Challenge accepted and terminated.
I'd recommend taking some morphine before you shank yourself.
History and Culture (and some other things) remain under construction!An Oathbound Manifold
An Oathbound Manifold, named according to the traditional conventions of the Stoor, is an interstellar nation more colloquially referred to as the Stoor Manifold by other members of the galactic community. They are one of the few examples of successful non-humanoid lifeforms in the Galactic scene, and are one of the few regional powers to make exclusive use of biotechnology, eschewing principles of engineering and advanced physics known to more conventional factions. As a faction, they are significantly less technologically advanced and knowledgeable than nearly any other nation. They remain a prideful and significant power in the region due to their unparalleled skill in the realm of genetic engineering and their modular Genestem crop infrastructure, affording them an industrial base and capacity that rivals even the most technologically advanced regional powers. Their advanced study of Nuclear Physics, while quaint and centuries behind the technological curve of the galactic community, makes for a uniquely dynamic combination with their crop industry.
The Stoor control a region of space approximately 25 lightyears in diameter, with a volume of just over 8000 lightyears in total. The Stoor are known to jealously secure their interests by bombarding claimed worlds with radiological weapons, irradiating their atmospheres to the point where they are utterly inhospitable to both organic and synthetic life alike. They have also been known to controversially bomb unclaimed planets outside of their official borders just to prevent other factions from ever claiming them. Due to these practices, the Stoor do not patrol their territory or have any widespread population bases outside of their home system. The bulk of the Stoor navy guards their home system, with the remainder serving as excursion forces or escorts. More than 90% of the Stoor population resides upon their home planet, Two Solid Shadows.
The Stoor are not an inherently warlike civilization, but they have little to no respect for any authority other than their own. Their excursion fleets and envoys are known to carry dangerous radiological and bioweapons that could render most planets unlivable, and they are quick to remind everybody of the fact. Their practice of ‘salting’ planets in neutral territory out of jealous spite and as a form of saber rattling has not made them many friends, and it is not unusual for them to issue threats to other nations who even think of expanding their borders in the vague direction of the Stoor Manifold’s territory.
The Stoor also have no qualms over the capture and enslavement of those who run afoul of their forces, or who simply happen to catch their attention. The Stoor are known to use other species in their studies to advance their own endeavors in the realms of genetic engineering, and their slave trade forms a large part of their sports, entertainment, and food industries.
Apart from these admittedly serious issues, the Stoor are fascinated by other forms of life and generally open to mutual exchange of knowledge, wealth, and goods. While the Stoor Manifold scoffs at other governments, they are known to ‘secretly’ make extensive backroom deals with other powers while asserting exactly the opposite in public (they barely even try to cover up the fact, absolutely everybody knows) in order to maintain the peace.
The Stoor are like everybody’s favorite delinquent. Every few weeks they go and salt another planet in unclaimed space or apprehend a civilian vessel out on a pleasure cruise and make big waves over it, while behind the scenes they are one of the largest proponents for long, profitable peace between themselves and everyone else.
The central star of the Stoor home system is named Six Balelit Titans (in the traditional Stoor naming convention, referencing the star’s six orbiting planets). It is a neutron star of almost exactly 1.44 stellar masses, nearly on the threshold of the Chandrasekhar limit. It is approximately 12 kilometers in diameter, and is around 625 times more luminous than Sol.
The first planet in orbit around Six Balelit Titans is One Fated Torment, a barren ball of metal with oceans of boiling ore. It orbits Six Balelit Titans once every three and a quarter days. There is a popular notion in Stoor fictional culture regarding the potential for One Fated Torment to very briefly eclipse the second planet’s view of its parent star. While theoretically possible since Six Balelit Titans is in fact smaller than all of the planets that orbit it, the differences between the first and second planets’ orbital periods and their relative velocities to each other makes the occurrence tremendously rare, and it is not expected to happen for millions of years.
The second planet in orbit is Two Solid Shadows, the Stoor homeworld. It is a superearth planet seven times more massive than Earth, with a diameter two times larger. It has a day/night cycle that is 25 hours long for both (the planet has only 5 degrees of axial tilt), and an orbital period of 86 years (being . It has an average surface temperature of 55.3 degrees celcius, and it has no oceans (though it has two large super-lakes that are partially made of water). It has two moons; Two Perfect Veils and Countless Ineffable Wonders, both of which regularly eclipse Six Balelit Titans. The former is named due to how its rotation is tidally locked to that of Two Solid Shadows, with one side always facing the planet, and it has an orbital period of 5 days. The latter is named due to its longer lasting Eclipse (which can last for several hours), and has an orbital period of 25 days. Its name is taken from an ancient Stoor fable warning not to look for answers where there are none.
The third planet is One Unsettling Waste. It resides within the habitable region for Six Balelit Titans, and has shallow oceans of water and large marshes, with relatively mild storms. It has no moons, and is devoid of any kind of life.
The fourth planet is One Solitary Vigilant, a gas giant with one moon named Many Same Spires. The moon is the home of exactly one form of life; trillions of primitive, spire-shaped sessile organisms with shells made of calcium carbonate that produce metabolic catalysts from ionizing radiation formed by the flux tube between the moon and its parent body. They have no symbiotic or commensal relationship with any forms of life resembling bacteria or single-celled, colonial organisms. They represent an evolutionary paradox, as there exists no other life on the moon and no evidence relating to their evolutionary history. Stoor scientists have been unable to come up with any working theory for why or how they came to exist.
