saw the gelatinous mass begin to creep onto the raised platform. Knowing what the inevitable results would be if he attempted to wait for more crew to board, he took off, the jump jets from the drop ship incinerating everything within a hundred meters. Shortly thereafter, he dropped antimatter power cores from the ship, sixteen in total, around the equator of the planet, leaving nothing more than a molten blob of metal and rock.

Unbeknownst to the survivor, when the jets fired, a single drop of cell goo had splashed into the gasket of the dropship door before it was sealed. Here the cells ate away at the silicone rubber gasket, surviving the short journey to the orbiting station with ease. The exterior of the ship was sterilized with x-rays and antimonic acid.

The cells were unharmed in their protected location, and remained undiscovered. The cells invaded the station, but the relative sterility of the station did not promote rapid growth, forcing the cells to adapt. The cells lived under the floor grating for a time, but soon found the air distribution system, where organic particles and other comestibles were more plentiful.

Suffice to say, the cells quickly evolved into what is now Claymoor, picking up all kinds of alien genetics along the way, improving their genetics until they began to organize themselves into a colony. This colony continued to move as a unit, but the key difference was that the cells began to differentiate to work together more efficiently. At this point, the cell had the ability to see, feel vibrations, and detect temperature. All this took just thirteen days. On day twenty five, the beginnings of a neural network had begun to form, and on day fifty, the cells had a sort of brain, which was learning incredibly fast.

Day 67: An ambassador for the GFUN seized the station with heavy military enforcement on ‘suspicion’ of genocidal crimes. The ambassador that boarded the station was some kind of cephalopod, and cell generation 583 assimilated its genetic material from mucus residue it left behind. Generation 597 had full control of its color and texture, chromophores were developed in the surface layer of cells.

Day 74: The inhabitants of the station, now prisoners, were being removed from the station. Claymoor was becoming sentient. Day 85: The station was all but deserted, a skeleton crew of GFUN officers remained, keeping the systems in order. Claymoor had become fully sentient, and was learning the Standard Language by tapping into communications between personnel. Day 99: Claymoor had a grasp on Standard language, but was nearly out of food. The gardens had been shut down to conserve power.

Day 102: The station was decommissioned, set into a stable orbit, and the last of the GFUN crew scavenged gear and valuables. Claymoor boarded the GFUN ship by disguising as case of valuable lab equipment.

Kill Count:
0 or ~34.6 billion, depending on what you consider to be ‘Claymoor’.

Hylozoist

Nona Bellicae

Name:
Nona Bellicae

Age:
Twenty nine.

Species:
Avelone.

Sex:
Female.

Appearance:
Frazzled. Dishevelled plumage. A rather plain looking white bonnet, a couple of wooden leg-rings and a pair of spectacles carefully perched upon her bill make up her everyday outfit. Attempts to get her long "eyebrow" and "moustaches" feathers into some semblance of order have failed so often that she appears to have given up entirely, making her look near permanently startled.

Personality:
Hard-working, obedient and more than a little bit nervous. Is not particularly happy about the things she has done, but has mostly convinced herself that it was simply following orders, which is the Right Thing To Do. Usually tries to pass off her nervousness as simply being cautious. Plans out everything, makes plans for when those plans don't work, and gets quite worried when things do not go according to the plan(s).

Nationality:
Southern Song / Greater Orpil Flock

Role in society:
Ministry Diplomat.

History:

[+]

Prior to being assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nona Bellicae held a number of fairly lowly positions within the ever-expanding bureaucracy of the Greater Orpil Flock. While many within her extended family had natural aptitudes that made them ideally suited for some particular role or other, Nona could find no particular role that spoke to her. Bumped from department to department in order to find the right position, by the time she arrived in Foreign Affairs she had a fair understanding of the politics that dominated the other Ministries, along with a string of mostly useful contacts.

Nona was first assigned as a diplomatic envoy, attached to a Ministry Diplomat, that would help oversee the First Application for Membership with the Galactic Federation of United Nations. Disputes within the most prestigious of the Ministries - the Ministry of Harmony, the Ministry of Environmental Concerns and the Ministry of Procurement - regarding the prominence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the age of space travel saw the three reaching an agreement that Something Must Be Done. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be purged of their senior leadership, and in its place would sit leaders and officers that could be easily controlled.

Nona Bellicae would be one of those people. Following the tragic death of Ministry Diplomat Graffil in an air-lock accident, along with the grief-stricken suicides of his direct staff and the unexplained fire that consumed a communal habitation area belonging to his relatives on board the MFAV Wings of Hope, Nona was given the field promotion to "Ministry Diplomat". Now the badly damaged, understaffed Wings of Hope limps along to meet up with representatives from GFUN to negotiate their admittance into the - with the interests of the other Ministries firmly in mind, of course.

Kill Count:
None. Or, well, maybe a few in an indirect sort of way

Sci-fi Sandbox

Species

Mine:

Acirians

Name:
Acirian

Kingdom:
Animalia.

Base:
Carbon.

Composition:
multi-cellular.

Physiology:

The simplest way to describe an Acirian is to akin it to a bipedal frog with a more angular version of an axolotls head and the regenerative powers of a flatworm on Gatorade. In order to most simply sum up their average personality one must only take the intelligence of someone with a 200-something IQ, pair it with the mentality of someone who entered and won the Darwin awards 5 years in a row and lastly throw in a twisted sense of humor and a proclivity towards insanity. But, I believe we already went over that last part.

You may consider this the abstract.

More

If we want to get into the specifics, Acirians are approximately 3-4 and 1/2 feet tall, green or violet skinned depending on their pigmentation or lack thereof, green being the pigmented version. A pigmented Acirians skin is actually a light yellow color and the intensity of the color will change based on diet. An Acirian who lives off standard space-fare from a wide variety of planets will typically be green while ones who eat a more restricted or electrolyte and mineral deficient diet will typically be a light blue or purple in color. If the Acirian has not regenerated recently the color intensifies in either pigmented or unpigmented types. It is possible for a green Acirian to turn Violet and vice versa. This is most easily observed after an Acirian regenerates 30% or more of its body mass as it takes awhile for them to regain proper electrolyte and mineral levels.

An Acirian's 'brain' is not limited to its skull, it has small clusters of neurons and glial cells all throughout its body which serve as data caches for the central nervous system. This is an essential survival mechanism that allows Acirian's to retain back-ups of important information in case they lose their heads. Should this happen, the Acirian will remember all information it had deemed important, but will be unable to recall extraneous data resulting in memory gaps and subject-specific memory loss.

The trick to Acirian regeneration is that there are specific gene sets that activate to regenerate specific organs and cell types. This, combined with the fact that they have undifferentiated stem cell clusters known as blastema stored in small grouping all throughout their bodies means that if a wrong gene set were to be activated artificially such as in laboratory tests, an Acirian could grow a kidney where they were supposed to be regenerating a hand. It is also possible for them to grow cell types and organs from other species that would normally not be compatible but that requires that all the genetic information that goes into making that specific organ be reproduced and held in the kamikaze protein transport unit that acts as part of the Acirian immune system specific to targeting foreign cells or cancer. All signaling information not presented in such a way is ignored. The only other species that has a immune system similar to an Acirians in that of Azulians who are in fact a splice between an Acirian and Human chromosome set.

An Acirian's cardiovascular system runs their hemocyanin blood through a set of organs specific to their species called, shockingly, Liver-like Blood and Blastema Alteration System, or LBBAS, because Acirians inability to name things creatively has been around since their species started vivisecting themselves to determine why they didn't stay dead like other creatures. Anyway, the LBBAS, as the name suggests, is passably similar to a liver but that's as far as it goes. It functions as a blood filter yes, but it also generates blastema and can generate the full range of gene sets responsible for everything that makes up an Acirian, however it only activates if the Acirian goes into cardiac arrest in which case it functions as a reset button, taking inventory of the entire biological system through a system-wide reset-specific nervous system that, to put it simply, liquefies all damaged tissues by differentiating their cells using something similar to our neuropeptides which spread from the nearest severed nerve to the surrounding cells, telling them to revert to stem cell mode.

Using the lymphatic system, the LBBAS signals the body to flush out everything after the severed nerve that isn't a stem cell. This allows Acirians to survive most poisons and toxins as the second they cause the subject to stop blood circulation, they get flushed out of the system with lymphatic fluid.

However, in the case of venoms, since they tend to remain in the bloodstream, after a reset has occurred, if the problem is not resolved by the LBBAS-related nervous system, the blood is then filtered through the LBBAS and the immune system put into hyperdrive which results in any proteins still in circulation being metabolized or isolated prior to them being flushed out of the subject via the digestive system, or more correctly, the upchuck thereof.

Neurotoxic venoms, poisons and toxins still affect Acirians similarly to other creatures with the addition of the effects of its interference with the LBBAS related nervous system which can result in misidentification of stem cells for foreign cells and vice versa. It can also cause the LBBAS to go into reset mode without the Acirian actually going into cardiac arrest or for it to fail to do so in the case of cardiac arrest.

Common symptoms of neurotoxic poisoning in Acirians are seizures, heightened allergic reactions, liquefaction of unaffected organs or body parts, inhibited or altered regenerative abilities, neurological degeneration followed by an imperfect reset in the case of an altered LBBAS reset. With no LBBAS reset or response, symptoms and outcome will match exactly those of regular subjects although in some cases treatment will vary.

As a result of the above, if an Acirian goes into cardiac arrest resuscitation of any kind is detrimental to recovery due to damage to ribs and the increase in blood circulation interfering with LBBAS related functions which, due to organ liquefaction, can result in internal bleeding, falsely triggered regenerative shut-down, volume loss and later growth abnormalities and cysts due to the circulation of region specific neuropeptides and stem cells to unaffected parts of the body. Depending on the nature of injury resulting in cardiovascular shut down, side affects can even extend to later infections or substance related tissue damage due to transfer to other parts of the body.

