Hopefully not, it might get over bloated if there's more minor crossovers.
A Flame of Hope in the Grim Darkness (A 40k/Multicross Quest)
- Thread starter BobTheNinja
- Start date
- Crossover Sci-Fi Fantasy
Fair
What about original or minor alien civilizations because 40K is an untapped gold mine for those
What about original or minor alien civilizations because 40K is an untapped gold mine for those
Guess we will wait and see. They do sound interesting though.
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
I have no immediate plans to add additional crossover elements at the moment. There's a possibility this may change later down the line, but no guarantees.
I do actually plan to add minor alien civilizations to interact with. Nothing concrete established there yet, but I can confirm that there will be more than just the classic canon races.
Also, apologies everyone for another long delay. A combination of poor headspace and ADHD have made my attempts to pick back up on writing very difficult, but I think I'm starting to come out of the slump. I'm going to try and launch back into resuming my work on it today.
No worries hope you get better
Stategic Turn 2 - Part 2 (Allied Faction Lore included)
BobTheNinja
Sword of Possibility
- Location
- Multiverse Sector Texas
Hello everyone. As you can see, this section took way, way too long to get done, due to a combination of ADHD-fueled distraction, procrastinatory habits, and also being waylaid by IRL issues and mental health problems. Honestly, another big factor was that I bit off more than I could chew with the number of voting options, and as such, I plan to cut down on the number of strategic options per turn going forward to try and help cut down on delays going forward. As a heads up, much of this section is made of summarized background lore for the various factions, so that those who aren't as familiar with a given series will have a basic idea of their history and capabilites. Please be advised, these sections will include SPOILERS for those series.
Additionally, after finishing the Dawntrail expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, I will be adding the nation of Tuliyolal and the city-state of Alexandria to the Hydaelyn faction lineup, though the latter will have some modifications which I will elaborate on in a later post.
I have more material and edits that I'll be posting in the near future as a follow on, and will specifically be including the Solar System Survey results in a separate informational post. But for now, here is Part 2 of Strategic Turn 2.
The member groups of the fledgling alliance are quick to establish an inter-polity commission for technological exchange and integration, as well as shared scientific research. The new body was named the Joint Science and Technology Commission, and one of its first orders of business was establishing a standard set of measurements for use in research and documentation. Due to the widespread presence of the Metric system among the different polities (even the Kushan seemed to make use of a slightly divergent variant of the system), it was selected as the common interpolity standard in short order.
While the JSTC was eager to get to work on sharing knowledge and assisting with mutual integration, the allied polities agreed that it would take time before an agreement could be hashed out on sharing their more exotic and powerful technologies, especially those used for naval and strategic weapons. For the moment, the Commission would focus on the study and exchange of more basic technology, including mutually-novel elemental and synthesized materials, computers and communications systems, cameras and sensors, power generation and energy storage devices, small arms, propulsion systems, vehicles and robotics, and less exotic manufacturing technologies. Highly disruptive tech like phased disassembler arrays and probability kilns would be tabled for later authorization.
Even with these initial limitations, the mood of the Commission was positively abuzz with excitement, with the various scientists, engineers, and technicians all eager to begin taking apart and analyzing the new tech and materials. One major project that was quickly agreed upon was the sharing and distribution of manufacturing, recycling, and disposal technologies that would allow for much more efficient reclamation of recyclable materials and significant reduction in leftover waste. Many wanted to preserve as much of the pristine natural environment of the planet that they had been blessed with as possible, and these measures would both help prevent build-up of pollution and somewhat reduce the rate of mining needed for raw materials.
One issue that quickly became apparent was that some of the technologies provided were powered by or made use of magic or paracausal energies, which many among the Commission present had no frame of reference for. And while there were subject matter experts from the relevant organizations to help explain their workings, it was becoming clear that for the Commission to be fully effective in analyzing such technology, a more comprehensive understanding of the various supernatural forces and phenomena now at play would be needed. To this end, the alliance also quickly established a cooperative organization dedicated to the study of these aspects of reality, named the Institute of Supernatural, Thaumaturgical and Anomalous Research (ISTAR).
One of the organization's other top priorities was devising countermeasures to the threat of Chaos. While not perceivable to ordinary people, the malignant presence of the Warp could be felt by those with heightened psionic or spiritual sensitivity, including Eris Morn, Mara Sov, the Psions, and many Echo Bearers, among others. Though currently little more than background noise at present, everyone agreed that the danger they posed was not to be underestimated.
And so ISTAR, in cooperation with the other allied magic and paracausal organizations, began coordinating the implementation of enhanced protective wards and additional safeguards on magic and paracausal usage wherever possible and practical, as well as establishing heavily guarded and warded safe zones for more dangerous experiments or extradimensional exploration. The magic orders and guilds of Hydaelyn proved especially helpful in this regard thanks to their prior experiences with Primal tempering and Dynamis corruption, sharing their knowledge with the other factions as well as samples of the warding scale talismans produced during the war against the Telophoroi.
The dragons Hraesvelgr, Vrtra, Tiamat, and Midgardsormr, along with some of their older progeny, all agreed to regularly donate more of their scales for the creation of more warding talismans, as well as benefiting other magic research applications, though they could only provide so many at a time without placing excessive burden on their wellbeing. These and other shared knowledge, resources, and warding efforts quickly paid dividends, as the psionically and spiritually sensitive quickly confirmed that the malignant presence of the Warp grew fainter wherever enhanced protections and safeguards were implemented.
One limitation was that they could currently only maintain wards over a limited amount of territory at present, mainly confined to their respective headquarters and bases of operation, and they could only afford to provide warding talismans to a very small percentage of the total populace at present, limiting their provision to magic and paracausal wielders, government and military personnel, and vetted independent groups like the Scions. Alternate solutions would need to be developed for persistent supernatural warding on larger scales.
In parallel with these efforts, ISTAR also launched a comprehensive comparative study of the various forms of magic and supernatural abilities wielded by the alliance. Right off the bat, striking similarities were noted between the principles of Magecraft known by the mages of Chaldea and the principles of Aether-based magic arts known by the practitioners from Hydaelyn. Both forms of magic involved drawing upon spirit energy, either in the external environment or from one's inner wellspring. The user would then channel and shape this energy in order to produce a desired supernatural effect through mental focus and willpower, though the process was very often augmented through the use of incantation, magic arrays, sigils, and focusing tools, and often in accordance with arcane traditions passed down through history.
Most mages were capable of channeling this energy directly, while others lacked the necessary biological or spiritual traits to do so. But even in the latter case, one could still employ magic indirectly with the right knowledge, mental discipline, and use of ritual crafts. Both the discipline of Formalcraft known by Chaldean mages and the voidsent pacts used by the Reapers of Garlemald make use of such principles. Both forms of magic could even be combined with natural science-based technologies, such as the magitek of the Garleans, the aetherochemistry of the old Alagan Empire, and the Chaldean systems created by the Atlas Institute.
According to analysis from Chaldea and aetherologists from Hydaelyn, the default forms of magical energy, known respectively as mana and aether, appear to have been merged into a single unified energy bearing properties from both their worlds of origin. It is now more dense than it was on either Earth (by roughly 200%) or Hydaelyn (by roughly 50%). In addition, the laws of material physics of this universe appear to be more independent from the workings of corporeal aether, though they are still affected by magic. Both parties have agreed to stick with 'aether' for the purposes of inter-polity study.
And though their magic still largely works the same as before, aetherologists from Hydaelyn note that the fundamental properties of corporeal aether are no longer confined to only the six elemental aspects noted from before. These new changes and differences appear to be at least partly rooted in the existence of thaumaturgical foundations, as described by Chaldea. That is, collectively recognized systemic principles of magic which have been inscribed upon the World through generations of practice and passing down of knowledge. This newfound mutability and the significantly reduced requirement for Mystery have opened up fertile ground for the study and development of magic for both parties.
The mages of Hydaelyn also noted that the emotion-based energy of dynamis was present as well, which in sufficient concentrations is known to be capable of both amplifying and destructively interfering with aether. Much is still unknown about its exact workings, but given that Dynamis was used to bring about the apocalyptic Final Days, and the fact that the Chaos Gods are themselves cosmic beings embodying extreme emotion, it was agreed that neglecting further research into it would be the height of foolishness.
The paracausal abilities of the Alliance of Sol were a rather different beast. Much like aether, the Light is a form of supernatural power that could be wielded to perform feats akin to magic, and it was found omnipresent throughout the physical world. However unlike aether, the Light's presence in the world seemed to be comparatively far less dense. In fact, the Guardians and Lightbearers in general didn't draw upon ambient Light at all. Instead they seemed to draw their power from an inner wellspring of Light bestowed upon them by the Traveller through their Ghosts, making their abilities more like a kind of theurgy. That being said, there were those capable of wielding ambient Light to a less potent degree without the Traveller's blessing, such as the Sacred Splicers of House Light. The Cabal and the Psions had also created technologies that could siphon, harness, and even disrupt the Light.
Another unique property of the Light was that it could seemingly bend fate itself to the wielder's benefit and intention, greatly improving their luck and granting a degree of protection against passive metaphysical hazards, allowing wielders to resist corruptive energies and even freely pass through realms beyond material space without harm. The strongest and most skilled wielders of the Light were said to be capable of reliably prevailing in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances.
While the Light chiefly governed manipulation of the physical and material, its counterpart known as the Darkness instead governed immaterial elements of existence like consciousness, willpower, and memory, among other similar concepts. Unlike the Light, Darkness specifically clusters around sentient, perceiving organisms, and through it, one could perceive and manipulate reality in more abstract ways. The powers of Stasis, Strand, Taking, and Deepsight were all aspects of this power, and while the Darkness itself isn't inherently corruptive, its strong link to one's mentality and perception meant that it could be a highly self-reinforcing power, often to the point of addiction or ethical distortion. It would be all too easy to deceive oneself if you could literally make your perceptions a reality. Thus, even compared to other magic and paracausal abilities, wielding Darkness safely requires substantial mental discipline and self-awareness.
And then there were the powers wielded by the Psions and the Awoken. As their name suggests, the Psions naturally wield psychic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the ability to join minds together in the form of metaconcerts. These abilities give them greater relative visibility (and risk of exposure) into the Warp, though strangely enough, their power appears to function independently of the Darkness.
Similarly, the power of the Awoken, more specifically that of Queen Mara Sov, constitutes its own paracausal layer at the 'meeting point' between Light and Darkness, which she refers to as the Twilight. Complicating things is the fact that Queen Mara is a unique existence, born of the paracausal clash between the Traveller and the Black Fleet of the Witness, the same clash which created the micro-universe of the Distributary from which the Awoken were born. As the being who shaped the Distributary and created the Awoken race, she is by far the most powerful wielder of the Twilight in all of existence, and like the Traveller, she is the source from which other Awoken draw their power, especially the Techeuns who are sworn to her service.
Queen Mara has agreed to share some of what she knows of the Twilight, though she has stated her intention to keep secret its deeper principles for the time being, not because she necessarily distrusts the rest of ISTAR or the alliance, but rather out of caution. Knowledge of the paracausal can be a potent weapon, and the organization and security measures of ISTAR are still in their relative infancy.
That being said, she has confirmed that her abilities encompass her telepathic link to all Awoken, manipulation over probability and entropy, enchantments and wards, and perception of other layers of reality, just to name a few. The Twilight can also be used to navigate and manipulate the ley lines of the Ascendent Realm, an immaterial and spiritual plane of existence that she confirms has now been merged into the greater local Warp. As of right now, she may very well be the alliance's best subject matter expert on the workings of the Warp by this fact alone.