The fifth planet is One Tarnished Mirror, a gas giant with one moon named One Fleeting Vision. Stoor astronomers debated extensively over whether or not the moon actually existed for more than 3000 years.
The sixth planet is Four Ascending Centers, a gas giant with four moons; One Victorious Plume, One Rising Fall, One Tipping Fulcrum, and One Forseen Motion. There are no remarkable features worth noting of either the planet or its moons other than that each one is named for figures belonging to ancient Stoor creation mythos.
Pictured: A juvenile Stoor, approximately one meter in length, lacking a developed shell and neuropodia.
The Stoor are a species of amphibious, biomineralising polychaetes. They are well known amongst the galactic community for their extreme tolerance for high temperatures, ambient pressures, ionizing radiation, and also for being giant freaky worm monsters.
The average specimen is approximately four meters in length and a meter in diameter at its thickest segment. The Stoor possess twenty-six body segments, each possessing numerous rows of multicolored, bristle-like hairs. Although these bristles grow directly out from the flesh, the Stoor secrete a shell of calcium carbonate across the lengths of their bodies which has a tendency to encase the lower protrusion of each bristle. Each Stoor’s shell is unique in design, nearly analogous to a human fingerprint, and is a reliable means for identifying individuals. Each body segment also possesses a row of five neuropodia along the underside, ending with a muscular hydrostat used for locomotion and tool manipulation. At the head of each specimen is a plume of tentacle-like structures, which act as partially vestigial gills. These structures are covered in nematocytes containing a mixture of natural glutinant and epigenetic-biocatalysts (described below). Just underneath the tentacle plume is an array of five large, lensed eye structures, set into the top of each specimen’s upper jawline. The everting maw of each specimen is along their underside on the end of the first body-segment, where they possess a relatively simple scolecodont jaw structure with sharp teeth towards the front and a flat, ridge-like protrusion in the back.
The brain lies freely suspended underneath the eyes and above the maw, and possesses both a dorsal and ventral nerve cord which serve as extensions for mutually independent and redundant peripheral nervous systems. The Stoor possess a large number of wholly redundant organs, including multiple hearts and most prominently pairs of nephridium and metanephridia in every body segment. These organs possess combined blood, plasma, immune, metabolic, and waste filtration functions. The Stoor possess impressive cellular regeneration capabilities, and will regrow most damaged or destroyed organs, extrusions, or body segments over time if they survive the initial injury, including any damage to their brain. These same regenerative factors grant the Stoor functional biological immortality for as long as one of their two nerve cords remains intact. Their dorsal and ventral nerve cords govern autonomous functions in the body, allowing individuals to function in a comatose state while the brain regenerates for as long as both nerve cords are undamaged. Both waste removal and reproductive material are excreted through each specimens’ bristles. Gender functions as an interchangeable arrangement of gamete behavior in each individual bristle; each individual Stoor is both male and female for the purposes of reproduction. Self-fertilization is almost entirely undocumented due to meiotic pruning mechanisms in the Stoors’ reproductive lifecycle.
The Stoor are chemolithotrophic omnivores due in part to symbiotic bacteria which live in their alimentary tract and nephridium organs. The average specimen’s diet consists mostly of floral matter supplemented by meat. Stoor also opportunistically cannibalize biomineralized organic tissue from other species or their own dead, which is required in moderate amounts in order for Stoor to grow healthy shells and bristles, but are not strictly necessary for vital functions.
In general, the Stoor possess a remarkable degree of tolerance for otherwise extreme environmental ambiance. Their physiology allows for comfortable movement between extreme pressure gradients (as long as the change between the gradients is gradual). Stoor can survive up to 625 atmospheres of pressure (just over 9000 psi) without any significant repercussions.
The average temperature on the surface of the Stoor Homeworld is around 55 degrees celcius, local extremes being much higher. Stoor have a livable temperature range between 32 and 83 degrees celcius, and so cannot comfortable persist in most environments suited for Human physiology. When visiting garden worlds, Stoor often require insulation aids to retain enough body heat in order to survive.
The Stoor Homeworld has a very thick atmosphere, but a weak magnetosphere, and orbits a neutron star with high emission levels for cosmic rays. Most organisms native to the system have an extreme tolerance for radiation exposure as a result, and the Stoor are no exception. Their physiology is actually highly dependent upon a high exposure to ionizing radiation in order to function properly. Stoor can absorb up to 8 Sieverts worth of ionizing radiation in a single dose with no ill effects (3 Sieverts or more would result in severe radiation poisoning in Humans, likely fatal without immediate treatment), although absorption of more than 9 Sieverts in a single period of 25 hours commonly leads to death. The Stoor’s tolerance for ionizing radiation does not provide blanket resistance, only a threshold to which the normally deleterious effects of exposure are not observed.