The only case wherein resuscitation is beneficial is when the LBBAS fails to engage as a result of neurotoxins inhibiting its neurological signaling system. In this case it's best to administer anti-venom if available and resort to resuscitation only as a last resort. If that doesn't work, it may be necessary trigger regenerative function despite the fact that the system by which that normally occurs is out of commission. The easiest way to do this is to damage the LBBAS directly via a sharp pointed object like a knife, sword or spear. However this requires the knowledge of where the LBBAS is, and if one does not know, the certified medical procedure of chucking the subject off a cliff to reset everything in one go has been known to work. If no cliffs or other suitable objects are available, the 'stab/shoot till find' method will also work.

As for Acirian personalities, they all typically have a built-in hatred for others of their species in a way that is similar to humans built in attraction for the opposite sex. This, unsurprisingly, is due to the fact that Acirians reproduce by effectively killing each other.

So, it logically follows that Acirians more inclined to kill each other are more likely to create clones thus more likely to represent the majority of the Acirian population.
it should be noted that Acirians with dietary deficiencies are less inclined to this behavior thus creating the assumption by some people that blue and purple Acirians are a less hostile subspecies. Due to the fact that Acirians are viscerally disgusted by each other and violently inclined in general, but also at the same time obsessed with all things logical, once they developed the technology to live entirely in space, the dispersed widely in an attempt to never see another one of their species ever ever again. This results in some people thinking that they are fictional, endangered or otherwise exceedingly rare as they've probably not seen more than two within their lifetime and certainly not more than one at the same time. However, while this assumption is wrong, Acirians are in decline due to the invention of space travel which aids both their dispersal and risk taking/accident prone tendencies. The subsequent invention of advanced incendiary devices which are the leading cause of permanent death among Acirians, simply does not jive at all well with their risk taking tendencies which tend to lead them into situations where encountering such devices is highly probable.

Reproduction: Asexual. The average acirian divides multiple times a year, older acirians divide very very rarely.

Dimorphic?
Nope.

The closest thing to that is that acirians with a poor diet are blue, and acirians with a healthy diet are green.

Coded? Coded.

Azulians

Name:
Azulians

Kingdom:
Animalia

Base:
Carbon.

Composition:
Multi-cellular.

Physiology:

Pictures

Male


Female

Text

From the perspective of humans, azulians fall somewhere in the uncanny valley. Their basic skeletal structure is similar, save shorter, double jointed legs, thicker bones, longer arms, a rib structure that looks like it belongs to a quadruped or a reptile and a completely different skull shape. Because their arms and legs are roughly the same length, it’s possible for them to run on all fours, though in practice this is really only used to climb things. Both their hands and their feet are prehensile, and their feet partially double jointed. They typically walk with their toes at least partially curled up, like how you would mime a cat paw with your hand. They use both copper and iron to oxygenate their blood, which looks like watery elmer's glue with a drop or two of purple food coloring.

Females favor the acirian portion of their genetics, whereas males favor humans. This is due to the way fetuses develop. All of them start out as female, and acirians don’t have Y chromosomes, (they actually only have one X chromosome) so for XY fetuses, the genetics of humans take over making them smaller than their female counterparts.

Because acirians only have one X chromosome, (Thus only X chromosomes were spliced together) a female Azulian (XX) doubles up on the acirian traits, and without the lack of a second X chromosome and without the presence of a Y chromosome, their growth is uninhibited (because all acirians were derived from a clone with Turner’s syndrome). This results in faster regeneration, a more acirian-like skull shape, sharper teeth, and a muscle attachment ridge on the skull, making their bite force much stronger. Another difference is ribs.

You can tell which skeleton is female, and as they have more ribs than a male Azulian. Again, this is because acirians have snake like ribs and humans do not. Azulian females think more like acirians, have better depth perception and a more visual memory. They're also more aggressive and some are just plain territorial. They're more easily swayed by mob mentality and are more likely to start fights for no reason and don't particularly care about the outcome, they fight for the sake of conflict. They also will use all of their strength when attacking, unlike humans who use about 10% due to them actually having a sense of self preservation. An Acirian will punch hard enough to break their own arm, and they don’t stall, hold back or run away because they might get killed, because behaviors that lead to injury increase the number of derivative acirians produced. Azulian females, will do the exact same thing as Acirians, except their arm isn’t going to grow back like an Acirians. Ergo, the logical side of them will know they shouldn’t hit that hard, but it’s not instinctive or subconscious, so if you make one sufficiently angry, logic will no longer apply.

Someone once said that it’s not the strongest, the most skilled or the most intelligent person that wins in a street fight. It’s the most determined, because they don’t hold back and they fight dirty. Azulain females fight this way by default, which is why the police there are all trained to shoot to kill, because if you don’t kill them they’ll keep attacking and will do a lot more damage than most other species.

Azulian males have this problem, but to a much lesser extent due to the following:

An Azulian male does not have a muscle attachment ridge, doesn't have the exaggerated reptilian bone structure and tends to think more like a human. They have a lower pain tolerance, tend to have a better sense of right and wrong, and tend to be significantly smaller than the females.

They also have better color perception, and live an average of ten years longer, despite their slower regeneration and higher risk for cancer. Their arms tend to be shorter and their legs longer, giving them an advantage when it comes to running and a disadvantage when climbing. Thusly track is considered a boy sport and parkour a girl sport. Muscle mass wise they're about the same as females when size differences are controlled for, so if a short female fights a tall male they're about evenly matched in terms of strength, except the female can bite through bone and the male cannot. Due to proportion differences, the fighting styles of males and females are different, females favoring punching and males favoring kicking. Though because of behavioral differences males tend to view fighting as less important than females do and so on average tend to be less fit. But because they're not incapable of it or terribly disadvantaged biologically, females tend to view them as smaller, lazy, crybabies and thus show them very little respect.

Because of the differences in the way acirians and humans develop chimerism is extremely common among males, and less so among females but it is not unheard of. This results in a vitiligo and calico like hair patterns which is seen as attractive by females, thus increasing its prevalence rate. It also sometimes results in chimeras composed of male and female cells, which can result in anything from death to mixed primary and secondary sexual traits. Typically, intersex chimeras will ‘pass as female’ Because historically the legal system and Trifecta Law allowed females more rights than males. That, and it is seen as gay for a female to harass a ‘female’ chimera, but perfectly acceptable for them to do so if the chimera is ‘male’, in part due to the visual similarities between vitiligo and chimera. Which means that most females claiming to have vitiligo are intersex chimeras and most males females assume to be chimeras just have vitiligo.

There are a number of genetic disorders that result from the gene splicing and usually come about in cases of inbreeding, which tends to exaggerate either human or acirian traits. In males, this can result in dwarfism, leukemia, bone neoplasms, deformed skulls, and club feet. In females, it causes completely unregulated growth to the point of organ collapse, skin cancer (green slimy patches), severe antisocial behavior, paranoia and psychosis. Yellow eyes and blueish hair are heavily associated with this disorder, the blue hair being most commonly found in males and the yellow eyes only in females. If a female has both they're typically only a few generations away from the above disorders as both traits are the result of genetic mutations that, if both parents are carriers of, results in either of the above disorders depending on the gender of the child.

Reproduction:

[+]

Sexual.

Pregnancies last an average of 3 months, a full-term baby weighs 3.5 pounds (1% of the mother’s weight) and up to five can be carried to term without adverse effects as the mother/fetus weight proportion is still around half (5% of the mother’s weight) that of a normal (single fetus) human pregnancy (~11% of the mother's weight.)



Azulian fetuses develop extremely quickly, and are born with teeth and hair but very little fat, inside a clear egg-like placental sack and often have something similar to a yolk attached to their stomachs, a genetic throwback to the amphibious portion of their genetics.

If a fetus is female, the mother will produce estrogen during the first month of pregnancy, before switching to androgen for the remaining two months. If the fetus is male, a much smaller amount of androgen is produced. This is why males born with non-identical siblings tend to be bigger and stronger than those with no female fraternal twins.

If a baby is born prematurely, and the placenta is still intact, it is possible for it to be taken to a hospital and grown in vitro, like a giant gelatinous lizard egg, though because of economic reasons, this rarely ever occurs.

It takes ~72 hours for an infant to open it’s eyes, and they are capable of eating solid foods immediately, though in family units they are often fed milk for a number of weeks regardless as it boosts their immune systems and lowers infant mortality rates.

The average age of puberty ranges from 9 to 19 for females and between 15 to 18 for males, depending on diet and recessive alleles, the higher the food quality and the lower the number of recessive alleles, the earlier the Azulian reaches puberty, and vice versa.

Given access to the resources required to care for them, if a female is sexually active, she can have an average of 1-2 children per-year for 29.5 years, without adverse health effects, producing 29-59 children across her lifespan, 22-44 of which will survive to adulthood.

40% of children are male, 5% are intersex and 55% are female.

Dimorphic?

[+]

Female children have faster metabolisms, grow faster and store more fat than their male counterparts. If they do not have sufficient fat reserves at puberty, their growth is stunted. Thus it is possible for a male to grow to be around the same height as a female, but only if he was a fraternal twin to a female and eats much more than his metabolism would otherwise dictate.

The average life expectancy for females is 46 years, and the average life expectancy for males is 62 years. This is due to behavioral differences as biological ones would have females living to around 132.

The average cause of death for females is murder or (wo)manslaughter, and the average cause of death for males is cancer.

Because of this females can have children from puberty until death as menopause is not commonly encountered.

Females get a growth spurt at puberty and males stop growing.

Cupricality

Claymoor

Name:
-REDACTED-

Kingdom:
Silicosa

Base:
Silicon

Composition:
Single cell

Physiology:

Self sufficient single cell organisms, highly adaptable, huge genetic code with effectively limitless capacity to self modify. Each cell has the capacity to be self sufficient, although not all are, and they become specialized to certain tasks. Cells are on average, approximately 86% altruistic in most situations.