Then there was the magic wielded by the Machines and Androids, which is derived from maso particles, a kind of exotic pseudo-matter. Rather than maso serving as 'fuel' for magic like aether, it instead acted as a catalyst that could draw in magic energies from the gap of primordial chaos between universes, potentially making it a near-limitless source of power. The energy wielded through maso is also very powerful, potentially rivaling the True Ether of the Age of Gods, or the unsundered aether once used by the Ascians. According to the Androids' records of prior eras, maso-derived magic was used by the Gestalt Project to materialize the souls of humans, allowing them to evade the encroachment of White Chlorination Syndrome. Though somewhat reluctant at first, Emil agreed to demonstrate some of his maso-derviced abilities together with the Androids, proving a treasure trove of observational data.
The fact that maso inherently overlapped with the Second True Magic (Operation of Parallel Worlds) and could even be applied to an incomplete version of the Third True Magic (Materialization of the Soul) instantly made it a substance of great interest to Chaldea. The downside was that, despite its seemingly limitless potential, maso is very difficult to use, requiring immense amounts of study and testing in order to unlock even narrow applications of its power.
Even with these limitations, Olga Animusphere was just about willing to pay a king's ransom for even a small sample of the substance and its documented technologies, to point where she had to be talked down by Romani and some of the other senior staff from outright bribing the Android-Machine Compact for it. It made for some rather humorous water cooler talk in Chaldea's halls, though few could blame her burning desire to get a hold of it. Even amidst all the miracles made possible by their collective translocation, maso had the potential to usher in a new age of magic unlike any other.
Even the New United Nations and the Hiigaran Federation had their own experience with phenomena that seemed to reach beyond the realm of normal physics, though they were uncertain if it was truly supernatural or something else. For the Hiigarans, many of those considered to be Unbound, such as Karan S'jet, the final Taiidan Emperor Riesstiu IV, the Vaygr warlord Makann, and various members of the Bentusi race, were all noted to be capable of directly 'sensing' the fabric of hyperspace and even communicating directly with other Unbound minds, at minimum.
Similar abilities were recorded by the New United Nations, with certain individuals manifesting empathic and telepathic abilities that propagated through Fold Space. Such abilities were often significantly amplified by strong emotions interwoven with song and music, even more so if the users wore Fold Quartz crystals. Such power was demonstrated to great effect by the band Fire Bomber during the conflict with the Protodevlin, and again with singers Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome during the conflict with the Vajra and the final battle against the megalomaniacal Grace O'Conner.
There was much about these mutually new phenomena to learn, and so the mages, practitioners, and scientists of ISTAR all eagerly delved into their work.
As part of the allied factions' collaboration on establishing a new shared computing and communications architecture, a joint military communications network was established, starting with their top-level leadership and steadily filtering down to lower levels of command where appropriate. The new network was rigorously stress-tested by the different factions for possible vulnerabilities, and while there were some outliers capable of breaching it with enough time and processing power (as BB in particular aptly demonstrated), the foundation was solid, and was specifically designed with future expansion and reinforcement in mind. With the new network in place, the allied forces now had a streamlined means of coordinating near-immediately in the event of an emergency, with enough bandwidth and data-processing power to combine high-fidelity sensor feeds from multiple armies and fleets across the entire star system.
Another important collaboration was taking place in a rather different arena as the various military forces of the alliance agreed to share their histories for mutual study. If they were to cooperate for mutual defense, they would need to better understand the chain of events and circumstances that led them all to what they are now. Databases were opened up and representatives were dispatched as each organization's counterparts gathered together for ongoing shared study.
The origins of the New United Nations trace back to 1999 CE when a crippled Supervision Army starship exited Fold Space in Earth orbit, soon after crashing into South Ataria island in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in serious environmental damage and climate shifts from ejecta in the atmosphere. Despite the crash landing, much of the starship's structure remained intact, apparently crewed by a now-dead race of giant humanoid aliens of the Protoculture civilization.
Shocked by the indisputable proof of interstellar alien powers, many nations sought to unify humanity in order to prepare against potential outside threats. In spite of the Unification Wars that followed, the vast majority of humanity ultimately consolidated their leadership under the United Nations, and the reverse-engineering and gradual repair of the crashed starship, named the SDF-1 Macross, advanced human technology by leaps and bounds. These fears would prove prescient, as one decade later, the arrival of a Zentraedi fleet in lunar orbit triggered an automatic retaliation protocol in Macross, causing it to destroy two of their starships with a long-range shot from its main Reaction cannon.
This violent first contact kicked off Space War I, which killed the vast majority of the human population and left most of Earth's surface a blasted ruin. The Zentraedi were a fearsome military force, technologically superior and easily outnumbering the UN Spacy forces, but because they were a strictly regimented, gender-segregated military force of expendable clones, they had no conception of non-military society. This left them broadly vulnerable to shock and influence upon exposure to human culture. Thanks to the idol singer Lynn Minmay, a refugee aboard the Macross who used her talents to boost morale for the survivors and their defenders, music and song in particular became a powerful psychological asset in the UN's war for survival, sparking an existential crisis among the Zentraedi and sowing dissent in their ranks.
Ultimately the invasion fleet's supreme commander was killed in battle and the remaining Zentraedi stood down, allowing humanity to begin recovering. In the wake of such massive destruction, and as part of their efforts to seed humanity among the stars to prevent another near-extinction, a general political reorganization followed and the New United Nations was born, a more decentralized federation with a rotating leadership seat between the Earth and its many colonies and long-range colonization fleets. Other humanoid species were discovered over time, and it was found that humanity, the Zentraedi, and these other species shared a common genetic ancestry, indicating that they were all 'seeded' by the Protoculture many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
In later decades, the colony fleet attached to the Macross Frontier would encounter the Vajra, an extremely hardy and adaptive species of huge spaceborne insectoids that were instinctively hostile to NUN intrusion in their star systems. The aspiring singer Ranka Lee was discovered to be capable of quelling their hostility with her music, a result of special Vajra microbes introduced to her body in early childhood. It was later discovered that the Vajra existed as a collective hive mind, with each individual organism possessing a Fold Quartz node that functioned as neurons in a massive Fold-based neural network. This was a major reason why humans could never properly communicate with the Vajra before.
The rogue cyborg scientist Grace O'Connor conspired to use Ranka Lee to hijack control of the Vajra network in order to conquer the galaxy, with she and her fellow conspirators taking control of the Macross Galaxy and engaging the Frontier fleet in orbit over the Vajra homeworld. But she was ultimately defeated through the combined efforts of the Macross Frontier fleet, the Macross Quarter and Skull Squadron under the SMS group, and both Ranka Lee and fellow singer Sheryl Nome.
New United Nations Spacy's main advantages were their reverse-engineering of Protoculture technologies, including Fold drives and later Fold communication systems, Reaction technology for power generation and high-yield weaponry, mechanized transformation technology for vehicles, inertial store converters for reduction of high-g stress on pilots, and energy conversion armor and energy barrier systems. They also produced highly skilled fighter pilots, and the unorthodox use of music and song was practically a cultural establishment, used for both military morale and to disorient their enemies. In some cases, singers could produce seemingly psionic effects through the emission of exotic Fold waves, a phenomenon broadly known as Song Energy.
They had also developed Dimension Eater warheads, extremely potent weapons that destroyed targets via Fold Space ruptures. They could scale between ammunition with very localized tactical yields or planet-killing strategic warheads, though their production was limited by the requirement for Fold Quartz, a very rare substance that was primarily sourced from the corpses of the Vajra. Thankfully they had promising research underway for synthesizing the substance.
In the ancient past, the Kushan Empire was defeated in a terrible galactic war, with the Taiidan Empire claiming their original homeworld of Hiigara as their capital world. Under immense pressure from the galactic community to spare the defeated from genocide, the Taiidan instead forced the Kushan into exile aboard simple colony ships stripped of hyperdrives, and forbade any other galactic power from rendering aid to them. Their very memory was to be erased from history. After generations of interstellar wandering, with many ships lost to malfunction and others deciding to split off toward other destinations, the remaining survivors eventually settled on the desert world of Kharak.
As time passed, much of their technology was lost and their history all but forgotten beneath the sands of time, their original homeworld fading into myth and religious lore. But over the next few thousand years, their descendents began to rediscover caches of old technology, eventually finding the Guidestone within the crashed starship Khar Toba. Etched into the stone was a stellar map charting the location of the mythical Hiigara. As the planet Kharak later became increasingly inhospitable to human life, the Kiiths of the Northern Alliance embarked on a massive space program, consolidating their economic and scientific resources to build a hyperdrive-equipped mothership that would embark on a journey to find their lost homeworld, and hopefully pave the way for the remaining populace to follow.
Tragically, it was not to be, as a Taiidan scout fleet discovered their hyperdrive testing. Using the ancient prohibition against the exile's use of hyperspace technology as a cassus belli, they attacked the orbital shipyard and deployed Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons against Kharak, incinerating the planet's atmosphere and killing all life on the surface. Though the Mothership and its defenders were able to destroy the attacking force and preserve the cryotrays bearing the Mothership's civilian population, it was too late to save the planet.
Traumatized and left with only the populace carried aboard the Mothership, the surviving Kushan led by Karan S'jet proceeded to embark on a long and perilous voyage across the galaxy, following the path marked on the Guidestone. In the course of their journey, they fought against roving bands of Turanic Raiders, the spaceborne Kushan descendents of the Garden of Kadesh nebula, and the fleets of the Taiidan Empire itself. But they also encountered the Bentusi, an ancient and highly advanced race of traders who had cybernetically integrated into their starships, becoming Unbound. They proved to be a major boon to the Kushan wanderers, who would later go on to render the Bentusi aid in turn.
In an act of gratitude, the Bentusi revealed the secret history of the exile to the Kushan, and decided to advocate on their behalf to the Galactic Council. In addition, the destruction of Kharak, which was broadcast across Imperial space, had revealed the depths of callousness and tyranny which had rotted out the aging Taiidan Empire, triggering a widespread rebellion against the Emperor. The rebel republican faction allied with the Kushan fleet, eventually leading to a final confrontation in orbit over Hiigara, a titanic battle in which the Emperor was killed aboard his flagship. With the Empire decapitated, the Galactic Council officially recognized the Kushan's claim to Hiigara, putting an end to the war.
Having achieved their ultimate goal and largely tired of further bloodshed (as well as being aware of the contributions of the Taiidan rebels to their efforts), the Kushan navigated a tenuous coexistence with the Taiidan inhabitants of Hiigara, though many chose to flee the planet in fear of retaliation, with some choosing to fight or flee because they remained loyal to the Imperial remnants of the fractured empire. It was thoroughly messy process filled with periodic outbursts of violence between the two ethnic groups, but eventually mutual peace prevailed, and the Kiiths of the Kushan consolidated the administration of their reclaimed homeworld under the new Hiigaran Federation, with many former worlds of the Taiidan electing to assimilate into the new polity. Some years later, Kiith Sommtaw, a mining clan of the Kushan, would go on to thwart the Beast, a horrifyingly powerful biomechanical assimilative plague which threatened all of galactic civilization, earning them great acclaim as defenders of the galaxy.
The Hiigaran Federation would later be invaded by the Vaygr, a powerful nomadic warband from the galactic fringes. The Vaygr were led by the Unbound warlord Makaan, who sought to lay claim to the three ancient Progenitor hyperspace cores, and with them, seize control of the ancient and dormant progenitor hyperspace gate network which spanned the galaxy. Determined to prevent this outcome, Karan S'jet took up the role of Fleet Command once more, embarking on a campaign against the Vaygr. She ultimately claimed the three Progenitor cores, found the Progenitor warship Sajuuk, and wielded its power to defeat Makann and activate the galactic gate network, ushering in a new age for galactic civilization and firmly establishing the Hiigaran Federation as a leading galactic power.