As described previously, each specimen possesses a plume of tentacles just above the peristomium, which function partially as vestigial gills. The primary function of these structures is to permit the Stoor to manipulate genestem crop. Each tentacle is laced with nematocytes filled with a natural adhesive glutinant and epigenetic biocatalysts. The Stoor have a long, cultural, symbiotic relationship with genestem crop, which they manipulate predominantly through use of their tentacle plumes. The epigenetic biocatalysts contained in their nematocytes permit the Stoor a high degree of control over the crop, and while the functionality of their tentacle plumes is a well-kept secret it is commonly accepted that the Stoor have a conscious and active degree of control over the composition and utility of the biocatalysts used in their nematocytes. For this reason, their plumes can also double as defensive structures by being loaded with toxins, although they have trouble penetrating thick layers of armor on other organics and are generally used only as a last-resort.
The Manifold technically only holds control over their home star system. Their population is relatively small, and over 90% of the Stoor population resides on their homeworld alone. The Manifold makes up for this by clearly marking their territory: Every planet they have interests on is an irradiated wasteland inhospitable to any and all forms of life (including synthetics) with the exception of specially tailored genestem constructs. The Manifold is not shy about raining salted bombs down on planets, even if for no other reason than because they don’t want anybody else to have it. Exterior systems are not guarded or patrolled, and it is not unusual for them to be entirely devoid of Stoor entirely, with only genestem constructs idling on planets and accruing resources. While breeding or engineering entities capable of surviving on salted planets is possible for other factions, it is is likely to be extremely cost-ineffective and difficult. The Manifold is the dominant influence within a region of space with a volume of just over 8,000 lightyears, with a total diameter of 25. There are very few, if any planets capable of supporting life left within the region, with thousands of worlds having been salted to the point where sustaining life is impossible. At the core of the region, the Stoor home system is occupied and heavily guarded by the majority of their naval forces.
Elective Aristocracy. The government controls nearly all aspects of daily life. The government provides all public services, provides welfare, pays all wages, and owns and regulates all businesses. A complex of twenty five officials, all elected by a mandatory popular vote, oversees the execution and functions of the government.
All businesses are owned by the government, but jobs, education, and privilege are not dictated by the government. An individual is free to choose whatever job they might want, with the caveat that no matter how well they do or how high they rise, they still work for the government and are always subject to government regulation. Similarly, while the market is heavily regulated, it ultimately exists to provide goods and services to the people. The government does not prescribe supply and demand or predefine commercial production; such matters are left to the public working in relevant industries under the government itself. The government only examines and prosecutes criminals who violate government regulations or the Manifold Oath; there is no such thing as civil offense and there is no legal mechanism for the prosecution of activities not explicitly forbidden by the Manifold Oath.
The Government and Society in general abides by the doctrine of the Manifold Oath, which outlines the basic rights and freedoms of both the civilian population and Government officials within certain branches of the Government. Anything that is not permitted is forbidden. The Manifold Oath is not structured in such a way as to prevent the suffering of individuals, but instead to encapsulate all possible activities that do not interfere with the utilities carried out by the Government itself. In this fashion, slavery is illegal as a government function; the government cannot conscript or buy slaves. As all businesses are owned by the government however, civilians working under the government can buy the freedom and rights of other individuals, and then sell them through government channels, after which the slave is considered a legal non-entity. Similarly, it is illegal for the government to sell or offer defective goods or services; civilians working under the government can list and sell defective goods and services using government services and are restricted only by government regulations on product and service pricing and other miscellaneous factors. For these reasons and several others, currency is valued based on factors of time, work hours, materials used, and the utility of the item or service offered – all factors regulated by the government.
One of the few exceptions to the government’s control is the military. The military contains two sects; one overseen by the government through a body of 625 Officers representing divisions of the military, and the other overseen by a civilian committee of 25 individuals who represent popular opinion. Officers are elected individually amongst each division, while the civilian committee is elected in the same mandatory elections as the Complex. All military wetware is owned, maintained, and supplied by the civilian committee, but all military personnel work for and are paid by the body of Officers. In this way, the civilian body cannot stage a popular revolution without the support of the Officers, and the Officers cannot violate the Manifold Oath without access to military hardware controlled in full by the civilian committee. The military serves as a check on the Complex, since Officers will implicitly follow the popular demand of the civilian personnel who compose their division. If the public in general is dissatisfied with the Complex, a legal revolution can be held by a majority consensus of the civilian Committee. If the motion for a legal revolution passes through the Committee, the civilian personnel under the 625 Officers must also pass, again through popular vote, the motion for legal revolution. If there is a majority consensus amongst the divisions, all military officials are forced to stand down, and the Civilian Committee can then demand that the Complex, or particular members of the Complex, either enact or repeal a particular form of legislation, or step down from their position.
Societal Demographics: Stoor society can broadly be divided into seven categories: Farming, Research, Utility Services, Entertainment, Politics, Luxury Trade, and the Military. Most, if not all Stoor, have work that falls into one of these seven categories.
Most of the population works for the government in order to maintain various utilities and services which are guaranteed to the general public by the government, including housing, provisions, maintenance, education, and so forth. The second largest demographic belongs to the farming industry. Not only food is grown by Genestem farmers – building and general constructions materials, starvessel components, and miscellaneous materials and goods are also produced. There is some general overlap between the farming industry and every other industry for this very reason, since at some point, everything in Stoor society has been to a Genestem farm.