All unspecialized cells are oblong egg shaped, have tough membranes, and are covered in (relatively) large and strong, cilia like filaments, which are used for locomotion and binding. Base cells each have a small neural bundle, a miniature brain if you will, although, the neural network is more compact, and quite different from normal neural tissue.

When cells specialize, they receive support and nutrients from other nearby cells, as such, if complex structures of cells form, a pseudo circulatory system develops to supply specialized cells with required supplements and energy. Cells use pseudo-telepathy to communicate with each other without being in direct contact, somewhat similar to electromagnetic perception that sharks use to find fish (although, obviously this system is different, and much more specialized and sensitive).

Reproduction:

Main: Apoptotic self re-conglomeration with support, chemicals, and protection provided by nearby cells.

Secondary: Asexual cell division.

Tertiary reproductive method: Sexual reproduction with the intent to efficiently repair genetic defects, or to alter genetics at rapid pace. Other reasons for this form of reproduction include: Insufficient resources for safe apoptotic reproduction, evolution of desirable traits in a hostile circumstance.

Hylozoist

Three bird-like species, uplifted to sentience and tinkered around with by the Creators.

Nezzim

Name:
Nezzim

Kingdom:
Animalia

Base:
Carbon

Composition:
Multicellular

Physiology:
Small in regards to the rest of the Orpil Flock, averaging out to about 20 inches in length, with a wingspan of around twenty six inches. Most often recognised by it's black and white feathers, small beak and, according to some, "mean looking eyes". As with all the uplifted species within the Orpil Flock, their toes are highly articulated and posess something similar to an opposable thumb.

Think "Eurasian Magpie", and you won't be too far wrong.

Reproduction:
Sexual. Usually once a year, with an egg taking around a month to hatch. A single, solitary egg is laid; now it often artificially incubated, tested and generally looked after as well as possible. Around 30% of eggs fail.

Dimorphic?
Males tend to be slightly smaller then females, with more iridescence in the black feathers.

Avelone

Name:
Avelone

Kingdom:
Animalia

Base:
Carbon

Composition:
Multicellular

Physiology:
A large, heavy, flightless species, nearly two meters in length, with short wings that are rarely displayed. The Avelone posesses a short, hooked beak, "dull" plumage of dappled green, yellow and brown. Facial plumage gives members of this species something approximating a moustache and eyebrows, which are used in displays and as an aid to communication. As with other uplifted species in the Orpil Flock, it has highly articulated toes and a digit that functions like an opposable thumb.

Think bloody great big "Kakapo", and you won't be too far wrong.

Reproduction:
Sexual. Clutches of eggs (usually around five) are laid once every three years, hatching after three months. Approximately half of the eggs fail to hatch. Use of artificial incubators is something of a taboo, instead, family members, friends and trusted people within the community take it in turns to look after eggs and the young.

Dimorphic?
Nope.

Orp

Name:
Orp

Kingdom:
Animalia

Base:
Carbon

Composition:
Multicellular

Physiology:
A large, brightly coloured bill is the defining trait of the Orp species - it shares the same black and white plumage of the Nezzim, and is only slightly larger at three feet in length. A large wingspan and long tail helps somewhat to balance out the size of the bill in flight, but it still looks like a fundamentally top-heavy creature. As with all members of the "Orpil Flock", it has highly articulated toes with an opposable thumb-like digit.

Think "Toco Toucan", and you won't be too far wrong.

Reproduction:
Sexual. Inherited a lot of mating behaviour from their pre-uplift ancestors; a male with a suitably large and impressive bill will be accepted by multiple female partners in the yearly breeding season. Pre-uplift behaviour of nest-building and the male rotating around his territory to provide food for the females is no longer displayed, and the rise of artificial incubation means that a female is no longer tied to a nest for three weeks. Communal incubation is the modern norm.

Dimorphic?
Male bill colouration tends towards stripes and brighter colours compared to the female.

Sci-fi Sandbox

Nations

Mine:

The Krytocracy of Azulu

Name:
The Krytocracy of Azulu

Territory:
The G8102 System, with their home world Azulu and it’s moon Qai.
The six planets of the Torre system. Three are work colonies mining resources for the military, the other three are civilian worlds.
The Xenoterra Project (jointly with ISRS and the Unagi)
The Spr50 system. The moons orbiting it’s two gas giants are inhabited by a mix of tourist, civilian and research colonies which are experimenting with farming a local variety of fungi and using it to make both food and biofuels.
The Gilga System. Shared with a mix of Humans and Verivora. Two habitable planets, three habitable moons. Contains several experimental refugee colonies.

Culture(s):
Azulian culture is… mixed. On one hand, it’s laws are dangerously progressive, and on the other hand ten years ago it was illegal to marry outside your race. It was creepy for women to take an interest in their children. It was illegal for men to go certain places at night. And it was impossible for them to get a divorce, go to college, take out a loan, buy or inherit property, or even have much of say in who they marry. They had executions in the streets, rampant crime and poverty, honor killings, religious sects that were really just terrorist cells and thirty years ago they had a genocidal maniac running around dicing people up in the name of religion. It’s as if they tried to go from Syria to Iceland overnight.

Historically, these are some facts and statistics about how their culture operated, and while some things have changed, a lot of it’s the same, it’s just not legally forced on anyone anymore and is socially discouraged by ‘the left.’

[+]

The average female has between two and five children over her lifespan, and raises between none and two of them.

The average male has between five and twenty children and raises all of them, sometimes with the help of co-mates and sometimes without.

15% of the female population has more than one mate and the rest have between one and none.

Males have custody of children and females do not.

Females aren’t expected to contribute to child-care or domestic responsibilities, they are, however, expected to advance the social status of their matrilineage so as to get into the 20% with the resources to pass on their family name and status to their offspring, biological or otherwise.

Azulians have two names. The first of which is traditionally given to them by their biological father and the last of which is inherited from their biological mother.

Avola worshipers practice polyandry, Phiede worshipers do not have a concept of marriage and Varset worshipers are monogamous.

Quacksville is populated by Avola worshipers, the government districts are populated by a combination of all three and the land around the city is populated by predominantly Varset worshipers with agricultural communities capable of supporting the large number of children that result from long-term monogamous relationships.

Public opinion is that Varset worshipers are weird, Avola worshipers are greedy pigs and that Phiede worshipers are self-sacrificing. The average Azulian doesn’t prescribe completely to any of the three lifestyles and looks at anyone who does as an extremist.

Because of their rarity, male children have a higher value than female children, though in lower socioeconomic groups or castes, they are perceived as having a lower value since they cannot bring in money or resources into their mother’s matrilineage. Because of Azulu’s economic distribution problem, males, who have de facto custody of their children, are not afforded inheritance rights from their parents and instead use hypergamy as a means of securing sufficient resources to care for their children.

Certain religious factions in poorer and more violent districts (westhill) will sometimes either cull their male children or keep them under lock and key to prevent them from marrying into Avola worshiping families with which such communities have a vicious rivalry. The thinking being that allowing your sons to marry into a rival family or caste is the same as handing over the inheritance of your matrilineage to that family as their owning another male increases the number of children in their matrilineage and decreases the number in your allies matrilineages, thereby increasing the economic disparity between the 20% and the 80%.

Sociological differences:

If a female looks another azulian in the eyes it is seen as a sign of aggression and if they don't look away, it’s seen as defiance. Thus, males are expected to avoid eye contact. Males from opposing social groups will stare down rival females as a way of pissing them off and flaunting their social groups status.

Smiling with one's teeth showing is a sign of aggression. One only smiles with their teeth when their superiors aren’t present, otherwise it’s interpreted as a form of insubordination. Thusly, the matriarch of a social group will do this often to demonstrate her authority. Agatha does this all the time for this very reason.

Thusly, telling and laughing at jokes can be seen as an extension of this in certain subcultures. And jokes centered around death and violence are culturally similar to rape-y locker room humor. It’s something only one sex does to make them seem bigger and better than the opposite sex. (So when Agatha is using gallows humor in a debate, it’s not funny, it’s territorial. Which is why nobody ever laughs at it.)

Mouths are not sexualized, and the idea of kissing is viewed a weird, obscene thing humans do. (and not to mention dangerous) This is due to the fact that Azulains have one of the most powerful bite forces of any mammal and tend to use their mouths as weapons, biting limbs and flesh off their enemies and prey. Females will even kill and eat rival females in less civilized communities. So if your name is Joe Biden, do not ask one of them for a kiss because you'll probably get your skull crushed instead. Infact, a good rule of thumb is to stay at least an arm's length away. Especially as a male as your actions can be interpreted two different ways, neither of which you want.

If an Azulian of any sex is interested in a member of the opposite sex, they tend to stand right next to them in a way that is obstructive to other Azulains.

If an Azulain stands right next to a member of the same sex, it means they consider the other person their ‘bro.’ Being that proximity indicates the closeness of the relationship, it’s not a good idea to stand right next to a female Azulian if you’re not their significant other or drinking buddy. If you stand right next to a male, you’re a bit safer, so long as his significant other, family or friends don’t see you.

Members of a social group all tend to stand facing the matriarch of the group as standing with your back to them is considered a challenge to their authority unless you are male. In which case you are never in authority so you can face whichever way you want.

Because of their ridiculously high fecundity, Azulains have never had anything close to a hook-up culture. They view sex as a means of producing children, rather than as entertainment. Due to the power balance between the sexes, rape is physiologically implausible, and that combined with the fact that there’s a 90% chance that the female will get pregnant, and a 99% chance that the male will have to care for her children till they reach adulthood, both sexes tend not to fool around as it can have very bad repercussions.

Say, you're a dude. And you act like a human frat boy. Plenty of females would mate with you, but in three months they'd hand you one to five babies each and then leave. Now you're stuck with 20 kids to feed and clothe and educate for the next fifteen years. Welcome to single parenthood on steroids.