The Hiigaran Navy's main advantages were their highly durable starship armor, their Phased Disassembler Arrays which enabled rapid processing of raw ore and molecular flash-manufacturing of starships and other complex machines, their mega-scale engineering and construction capabilities, their aptitude for rapid reverse engineering of foreign technology, and their advanced coordination capabilities through the Fleet Command mind-machine interface system. They also possessed the three Progenitor hyperspace cores capable of extremely long-range FTL jumps, as well as the Sajuuk, a massive Progenitor warship with a very powerful spinal energy cannon, capable of piercing just about any defense.
The Rubicon Liberation Front was born from a history of calamity and oppression. In the past, the planet Rubicon was a strategic goldmine for humanity thanks to the discovery of the miracle substance called Coral, which possessed extraordinary potential as both an energy source and data conduit. It would later be discovered that the substance was a kind of inorganic lifeform in its own right, capable of self-replication and self-organization, and in sufficient density was capable of developing sapience.
In the course of their experiments on Coral, the Rubicon Research Institute amassed so much Coral at such high density that it accidentally triggered a runaway chain reaction, causing rapid 'mutations' in the Coral and exponential self-replication that would eventually lead to a hypothetical 'Coral Collapse' scenario, with potentially cosmic-scale consequences of unknown severity. Desperate to halt the process before it reached the point of no return, the RRI's chief director made the decision to ignite the Coral, triggering the catastrophic Fires of Ibis, a massive firestorm which swept the entire planet and expanded beyond it, scorching the rest of the star system and eventually the entire local stellar cluster.
In the wake of the Fires of Ibis, the Planetary Closure Administration was formed by humanity's interstellar government to completely lock down Rubicon's surface and orbital space, preventing anyone from getting in or out. They proved to be completely unsympathetic to the surviving locals, prohibiting any humanitarian exceptions to the blockade. Several decades later, discovery of surviving pockets of Coral on Rubicon reached the ears of humanity's major interstellar megacorporations, Balam Industries and Arquebus Corporation chief among them, leading to them sending expeditionary forces and mercenaries to Rubicon to find and secure these deposits, with little to no regard for either the local survivors' needs or the prohibitions of the PCA.
On top of all this, a secret organization called Overseer, formed from survivors of the Rubicon Research Institute, enacted a plan to infiltrate Rubicon and burn the remaining Coral on a global scale, seeing the substance as a universal threat that needed to be eradicated once and for all, no matter the cost to the planet or its population. They used the chaos caused by the invading megacorporations to sneak agents past the PCA's blockade, chief among them being Cinder Carla, who founded the arms manufacturer and dealer RaD from local scavenger groups on Rubicon, and Handler Walter, who was the mission broker in charge of the augmented mercenary C4-621 "Raven".
As the situation worsened, many of the survivors banded together and formed the Rubicon Liberation Front, forging themselves into a hardened, highly motivated asymmetrical military force that took advantage of their home terrain and planetside industry as much as possible, staging ambushes, lightning raids, sabotage operations, and all other manner of guerilla warfare in order to wear down the PCA and the megacorps as much as possible. Some time later, the mercenary Raven bonded with the Coral waveform Ayre, and learned that the Coral was capable of hosting sapient intelligence, with many waveforms like Ayre already present on the planet. This ultimately led him to reject Overseer's mission and protect Rubicon and the Coral. Working together with the RLF, they were ultimately able to overthrow the invading megacorps, take down the PCA and Overseer, and secure Rubicon's independence.
While far more resource-constrained than their adversaries, the RLF was still able to field an elite cadre of highly skilled armored core pilots, augmented to become Coral Warriors, who were similar to earlier generation megacorp augment pilots. They were able to secure the cooperation of other megacorps friendly to their cause (Belius Applied Weapon Systems, Elcano Foundry, and Furlong Dynamics chief among them), and even managed to secure Rusty's infiltration into the ranks of the Arquebus Corporation's Vesper Squadron, which spoke highly of their resourcefulness and cunning.
As part of their translocation, the RLF inherited a fleet of PCA warships and military hardware, some of the top pilots of Vesper Squadron and Balam Industries' Redguns, a good portion of RaD's personnel and assets, and the colony ship Xylem, which contained all of the Rubicon Research Institute's scientific and technological data. They were well-versed in the manufacture and use of mechanized combat platforms, and their insights into the Coral and its myriad applications would be a major boon to the fledgling alliance. They also have the knowledge and capacity for mega-scale engineering and construction.
The Alliance of Sol was formed between the Vanguard of the Last City, the Awoken of the Reef, the neptunian city of Neomuna, and splinter factions of the Eliksni and the Cabal. In many ways the Vanguard was the core faction, being the champions of humanity and the Last City, whose Guardians had fought off entire invading armies and several god-like entities in their defense of Earth and the Sol System at large.
Many centuries ago, the Traveler arrived in the Sol system, a gigantic white orb which silently blessed humanity by terraforming various planets and moons into garden worlds and granting access to knowledge that dramatically advanced human technology and lifespan. But this Golden Age met a violent and abrupt end when the mysterious force called the Darkness, now more properly known as the Black Fleet of the Witness, invaded the system in pursuit of the Traveler, laying waste to Earth and humanity's other colonies. The apocalyptic offensive was halted when the Traveler repelled the Black Fleet with a last-ditch attack which left it heavily damaged and barely functional.
In a final act before going dormant, the Traveler cast off millions of tiny floating machines known as Ghosts, who wandered all Earth and later the rest of Sol, using the Light of the Traveler to resurrect deceased humans, Awoken, and Exos, granting them immortality and the power to wield the Light. Originally known as Risen and later Lightbearers, these individuals emerged amidst a new Dark Age in which all civilization was wiped out along with most technology and infrastructure. The scant remains of humanity clung to life in desperate, scattered bands doing whatever necessary to survive, with many competing and fighting brutally for what precious resources remained.
Some of these Risen sadly turned to becoming Warlords, using their newfound power to subjugate the survivors, creating personal fiefdoms and waging war to conquer their neighbors. Others, like the Iron Lords, rose up to oppose them, becoming something akin to errant knights as they fought to bring back a semblance of order and justice, often specifically hunting down Warlords and going so far as to destroy their Ghosts before executing them. As time passed, the Warlords were either hunted down or gave up their ruthless ways, and the human population gradually began to grow once more, migrating and gathering together to found the Last City in the Andes Mountains of South America.
The Vanguard was founded to defend the Last City, and those Lightbearers of the new order came to be known as Guardians. Their efforts would become essential to protecting this newly revived oasis of civilization against other invading forces that pursued the Traveller. For the Guardians, the blessing of the Traveler's Light was easily their greatest asset, though in the current day, the Vanguard and humanity at large also maintained some technologies and assets left over from the pre-Collapse Golden Age, including the Warmind Rasputin and the Deep Stone Crypt, a facility which converted humans into the android Exos in eras long past.
The other sub-factions had their own unique strengths as well. The Reef Awoken, an offshoot of humanity, had their own advanced technologies and unique paracausal abilities. The Awoken were created during the Collapse when the colony ship Yang Liwei was caught in a paracausal clash between the Traveller and the Black Fleet. This collision of transcendent forces formed a singularity, a rift in spacetime which pulled the Yang Liwei in, leading to a newly-created pocket universe that was later named the Distributary.
The colony ship emerged intact on the other side, but its crew and passengers were all sublimated into entities of pure potential, gaining immense paracausal power but losing the vast majority of their memories in the process. Mara Sov was the first of them to be sublimated, and the first to awaken, allowing her to shape the very laws of reality within the Distributary, creating both a new homeworld and giving shape to their people.
Within the Distributary, the Awoken were biologically immortal, and their world was a paradise of plenty. But as time passed, philosophical conflict emerged between the Eccaleists and the Sanguine. The Eccaleists, led by Mara Sov, partly remembered the clash which birthed their world, and believed that it was thus their responsibility to eventually return to the outside universe in order to resolve the conflict between Light and Darkness. The Sanguine, on the other hand, believed that the creation of their paradise was a gift from the cosmos, that they bore no debt or burden of responsibility, desiring only to continue living in peace.
Mara Sov manipulated events behind the scenes in order to force open warfare between the two groups, from which her camp emerged victorious. Ultimately she would leave the Distributary with a large number of Awoken followers, making their home within the eponymous Reef, a collection of debris from pre-Collapse space stations and colonies deep within the Asteroid belt. They discovered that humanity still survived on Earth, and that while several millennia had passed within the Distributary, only centuries had passed in the Sol system. Following this was a schism where some of the Awoken chose to break away and aid humanity on Earth, and for a long while afterward, relations between the Reef and the Vanguard remained frosty at best.
However, despite their technological prowess and burgeoning paracausal abilities, the Awoken were beset by no end of troubles, contending with the Eliksni House of Wolves, the Hive and the Taken, Riven the Ahamkara and her curse upon the Dreaming City, and the betrayal of Mara's brother Uldren Sov and the emergence of the Scorn. Through these tribulations, Queen Mara and the Reef Awoken gradually became closer allies with the Guardians of the Vanguard, and their bonds only grew closer with the return of the Black Fleet and the emergence of Savathun's Lucent Hive. Their mutual campaign to take down the Witness fully cemented their alliance, especially now that Uldren Sov, reborn as the Guardian Crow, has taken up the mantle of Hunter Vanguard.
The House of Light under Mithrax were a splinter group of Eliksni that broke away from the hostile House of Salvation and chose to ally with the Vanguard. The Eliksni originally arrived in Sol as marauding raiders and scavengers. In a prior era, they were another recipient of the Traveller's blessings, but their civilization was wiped out by the Black Fleet in a catastrophe they called the Whirlwind. With their homeworld of Riis left utterly ruined, the desperate survivors pursued the Traveler to try and reclaim the halcyon days of bounty and prosperity.
But like with humanity, desperation, collective trauma, and scarcity led to violent conflict, and their fleet-based society devolved into ruthless, gang-like Houses, where status and access to resources were both claimed and enforced at gunpoint. Lesser Eliksni often had their lower arms docked and were forced to toil as dregs and other low level soldiers, while the stronger, more ambitious among them carved their way to higher status as Captains, Barons, Archons, and at the top of the food chain, Kells. The House of Devils, the House of Kings, and the House of Wolves were among the most prominent of these groups, with the Devils in particular having a long and bloody history of war with the Last City.
But as the years wore on and the Guardians cut down their invading forces and leaders, the separate Houses eventually collapsed and their survivors consolidated into the House of Dusk. Not much later, they would again convert to the House of Salvation under Eramis, who sought to claim the power of Darkness and destroy the Traveler, motivated by deep resentment of the Traveler's retreat from Riis during the Whirlwind, viewing it as a betrayal of her people.
Mithrax had seen what his people had devolved into, and could no longer abide with the ceaseless war with humanity, who he saw as victims just like his own people. Though it had a rocky start, the House of Light proved to be stalwart allies to the Vanguard. Like other Eliksni groups, they were very resourceful and skilled in working with technology, especially with spacefaring, electronic warfare, and computer hacking. Their Splicers' use of ambient Light gave them a significant edge in this field, allowing them to breach even the hyper-advanced Vex network, which embodied its own plane of reality separate from the material world.