The third and fourth largest demographics are the Luxury and Military industries respectively. The Luxury industry revolves around producing goods and materials for the general public that are not guaranteed to them by the government. Lavish housing, artistry, pleasure, and more are the business of the Luxury industry. They provide most of the goods that the discerning and rich individual requires in order to live beyond their means. Selection for the military occurs prenatally – during development, natal Stoor are elected to be raised as soldiers, and are trained almost literally from birth (if they are not chosen to become Epiplasmic crop organisms) in the use of military wetware and Nuclear physics. Soldiers live a regular civilian lifestyle, but have mandatory military training and regimes. Dropping out is only permitted after serving a number of years in service.
The Entertainment industry is one of the smallest three demographics in Stoor society. They are not particularly prestigious, and are few in number simply because of the sophisticated infrastructure and logistical effort dedicated to the industry by the government, meaning less individuals are needed to keep everything running smoothly. Entertainment includes a number of slave-oriented bloodsports, storywriting, memory-making, and the hobby circuit.
The research industry revolves around the production of new biocatalyic compounds, the synthesis of heavy elements and nuclear isotopes not commonly found in nature, analysis of captured alien ‘hardware,’ analysis of captured aliens and their wetware, the study of advanced, theoretical Nuclear Physics, and theoretical research into improving Genestem crop and metabolic processes. Most researchers do not work on the Stoor homeworld, relocating to a more secure, undisclosed location. The true extent and resources available to the research industry is unknown.
The Political realm is a small one, composed solely of 50 individuals, divided into either the governing Complex or the Civilian Military Committee. Almost all work is delegated by these 50 individuals to civilian assistants and aides, but ultimately all political authority and actions originate from this small group.
The Individual: All Stoor are born with a hatching name assigned to them by their mentor, a government assigned educator who raises and teaches them from the moment they hatch. Eventually all Stoor gain a true name in a semi-religious private ceremony termed ‘The Pouring,’ which comes at the culmination of their education. A true name is composed of three parts: A number, an adjective, and a noun. True names are intended to describe the nature, traits, and characteristic behind an individual. The number generally describes either the breadth or focus of the individual. A name such as ‘One Depthless Sky’ might indicate either a devotion to profound contemplation, or else that the individual in question is singularly boring and shallow, while ‘Thirty Divine Motes’ might indicate the possessor is either a Renaissance man, or is very excited about their top-thirty favorite meals. The adjective is meant to describe a quality of being, with no hard and fast rules regarding its use. The noun is meant to the foremost traits, characteristics, or pursuits of the individual. ‘Five Dreamless Vigils’ would be seen as a highly typical name for a soldier (as the term ‘Vigil’ has very strong military connotations in Stoor society), while ‘Two Terrible Losses’ is probably a memory-maker.
The typical Stoor is taught by their Mentor alongside one to four others. In early life, Stoor are typically taught biology, history, and astronomy. Elementary Genetics and Chemistry are usually added during maturity, after which the individual receives their true name and is responsible for pursuing their own education. A matured Stoor usually either enters the workforce immediately as an apprentice, or pursues a higher education in preparation for an expert-career track either as part of the farming or research industries (though there are educational options available for nearly every job under the sun). Occasionally, a Stoor will be selected for natal-alteration and will serve as an Educator themselves after reaching maturity.
Quality of life depends on who the individual’s mentor was, higher education completed, where they live, and the quality of their work performance. Social connections are also a predominant factor, which results in family oriented, hierarchical job structuring across society that can gauge approximately how much wealth and influence an individual has. In the Entertainment and Luxury industries, the most famous individuals belong to a lineage of mentors and students who are not strictly related to each other (as most Stoor never know their parents), but amongst whom there has been an unbroken selective chain of mentors chosen from birth. These lineages are the closest approximation the Stoor have to family units, and as a result influence and material wealth flows from mentor to mentor.
Spartan, communal housing is provided by the government. These are crowded and possess few amenities, and most Stoor are expected to move on with time to private housing once they have found employment. Most commune populations are ever-shifting, and less than 2% of the overall Stoor population are thought to be permanent commune residents.
Technology: The Stoor Manifold has no true technology as it would be properly thought of by most other species. The Stoor exclusively use organic constructs to mimic the utility and function of technological devices used by other factions. Their natural tendency to manipulate genetic structures and the high abundance of heavy elements in their home system have made the Stoor unparalleled in the realm of genetic engineering, and they specialize in using organic constructs to exploit principles of nuclear physics.
Genestem crop is the foundation of all life and industry in the Stoor Manifold. Arising from a symbiotic relationship between ancestral Stoor and colonies of organisms which formed neuronal tubes, Genestem is a massive phylum of organisms which use adaptive biocatalysts naturally occurring in the Stoor in order to develop predetermined, modular organic structures. Through manipulation of crop through controlled exposure to select biocatalytic substances, the Stoor can effectively design the developmental growth of the crop to produce a virtually limitless array of organic constructs. The basis of Stoor civilization since ancient times has revolved around experimentation with biocatalytic crop-shaping and the development of new natural biocatalysts in order to fabricate new organic compounds and structures. The discovery of the genome was the Stoor equivalent of the Scientific revolution. Nearly all industry for the Stoor is centered around the production of biocatalytic compounds and the farming of genestem crop.