If you're a female and you act like a frat boy, very few males will mate with you because they don't want your babies. And if they do you’re mildly uncomfortable for three months, the end. Your social responsibility ends when you give birth. As a result, unlike humans, the women actually are more slutty than the men as the risk involved for them is essentially zero. However, also like humans, they tend to call whichever sex is the easiest to pick on whores, despite the fact that by definition it takes two to participate. Thus: all men are whores and women are just women.

As for birth control, abortion and contraception, the females consider it unnecessary and annoying and are more likely to lie about it than to actually use it. And many of them consider it counterproductive to spreading their genetics. Males therefore have to either convince them to use it or sneak it themselves if they're part of a particularly religious faction.

The general cultural perception of males is that they are auxiliary members of society at best, defective females or annoying necessities at worst. Because they can't fight as well as the females, and because the females like to consider every job outside of childcare a feminine job, males are more or less relegated to that sector. To the point that childcare is assumed to be the only thing they're good at/the only thing they should aspire to/the most important thing they'll ever do.

If a male does not have kids, he is considered a failure. If a female doesn't have kids it's presumed that she'll be slightly disappointed. Unless she's an Avola worshipper, in which case it's presumed that she had genes that would not help the survival of the species and that she either couldn’t have children or chose to commit generational suicide. (This is what Agatha does because she considers her mother’s genetics inferior and chose not to inflict the Durrem’s propensity for violence on the next generation.)

It should be noted that rich female Azulians are all essentially a bunch of unapologetic, classist yuppies.

The general cultural perception of females is that they are god’s gift to men. They can prevent males from being killed (by other females), create children so the males can fulfill their one and only purpose in life, and even support them financially if they want to be extra nice. And for that, the males should be grateful and do whatever the females want. After all, it was a female that created them in the first place. Which is a bit like giving someone a polished turd and calling them a selfish asshole when they don’t want it.

Presently, this is more or less how their culture leans:

[+]

Because of the acirian genetics, both sexes have a tendency to abandon their young or not have any in the first place. Females, more so than males. Azulians with those traits also came with acirian-level aggression towards their own species, but not the regeneration that makes mass murdering your own kind a good way to further the evolution of the species which meant that they exited the gene pool pretty quickly, leaving mostly those with more dominant human traits. Mostly. Some were balanced enough to function within the society, and because of their disregard for life and limb, themselves and others, and the fact that the dominance of acirian traits made female offspring larger, meant that those with the acirian genetics tended to be high ranking in the social hierarchy simply because they could and frequently would beat the crap out of everyone else. A good way to spot these individuals was their tendency to have the same yellow eye color of acirians which also meant they had night vision where their more human counterparts didn’t. This spawned the idea that those traits were somehow more desirable because the people in charge had a higher percentage of those traits than the general population. Thus, Taba and likely her entire matriarchal line, were all sociopathic assholes who liked killing other azulians for fun because they were more acirian than human and that behavior is how acirians reproduce. It’s just that when you try it on species without regeneration, they tend to, you know, die. Permanently. However because acirians have no concept of death as a permanent destination, these people tend to also develop a bit of a god/immorality complex which has very un-pretty results.

However, thankfully, most Azulians are not that way. It’s only when you get higher up the social hierarchy that you start seeing more and more of it. Most average Azulians are decent people, and if the sexism shows up, especially in the lower ranking communities, it tends to be mostly just passive aggression. Kind of like how humans are today. Except males were expected and allowed to hold jobs even when they had children they were expected to take care of, and being that they don't have child labor laws, children would often pick up and help out with whatever job their father held regardless of the child's gender, (making Carl and Ellis somewhat typical) the males seniority status typically granting them higher social status than would otherwise be attainable, though a female with seniority status will always outrank their male peers. There is some prejudice against males entering higher paying more stereotypically female dominated fields, though not if they have female offspring or a wife in the same workplace as the social status typically transfers to all relatives regardless of gender. Though paradoxically it is seen as undesirable to date people in your same field of specialization which means that only families of lower socioeconomic status regularly follow this pattern, as higher ranking families tend to have more exaggerated sexually dimorphic traits, both physically and psychologically.

Their family systems, if they have a family system, usually consists of a female who spends most of their time advancing their status in the hierarchy through increased wealth and property (read: territory and game), a male who also holds a job, takes care of the children and sets them up with jobs of their own, (read: maintains the female's territory) and children who typically grow up to work in the class that their mother worked her family up to, regardless of gender. From there, the female offspring can work up to an even higher class, (or be bumped down if they lose a fight with someone who outranks them) and the males either stay at the level of their mother or inherit the level of their wife, be it higher or lower.

The degree to which this is enforced varies depending on the culture of the region and the social class being examined. At the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, people are generally aware the system exists at some point, but nobody enforces it nor follows its rules. At the very top of the ladder, this system is extremely important and violently enforced as it makes a big difference in the status of that particular matrilineal line.

Warring factions/political parties:

Religion is the primary cause of war on Azulu.

[+]

he Azulian religion is somewhat similar to that of the Greeks and the Romans. They all follow the same system, but that system has multiple deities, each with a different value system, and each thinks they are above all other deities and will eventually become ‘The One True God.’ Each faction in turn, has its own text, narrative and subculture.

Phiede, is the spirit of death, judgement, insects, codes and agriculture. Phiede gets to decide who dies and how one dies, or more correctly, how awful ones death is, and where one goes afterwards. Phiede is the most uptight of the spirits, and has a long and extensive list of rules one must follow in order for one not to die a horrible death and be reincarnated as a flesh eating wasp or a dung beetle.

The code of Phiede, a rather long and parabolic text, supposedly written by a matrilineal chain of Turins chronicles the entirety of Azulu’s existence through the written accounts of said Turins, or as they are referred to posthumously, narrators.

The Turins, who can belong to any of the three spirits, are often the cause of the shifting of world powers, either because such things are predetermined, because it is in their nature or because only such people become Turins. Some have suggested that it’s genetic. Others that it’s simply the result of the victors always telling the final account of things. Either way, such texts, or chapters, are usually only found several generations later, hidden amongst the Turin’s belongings. It is unknown if such texts appear supernaturally, or if they are written in secret, because one thing is common among all Turins, and that is the fact that no one knows they are a Turin until the text is discovered. Not even other Turins will know, even if they are related as can sometimes happen. There may be suspicions, rumors and the occasional public execution, but no one owns up to anything until everything is said and done and the story concluded.

The public perception of Turins, particularly those owned by Phiede is… complicated. Phiede’s Turins tend to be ruthless, combative, code and law oriented dictators who do the right thing by the letter of the law only. If not dictators, they will hold a similar position in some establishment, and serve to inflict the code of Phiede on the general population and enforce her rules. Therefor those that feel her rules should be enforced are supporters of anyone they even remotely suspect as being one of Phiede’s Turins, and on the other hand, those that think Phiede is missing the point of morality and using it as a justification for her own immorality, Phiede-Turins are dangerous and to be avoided, though not necessarily evil.

Agatha, for example, often says that she is one because it makes people uncomfortable.

There are a total of 30 confirmed Phiede Turins, making them the rarest variety. The definition of Turin in general is one who for some reason or another is killed, rejected by Varset and resurrected by Avola as an Azulian, rather than being put back through the filter that is lower life forms. Why this can happen varies. Either in a past life that person had walked the line of morality such that Varset disapproved of them but Phiede thought they were perfectly acceptable and saw no need to exact vengeance, or they did so in the current life, which was recorded and they were reincarnated as an Azulian who behaved well enough the second time around to be accepted by Varset. Both halves can be recorded or just one. Sometimes the same Turin reoccurs five or six times before they’re finally accepted by Varset, sometimes it only takes a single iteration.

Avola, is the spirit of life, pleasure, status, survival/reincarnation, enlightenment, war, tides and the moon (and, anything else her followers would like to tack on). Avola has no real rules, just that if one knows and aids in Avola’s destruction of all other spirits, that one will be protected from Phiedes judgement. Or, at least that's what it used to be. Since Taba took over the church of Avola and all its chapters, she has instituted a litany of rituals and requirements for maintaining favor in Avola's eyes, and thus immunity from Phiede’s rules. Why? Because Taba doesn't believe in religion and just enjoys messing with people in new and sadistic ways.

Avola Turins tend to be prophets, the highly educated, emotional people who feel that they need to be the most highly praised, acclaimed or respected and typically will do stupid things to impress people or prove themselves. They tend to believe that each person is unique and that self expression is more important than following the rules. Their pre-Taba ideology was basically:

When the messiah leads the rebellion *puffs joint* As long you fight for Avola, you can do whatever maaan. It's all good.

Post-Taba ideology is: it's all good so long as you routinely subject yourself to physical and psychological torture and serve The One True God doing whatever she, through Taba, commands thee to do. And the minute you stop doing as you're told you're a rebel and your sins now count against you and are punishable by death.

Varset, is the spirit of personality, family, memory, victory, the sky and culture. Varset has control of, or more correctly is, a ‘realm’ called varsita which stores the lives and memories of those who they deem worthy. Varset is a hive mind, a conglomerate being, formed from the lives and memories of those it accepts and fuses with. People who do not fuse with the conglomerate upon death are reincarnated as something else. If varset finds them especially repugnant, Phiede gets to turn them into whatever she wants. In Azulian mythology, Varset was originally two people, Vara and Aset. Aset was an albino and was thusly owned by Avola. When Avola got into a fight with Phiede over a particular building, Phiede struck Avola’s army dead, Aset being among them. When Vara found out about this, she used magic to absorb Aset’s spirit and half of his physical features, forming Varset. The myth being that this initial fusion is where chimerism and hermaphrodites come from. (It should be noted that the relationship between Vara and Aset was not sexual as Azulians do not associate sex with friendship, loyalty or emotional bonding. In their culture the two belong in completely separate spheres and they often don’t form a venn diagram. In fact, in the original text, Vara and Aset were both female, and had, if anything, what we would call a bromance. Aset was only changed to male afterwards when someone felt the need to explain why some Chimeras have mixed primary and secondary sex traits.) That story then evolved and was added to thanks to Turins and Conduits (which will be discussed below), becoming that Varset managed to transcend the physical realm and cycle of reincarnation imposed by Phiede and Avola, because they were composed of two spirits with different karmic ratings (Vara was to be reincarnated as an Azulian and Aset a dung beetle) fused together so that the resultant being is more or less trapped in a state of ‘quantum uncertainty’ or limbo. And because having nothing but one other person to talk to is lonely and boring, Varset began using a stronger form of Vara’s magic to absorb the spirits of people who Varset viewed as ‘worthy’ or the victim of karmic injustice. It was then said that Varset (whose name has evolved since then past the point of articulation) had, through the amassed power of their spirits, created another realm, superior to that of Avola and Phiede.