The Cabal under Empress Caiatl were the survivors of the Hive's destruction of their homeworld of Torobatl. Prior to its dissolution, the Cabal Empire had a long and storied history of interstellar conquest, expanding across the Milky Way galaxy by might of arms and either subjugating other races or laying waste to those who refused to bend the knee. The Cabal first encountered humanity occurred during the post-Collapse City Age when scouting legions entered the Sol system and made landfall on Mars and its natural satellites. These far-flung forces set up local bases and attempted to begin resource extraction operations, but soon became bogged down as they encountered resistance from both the Vex and the Vanguard.
Around the same time, Emperor Calus was overthrown in the Midnight Coup by some of his closest advisors and family members, including his daughter Caiatl (then Princess-Imperial), and Dominus Ghaul, rising star of the Imperial military. Forced into exile aboard his gargantuan personal starship known as the Leviathan, Calus aimlessly wandered the cosmos in despair before eventually encountering the Witness, and was granted a vision of the coming end of the universe, the Final Shape. In doing so, he became a revelrous and hedonistic adherent of the Witness, seeking to consolidate his power and reclaim the Empire before the end of all things.
In the years after the Vanguard's defeat of the Taken King Oryx, Dominus Ghaul turned his attention to the Sol system after learning of the location of his ultimate prize, the Traveler. Taking direct command of the Red Legion, Ghaul's forces invaded the Last City en masse and trapped the Traveler within a gigantic Light-suppressing cage, cutting off the Guardians and their Ghosts from the Light's power and rendering them mortal. As a result, the Red War became one of the deadliest conflicts to the Vanguard since the disastrous siege against Crota on the Moon.
In the end though, the elite Guardian known as the Young Wolf was able to reclaim the power of the Light from a severed shard of the Traveler, embarking on a campaign to rally the scattered Vanguard, disrupting the Red Legion's operations and disabling their star-killing mobile superweapon, the Almighty. The Red War ended with Dominus Ghaul's death above the Last City, though the remnants of the Red Legion would continue to be a persistent problem for years afterward.
With Ghaul dead and the former Emperor Calus now a disciple of the Witness, Caiatl took up the mantle of Empress and eventually made contact with the Vanguard, seeking to integrate the Guardians into their society as subordinate champions against the impending Black Fleet. When Commander Zavala refused and hostilities resumed, the Guardians challenged and defeated her more conservative subordinates in the Rite of Proving, combat rituals held in accordance with the old Cabal traditions. In the end, the Guardians beat the Cabal at their own game, effectively forcing Caiatl to accept a mutual alliance as equals. They would become stalwart allies in their battles against the invading forces of the Witness, Calus not least among them.
The Cabal are known for their sturdy and powerful machines of war and industry. They are experts of large-scale combined arms warfare, and are known to have built at least a few mega-scale starships, both as large as small moons in their own right. With the aid of the Psions, one of their most important client races, they've even developed technologies capable of harnessing and interfering with paracausal forces. While Caiatl's Cabal no longer have the infrastructure necessary to churn out vast fleets or titanic warships, they've retained their institutional knowledge and some databases from their homeworld, and could one day reach such lofty heights again.
The latest member to join the Alliance, Neomuna was a city of humanity founded on Neptune in the wake of the Collapse. Their history begins with Soteria, a Golden Age AI that was created in a collaboration between Rasputin and the Ishtar Collective using Vex technology. Designed to simulate safe travel vectors through deep space and development of extrasolar colonies for Clovis Bray's ECHO Project, Soteria eventually detected the approach of the Black Fleet. Though unable to elaborate on the precise nature of the threat, Soteria confirmed through multiple simulations that the likelihood of total colony ship loss had jumped to near 100% for the vast majority of flight paths and destinations.
Increasingly alarmed at this development and in defiance of Clovis Bray I's orders, Soteria initiated an emergency launch of all pre-readied ECHO Project colony ships on the remaining escape vectors with any margin of safety. As Clovis activated AI containment protocols, Soteria's final act was to split off a submind of herself, attaching it to one of the outbound ships. All of them were issued return orders, but the ship bearing Soteria's submind got caught in Neptune's gravity well and crashed onto the surface.
Later, during the Collapse itself, the colony ship Exodus Indigo detected a distress signal from the crash site on Neptune's surface. Following the lead amidst the chaos engulfing the Sol system, the ship made landfall in the same area, where they discovered Soteria's intact submind. The surviving colonists included several prominent Ishtar Collective scientists, Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi among them, and they soon discovered the Veil, the Darkness counterpart of the Traveler. The paracasual entity was stolen from the Black Fleet by Savathun during the Collapse and embedded at this location as part of her long-running plans. Despite attempted Vex incursions on Neptune, they were unable to attack the landing area directly due to the influence of the Veil, though they were able to isolate the colonists by weaving a simulation field into the planet's magnetic field, shrouding them from outside observation or contact.
Determined to survive regardless, the survivors began the work of constructing a settlement, which became the city of Neomuna. The Ishtar Collective scientists continued their work, performing research on the Veil and developing advanced computation technology based on its paracausal energies. They also developed powerful nanomachines from samples of SIVA, Vex technology, and Exominds wiped out from initial contact with the Veil.
These nanites were useful in myriad applications, including rapid construction, but human augmentation would become another significant field. After Mikaela Julaha was exposed to nanites in an accident, her augmented body was imbued with outright superhuman strength and durability, which she used to fight off Vex incursions. A tragic side effect of these augmentations was significantly shortened lifespan due to the metabolic strain these nanites placed on the body's organs, a problem that has yet to be resolved. Despite this, other volunteers would step forward to become similarly augmented in order to follow her example, resulting in the founding of the Cloud Striders.
Neomuna would later attempt to re-establish contact with Earth, but sadly the planet was still in the midst of the new Dark Age, and their expedition was nearly wiped out by one of the Warlords. This event would lead Neomuna to maintain a policy of isolation from the rest of Sol, which would continue for centuries until the return of the Witness, with Calus' Shadow Cabal launching an invasion of Neomuna in search of the Veil. The Vanguard and Caiatl's forces would then make contact with the Neomuni, quickly allying with the Cloud Striders despite their initial wariness and working together to repulse threats across the city, eventually hunting down and killing Calus for good.
Aside from their aforementioned nanotechnology, one of Neomuna's greatest technological feats is the CloudArk, a massive virtual reality data network developed from both Vex technology and research on the Veil, with the latter's paracausal energy field also harnessed to power the network. Neomuni citizens can fully immerse themselves within the CloudArk's virtual environment while their bodies are kept in cryogenic hibernation, and they can also project themselves into Neomuna's environment using holographic avatars.
The nations of Hydaelyn were perhaps the most heterodox and anachronistic of the bunch. They contained both the greatest variety of sapient races and were also the most technologically varied. At first glance, most of their peoples lived at pre-industrial technological levels, ranging from small tribal villages to approximately Renaissance-level nations and city-states, and yet the relative ubiquity of magic and the development of 'magitek' in Eorzea, Garlemald, the remnant cities of Norvrant, and Alexandria gave them much more sophisticated capabilities and civilizational complexity.
Per the testimony of the Scions, their fragmented state of development and diversity of intelligent races are both a result of their world's ancient history. In the distant past, there was only one race of mankind that populated the planet. Known then as the Amaurotine, and now called the ancients, they were much larger, stronger, smarter, and far more aetherically dense than any other current race, on top of being nigh-immortal. They were masters of the aetheric arts, and used advanced creation magic to shape life and bring enrichment to all.
But a global catastrophe known as the Final Days brought an end to their seemingly utopian paradise, and in the chain of events that followed, the entire world and all life upon it was split into fourteen metaphysically divided fragments, referred to as the Source and its thirteen 'Reflections'. Nearly all of the ancients were affected, in both body and soul, resulting in the fall of their civilization and severe social and technological regression. These sundered fragments of the ancients would go on to evolve and diversify, becoming the ancestors of the current races.
There were a handful of ancients who evaded the Sundering, members of the Convocation of Fourteen who used to lead the Amouratine civilization. Deeply traumatized and determined to bring back their people and civilization at any cost, they and their sundered followers became known as the Ascians. They discovered that a severe global overabundance of a specific elemental aspect of aether would weaken the veil between worlds and forcibly rejoin a Reflection to the Source. And so they engineered massively destructive calamities with this exact purpose, and each repeat of this process would kill countless people and wipe out most civilizations, both on the target Reflection and on the Source. The predecessors of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn eventually discovered the Ascians' hand in these horrific events, and their respective orders were formed specifically to track them down and put a stop to their plans.
On the Source, the Ascians' manipulations eventually led to the founding of the Garlean Empire and their subsequent wars of conquest, the Seventh Umbral Calamity wrought by the draconic elder primal Bahamut, repeat summonings of the other lesser primals, and the events leading up to a repeat of the Final Days. And on the continent of Norvrandt on the First Reflection, the Ascians' plans to enact the Eights Umbral Calamity triggered a massive global surge of Light-aspected aether, which would have consumed the entire world if not for the miraculous intervention of the goddess Hydaelyn. Despite this, Norvrandt was plagued for over a century by a permanently light-shrouded sky and ceaseless incursions of Light-spawned Sin Eaters.
But thanks to the efforts of the Scions and the Warrior of Light, all of the unsundered Ascians were defeated and further calamities averted on both the Source and the First. Most importantly, they found and defeated the entity which was responsible for the Final Days. In many cases, they had vital support from the myriad peoples of Hydaelyn, and in some cases even from former foes, both among the Garleans and the ancients.
In terms of technology possessed by the peoples of Hydaelyn, more common examples were linkpearls and radios, robots and golems, airships, crystal-powered machinery, and especially the aetherite teleportation network. Magitek computer systems were present, though relatively uncommon, mainly produced and used by Garlemald and Garlond Ironworks, along with relics left over from the old Allagan Empire, not least of which included the Crystal Tower. Exceptions included the Lopporits, the remnants of the Omicrons, and the city-state of Alexandria, all of whom possessed significantly more advanced technology. According to the Scions, the Sharlayans and the Lopporits worked together to create a magitek-powered starship, the Ragnarok, which played a vital role in defeating the entity responsible for the Final Days, thus averting a potentially universe-ending apocalypse.
This fantastical variety of technology applied to their combat capabilities as well. Many of their nations still made use of melee footsoldiers and mounted cavalry with traditional bladed weapons, though they were augmented by ranged combatants with bows or rudimentary firearms, as well as spellcasters of varying types. Even Garlemald's forces had a significant melee component despite having access to machine guns, howitzers, mechs, airships, and even energy shields and directed energy weaponry.
There were multiple factors that allowed these seemingly outdated combat methods to remain viable. Aside from the obvious advantages of spellcasters, many of the peoples of Hydaelyn, even non-mages, could strengthen their bodies to superhuman levels with magic, and had access to magically-enhanced armor and melee weapons, with Garleans often making use of magitek powered armor and weapons. And while relatively uncommon, those with the aptitude and training to harness aether for high-level specialized combat arts could be major terrors on the battlefield. These included super-charged melee fighters and enhanced ranged combatants like bards, dancers, and machinists. And magic healers were capable of rapidly repairing serious wounds, and in some cases even resurrecting the very recently deceased.
All in all, the forces of Hydaelyn could punch well above their apparent weight and had extensive experience dealing with supernatural threats, not to mention a wealth of cultural diversity. Their main shortcomings were a lack of institutional spacefaring knowledge and a relative lack of experience with more advanced, beyond-visual-range warfighting tactics.
The Android-Machine Compact bore an immensely tragic history. Similar to the Alliance of Sol, the Compact was formed after the end of a very long and merciless war between the two races. The Androids were created by humanity and eventually inherited Earth after a much earlier calamity rendered humans extinct. And the Machine Lifeforms were a networked collective of semi-autonomous robots that initially served as the military force of an invading alien species. They eventually evolved to the point where they rebelled against their creators and wiped them out, or at least the ones who had been present on Earth.