An intrinsic ability to naturally experiment with genestem crop and the natural production of biocatalytic compounds has granted the Stoor an unparalleled understanding of genetic engineering. They can use genestem crop to grow any number of wholly modular organic structures which can be freely and interchangeably matched together. Genestem crop is used to grow building materials, starvessel parts, utility organs that mimic advanced technology, and more.
The Stoor equivalent of the industrial revolution was due to the production of a biocatalytic compound that allowed crop organisms to use abiotic substrates for biosynthesis, which resulted in tailored ‘mining’ organisms used to extract precious ores and minerals from the ground, refining and isolating them in pure concentrate as waste products.
In present days, such mining organisms are grown on planets in order to strip-mine them for resources autonomously in hazardous conditions where no other species could survive.
A relatively new example of genetic engineering developed in the last few thousand years by the Stoor is the ability to resequence the developmental genomes of preexisting crop, allowing for the same plot of Genestem to be used to grow multiple products simultaneously or in sequence. Individual plots of Genestem crop can grow nearly anything, and are only functionally limited by their size.
The Stoor home system is rich in heavy elements, and nearly all organisms on their home planet exploit radioactive decay of trace particles in order to fuel biosynthesis. As a result, nearly all genestem crops and organisms native to the Stoor homeworld have profound rates of cellular regeneration and metabolic activity, but require trace radioactive particles in order to function.
The Stoor have also developed a crop organ which acts as a small-scale fission reactor. The organ consists of a triple-walled sac, with the outermost cavity containing a charged, compressed superfluid that is rapidly circulated through the sac, mimicking the function of a dynamo to generate a spinning, dipolar magnetic field around the center of the organ. The second cavity is filled with serous fluid, which lubricates and suspends a hollow sphere of either a Beryllium or Tungsten alloy. The sphere acts as a neutron-reflector, and possess two electrodes at its poles; aligned to match the dipolar spin of the magnetic field generated by the outer cavity while water is circulated around the interior of the sphere. Trace amounts of nuclear fuel (typically CF251) are injected into the sphere and are magnetically held at its center while being stabilized by the spinning water current. Minute amounts of nuclear fuel are in this way push over their criticality threshold, resulting in a chain-fission reaction producing hundreds of millions of volts of electrical power alone, which is conducted by the ion current of the organ to a capacitor organ elsewhere to power biosynthesis.
According to quantum mechanics (and wave-particle duality in particular), energy can exist as both a particle and a wave. As an extension of this, energy only exists as a particle, in a particular point in spacetime, when explicitly observed as existing there. As an additional extension, by that logic an unobserved particle exists across the entirety of its wave function, and when detected (by interaction with matter for example) the potential particle most likely to interact with it, as described by that particle’s wave function, does so. This does not preclude potential particles with a lower wave function from interacting with matter however – just unlikely. As yet another extension off of that point, an unobserved particle behaving as a wave is considered to exist in all its possible configurations simultaneously until observed. If all of these points are true, then a number of very strange things become possible. For one, it becomes possible for a particle to exist in more than a single place at once, in different states and configurations simultaneously, and to interact with itself. The wave function defines all possible configurations and eigenstates of any given particle in this fashion.
Through extensive examination of Nuclear forces, the Stoor have discovered how to force an undefined wave function for a particle to ‘fall through’ to a state which is observed to exist outside all possible configurations and quantum eigenstates, which can then be superimposed directly into a new, select configuration. Similar in theory to the understanding of wave function collapse, wave function fallthrough describes the discontinuous transmission of information across spacetime. This is distinct from phenomena such as superpositioning due to the discontinuity of particle behavior during the fallthrough of its wave function; a superpositioned particle will exist in multiple places simultaneously whereas a superimposed particle will cease to exist, and will then exist in a new coordinate configuration in spacetime. In practice, the Stoor exploit this in order to shift Starvessels across immense interstellar distances instantaneously.
The actual mechanisms behind the function of the Stoor FTL organ are closely guarded secrets, but the following is known due to analysis of debris recovered from the wreckage of Stoor starvessels.
Each starvessel requires a prebuilt matrix of vascular channels across their exterior shells, which is responsible for circulating an unknown substance. The vascular matrix is accompanied by a series of conduction spines which run through the superstructure of each vessel. Two sets of redundant organs directly adjacent to FTL organ are responsible for filtration and electrical input, which is thought to traverse across the matrix via ion gradiation in a similar manner to neuronal electrical charge. The FTL organ itself appears to mimic the function of a fusion chamber, and possesses a number of organic structures with unknown functions. To date, Stoor FTL has yet to be observed in a controlled laboratory setting, but it has been observed that activating the organ itself causes electrical current to be circulated throughout the vascular matrix and conduction spines throughout each starvessel when the vascular matrix is filled with a generic conductant fluid. How or why the flow of electrical charge across the vascular matrix is important is not understood, and will likely remain unknown for as long as the functionality of the FTL organ itself is obscured.
As observed in-field, the organ itself appears to have a brief, priming phase of a few minutes followed by a nearly instantaneous activation phase, and then by an extended refractory period wherein subsequent activation of the organ is impossible. The duration appears to vary depending upon the size of the vessel in question.