Varset Turins are not called Turins, rather Conduits. Conduits typically have abnormal skin tones and are the only variety which can be of any sex. Conduits can channel whatever spirit is present at the time and are the only Turins which can break the ‘no one knows for sure whether they are or not’ rule. They are typically rather nice people who follow the spirit of the law rather than the letter of it.

History:

It's a mystery. Like, it has something to do with the plot, hint hint.

I'm going to add this to annoy everyone because I already wrote the entire thing for my book so it's not like it's costing me in time or money.

The Legal System!

My Hider

Krytocracy: A government ruled by judges who govern based on a system of social philosophies intended to progress society towards a progressively more desirable state.

Background:

Historically, Azulu has swung between dictatorships, anarchy and dictatorships again as the vigilante groups responsible for the anarchy take over, either by popular vote or millitant force, become corrupted and power hungry and then proceed to use their autocratic power to micromanage every aspect of their country, forcing it to conform to their ideology and agenda. Thus, Azulu has always consisted of warring factions, typically theocracies, and has developed an often convoluted social hierarchy and class system with bubbles of different ethnic groups created by past government systems constantly warring against eachother in addition to the current governmental systems vying for total control.

In more recent history, with the invention of nuclear warfare, 1/3rd of that system was destroyed along with 1/3rd of the population. In the vacuum that followed, the heavily militarized cult of Avola gained control of the entire colony for approximately six years before assets were sent in from a neighboring planetary system (and country) to overthrow the current dictator, Taba Durrem. They ultimately gained control of about half the colony, suffered repeated military and terrorist attacks over the next ten years before Taba was killed by her own daughter who then went on to take out much of the now destabilized terrorist organization with the help of her largely ex-military vigilante group. After forming an alliance with the foreign democratic state, the vigilante group turns over governmental control to their allies, who proceed to grow more and more corrupt and burocratic as time passes. Eventually, Agatha (who has become a sort of folk hero) runs for the equivalent of president, and upon being elected, uses her popularity and a well timed coup to overthrow the powers that be before setting up a crude, more violent version of the below system. Several years, (and assassination attempts) later, she appoints her half-sibling (on her father’s side) Mave as a sort of co-dictator due to the fact that Mave is quite popular for her frequent public criticism of her sibling. If the following seems to switch rapidly between two extremes at times, their haphazard collaboration is the cause.

Currently, Azulu is ruled by Agatha who serves as representative/intimidator to the GFUN council, and Mave, who makes most of the civil codes and oversees the institution of criminal law so as to prevent it from being too ‘radical’ and/or militaristic. Together, they have the power to invent, veto, alter or intervene in any aspect of the Azulian government, though both parties must be in agreement if change is to be instituted. (Which, because Mave is a socialist and Agatha an autocrat, results in policies that border on the darker side of communism.) The current governmental leaders are, in effect, placeholders, and will only remain in charge until two people more qualified are voted into office.

However:

In order to be qualified to run for Chief Justice, one must have a total implicit bias of zero and must have the highest national education level in law, international politics, economics, anthropology, forensic science, and environmentalism. There is no age or species restriction, though the chief justice must be a registered citizen, and have no outstanding criminal history.

(It should be noted that Azulu is generally governed by the concept that if an action is justified, it cannot be criminal. So people generally view Agatha as either justified and non-criminal -in a way that can border on hero-worship- by definition or as an insane, immoral dictator who is only functional because her sister prevents her from doing anything completely depraved. It should be noted that Azulian citizens are usually of the former opinion and everyone else the latter.)

Insofar, Agatha has had the lowest implicit bias score of the Chief Justices, her outstanding biases being against religious individuals, bullies, people who insult her family (only she’s allowed to do that) and convicted criminals, whereas Mave is biased against serial killers, psychopaths, televangelists, bureaucrats, fascists, racists, loud mouth bigots, rich jerks, drug addicts, and people who litter. Especially people who litter.

Actions which are considered criminal on Azulu are as follows

-Theft - sentence: replacement of the item in new or better condition that it was originally, community service until character improvement takes place and if theft is recurring, deportment to a penal colony.

-Rape/sexual assault - sentence: first offense: deportment, second or aggravated offence: execution. And that’s only if the victim or their friends/family don’t want to kill you first.

-Polyandry or polygamy - Reason: Certain females *cough*Durrems, Eros and Reche*cough* would abuse the fact that under their version of sharia law (known as the trifecta laws) males have legal custody of (or, more correctly, a legal responsibility for) all children they sire from any female, regardless of class, clan or family. Said females, wanting to ‘expand their workforce’ eg. their family, clan and class, would take multiple husbands with the intent of integrating the stepchildren of said husbands into their little fiefdom.

-Unjustified murder -definition: Murder for a reason other than the victims violation of the law. -sentence: first offense: deportment, second or aggravated offence: execution. (See self defense protocol)

-Unnecessary destruction/defacement of property -sentence: refacement/reconstruction of damaged property, community service until character improvement takes place and if destruction/defacement of property continues, deportment to a penal colony.

-Unjustified assault -definition: assault for a reason other than the victims violation of the law. -sentence: deportment.

-Intentional deception -sentence: one to five people: community service, six to thirty people: community service and fines, forty to one hundred people: deportation, greater than a hundred people: the public may decide whether or not they want to kill you. This applies mostly to ‘religious’ leaders and scam artists.

-Unjustified persecution -sentence: first offense: community service. Second offense: deportment. Third offense: offender will be left to the mercy of their heavily armed victims. Fourth offense: execution.

-Violation of civil rights -sentence: first offense: community service. Second offense: deportment. Third offense: offender will be left to the mercy of their heavily armed victims. Fourth offense: execution.

Civil Rights

-All citizens may own land.

-All citizens may run a business and find work. (see: work law)

-All citizens have the right not be actively surveyed unless part of a criminal investigation. (see: privacy law) but passive survey is a different ball game.

-All citizens have a right to ongoing education.

-All citizens have a right to view and participate in ongoing investigations.

-All citizens may own weapons equal to those owned by military personnel given they store them safely and all security requirements are met.

-In the event of war, all citizens have the same rights and restrictions as military personnel.

-All citizens have a right to medical care. If there is a shortage of medical personnel or supplies, qualified citizens are expected to pitch in and unqualified ones to seek qualification. (essentially, if you don’t like how something is run, get off your ass and be part of the solution.)

-All citizens have a responsibility to report corruption and criminal behavior.

-All citizens have the right to execute an execution order once target identification is verified.

-All citizens have the right to be paid with royalties for anything they invent.

-All citizens have the right to live on a planet with a herd immunity greater than 90%. (sorry anti-vaxers, you can move to ‘Murica.)

-All citizens have the right to say what they like, and live with the consequences.

-If a citizen is captured by a foreign power, the krytocracy of Azulu as whole has the right to forgo negotiations in favor of beating the living shit out of said foreign power. This may include anything from taking captives of their own or bombing military bases and killing the people in charge until the issue is resolved. If this does not resolve the conflict, Azulu reserves the right to invade and claim all territories owned by said foreign power as their own. In order to stay the property of Azulu, said territories must subsequently be occupied by a significant number of Azulian citizens.

-Citizens have the right to use drugs so long as they abide by the restrictions pertaining to their use.

-Citizens have the right to live in a house free of drugs, children being guaranteed that right regardless of their parent’s habits.

-Regardless of age, all citizens have the right to choose where they live.

-17 is the age of consent, unless the age gap is less than two years, or unless the ‘victim’ claims to be older than they really are and the alleged age gap is then less than two years, or if they claim to be over 17. This can change depending on species and their average age of physical maturity as well as how obvious it is that the 'victim' is lying about their age.

-There is no legal age of adulthood. Rather, citizens are registered and independent or dependent. Dependants are those who have not passed certain tests or classes mandated by the government, those who use drugs and those with a bias score between a 10 and a 8. (It should be noted that passing said tests is not really difficult, but the information ensures intelligent responses to a variety of public safety hazards which saves the government and thus the people money in the long run.) Mave wanted to institute an EQ requirement, but Agatha opposed this on the basis of it putting all the governmental power in the hands of one person, which is bad because absolute power corrupts absolutely.

-The poor and those otherwise unable to obtain food are guaranteed a right to vegan food. Because it's both healthy and gross. It’s also produced by the prison population who work for a few podecs an hour. (eg. around .75 cents)

-The poor and those otherwise unable to find housing are guaranteed a right to a well built, tiny house.

-Parents have the right to homeschool their children, however their children are required to take all of the following courses at an official government school before being considered legally an adult: sex ed, alternative religion, weapons safety and self-defense, governmental procedure and a basic course in CSI investigation. (see: education law)

-All citizens have the right to defend themselves or others if and when they believe they are under attack. Though the defense must be proportional. (see: self-defense protocol and proportionality law)

-The victim of a crime has the right to execute the perpetrator first and foremost either immediately at the scene of the crime or later should the perp be sentenced to death.