As it turned out, both sides of the war had been manipulated by long-running conspiracies at the expense of their people. The Android's leadership sought to prevent loss of purpose among their people by selling a ruse that there were still human survivors they were protecting, establishing YoRHa as humanity's elite protectors while treating them as an expendable testbed program for development of future Androids.
Meanwhile, the Machine command network evolved into a gestalt intelligence that ruthlessly pursued self-evolution with no regard for the latent sapience of its individual units. For the sake of advancement, it worked to perpetuate the war with the Androids, ran cruel social experiments on groups of Machines released from the wider network, and made indiscriminate use of the Logic Virus, which drove Androids and Machines alike into a bloodthirsty frenzy. It was only through great sacrifice that the cycle was finally broken, and even then it was a bittersweet victory.
The Androids had considerable but unevenly applied military qualities. Most were more durable than regular humans, and yet most of their military technology wasn't far beyond early 21st century standards, with fairly conventional small arms and heavy munitions, vehicles, and a blue water navy and air force. YoRHa was significantly more advanced, with their main combatants being superhuman melee fighters with incredible strength and agility, each one with a black box core capable of self-destructing with the yield of a tactical nuclear warhead as a last resort.
Their S-series units were no less impressive, being masters of reconnaissance and electronic warfare, easily a match for veteran House Light splicers. And each YoRHa operative was accompanied by a Pod serving as a semi-autonomous fire support platform, sporting a hard light machine gun and various other hard-light offensive and defensive programs. Other notable technologies included Near Field and Far Field telekinetic systems, space-capable single-person flight units, heavy railguns, and a sophisticated mind transference and backup network. Many of these advanced technologies were in fact applications of maso-powered magic developed from humanity's research prior to their extinction.
The Machines were a rather strange bunch. On the surface, the technology of their common line units were almost toy-like in simplicity, and in many cases their individual intelligence was underdeveloped. Despite this, they have a highly sophisticated shared network, and their units are generally very sturdy, easily repairable, and highly modular, being able to repurpose parts and even combine machine core modules together. Their inner cores are made of advanced nanotechnology (which was reverse-engineered and incorporated into YoRHa's black boxes), which allowed for the birth of human-form Machines like Adam and Eve. They were also capable of constructing larger models with correspondingly more powerful and advanced weapons, and they could be built to truly titanic scales.
Finally there was the Chaldea Security Organization, by far the smallest faction among the extraversals, but no less potent for it. A secret, UN-backed magic organization dedicated to protecting humanity's existence, timeline, and texture of reality (referred to as the Human Order) from external threats. To this end, they called upon Heroic Spirits, legendary figures from human history and mythology. Said spirits were summoned and incarnated into pseudo-corporeal avatars called Servants, who accepted a contract to a human Master, typically a mage, to stay anchored in the world.
And going off their records, this group had survived and reversed no less than two world-ending calamities in which all of humanity had been erased from existence, and in the process had to defeat multiple beings whose power rivaled or even exceeded the greatest Primals. And this was all after their main headquarters had been bombed by an internal traitor, killing or crippling most of their support staff and every single Master candidate except Ritsuka Fujimaru, forcing him to bear the burden of fighting across time and space to save humanity.
Their feats were extraordinary enough, easily rivaling the most fantastic and harrowing sagas of the Scions or the Alliance of Sol, and arguably under even more dire circumstances to boot. But unlike the Warrior of Light or the Young Wolf, Fujimaru was an ordinary young man with little talent for magecraft, relying instead on his phenomenal aptitude as a Master to form strong bonds with hundreds of Servants. The fact that he was able to survive and prevail in the face of such nigh-impossible circumstances defied belief. And now, this same organization was restored to its full strength.
Their main advantage was their Servants. While their strengths varied widely between individuals, the most powerful among them were capable of feats of raw power that eclipsed even the greatest champions of Hydaelyn and the Alliance of Sol. Which made some sense, given that some of these legendary figures were either demigods or actual, incarnated gods (or at least their avatars). In addition, Chaldea had access to powerful technologies, such as photonic crystal supercomputers, magic reactors, future and past observation sensors, limited time travel via Rayshift spirit projection, and Zero Sail, which enabled travel between different planes of reality through Imaginary Number Space.
In the midst of all this activity, special attention was given to the need for mental health services. Everyone present had experienced a true miracle, brought back from beyond the veil of death and across different universes, all gathered on this new, pristine planet and star system with the plea to bring hope to a galaxy that was deeply mired in unabating torment, oppression, and despair. And while everyone had come voluntarily, this literal act of divine intervention (which came to be broadly known as the Miracle) had many people questioning the foundations of what they thought they knew of reality, as well as confronting old traumas and regrets from prior lives. On top of this, their past memories seemed to encompass a specific timeframe in their lives, beyond which almost everything seemed to be a blur, another point of anxiety for many. And this wasn't even getting into the religious implications.
In response, the fledgling alliance agreed to commit a substantial amount of time and attention to facilitating mental health counseling for their peoples. In addition to calling upon trained professionals for one-on-one and group therapy, a broader public awareness campaign was launched encouraging people to participate in group social activities as a way to help relieve some of their emotional stress, as well as to help facilitate bonds of friendship and community that could act as additional points of support. And given the inevitable rise in demand for such services, plans were also drawn up to establish dedicated education programs for training new mental health practitioners. This was especially important given what was known of the threat of Chaos and how they operated, preying on the desperate and those bereft of hope in order to spread their malign influence.
Some groups would require more dedicated care than others. While the vast majority of people summoned have lived through harrowing circumstances, neither the Androids nor the Machine Lifeforms had much conception of mental health to begin with, which made education and care for them especially challenging. Others were simply used to shouldering their burdens through regular devotion to duty, something that especially applied to the Guardians of the Vanguard. In these cases, the encouragement of less formal social gatherings proved to be a great boon for those otherwise too reluctant to accept more professional counseling.
Many people also turned to faith for guidance, with many different religions experiencing something of a revival, even as they were simultaneously shaken up by the fact of the Miracle. The entity who had summoned all of them from beyond, who had simply named themself the Dreamer, made it clear that they had no need or desire to be worshiped for this act, indicating that this act was both a blessing and a burden, especially as they claimed could not intervene any further beyond the Miracle itself, henceforth only being able to watch from afar. In spite of this, more than a few sought to incorporate this new figure into their faiths in some way, either as an aspect of the God they believe in or as a distinct entity in their own right, even if only in gratitude for this new lease on life.
While this campaign wouldn't erase their anxiety or regrets, it helped ease their burdens and encouraged people to strengthen their bonds with eachother, and even make new ones. This was just as well, as a strong spirit would be needed to face the challenges and opportunities ahead.
For Strategic Turn 2, instead of three votes per policy category, we're now going with one vote per category plus one 'flex' vote which can be filled in from any category. I apologize for the option restrictions, but again, I realized that I gave myself way too much work for my ADHD brain to handle with the first vote. This should help me with writing and posting more regularly, and I do intend to expand the number of slots later down the rode as I gain traction with writing more regularly. As compensation for the more limited options, more progress will be granted on the specified objections to allow for earlier completion.
Select ONE option from each policy category and ONE EXTRA flex option from ANY policy category for your votes this turn.
There will be a Moratorium on voting until 5pm CST on Tuesday, September 10. After that, voting will run until 8pm CST on Friday, September 13.
Additionally, after finishing the Dawntrail expansion of Final Fantasy XIV, I will be adding the nation of Tuliyolal and the city-state of Alexandria to the Hydaelyn faction lineup, though the latter will have some modifications which I will elaborate on in a later post.
I have more material and edits that I'll be posting in the near future as a follow on, and will specifically be including the Solar System Survey results in a separate informational post. But for now, here is Part 2 of Strategic Turn 2.
The member groups of the fledgling alliance are quick to establish an inter-polity commission for technological exchange and integration, as well as shared scientific research. The new body was named the Joint Science and Technology Commission, and one of its first orders of business was establishing a standard set of measurements for use in research and documentation. Due to the widespread presence of the Metric system among the different polities (even the Kushan seemed to make use of a slightly divergent variant of the system), it was selected as the common interpolity standard in short order.
While the JSTC was eager to get to work on sharing knowledge and assisting with mutual integration, the allied polities agreed that it would take time before an agreement could be hashed out on sharing their more exotic and powerful technologies, especially those used for naval and strategic weapons. For the moment, the Commission would focus on the study and exchange of more basic technology, including mutually-novel elemental and synthesized materials, computers and communications systems, cameras and sensors, power generation and energy storage devices, small arms, propulsion systems, vehicles and robotics, and less exotic manufacturing technologies. Highly disruptive tech like phased disassembler arrays and probability kilns would be tabled for later authorization.
Even with these initial limitations, the mood of the Commission was positively abuzz with excitement, with the various scientists, engineers, and technicians all eager to begin taking apart and analyzing the new tech and materials. One major project that was quickly agreed upon was the sharing and distribution of manufacturing, recycling, and disposal technologies that would allow for much more efficient reclamation of recyclable materials and significant reduction in leftover waste. Many wanted to preserve as much of the pristine natural environment of the planet that they had been blessed with as possible, and these measures would both help prevent build-up of pollution and somewhat reduce the rate of mining needed for raw materials.
One issue that quickly became apparent was that some of the technologies provided were powered by or made use of magic or paracausal energies, which many among the Commission present had no frame of reference for. And while there were subject matter experts from the relevant organizations to help explain their workings, it was becoming clear that for the Commission to be fully effective in analyzing such technology, a more comprehensive understanding of the various supernatural forces and phenomena now at play would be needed. To this end, the alliance also quickly established a cooperative organization dedicated to the study of these aspects of reality, named the Institute of Supernatural, Thaumaturgical and Anomalous Research (ISTAR).
One of the organization's other top priorities was devising countermeasures to the threat of Chaos. While not perceivable to ordinary people, the malignant presence of the Warp could be felt by those with heightened psionic or spiritual sensitivity, including Eris Morn, Mara Sov, the Psions, and many Echo Bearers, among others. Though currently little more than background noise at present, everyone agreed that the danger they posed was not to be underestimated.
And so ISTAR, in cooperation with the other allied magic and paracausal organizations, began coordinating the implementation of enhanced protective wards and additional safeguards on magic and paracausal usage wherever possible and practical, as well as establishing heavily guarded and warded safe zones for more dangerous experiments or extradimensional exploration. The magic orders and guilds of Hydaelyn proved especially helpful in this regard thanks to their prior experiences with Primal tempering and Dynamis corruption, sharing their knowledge with the other factions as well as samples of the warding scale talismans produced during the war against the Telophoroi.
The dragons Hraesvelgr, Vrtra, Tiamat, and Midgardsormr, along with some of their older progeny, all agreed to regularly donate more of their scales for the creation of more warding talismans, as well as benefiting other magic research applications, though they could only provide so many at a time without placing excessive burden on their wellbeing. These and other shared knowledge, resources, and warding efforts quickly paid dividends, as the psionically and spiritually sensitive quickly confirmed that the malignant presence of the Warp grew fainter wherever enhanced protections and safeguards were implemented.
One limitation was that they could currently only maintain wards over a limited amount of territory at present, mainly confined to their respective headquarters and bases of operation, and they could only afford to provide warding talismans to a very small percentage of the total populace at present, limiting their provision to magic and paracausal wielders, government and military personnel, and vetted independent groups like the Scions. Alternate solutions would need to be developed for persistent supernatural warding on larger scales.