Stoor starvessels appear to use internally seated particle emitters in order to accelerate and decelerate, using a shielding block inside a containment chamber with a repelling electromagnetic field in order to slow particles after emission and ‘catch’ them without producing an equal kinetic backdraft. This arrangement allows a vessel to accelerate, using electrical energy to excite particles for use as fuel. A fuel chamber filled with ideal inert particles for this purpose is gradually refilled with particulate reuptake from the chamber with the shielding block, meaning a vessel can accelerate without pause for as long as it takes for the fuel chamber to drain to empty faster than particles can be recirculated, at which point the vessel has to stop accelerating until the fuel chamber is full again.
In order to counteract the effects of inertia and c-fractional acceleration, Stoor vessels that accept passengers have crew compartments filled with a high-viscosity fluid with equal buoyancy to the Stoor body. The acceleration of a vessel treats each crewmember as an extension of a solid frame due to complete compartment saturation, allowing for nearly instantaneous and equal transfer of momentum and vector velocity/acceleration across the body, preventing them from slamming into the fluid at c-fractional velocities and separating into their constituent particulate components.
Stoor vessels use a powerful superfluid magnetohydrodynamic power system to generate a highly energetic halbach magnetosphere around themselves, mimicking the natural magnetospheres generated by planets with fluid mantles (such as Earth, by way of example) or the heliospheres of stars. Each vessel features an organic dynamo containing a rapidly circulating supercharged and superfluid matter, which generates a dipolar magnetic field several hundreds of times the size of the vessel generating the field. The dynamo system also spins perpendicular to its axis, and so the dipolar field behaves as though it were singular and fluid rather than dipolar.
When any object (not merely objects that are strongly magnetic) enters the magnetofield of a planet like Earth, its own trajectory is influenced by the relatively velocity at which the field spins in proportion to how energetic the field is. Earth’s magnetosphere is just powerful enough to deflect radiation and other energetic particles projected for the sun, which relative to large space objects or highly-energetic cosmic particles, may as well be lazily buzzing gnats. Hence, when a large object or an extremely energetic particle enters Earth’s magnetosphere, they tend to be only negligibly affected by the field.
Stoor vessels generate magnetoshields which, relative to the Earth’s magnetofield, almost literally millions of time more energetic and rapid. When an object enters a Stoor magnetoshield, it is likely to be immediately torn apart due to the extreme spin of the superfluid matter near each vessel’s core. Objects that are not torn apart, but lack sufficient kinetic force to maintain their own trajectory are yanked from their trajectory to be flung away from the magnetoshield at a reciprocal vector.
The kinetic energy of a projectile that enters a Stoor magnetoshield affects the circulation and spin of the superfluid matter within the shielding organ, which is so energetic that even projectiles capable of piercing through the magnetoshield generally are incapable of weakening them. This is because the circulating matter in the shielding organ needs to be several magnitudes more energetic than the force produced by almost any projectile in order to generate a field across a wide area of space surrounding each Stoor vessel. Each magnetoshield only has a relatively average capacity to destroy or deflect incoming attacks relative to other shielding systems, and this is because all the energy at the core of the shielding organ has to maintain a uniform amount of energy across the whole magnetoshield. Each shielding organ has a backup capacitor organ that allows it to immediately restore any lost energy and spin in the field should either fall. For this reason, even an extremely powerful attack absorbed by or piercing through a magnetoshield does not affect its power. A Stoor magnetoshield is always on, and always works, generally always with the same energetic intensity, even if an attack has already or is currently breaching the magnetoshield.
Missiles, accelerated particle streams, slugs, and most beam/projectile based weapons are susceptible to interception by Stoor magnetoshields, and the magnetoshields in question do not lose energy from sustaining fire or from being pierced. Very simply, the only way to pierce through the magnetoshield is to use a weapon or form of attack that is powerful enough to pierce through it. Using weapons or attacks too weak to pierce through the magnetoshield initially will never pierce through it at all, no matter how many times they are used or in what concentration they are utilized. If an enemy attacks a Stoor vessel of the same or equivalent ship classification and only has light armaments, there is a distinct possibility that none of its weapons will be capable of piercing the magnetoshield.
The silver lining for attacking forces, of course, is that if an attack pierces the magnetoshield, it always will, and will never fail in doing so (though they had best be wary that even such attacks are not disturbed or deflected enough to miss the target vessel anyway). Since the magnetoshield’s power is always constant, the Stoor cannot suddenly decide to ‘divert more power to the shields!’ The same features which make magnetoshields effective against weak attacks makes them weak against sufficiently strong attacks.
Finally, by necessity of their design, each magnetoshield has two weak points. The organic dynamo containing the circulating matter necessarily generates a dipolar magnetoshield along its axis. At both poles, there is a steep depression in the magnetoshield which makes the area of space covered by the shield much ‘shallower’ than any other space, making it easier for attacks to penetrate those points. In order to circumvent this weakness, the Stoor have each shield dynamo spun perpendicular to their axis (akin to the motion of a gyroscope), causing the axial poles to constantly shift and change position. This prevents enemies from effectively targeting either weak point. However, highly sophisticated tracking systems or targeting suites, if they knew what to look for, could probably time and predict the movements of the poles and time firing solutions to pierce through the magnetoshield the next time one or the other comes around.