Bias law

Related to judicial law, a person’s academic abilities as well as their biases determine what jobs they can hold. If you are racist, xenophobic, speciesist, sexist, or classist, you can’t hire employees, work in the film or fashion industries, work for the government or work for schools. If it is your religious belief that your religion will take over the world, that everyone not in your religion is damned to hell or that your religion must convert everyone and if you’re obnoxious about it, the same restrictions apply. As a general rule, the more unbiased a person is, the higher the capacity at which they are allowed to function. Bias is tested upon graduation from high school or when one decides to seek employment and is ranked on a scale of 0-10. Zero being you’re obviously a robot, and 10 being Donald Trump. In order to act as a judge dealing with traffic violations, DUIs and the like, you must have a score of 6. Though as the population grows, requirements will become more strict. To function as a judge in a murder case with only one victim and no cultural, racial or political motivations present, one must be 4 or 5. If you are to function as a judge in hate crimes or crimes containing a multitude of victims or perpetrators, one must have a score of 3. In order to act as a judge of international cases which may be classified and involve a wide range of complicated moral and ethical choices, one must score a 2. In order to replace either of the current chief justices, one must have a score of either 1 or 0. In the absence of an ideal replacement, a chief justice may select whomever they see fit, so long as their biases fall below a 4.

Publication law

All news publications must have real, educational or comedic value with documented sources and facts which can be scientifically verified and demonstrated, or, in the case of satire, situations so ludacris you’d have to be a total imbecile to believe them to be accurate representations of reality. Civilians may file complaints against untrue news publications, and if proven valid, will be relegated to the entertainment section where you can publish whatever the hell you want.

Copyright law

It’s very simple. If someone invented it, they get royalties on it until they die. If you get in the way of the creator and their royalties, you, my friend, can find somewhere else to live.

Case law

Citizens who are legally considered to be adults, may participate in active investigations and are expected to act as first responders to any catastrophe before law enforcement arrives. If a piece of information is needed, a purple banner appears at the bottom of all TVs, giving a summary of information relevant to the case, followed by a phone number. If a catastrophe has been reported, your program will pause, a blue banner appears, and dispatch details all relevant information, recommended supplies and the location of the incident. Let’s go through a scenario here. There’s a school shooter. The second people realize they’re not executing a kill warrant, which would be obvious, somebody already in the school calls it in and then shoots the shooter. Problem solved. The crime scene is then secured by people already on the scene and witnesses call in their reports to law enforcement immediately after the scene is secured. Therefor, by the time the police arrive, the threat has been neutralized, the crime scene secured and the witness statements gathered. It is then the officer’s jobs to find forensic evidence and recreate the scene scientifically. Once all evidence has been processed, the crime scene is cleaned up, the scientists make their reports and a case profile is posted to the government website and sent out in paper form to all residents. A case profile consists of forensic evidence, which is the only thing that can be used to convict a criminal, witness statements which simply corroborates evidence, and the case’s current status which can either be ‘open’ where there is not enough evidence to acquit or convict,
‘closed’, where the conviction or acquittal has been decided, or ‘ongoing’ where the case has enough evidence to acquit or convict, but may involve a larger conspiracy. If an investigation is ongoing, there may be calls for citizens to come forward with pertinent information, or classified ‘missions’ may become available based on geographical location, place of work, etcetera. Note that under civilian rights, there is no right that restricts the number of times a person can be tried for the same crime. The only requirement is that there be new evidence supporting a conviction.

Marriage, inheritance and family law

It is illegal to have a marriage licence with more than one person, both parents have a responsibility for their children (as determined by the date of child registry which is signed by both parents, marriage licence, also signed by both parents and adoption paperwork, also signed by both parents.), biological or adopted, two months of both paid paternity and maternity leave is required and may be taken at the same time or separately, and discrimination against working fathers and stay-at-home mothers is strongly discouraged.

**Cultural note: Historically, marriage, in the sense that we use the term, wasn’t 'a thing' rather, if a female was married, it simply meant that she owned a male and all of his offspring. So and having children by multiple females was the only way males had to climb the social ladder, so to speak as they didn't have inheritance rights, were expected to work (either for cheap or for free), but couldn't be promoted above any female in their mother’s class or clan and didn't have a ‘rank’ in that clan, and they couldn't earn their own titles or move up in class without being named as the caretaker of a female’s child, at which point they move to whatever family, clan and class the female was. Therefor, by the time they formed any kind of actual relationship with a high ranking female who gave a crap about Trifecta Laws, most would have at the very least, seven or eight children.**

This tended to work in the female’s favor because more husbands = more children = more workers = more money, and being that none of them are very… what we would call maternal, they viewed the taking and losing of children as a sort of pissing contest with other females of similar rank. This of course lead to arranged marriages, forced adoptions, kidnappings, azulian trafficking, family feuds, ridiculous inheritance rules, ‘purist movements’ (eg. only females related by blood to the family matriarch get a slice of the inheritance) males who would have as many children as possible (some actually related to him, others not) so as to buy himself and his children into a particular high ranking family, blah blah blah. Basically, it caused really shitty behavior so it’s not allowed anymore. Also, males do not have default responsibility for their children anymore. At least, not legally. And the class system is only ‘enforced’, nay, suggested, by religious and social groups, not the government which invented marriage licences and child registry laws to curb such behavior. They also made it illegal for the mother to deny a child currently in her family -determined by the presence of absence of a marriage licence with the father- a percentage of her inheritance based solely on the child’s gender.

Polygamy wasn’t ever practiced but it’s illegal too because if it weren’t that would be sexist.

Self Defense Protocol and Proportionality law

So far, Azulu seems like the wild wild west. But this is not an accurate depiction. If someone punches you in a bar, you can’t shoot them. That wouldn’t be proportional. You can however kick them in balls. If they have balls. Which they probably don’t. If not the basic rule is that you can incapacitate but not kill. There should also be no removing of appendages as a means of incapacitation. That’s sadistic, inappropriate and should be avoided. If however, someone shoots you or someone else without authority to do so you can shoot them in return. In order to gain authority to kill someone, one must either a: kill them at the scene of the crime they committed, b: kill them as part of a warrant after the court finds them guilty, c: kill them in proportional self defense or the defense of others. Due to the confusion that may arise as a result of the situation, it is not recommended to kill someone significantly after they committed a crime and in a public forum without a warrant as that will likely result in you getting shot. If you were unable to kill someone at the time of the crime, and then fail to report the crime, you lose license to kill them over it and they will have to answer to the court and the court only. One cannot also kill someone over mere suspicion of a crime. They must prove that they committed the crime first unless they are the victim and the killing takes place directly after the crime is committed in which case their guilt is determined retroactively.

Additionally, police officers do not use lethal force unless absolutely necessary as criminals are more valuable alive as then they can work in a penance colony and earn the government money.

Missions

Only adults can apply for and complete them, and often times a certain level of work experience and/or post highschool education is required. The government keeps track of this information as a part of a civilians profile. Like judges, civilians are assigned a number 0-10 based not on testing, but on experience. Zero being a greenhorn and ten being someone whose idea of a good time is completing missions. The point of missions is not impartiality, so bias often isn’t a factor. In order for a mission to be issued, judgment has already been passed and now it’s just down to someone to execute the order. Missions, like civilians are assigned numbers. 0 being uncomplicated and a matter that could be handled by the general public, 10 being multi leveled, complex and often involving more than five or six objectives and requiring absolute secrecy and/or some level of espionage. Level 10 missions are often extremely high stake affairs where the safety of the general population in addition to the person completing the mission are at risk. Generally speaking, level 4 missions involve probable risk of life and limb, and missions higher up than that involve a larger and larger number of potential casualties. Typically, missions follow the same rules as criminal cases. Everything is recorded and retroactively used to assess the competency scores of those involved. Due to their sensitive natures, missions are often classified and only accessible by people above a certain bias score or clearance level. Clearance level is determined by a culmination of one's competencies, bias score, geographical location and place of employment, among other things. Depending on the case, it may filter you out based on who you’ve expressed an interest in voting for, past relationships, level of loonacy (one’s tendency to believe things that are patently and demonstratively false) or one’s ideological sensitivity which is self reported on a scale of 0 to 10, ten being you faint at the sight of blood and think that violence should never be the answer and zero being you laugh at films like Kingsmen for their atrocious inaccuracies and you think that there are many dirtbags who deserve to be featured in such films. As one’s ideological score can change over time, that part of one’s profile can be altered at any time. Put simply, it only lets you see what you can take. After completing a mission, once all evidence has been processed, the situation neutralized and the case closed, the person who completed it will be appropriately compensated for their time and effort.

Judicial law

Anyone serving in a judicial position forfeits all privacy rights pertaining to online communications, public communications and all but what takes place within the privacy of their home, and must be honest and forthright in all but classified matters. In order to be qualified to run for judge, one must have a bachelor's or an equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in the specific scientific fields most commonly brought forth in the court they wish to oversee. A court that deals with drug violations would have judges trained in criminology, narcotics, drug law, gang crime and economics. A court that deals with computer crime would have a judge educated in networking, programming, hacking, copyright and publication law, as well as some knowledge of narcotics, sex crimes, solicitation and anything illegal that may be committed using a computer or the internet. Typically, the computer crime court has the most rigorous degree program due to the fact that computer crime tends to cover all other types of crime as well. If a case involves aspects of multiple courts, a panel of judges with the necessary educational qualifications will be formed so as to guarantee a proper execution of justice and such panels almost always contain a judge from a computer crimes court. The court may also consult with leading experts in the fields presented in cases as expert witnesses, though an expert witness's testimony, like that of a regular witness, cannot be considered evidence and instead serves to identify possible sources of forensic evidence.