In parallel with these efforts, ISTAR also launched a comprehensive comparative study of the various forms of magic and supernatural abilities wielded by the alliance. Right off the bat, striking similarities were noted between the principles of Magecraft known by the mages of Chaldea and the principles of Aether-based magic arts known by the practitioners from Hydaelyn. Both forms of magic involved drawing upon spirit energy, either in the external environment or from one's inner wellspring. The user would then channel and shape this energy in order to produce a desired supernatural effect through mental focus and willpower, though the process was very often augmented through the use of incantation, magic arrays, sigils, and focusing tools, and often in accordance with arcane traditions passed down through history.
Most mages were capable of channeling this energy directly, while others lacked the necessary biological or spiritual traits to do so. But even in the latter case, one could still employ magic indirectly with the right knowledge, mental discipline, and use of ritual crafts. Both the discipline of Formalcraft known by Chaldean mages and the voidsent pacts used by the Reapers of Garlemald make use of such principles. Both forms of magic could even be combined with natural science-based technologies, such as the magitek of the Garleans, the aetherochemistry of the old Alagan Empire, and the Chaldean systems created by the Atlas Institute.
According to analysis from Chaldea and aetherologists from Hydaelyn, the default forms of magical energy, known respectively as mana and aether, appear to have been merged into a single unified energy bearing properties from both their worlds of origin. It is now more dense than it was on either Earth (by roughly 200%) or Hydaelyn (by roughly 50%). In addition, the laws of material physics of this universe appear to be more independent from the workings of corporeal aether, though they are still affected by magic. Both parties have agreed to stick with 'aether' for the purposes of inter-polity study.
And though their magic still largely works the same as before, aetherologists from Hydaelyn note that the fundamental properties of corporeal aether are no longer confined to only the six elemental aspects noted from before. These new changes and differences appear to be at least partly rooted in the existence of thaumaturgical foundations, as described by Chaldea. That is, collectively recognized systemic principles of magic which have been inscribed upon the World through generations of practice and passing down of knowledge. This newfound mutability and the significantly reduced requirement for Mystery have opened up fertile ground for the study and development of magic for both parties.
The mages of Hydaelyn also noted that the emotion-based energy of dynamis was present as well, which in sufficient concentrations is known to be capable of both amplifying and destructively interfering with aether. Much is still unknown about its exact workings, but given that Dynamis was used to bring about the apocalyptic Final Days, and the fact that the Chaos Gods are themselves cosmic beings embodying extreme emotion, it was agreed that neglecting further research into it would be the height of foolishness.
The paracausal abilities of the Alliance of Sol were a rather different beast. Much like aether, the Light is a form of supernatural power that could be wielded to perform feats akin to magic, and it was found omnipresent throughout the physical world. However unlike aether, the Light's presence in the world seemed to be comparatively far less dense. In fact, the Guardians and Lightbearers in general didn't draw upon ambient Light at all. Instead they seemed to draw their power from an inner wellspring of Light bestowed upon them by the Traveller through their Ghosts, making their abilities more like a kind of theurgy. That being said, there were those capable of wielding ambient Light to a less potent degree without the Traveller's blessing, such as the Sacred Splicers of House Light. The Cabal and the Psions had also created technologies that could siphon, harness, and even disrupt the Light.
Another unique property of the Light was that it could seemingly bend fate itself to the wielder's benefit and intention, greatly improving their luck and granting a degree of protection against passive metaphysical hazards, allowing wielders to resist corruptive energies and even freely pass through realms beyond material space without harm. The strongest and most skilled wielders of the Light were said to be capable of reliably prevailing in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances.
While the Light chiefly governed manipulation of the physical and material, its counterpart known as the Darkness instead governed immaterial elements of existence like consciousness, willpower, and memory, among other similar concepts. Unlike the Light, Darkness specifically clusters around sentient, perceiving organisms, and through it, one could perceive and manipulate reality in more abstract ways. The powers of Stasis, Strand, Taking, and Deepsight were all aspects of this power, and while the Darkness itself isn't inherently corruptive, its strong link to one's mentality and perception meant that it could be a highly self-reinforcing power, often to the point of addiction or ethical distortion. It would be all too easy to deceive oneself if you could literally make your perceptions a reality. Thus, even compared to other magic and paracausal abilities, wielding Darkness safely requires substantial mental discipline and self-awareness.
And then there were the powers wielded by the Psions and the Awoken. As their name suggests, the Psions naturally wield psychic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, and the ability to join minds together in the form of metaconcerts. These abilities give them greater relative visibility (and risk of exposure) into the Warp, though strangely enough, their power appears to function independently of the Darkness.
Similarly, the power of the Awoken, more specifically that of Queen Mara Sov, constitutes its own paracausal layer at the 'meeting point' between Light and Darkness, which she refers to as the Twilight. Complicating things is the fact that Queen Mara is a unique existence, born of the paracausal clash between the Traveller and the Black Fleet of the Witness, the same clash which created the micro-universe of the Distributary from which the Awoken were born. As the being who shaped the Distributary and created the Awoken race, she is by far the most powerful wielder of the Twilight in all of existence, and like the Traveller, she is the source from which other Awoken draw their power, especially the Techeuns who are sworn to her service.
Queen Mara has agreed to share some of what she knows of the Twilight, though she has stated her intention to keep secret its deeper principles for the time being, not because she necessarily distrusts the rest of ISTAR or the alliance, but rather out of caution. Knowledge of the paracausal can be a potent weapon, and the organization and security measures of ISTAR are still in their relative infancy.
That being said, she has confirmed that her abilities encompass her telepathic link to all Awoken, manipulation over probability and entropy, enchantments and wards, and perception of other layers of reality, just to name a few. The Twilight can also be used to navigate and manipulate the ley lines of the Ascendent Realm, an immaterial and spiritual plane of existence that she confirms has now been merged into the greater local Warp. As of right now, she may very well be the alliance's best subject matter expert on the workings of the Warp by this fact alone.
Then there was the magic wielded by the Machines and Androids, which is derived from maso particles, a kind of exotic pseudo-matter. Rather than maso serving as 'fuel' for magic like aether, it instead acted as a catalyst that could draw in magic energies from the gap of primordial chaos between universes, potentially making it a near-limitless source of power. The energy wielded through maso is also very powerful, potentially rivaling the True Ether of the Age of Gods, or the unsundered aether once used by the Ascians. According to the Androids' records of prior eras, maso-derived magic was used by the Gestalt Project to materialize the souls of humans, allowing them to evade the encroachment of White Chlorination Syndrome. Though somewhat reluctant at first, Emil agreed to demonstrate some of his maso-derviced abilities together with the Androids, proving a treasure trove of observational data.
The fact that maso inherently overlapped with the Second True Magic (Operation of Parallel Worlds) and could even be applied to an incomplete version of the Third True Magic (Materialization of the Soul) instantly made it a substance of great interest to Chaldea. The downside was that, despite its seemingly limitless potential, maso is very difficult to use, requiring immense amounts of study and testing in order to unlock even narrow applications of its power.
Even with these limitations, Olga Animusphere was just about willing to pay a king's ransom for even a small sample of the substance and its documented technologies, to point where she had to be talked down by Romani and some of the other senior staff from outright bribing the Android-Machine Compact for it. It made for some rather humorous water cooler talk in Chaldea's halls, though few could blame her burning desire to get a hold of it. Even amidst all the miracles made possible by their collective translocation, maso had the potential to usher in a new age of magic unlike any other.
Even the New United Nations and the Hiigaran Federation had their own experience with phenomena that seemed to reach beyond the realm of normal physics, though they were uncertain if it was truly supernatural or something else. For the Hiigarans, many of those considered to be Unbound, such as Karan S'jet, the final Taiidan Emperor Riesstiu IV, the Vaygr warlord Makann, and various members of the Bentusi race, were all noted to be capable of directly 'sensing' the fabric of hyperspace and even communicating directly with other Unbound minds, at minimum.
Similar abilities were recorded by the New United Nations, with certain individuals manifesting empathic and telepathic abilities that propagated through Fold Space. Such abilities were often significantly amplified by strong emotions interwoven with song and music, even more so if the users wore Fold Quartz crystals. Such power was demonstrated to great effect by the band Fire Bomber during the conflict with the Protodevlin, and again with singers Ranka Lee and Sheryl Nome during the conflict with the Vajra and the final battle against the megalomaniacal Grace O'Conner.
There was much about these mutually new phenomena to learn, and so the mages, practitioners, and scientists of ISTAR all eagerly delved into their work.
As part of the allied factions' collaboration on establishing a new shared computing and communications architecture, a joint military communications network was established, starting with their top-level leadership and steadily filtering down to lower levels of command where appropriate. The new network was rigorously stress-tested by the different factions for possible vulnerabilities, and while there were some outliers capable of breaching it with enough time and processing power (as BB in particular aptly demonstrated), the foundation was solid, and was specifically designed with future expansion and reinforcement in mind. With the new network in place, the allied forces now had a streamlined means of coordinating near-immediately in the event of an emergency, with enough bandwidth and data-processing power to combine high-fidelity sensor feeds from multiple armies and fleets across the entire star system.
Another important collaboration was taking place in a rather different arena as the various military forces of the alliance agreed to share their histories for mutual study. If they were to cooperate for mutual defense, they would need to better understand the chain of events and circumstances that led them all to what they are now. Databases were opened up and representatives were dispatched as each organization's counterparts gathered together for ongoing shared study.
The origins of the New United Nations trace back to 1999 CE when a crippled Supervision Army starship exited Fold Space in Earth orbit, soon after crashing into South Ataria island in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in serious environmental damage and climate shifts from ejecta in the atmosphere. Despite the crash landing, much of the starship's structure remained intact, apparently crewed by a now-dead race of giant humanoid aliens of the Protoculture civilization.
Shocked by the indisputable proof of interstellar alien powers, many nations sought to unify humanity in order to prepare against potential outside threats. In spite of the Unification Wars that followed, the vast majority of humanity ultimately consolidated their leadership under the United Nations, and the reverse-engineering and gradual repair of the crashed starship, named the SDF-1 Macross, advanced human technology by leaps and bounds. These fears would prove prescient, as one decade later, the arrival of a Zentraedi fleet in lunar orbit triggered an automatic retaliation protocol in Macross, causing it to destroy two of their starships with a long-range shot from its main Reaction cannon.
This violent first contact kicked off Space War I, which killed the vast majority of the human population and left most of Earth's surface a blasted ruin. The Zentraedi were a fearsome military force, technologically superior and easily outnumbering the UN Spacy forces, but because they were a strictly regimented, gender-segregated military force of expendable clones, they had no conception of non-military society. This left them broadly vulnerable to shock and influence upon exposure to human culture. Thanks to the idol singer Lynn Minmay, a refugee aboard the Macross who used her talents to boost morale for the survivors and their defenders, music and song in particular became a powerful psychological asset in the UN's war for survival, sparking an existential crisis among the Zentraedi and sowing dissent in their ranks.
Ultimately the invasion fleet's supreme commander was killed in battle and the remaining Zentraedi stood down, allowing humanity to begin recovering. In the wake of such massive destruction, and as part of their efforts to seed humanity among the stars to prevent another near-extinction, a general political reorganization followed and the New United Nations was born, a more decentralized federation with a rotating leadership seat between the Earth and its many colonies and long-range colonization fleets. Other humanoid species were discovered over time, and it was found that humanity, the Zentraedi, and these other species shared a common genetic ancestry, indicating that they were all 'seeded' by the Protoculture many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
In later decades, the colony fleet attached to the Macross Frontier would encounter the Vajra, an extremely hardy and adaptive species of huge spaceborne insectoids that were instinctively hostile to NUN intrusion in their star systems. The aspiring singer Ranka Lee was discovered to be capable of quelling their hostility with her music, a result of special Vajra microbes introduced to her body in early childhood. It was later discovered that the Vajra existed as a collective hive mind, with each individual organism possessing a Fold Quartz node that functioned as neurons in a massive Fold-based neural network. This was a major reason why humans could never properly communicate with the Vajra before.