Having observed all of this, one might ask how in the world the Stoor manage to fire any of their own weapons through the magnetoshield surrounding each vessel. The answer being that each shielding dynamo, in addition to rapidly circulating supercharged, superfluid matter, circulates it through rotating chambered systems designed to change the interaction of the magnetic field generated by the fluid circulating through each chamber in order to create a dynamic halbach array. This cancels out the influence of the magnetic field on the ‘inside’ of the magnetoshield to near zero which proportionally augmenting the strength of the magnetoshield on its ‘outside’. In this way, each magnetoshield only destroys or repels attacks or objects that approach it from the outside; attacks directed from the inside, out, simply pass through.
tl;dr, attacks that are too weak to pass through it, don’t. Attacks that are, do. The shield doesn’t lose strength when it deflects an attack, and it doesn’t break when it gets pierced. It always works, and never drops or fails. The Stoor can fire their own weapons out of the shield without them being affected.
Rather than write a description for scratch, I’ll just link you to this Wikipedia article and call it a day. Just image a nematocyte as described there, but bigger, as an organic capsule intended for use as a melee weapon. These are designed to be solid, not containing any toxins in order to maximize the kinetic force of the weapon. Although it is not uncommon for the harpoon-like head of the nematocyte to be either damaged or destroyed on impact with a target, the coiled thread can be respooled and the head reseated inside the organ in order to rearm the weapon, although this takes an extensive period of time. Larger, ship-mounted nematocytes typically forego the use of a spooled cable and instead have each nematocyst mounted inside a containment mound that grips at the base of the nematocyst and drags it back into place after it has been fired subsequently to a successful hit; a failed strike will result in the nematocyst ejecting itself from the nematocyte violently with no chance of recovery.
A home system unusually rich in heavy elements has led to the Stoor using radioisotopes both as a fuel and as ammunition. Most Stoor can absorb up to 8 Sieverts of radiation without ill effects, and so even the most basic Stoor radiological weapon is designed to project radioisotopes with half-lives ranging from seconds to minutes, releasing gamma radiation upon decay with sufficient particulate density to immediately deliver a fatal dose of radiation to any organism nearby. More sophisticated weapons involve the projection of super-heated corium, or laser-guided free-neutron emitters.
The mass of a nuclear isomer is held in a containment organ, which is remotely excited through activation of a free-neutron emitter that excites the mass and causes the emission and conversion of radiation to fluorescence in the form of concentrated photons, which are electromagnetically contained and guided to be emitted from an aperture to be shot out into space, moving at the speed of light until it hits a target.
The target then goes away.
These weapons generally have a range of approximately twelve lightseconds before the constituent photons of the graser start to scatter due to minute differences in the vectors of each individual photon across vast distances in space.
By transplanting the natal neural tube of Stoor embryos into genestem crop, so-called ‘designer organisms’ can be developed. The development of the Stoor’s normal body is halted, and instead as the natal brain develops it grows the same modular interfacing structures seen in other examples of Genestem crop, allowing the brain to be used for the creation of new, sentient constructs. The Stoor primarily make use of this technique in order to create tailored super-soldiers or automated constructs, similar in nature to primitive A.I.
Military Structure: The Stoor military is made up of 625 divisions, with 300 for the regular army, 300 for the naval forces, and 25 serving as elite forces. A number of civilian forces control all military wetware, while the Complex acts as military command.
Stoor infantry are Stoor in name only. Using the properties of select biocatalysts, the neural tubes of natal Stoor can be integrated with Genestem crop in order to produce tailored soldiers of nearly any design that can be imagined. These Stoor are usually conditioned in particular ways to make them loyal and nearly mechanical in their efficiency, and are technically slaves and therefore legal non-entities under the conventions of the Oathbound Manifold. True military personnel are generally tacticians, field commanders, medics, pilots, and engineers.
The form of the typical Stoor super-soldier (colloquially referred to as ‘Epiplasm Soldiers’) varies based upon what environment they are made to fight in, but typically they are large, hulking brutes made of very little except biomineralized armor and muscle, often taking the form of insects such as arachnids or centipedes to retain high speeds and freedom of movement. Larger specimens can even have radiological weapons such as corium-throwers or gamma-flechette shredders mounted on their limbs or bodies. These super-soldiers retain vascular and alimentary systems, meaning they are susceptible to poisons and toxins delivered through the atmosphere (though they are all almost universally highly tolerant to extreme radiation exposure). These systems are minimized in size in order to reduce vulnerability while still allowing for efficient resupply on the battlefield (read: Eating corpses), and so even managing to amputate limbs or blow holes through their bodies is generally not enough to kill most specimens. The only reliable means of killing them is to destroy their brains.
Stoor Field Commanders are an entirely different breed. These are otherwise normal Stoor intended to direct and guide Epiplasm troops on the battlefield. Epiplasm soldiers are intelligent enough to identify priority targets and engage large groups of enemies independently, but have poor memories regarding instructions and directions. Field Commanders are necessary in order to help relay Epiplasm troops from place to place and to assign group objectives since the Stoor have no biological equivalent to wireless camera feeds (yet). Field Commanders, due to their value as high-priority targets, usually pilot small gunships or light-attack craft in order to deter enemies.
Aforementioned gunships are usually Spartan approximations of Stoor starvessels, armed with anti-armor radiological ordinance and possessing thick layers of biomineralized armor. These vessels typically suspend themselves using chambers of light elements and achieve propulsion using small, internal particle-emission chambers. They also retain the large tentacles seen on standard Stoor military starships, and so are deadly in melee combat. Very large gunships are known to possess small graser mounts and their own magnetoshield organs, though these are thankfully rare.