Weapons law

It is legal for an adult citizen to open carry weapons equal to those owned by military personnel so long as that citizen has no criminal history (or has been granted a clean slate) and no involvement with drugs. If you have committed a crime and you carry a weapon anyway, you will be deported and any person who willfully supplied you with said weapon is given a criminal history and sentenced to community service. It is illegal for non-citizens to carry weapons. In order to own weapons, one must pass a weapons safety class and go through all training pertaining to the particular class of weapon they wish to carry. If someone wants to carry a particularly large caliber weapon, they must complete a certain number of missions annually in order retain license for the weapon, otherwise it’s ownership is deemed unnecessary. All weapons must have serial numbers and the identification numbers of the owner engraved somewhere easily visible, and a tagging device for all bullets fired installed, and the person carrying the weapon must have their identification with them while doing so, though it is recommended to have identification with you at all times regardless, though biometrics can be used in cases where an ID card is absent. When not in use, weapons must be stored securely in a location easily accessible to the owner, but not to anyone else. Biometric safes are often used.

Abortion law

Technically legal until 4 weeks (human equivalent of 12 weeks), but due to anatomical and developmental differences between Azulians and Humans, abortions are more bothersome than just carrying the baby to term. That, and the culture is totally different. No-one cares if you’re a single parent, if you’re a young parent and polygamy isn’t seen as an issue as the father is expected to take care of them anyway, and if they leave, they take the children with them so it’s extremely low-risk for the females, so abortion within the Azulian species is practically non-existent, and even then, any abortions that are performed are typically for health reasons. As for males, them having more children is seen as attractive so the probability of them having financial troubles while supporting small children on their own is pretty small, because the females in that culture would see that as an opportunity to have more children (future workers) classed under their family name, without actually having to go through any effort to produce them. As a result, because Azulian males are still males, it’s not uncommon for them to already have one or two children, either biological or adopted, before they enter any kind of long-term relationship. So the idea of abortion seems rather stupid to them and is typically seen as a strange thing humans do because humans are weird and backwards creatures which deserve pity. Azulian males might even adopt Human children, if humans weren’t seen as generally small and useless creatures. Which, is one of the reasons that Azulians are very effective at conquering territory, as they tend to produce more genetically diverse offspring at a faster rate than the surrounding populations.

Education law

Two things are at the core of Azulian culture: Not being a twat, and a society capable of governing itself. This is only possible if certain things are common knowledge among all citizens regardless or belief, class, income level and education level. Therefore, it is required that all citizens (a: know in fair detail how their own government functions, (b: know enough about CSI investigation so as to understand current court cases on a scientific level and have the ability to secure a crime scene and find forensic evidence without contamination should the need arise. (c: know what other people believe and think on a factual historically accurate basis so as to avoid uneducated and worthless vitriol. (d: know how sex works and what the consequences and responsibilities associated with it are before the individual is likely to participate in it. (e: know how to operate and properly store weapons even if they don’t own any so as to increase the number of potential first responders in the case of shootings, terrorism and the like. The goal is that by the time the police are called, the situation is already taken care of and the crime scene secured. This also serves to prevent bullshit in the media and corruption in the government as a eighth grader will be able to tell if the evidence in a case is insufficient or contrived. This is accomplished with required classes that all citizens must pass before they can be considered legally adults or as the lexicon would have it ‘independents’. If they do not, they are considered dependents and cannot: run businesses, work for the government, raise children, own weapons, do drugs, operate machinery, vote or participate in any active investigation. If you violate these rules and refuse to take the classes, you will be deported. If you refuse to have your children take these classes, you can either seek citizenship elsewhere, or have your children take the classes. If you refuse to leave and refuse to have your children take the required classes, you will be deported, your children relocated, and they will take the classes. Required classes are as follows: Sex ed, alternative religion, weapons safety, governmental procedure and a basic course in CSI investigation. They also have strict educational standards for their public and government schools where teachers aren't allowed to decide the grade percentages for their classes, nor alter the tests to suit a particular demographic, so as to prevent poorly educated districts from sabotaging their education through grade inflation.

Privacy law

Citizens are allowed to record other citizens without their consent so long as both are standing in a public place or if the recorded party is suspected of illegal behavior and recording them yields evidence that is forensically useful. Such recordings must then be brought before the police, otherwise the intent is assumed to be criminal, in which case an investigation is launched into the recorder’s affairs. If a citizen is the subject of an active investigation, any and all recordings on any media or material can be seized without further notice. Precautionary recordings of citizens may be created without their knowledge or consent by the government as a matter of standard procedure, and these recordings can be analyzed by AIs and other computer software in order to detect criminal behavior. If criminal behavior is detected, an investigation is then launched and all recordings and data pertaining to that individual becomes viewable to investigators. If the probability of the citizen’s guilt exceeds 75%, the data is made publically available so as to allow other citizens to search for additional forensic evidence.

Work law

In order to find work on Azulu, a citizen must simply be qualified for the job. If the employee is enrolled in an education program, as is mandatory for those under the age of 15, (or the developmental equivalent) the employer must pay the employee enough money to cover average housing, feeding and education costs. An employer can fire an employee for breaking the law, for doing a shitty job, or if they no longer have the money to employ them, but not for anything else. When an employee is let go or fired, a form must be sent to the government detailing the business's financial situation and the reason the employee was let go or fired. The employee can file a complaint, and if investigation concludes the employer broke the law, appropriate measures will be taken. Azulian businesses can only employ Azulian citizens and are not allowed to move jobs to other planetary systems as all colonies must be registered as self-sustainable. If one cannot find work, they may register as a government worker, wherein they are paid minimum wage to manufacture goods, operate a restaurant or run any number of for-profit ventures which the government uses to fund its expenses. For more information on how this works, see tax law and government funding.

Tax Law and Government Funding

Contrary to most governments, the Azulian government keeps parasitic behavior to a minimum. In many ways it is run more like a business. It produces goods and sells them, uses its prison system to turn a profit and employs the otherwise homeless and jobless in a number of for-profit jobs, pays them minimum wage, and takes the difference. These government employees can get raises, but only if they bring in a sizable profit. When citizens work for or buy from government run businesses, it is considered tax deductible or tax-free income. Whatever expense is left is then covered by income and sales tax. Whenever the government is in the negative, so to speak, the people have the option of suspending certain costly and non-vital government services (insert list here) or increasing taxes, which, of course tax more heavily on those are ‘well off’ and even more so on those who are well off almost entirely because of inherited money or money they otherwise did very little to get. Also those who have a history of tax evasion have their taxes take a hike. Taxes may not however, ever inhibit one’s ability or potential to increase one's assets. On the other hand, the government must also never be inhibited from performing essential functions like law enforcement, international and civil security, the protection of civil rights and the maintenance of government property.

Pornography law:

Any imagery that appears to depict someone under the age of consent in a sexully explicit manor is illegal. Sorry Romeo and Juliet. And all melodramatic and cinematically awful teen dramas ever. We won’t miss you.

Drug law

Citizens may use drugs if they so choose. They may not, however, distribute them without official packaging and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused by their product. They cannot export or import narcotics across any border and if a customer wants rehab treatment, the seller is required by law to pay for it on pain of deportation. All drug users must be registered as such on pain of deportation, and their drug of choice must be listed on their ID card, and they cannot file for a driver’s licence nor operate any transportation vehicle nor work in a position where their drug habit is likely to cause disfunction. Drugs cannot be distributed to those unable to understand the risks of taking them. If a seller is found distributing to children, the mentally ill or the hopelessly addicted, they will be deported. Additionally, citizens using drugs may not have access to weapons of any kind, even through relatives or friends. If someone is found to be on drugs and in possession of a weapon, they will be forced into rehab and then forced into community service, and the person who provided them with the weapon will do community service also, and if it happens again, both will be deported. A house which contains children, cannot contain people who actively use, distribute or whom possess drugs. People can remove themselves from the gene pool all they want, but they can’t inflict that choice on anyone else.

Refugee citizenship law

The Krytocracy of Azulu will grant temporary citizenship to individuals fleeing their home country giving refugee citizens the same rights as regular citizens but on segregated colonies populated primarily by government workers and other refugees. The purpose of these colonies is to transition refugees from the culture and environment of their original home to the culture and environment of the Azulian colonies and allow them to make enough money to afford to live in a nice part of town and gain enough education to work a decent well paying job. In essence, the refugee colonies allow refugees to establish themselves before being integrated into society as a whole and many past refugees find employment on refugee colonies as government workers helping other refugees transition from their country and culture of origin to Azulu’s. The segregated colonies also serve to filter out potential terrorists and those seeking to take aspects of an inferior society with them, as such people will not abide by Azulian law while in the refugee colonies and will therefore have their temporary citizenship revoked, though this is rarely ever necessary as terrorism on any of Azulu’s colonies is an impossibly uphill battle and most people are wise enough not to try it. That, combined with the fact that many of the citizens in charge of refugee colonies were once refugee’s themselves and as government officials, have access to military vehicles and a virtual army of pissed off civilians, that makes for a quickly disappearing populus on the antagonistic countries part and makes Azulu one of the most rapidly expanding nations (aside from maybe ISRS, who they are in cahoots with) in the galactic community, which has a lot of other nations on edge because it’s almost shameful that they can be outdone by a recently overthrown colony crash test experiment run by a sarcastic botanist and a psychopathic serial killer.