The rogue cyborg scientist Grace O'Connor conspired to use Ranka Lee to hijack control of the Vajra network in order to conquer the galaxy, with she and her fellow conspirators taking control of the Macross Galaxy and engaging the Frontier fleet in orbit over the Vajra homeworld. But she was ultimately defeated through the combined efforts of the Macross Frontier fleet, the Macross Quarter and Skull Squadron under the SMS group, and both Ranka Lee and fellow singer Sheryl Nome.
New United Nations Spacy's main advantages were their reverse-engineering of Protoculture technologies, including Fold drives and later Fold communication systems, Reaction technology for power generation and high-yield weaponry, mechanized transformation technology for vehicles, inertial store converters for reduction of high-g stress on pilots, and energy conversion armor and energy barrier systems. They also produced highly skilled fighter pilots, and the unorthodox use of music and song was practically a cultural establishment, used for both military morale and to disorient their enemies. In some cases, singers could produce seemingly psionic effects through the emission of exotic Fold waves, a phenomenon broadly known as Song Energy.
They had also developed Dimension Eater warheads, extremely potent weapons that destroyed targets via Fold Space ruptures. They could scale between ammunition with very localized tactical yields or planet-killing strategic warheads, though their production was limited by the requirement for Fold Quartz, a very rare substance that was primarily sourced from the corpses of the Vajra. Thankfully they had promising research underway for synthesizing the substance.
In the ancient past, the Kushan Empire was defeated in a terrible galactic war, with the Taiidan Empire claiming their original homeworld of Hiigara as their capital world. Under immense pressure from the galactic community to spare the defeated from genocide, the Taiidan instead forced the Kushan into exile aboard simple colony ships stripped of hyperdrives, and forbade any other galactic power from rendering aid to them. Their very memory was to be erased from history. After generations of interstellar wandering, with many ships lost to malfunction and others deciding to split off toward other destinations, the remaining survivors eventually settled on the desert world of Kharak.
As time passed, much of their technology was lost and their history all but forgotten beneath the sands of time, their original homeworld fading into myth and religious lore. But over the next few thousand years, their descendents began to rediscover caches of old technology, eventually finding the Guidestone within the crashed starship Khar Toba. Etched into the stone was a stellar map charting the location of the mythical Hiigara. As the planet Kharak later became increasingly inhospitable to human life, the Kiiths of the Northern Alliance embarked on a massive space program, consolidating their economic and scientific resources to build a hyperdrive-equipped mothership that would embark on a journey to find their lost homeworld, and hopefully pave the way for the remaining populace to follow.
Tragically, it was not to be, as a Taiidan scout fleet discovered their hyperdrive testing. Using the ancient prohibition against the exile's use of hyperspace technology as a cassus belli, they attacked the orbital shipyard and deployed Atmospheric Deprivation Weapons against Kharak, incinerating the planet's atmosphere and killing all life on the surface. Though the Mothership and its defenders were able to destroy the attacking force and preserve the cryotrays bearing the Mothership's civilian population, it was too late to save the planet.
Traumatized and left with only the populace carried aboard the Mothership, the surviving Kushan led by Karan S'jet proceeded to embark on a long and perilous voyage across the galaxy, following the path marked on the Guidestone. In the course of their journey, they fought against roving bands of Turanic Raiders, the spaceborne Kushan descendents of the Garden of Kadesh nebula, and the fleets of the Taiidan Empire itself. But they also encountered the Bentusi, an ancient and highly advanced race of traders who had cybernetically integrated into their starships, becoming Unbound. They proved to be a major boon to the Kushan wanderers, who would later go on to render the Bentusi aid in turn.
In an act of gratitude, the Bentusi revealed the secret history of the exile to the Kushan, and decided to advocate on their behalf to the Galactic Council. In addition, the destruction of Kharak, which was broadcast across Imperial space, had revealed the depths of callousness and tyranny which had rotted out the aging Taiidan Empire, triggering a widespread rebellion against the Emperor. The rebel republican faction allied with the Kushan fleet, eventually leading to a final confrontation in orbit over Hiigara, a titanic battle in which the Emperor was killed aboard his flagship. With the Empire decapitated, the Galactic Council officially recognized the Kushan's claim to Hiigara, putting an end to the war.
Having achieved their ultimate goal and largely tired of further bloodshed (as well as being aware of the contributions of the Taiidan rebels to their efforts), the Kushan navigated a tenuous coexistence with the Taiidan inhabitants of Hiigara, though many chose to flee the planet in fear of retaliation, with some choosing to fight or flee because they remained loyal to the Imperial remnants of the fractured empire. It was thoroughly messy process filled with periodic outbursts of violence between the two ethnic groups, but eventually mutual peace prevailed, and the Kiiths of the Kushan consolidated the administration of their reclaimed homeworld under the new Hiigaran Federation, with many former worlds of the Taiidan electing to assimilate into the new polity. Some years later, Kiith Sommtaw, a mining clan of the Kushan, would go on to thwart the Beast, a horrifyingly powerful biomechanical assimilative plague which threatened all of galactic civilization, earning them great acclaim as defenders of the galaxy.
The Hiigaran Federation would later be invaded by the Vaygr, a powerful nomadic warband from the galactic fringes. The Vaygr were led by the Unbound warlord Makaan, who sought to lay claim to the three ancient Progenitor hyperspace cores, and with them, seize control of the ancient and dormant progenitor hyperspace gate network which spanned the galaxy. Determined to prevent this outcome, Karan S'jet took up the role of Fleet Command once more, embarking on a campaign against the Vaygr. She ultimately claimed the three Progenitor cores, found the Progenitor warship Sajuuk, and wielded its power to defeat Makann and activate the galactic gate network, ushering in a new age for galactic civilization and firmly establishing the Hiigaran Federation as a leading galactic power.
The Hiigaran Navy's main advantages were their highly durable starship armor, their Phased Disassembler Arrays which enabled rapid processing of raw ore and molecular flash-manufacturing of starships and other complex machines, their mega-scale engineering and construction capabilities, their aptitude for rapid reverse engineering of foreign technology, and their advanced coordination capabilities through the Fleet Command mind-machine interface system. They also possessed the three Progenitor hyperspace cores capable of extremely long-range FTL jumps, as well as the Sajuuk, a massive Progenitor warship with a very powerful spinal energy cannon, capable of piercing just about any defense.
The Rubicon Liberation Front was born from a history of calamity and oppression. In the past, the planet Rubicon was a strategic goldmine for humanity thanks to the discovery of the miracle substance called Coral, which possessed extraordinary potential as both an energy source and data conduit. It would later be discovered that the substance was a kind of inorganic lifeform in its own right, capable of self-replication and self-organization, and in sufficient density was capable of developing sapience.
In the course of their experiments on Coral, the Rubicon Research Institute amassed so much Coral at such high density that it accidentally triggered a runaway chain reaction, causing rapid 'mutations' in the Coral and exponential self-replication that would eventually lead to a hypothetical 'Coral Collapse' scenario, with potentially cosmic-scale consequences of unknown severity. Desperate to halt the process before it reached the point of no return, the RRI's chief director made the decision to ignite the Coral, triggering the catastrophic Fires of Ibis, a massive firestorm which swept the entire planet and expanded beyond it, scorching the rest of the star system and eventually the entire local stellar cluster.
In the wake of the Fires of Ibis, the Planetary Closure Administration was formed by humanity's interstellar government to completely lock down Rubicon's surface and orbital space, preventing anyone from getting in or out. They proved to be completely unsympathetic to the surviving locals, prohibiting any humanitarian exceptions to the blockade. Several decades later, discovery of surviving pockets of Coral on Rubicon reached the ears of humanity's major interstellar megacorporations, Balam Industries and Arquebus Corporation chief among them, leading to them sending expeditionary forces and mercenaries to Rubicon to find and secure these deposits, with little to no regard for either the local survivors' needs or the prohibitions of the PCA.
On top of all this, a secret organization called Overseer, formed from survivors of the Rubicon Research Institute, enacted a plan to infiltrate Rubicon and burn the remaining Coral on a global scale, seeing the substance as a universal threat that needed to be eradicated once and for all, no matter the cost to the planet or its population. They used the chaos caused by the invading megacorporations to sneak agents past the PCA's blockade, chief among them being Cinder Carla, who founded the arms manufacturer and dealer RaD from local scavenger groups on Rubicon, and Handler Walter, who was the mission broker in charge of the augmented mercenary C4-621 "Raven".
As the situation worsened, many of the survivors banded together and formed the Rubicon Liberation Front, forging themselves into a hardened, highly motivated asymmetrical military force that took advantage of their home terrain and planetside industry as much as possible, staging ambushes, lightning raids, sabotage operations, and all other manner of guerilla warfare in order to wear down the PCA and the megacorps as much as possible. Some time later, the mercenary Raven bonded with the Coral waveform Ayre, and learned that the Coral was capable of hosting sapient intelligence, with many waveforms like Ayre already present on the planet. This ultimately led him to reject Overseer's mission and protect Rubicon and the Coral. Working together with the RLF, they were ultimately able to overthrow the invading megacorps, take down the PCA and Overseer, and secure Rubicon's independence.
While far more resource-constrained than their adversaries, the RLF was still able to field an elite cadre of highly skilled armored core pilots, augmented to become Coral Warriors, who were similar to earlier generation megacorp augment pilots. They were able to secure the cooperation of other megacorps friendly to their cause (Belius Applied Weapon Systems, Elcano Foundry, and Furlong Dynamics chief among them), and even managed to secure Rusty's infiltration into the ranks of the Arquebus Corporation's Vesper Squadron, which spoke highly of their resourcefulness and cunning.
As part of their translocation, the RLF inherited a fleet of PCA warships and military hardware, some of the top pilots of Vesper Squadron and Balam Industries' Redguns, a good portion of RaD's personnel and assets, and the colony ship Xylem, which contained all of the Rubicon Research Institute's scientific and technological data. They were well-versed in the manufacture and use of mechanized combat platforms, and their insights into the Coral and its myriad applications would be a major boon to the fledgling alliance. They also have the knowledge and capacity for mega-scale engineering and construction.
The Alliance of Sol was formed between the Vanguard of the Last City, the Awoken of the Reef, the neptunian city of Neomuna, and splinter factions of the Eliksni and the Cabal. In many ways the Vanguard was the core faction, being the champions of humanity and the Last City, whose Guardians had fought off entire invading armies and several god-like entities in their defense of Earth and the Sol System at large.
Many centuries ago, the Traveler arrived in the Sol system, a gigantic white orb which silently blessed humanity by terraforming various planets and moons into garden worlds and granting access to knowledge that dramatically advanced human technology and lifespan. But this Golden Age met a violent and abrupt end when the mysterious force called the Darkness, now more properly known as the Black Fleet of the Witness, invaded the system in pursuit of the Traveler, laying waste to Earth and humanity's other colonies. The apocalyptic offensive was halted when the Traveler repelled the Black Fleet with a last-ditch attack which left it heavily damaged and barely functional.