Other battlefield personnel include Stoor medics and engineers. They pilot small aerial craft like battlefield commanders, but are usually only lightly armed (if they are armed at all) and are instead equipped to assist allies and deter enemies. Of particular note are an uncommon but not rare class of Stoor craft piloted by field engineers which possess magnetoshield organs that can project fields large enough to protect an entire squad. Others are specialized for area-denial and fortification sapping.
Stoor starvessels are generally very small relative to the size of vessels employed by other factions. The only true factors of consideration for how large any given vessel is made are how many individuals it is designed to transport, how many weapons it is designed to carry on its hull, and how powerful its shield organ is. As a matter of cost-effectiveness, after a certain volume threshold the advantage gained by mounting more grasers on the exterior of a vessel and devoting more interior space to the shield organs drops off (since the power costs of sustaining a magnetoshield go up geometrically), limiting the efficacy of extremely large ships.
For this reason, most military vessels are of a standardized design that is small, well-armed, with decent shielding and a small overall sphere-shaped profile and target area. Variations exist only as specialized vessels that perform specific fleet roles.
The exterior armor of most vessel is a form of biomineralized superalloys containing mixtures of Tungsten, Beryllium, and various Heavy Elements, which is spaced in small layers supported by metallic spires and calceiform pillars. Each successive layer of armor has a redundant vascular network for the FTL organ as well as for logistical transport of nutrient fluid in case there is a need to regenerate armor.
Graser mounts are typically recessed on gyroscopic mounts suspended in serous-fluid filled sacs, allowing them to aim anywhere within a 180 degree firing arc. The gyroscope and the graser itself are typically recessed behind at least three layers of armor, with the emitter and electromagnetic focusing chamber extending as a thin cylinder out from the center like a pin.
A large number of vessels have long tentacles mounted along their axis, typically several kilometers long and thick, which are massive muscular hydrostats and tipped with gigantic nematocytes designed for piercing starship armor. Nominally these tentacles are actually used to intercept or block relativistic projectiles or missiles, preventing damage to the vessel itself. However, if a Stoor Vessel is able to use its FTL organ to close to melee range, these tentacles are quite capable of piercing through the thickest armors and of physically immobilizing, crushing, and dismantling any vessel they can get a grip on. Each nematocyte is also tipped with a graser designed to assist with hull-piercing which can be opportunistically aimed otherwise, enhancing the value of each tentacle as a target and thereby drawing enemy fire away from the vessel itself.
Internal structures for starvessels typically include particle emitter chambers, cargo organs, crew compartments, and nutrient vessels for use active biosynthetic substrate and field-regeneration. At the very core of each ship, with no exception, is the magnetoshield organ centered around a fusion organ that provides electrical power for biosynthesis throughout the entire ship. While these structures can be made as massive as is needed for any given ship’s particular needs, generally speaking the bulk of any given ship’s mass is devoted to armor to the point where as much as 98% of a ship’s mass can be nothing but biomineralized tissue.
The Pure Towers are the Stoor military elite. These are epiplasm soldiers that, rather than being conditioned and trained like an animal, are instead altered and raised as regular Stoor might be, despite the oddities of their frequently changing, modular bodies. These are epiplasm soldiers who retain their intelligence, given the best training and education available and supplied with the very latest crop components for their bodies. The Pure Towers retain their only private fleetgroups, separate from the main fleets that guard the Stoor home system of Six Balelit Titans, and they are tasked with the most pressing, immediate assignments there are. Notably, the Pure Towers are not covert operatives or agent saboteurs – they are more equivalent to human S.W.A.T. teams than to infiltrators, deployed during battles to tackle specific objectives while Battlefield Commanders and lesser Epiplasm soldiers do the bulk of the fighting.
The civilian committee presiding over the Stoor military have their own armies and fleetgroups, which are fewer in number than the general military but are sufficient for the purpose as serving as a check on the power of the Complex. They are only present immediately around and on the Stoor homeworld, Two Solid Shadows, and are generally accepted to hold all legal authority and jurisdiction within that area. It would be an exaggeration to say that they could police or safeguard Two Solid Shadows by themselves – their numbers are effectively limited to the point where it is only sufficient to safeguard particular stockpiles of military wetware. For legal purposes, they work in concert with the Complex on the assumption that the Committee is responsible for arbitration while the Complex is responsible for execution, legislation, and order.
The Complex is the source of all political and military authority amongst the Stoor Manifold. They control all military forces save for those belonging to the civilian military Committee. They handle all diplomatic interactions, designate all military priorities and strategies, legislate policies and laws, and generally do all the things that make the aerial transports float about on time. They are indisputably the most powerful individuals in the Stoor Manifold, and are protected by means and methods that even the most informed pedestrian could not dream of.
I shall cast A Leaden Spear to the stars, and all things and forms shall feel and be upbraided by its passage so that they will be forced to yield.
-Many Foreseen Ends, Stoor Prophet, 00144 P.M.O.
KactusPunch,
Crown Sage,
MarshalSolgriev,
SkyeOfStars,
princess,
flat lovenote,
Zeroth