Penance colonies:

This is where people who are deported go. The people who live here are stripped of their citizenships and the rights that go along with them. Once one has been deported to a penance colony, it is possible for them to work their way back to citizenship again, though this requires significant contribution to the production of whatever that colony manufactures and time served as a penance warden. Typically, penance colonies are agricultural and the people living there work growing food or harvesting other resources for citizen colonies. In fact, most of Azulu’s manufacturing and agricultural work is done by people in penance colonies. The people who live there can apply for citizenship or seek asylum in other countries, but they will never be allowed to enter any Azulian territories again, and while living on a penance colony fellow deportees are rewarded monetarily for reporting other deportee’s criminal behavior and they’re paid a few podecs an hour for their work, are allowed to buy land and houses on the colony, but they’re not allowed to own more than two properties and everything they do is recorded and monitored by a combination of computer algorithms, penance wardens and government employees. Illegal activity in a penance colony results in additional charges and counts as a numbered offense which can result in execution. If one wants to re-earn a citizenship, they have to have committed no additional offenses while on the penance colony, have reported on criminal activity of their fellow deportees (if it occurs and if it is reasonable to conclude they were aware of it), made significant contribution to society as whole by completing a certain amount of sub-minimum wage work, determined by the kind of offense committed, repaid or otherwise fixed things with whomever they victimized and be declared truly repentant and unlikely to repeat the offence ever again by a government psychologist. The deportee is then granted a new citizenship and with it a new identity, their original identity and criminal history being visible to people based on clearence level, rather than being open to the general public. It should be noted that one can only be given the ‘clean slate’ once, and after that if they do re-earn their citizenship their criminal history will be a matter of public record and thus can be held against them by employers, with reasonable restrictions of course.

Hostility Scale: If you are a good country, or a good person, Iceland. If you're a bad country or a bad person, Nazi Germany. It depends.

Hylozoist

Great Orpil Flock (GOF)

Briefly, comprising three species (the "Orpil", being Nezzim, Avelone & Orp), a bureaucracy that endlessly fights with itself as various Ministries squabble amongst themselves and a pair of cultures that sort of get along with one another.

Name:
Greater Orpil Flock (GOF)

Territory:

EN08 "Ave-Mux" system - comprising of their capital, Ave-Orpil, which is heavily populated. Orbital stations above Ave-Janus and Ave-Lorr monitor pre-sentient life on their respective planets. Ave-Orpil is dominated by dense forests and jungles, with modern constructions built alongside and into the ruins of the Creators.

KV77 system - designated within the GOF as an "area of ecological interest". Three stations are present in the system; two scientific observatories with associated living and laboratory space operated by the Ministry of Environmental Concerns, one naval station operated by the Ministry of Harmony. The latter helps enforce the quarrantine of KV77 while the Ministry of Environmental Concerns tracks the development of an "Iron Age Equivalent" species on the surface of KV77 IV.

BE15 "Ruin" - extensive archaeological work is overseen by the Ministry of Culture on BE15 II, uncovering sites that may have belonged to the Creators. It might also serve as something of a place to send undesirables, malcontents and those who have fallen afoul of Ministry politics. The other five planets remain uninhabited, though the Ministry of Procurement has expressed an interest in establishing a colony on BE15 IV.

Culture:

[+]

Surprisingly, the culture is not split along racial lines. Two main cultures dominate the GOF; the Southern Song, and the East Wind.

The Southern Song considers itself to be the ones most capable of organisation, or at least, the ones most vociferous in promoting co-operation between members of the GOF. History is an important subject to this culture, though few take it to the extremes of venerating the Creators, nearly everyone within the Southern Song will have an opinion on that subject. Politeness, formality and civility are treasured, such that outsiders may not realise that they have born witness to a major disagreement. Worse still, an outsider may not realise that they are making a terrible social gaffe, fail to recognise the signs of displeasure, and only realise they are now considered a pariah when they are no longer invited to social events. A relatively sheltered life within the jungle-ruins of the Creators has given the Southern Song an air of refinement and knowledge of their place in history. To the East Wind, they are seen as stuffy, slow, but useful to have around.

The East Wind territory is home to scarred lands and the ruins of devestated cities left behind in the wake of the fall of the Creators. Faced with the constant reminders of an age long since passed, their culture is considered - by the Southern Song, at least - a little odd. Some are prone to fatalism, seeing the wreckage of terrible machines of war. Some promise to live their lives to the fullest, knowing that it could all easily end for them just as it did for their Creators. Some dream of the stars a as a way to avoid the terrible threat of extinction. Regardless of the nature of the actions they take, they value the simple act of acting - they consider themselves to be a dynamic people, propelled forward by the explosions that tore apart the Creators. Loud, boisterous, active, they are the means by which the Greater Orpil Flock reached the stars. To the Southern Song, they are reckless and difficult to understand, but useful to have around.

Warring factions / Political Parties:

[+]

Political life is dominated by various Ministries, with each having very strict limits on what they may control. However, most Ministries employ a number of exceedingly clever people who have the task of arguing just how their interpretation of statutes and codes allows their own Ministry to interfere in a matter that might not directly be within their domain. Open violence between the Ministries is more or less unheard of, but dirty tricks, espionage, assassination and strongly worded letters have all been deployed in the name of one Ministry or other. Each Ministry is led by a Minister, and the squabbling group of Ministers forms the government of the Greater Orpil Flock, with a directly elected "Speaker" acting as something akin to a head of state. Elections for Speaker are held every ten years, and each Ministry is responsible for it's own arcane processes by which it chooses a Minister.

Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have suffered a series of set-backs. The Ministry of Harmony - responsible for the (rather limited) armed forces of the Greater Orpil Flock - has seen a rise in prominence in recent years, partly due to the election of Speaker Mallicum (a close personal friend of Minister-General Fortidae).

History:

[+]

The History of Ave-Orpil, and the Greater Orpil Flock, is generally broken down into three ages. There is the Age of Life, the Fall, and the Modern Age.

The roots of the three species that comprise the "Orpil" are in the Age of Life. By their understanding of history, the Creators brought the Orpil species out of the darkness of ignorance, such that they might carry the brilliance of the Creators onwards into the future. It is regarded as something of a Golden Age, mostly due to the efforts of romantic writers who promoted the image of the Orpils and the Creators living as equals in a peaceful society. While scholarly studies suggest that this was certainly not the case, that the Orpil species were just one set of many that were uplifted and that the act of uplifting itself was considered distasteful by many of the nation-states that the Creators lived in. To the majority, however, they remain the multi-armed, flightless pseudo-gods, who chose their ancestors for a life of greatness.

Then came the Fall. To the Orpil, an unexplained, mysterious event that devastated the Creators. Many presume that outside interference is to blame, while the truth is that conflict between a number of states escalated into a highly destructive, global war. One continent - the cultural home of the East Wind - is particularly scarred, while the rest of the world has been steadily reclaimed by nature, and the inheritors of the world, the Orpil.

The Modern Age begins with the reclamation of the Creators works, the adaptation of their technologies to use by the Orpil and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock. Reclamation was slow; so much was lost, many areas were initially uninhabitable, and the barely sentient Orpil left in the wake of the Fall were forced to scratch an existence in the shadows of the ruins. True intelligence, as the Orpil reckon it, actually developed during this time - and it was a slow, slow process. "Official History" paints a picture of brave Orpil striking out of the still-smoking wreckage with mastery of the tools left by the Creators. The truth is that, just like many species, they went through various ages of technological progress, albeit significantly accelerated by the guidance of technologies left behind by the Creators.

The history so favoured by the Southern Song is of recent, modern history, and the formation of the Greater Orpil Flock out of the East Wind and the Southern Song. It was a time of coming together, of cut-throat negotiations, of compromises and agreements that led to the creation of the first Ministries, where Song and Wind could come together and share in a mutual interest. Local governments began to be replaced by the Ministries, and the bureaucracies endemic to the Ministries began to blossom, absorbing various political functions. Finally, the Ministries were ascendant, and an accord had to be reached - none of the Ministries, with their specialisations, could allow another to lead them, but a leader was needed.

Wars followed. Once great Ministries fell, some absorbed by others, others scattered to the winds. A compromise was reached once again, following the surrender of the Ministry of Arms & Armour to the Ministry of Harmony; no Ministry would be placed above another, and the leader shall be directly chosen by the "Greater Orpil Flock", comprising of the Southern Song people and the East Wind people, regardless of what Ministry they were employed by. With disputes mostly put aside, and grudges kept to themselves, progress began to happen fast. Three hundred and sixty five years after the election of the first Speaker, and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock as a (mostly) functioning government that stretched across Ave-Orpil, we arrive at the modern day.

Hostility Scale:
1-2. The inability for the Ministries to come to a consensus on many issues creates an outwardly facing pacifism. Even in the face of an existential threat from outside the GOF, it is unlikely that the Ministries would agree on hostile action. Individual Ministries may employ covert operations outside of the GOF unofficially, though discovery would likely see the other Ministries turn on them.

Laws & Legality

[+]

Prior to the rise of the Ministries and the establishment of the Greater Orpil Flock, each community tended to adopt their own legal code. In the modern age, the Ministry of Justice is responsible for most things legal. There are no laws, as such, but rather agreements and understandings. A party who feels aggrieved by the actions of another may seek justice from the Ministry of Justice, who will consider, as best they are able, whether actions taken against the aggrieved party constitute a crime. The ponderously slow bureaucracy of the Ministry of Justice check prior rulings of the Ministry to help determine whether a crime has actually taken place, though individual Adjudicators can rule on one side or the other based on their own judgement. If found guilty, relevant information is handed to the Ministry of Harmony.

Punishments, like legality, vary, and is decided upon by representatives from both the Ministry of Harmony and the aggrieved party. Periods of indentured servitude are generally preferred to other punishments, with the guilty party becoming a low-paid employee of the aggrieved party.

One of the obvious, and often exploited, loopholes in the system is that the Greater Orpil Flock does not pursue legal recompense, but that it comes down to the single aggrieved individuals, or those that are close to them. Political assassinations are often incredibly bloody affairs, as if there are no "aggrieved individuals" left to complain about it, no criminal action has taken place.

Sci-fi Sandbox

Artificial races could work as long as they maintain individual atonomy and don't simply act for a central controller. The reason being that hive minds tend to develop into purely antagonistic forces that ultimately distract from world and plot development more than they add to it.

As long as an individual robot can decide not to follow orders, I don't have a problem with it.

The IC will start once I get four or five submissions.

Everyone starts with three systems. You have to expand to get more.

I'll post a list of existing systems, nations and species when I get off work. Around 4:30-5pm.

Sci-fi Sandbox

roleplayerguild.com/topics/156306-sci-..

OOC is live.