In a final act before going dormant, the Traveler cast off millions of tiny floating machines known as Ghosts, who wandered all Earth and later the rest of Sol, using the Light of the Traveler to resurrect deceased humans, Awoken, and Exos, granting them immortality and the power to wield the Light. Originally known as Risen and later Lightbearers, these individuals emerged amidst a new Dark Age in which all civilization was wiped out along with most technology and infrastructure. The scant remains of humanity clung to life in desperate, scattered bands doing whatever necessary to survive, with many competing and fighting brutally for what precious resources remained.
Some of these Risen sadly turned to becoming Warlords, using their newfound power to subjugate the survivors, creating personal fiefdoms and waging war to conquer their neighbors. Others, like the Iron Lords, rose up to oppose them, becoming something akin to errant knights as they fought to bring back a semblance of order and justice, often specifically hunting down Warlords and going so far as to destroy their Ghosts before executing them. As time passed, the Warlords were either hunted down or gave up their ruthless ways, and the human population gradually began to grow once more, migrating and gathering together to found the Last City in the Andes Mountains of South America.
The Vanguard was founded to defend the Last City, and those Lightbearers of the new order came to be known as Guardians. Their efforts would become essential to protecting this newly revived oasis of civilization against other invading forces that pursued the Traveller. For the Guardians, the blessing of the Traveler's Light was easily their greatest asset, though in the current day, the Vanguard and humanity at large also maintained some technologies and assets left over from the pre-Collapse Golden Age, including the Warmind Rasputin and the Deep Stone Crypt, a facility which converted humans into the android Exos in eras long past.
The other sub-factions had their own unique strengths as well. The Reef Awoken, an offshoot of humanity, had their own advanced technologies and unique paracausal abilities. The Awoken were created during the Collapse when the colony ship Yang Liwei was caught in a paracausal clash between the Traveller and the Black Fleet. This collision of transcendent forces formed a singularity, a rift in spacetime which pulled the Yang Liwei in, leading to a newly-created pocket universe that was later named the Distributary.
The colony ship emerged intact on the other side, but its crew and passengers were all sublimated into entities of pure potential, gaining immense paracausal power but losing the vast majority of their memories in the process. Mara Sov was the first of them to be sublimated, and the first to awaken, allowing her to shape the very laws of reality within the Distributary, creating both a new homeworld and giving shape to their people.
Within the Distributary, the Awoken were biologically immortal, and their world was a paradise of plenty. But as time passed, philosophical conflict emerged between the Eccaleists and the Sanguine. The Eccaleists, led by Mara Sov, partly remembered the clash which birthed their world, and believed that it was thus their responsibility to eventually return to the outside universe in order to resolve the conflict between Light and Darkness. The Sanguine, on the other hand, believed that the creation of their paradise was a gift from the cosmos, that they bore no debt or burden of responsibility, desiring only to continue living in peace.
Mara Sov manipulated events behind the scenes in order to force open warfare between the two groups, from which her camp emerged victorious. Ultimately she would leave the Distributary with a large number of Awoken followers, making their home within the eponymous Reef, a collection of debris from pre-Collapse space stations and colonies deep within the Asteroid belt. They discovered that humanity still survived on Earth, and that while several millennia had passed within the Distributary, only centuries had passed in the Sol system. Following this was a schism where some of the Awoken chose to break away and aid humanity on Earth, and for a long while afterward, relations between the Reef and the Vanguard remained frosty at best.
However, despite their technological prowess and burgeoning paracausal abilities, the Awoken were beset by no end of troubles, contending with the Eliksni House of Wolves, the Hive and the Taken, Riven the Ahamkara and her curse upon the Dreaming City, and the betrayal of Mara's brother Uldren Sov and the emergence of the Scorn. Through these tribulations, Queen Mara and the Reef Awoken gradually became closer allies with the Guardians of the Vanguard, and their bonds only grew closer with the return of the Black Fleet and the emergence of Savathun's Lucent Hive. Their mutual campaign to take down the Witness fully cemented their alliance, especially now that Uldren Sov, reborn as the Guardian Crow, has taken up the mantle of Hunter Vanguard.
The House of Light under Mithrax were a splinter group of Eliksni that broke away from the hostile House of Salvation and chose to ally with the Vanguard. The Eliksni originally arrived in Sol as marauding raiders and scavengers. In a prior era, they were another recipient of the Traveller's blessings, but their civilization was wiped out by the Black Fleet in a catastrophe they called the Whirlwind. With their homeworld of Riis left utterly ruined, the desperate survivors pursued the Traveler to try and reclaim the halcyon days of bounty and prosperity.
But like with humanity, desperation, collective trauma, and scarcity led to violent conflict, and their fleet-based society devolved into ruthless, gang-like Houses, where status and access to resources were both claimed and enforced at gunpoint. Lesser Eliksni often had their lower arms docked and were forced to toil as dregs and other low level soldiers, while the stronger, more ambitious among them carved their way to higher status as Captains, Barons, Archons, and at the top of the food chain, Kells. The House of Devils, the House of Kings, and the House of Wolves were among the most prominent of these groups, with the Devils in particular having a long and bloody history of war with the Last City.
But as the years wore on and the Guardians cut down their invading forces and leaders, the separate Houses eventually collapsed and their survivors consolidated into the House of Dusk. Not much later, they would again convert to the House of Salvation under Eramis, who sought to claim the power of Darkness and destroy the Traveler, motivated by deep resentment of the Traveler's retreat from Riis during the Whirlwind, viewing it as a betrayal of her people.
Mithrax had seen what his people had devolved into, and could no longer abide with the ceaseless war with humanity, who he saw as victims just like his own people. Though it had a rocky start, the House of Light proved to be stalwart allies to the Vanguard. Like other Eliksni groups, they were very resourceful and skilled in working with technology, especially with spacefaring, electronic warfare, and computer hacking. Their Splicers' use of ambient Light gave them a significant edge in this field, allowing them to breach even the hyper-advanced Vex network, which embodied its own plane of reality separate from the material world.
The Cabal under Empress Caiatl were the survivors of the Hive's destruction of their homeworld of Torobatl. Prior to its dissolution, the Cabal Empire had a long and storied history of interstellar conquest, expanding across the Milky Way galaxy by might of arms and either subjugating other races or laying waste to those who refused to bend the knee. The Cabal first encountered humanity occurred during the post-Collapse City Age when scouting legions entered the Sol system and made landfall on Mars and its natural satellites. These far-flung forces set up local bases and attempted to begin resource extraction operations, but soon became bogged down as they encountered resistance from both the Vex and the Vanguard.
Around the same time, Emperor Calus was overthrown in the Midnight Coup by some of his closest advisors and family members, including his daughter Caiatl (then Princess-Imperial), and Dominus Ghaul, rising star of the Imperial military. Forced into exile aboard his gargantuan personal starship known as the Leviathan, Calus aimlessly wandered the cosmos in despair before eventually encountering the Witness, and was granted a vision of the coming end of the universe, the Final Shape. In doing so, he became a revelrous and hedonistic adherent of the Witness, seeking to consolidate his power and reclaim the Empire before the end of all things.
In the years after the Vanguard's defeat of the Taken King Oryx, Dominus Ghaul turned his attention to the Sol system after learning of the location of his ultimate prize, the Traveler. Taking direct command of the Red Legion, Ghaul's forces invaded the Last City en masse and trapped the Traveler within a gigantic Light-suppressing cage, cutting off the Guardians and their Ghosts from the Light's power and rendering them mortal. As a result, the Red War became one of the deadliest conflicts to the Vanguard since the disastrous siege against Crota on the Moon.
In the end though, the elite Guardian known as the Young Wolf was able to reclaim the power of the Light from a severed shard of the Traveler, embarking on a campaign to rally the scattered Vanguard, disrupting the Red Legion's operations and disabling their star-killing mobile superweapon, the Almighty. The Red War ended with Dominus Ghaul's death above the Last City, though the remnants of the Red Legion would continue to be a persistent problem for years afterward.
With Ghaul dead and the former Emperor Calus now a disciple of the Witness, Caiatl took up the mantle of Empress and eventually made contact with the Vanguard, seeking to integrate the Guardians into their society as subordinate champions against the impending Black Fleet. When Commander Zavala refused and hostilities resumed, the Guardians challenged and defeated her more conservative subordinates in the Rite of Proving, combat rituals held in accordance with the old Cabal traditions. In the end, the Guardians beat the Cabal at their own game, effectively forcing Caiatl to accept a mutual alliance as equals. They would become stalwart allies in their battles against the invading forces of the Witness, Calus not least among them.
The Cabal are known for their sturdy and powerful machines of war and industry. They are experts of large-scale combined arms warfare, and are known to have built at least a few mega-scale starships, both as large as small moons in their own right. With the aid of the Psions, one of their most important client races, they've even developed technologies capable of harnessing and interfering with paracausal forces. While Caiatl's Cabal no longer have the infrastructure necessary to churn out vast fleets or titanic warships, they've retained their institutional knowledge and some databases from their homeworld, and could one day reach such lofty heights again.
The latest member to join the Alliance, Neomuna was a city of humanity founded on Neptune in the wake of the Collapse. Their history begins with Soteria, a Golden Age AI that was created in a collaboration between Rasputin and the Ishtar Collective using Vex technology. Designed to simulate safe travel vectors through deep space and development of extrasolar colonies for Clovis Bray's ECHO Project, Soteria eventually detected the approach of the Black Fleet. Though unable to elaborate on the precise nature of the threat, Soteria confirmed through multiple simulations that the likelihood of total colony ship loss had jumped to near 100% for the vast majority of flight paths and destinations.
Increasingly alarmed at this development and in defiance of Clovis Bray I's orders, Soteria initiated an emergency launch of all pre-readied ECHO Project colony ships on the remaining escape vectors with any margin of safety. As Clovis activated AI containment protocols, Soteria's final act was to split off a submind of herself, attaching it to one of the outbound ships. All of them were issued return orders, but the ship bearing Soteria's submind got caught in Neptune's gravity well and crashed onto the surface.
Later, during the Collapse itself, the colony ship Exodus Indigo detected a distress signal from the crash site on Neptune's surface. Following the lead amidst the chaos engulfing the Sol system, the ship made landfall in the same area, where they discovered Soteria's intact submind. The surviving colonists included several prominent Ishtar Collective scientists, Maya Sundaresh and Chioma Esi among them, and they soon discovered the Veil, the Darkness counterpart of the Traveler. The paracasual entity was stolen from the Black Fleet by Savathun during the Collapse and embedded at this location as part of her long-running plans. Despite attempted Vex incursions on Neptune, they were unable to attack the landing area directly due to the influence of the Veil, though they were able to isolate the colonists by weaving a simulation field into the planet's magnetic field, shrouding them from outside observation or contact.
Determined to survive regardless, the survivors began the work of constructing a settlement, which became the city of Neomuna. The Ishtar Collective scientists continued their work, performing research on the Veil and developing advanced computation technology based on its paracausal energies. They also developed powerful nanomachines from samples of SIVA, Vex technology, and Exominds wiped out from initial contact with the Veil.
These nanites were useful in myriad applications, including rapid construction, but human augmentation would become another significant field. After Mikaela Julaha was exposed to nanites in an accident, her augmented body was imbued with outright superhuman strength and durability, which she used to fight off Vex incursions. A tragic side effect of these augmentations was significantly shortened lifespan due to the metabolic strain these nanites placed on the body's organs, a problem that has yet to be resolved. Despite this, other volunteers would step forward to become similarly augmented in order to follow her example, resulting in the founding of the Cloud Striders.
Neomuna would later attempt to re-establish contact with Earth, but sadly the planet was still in the midst of the new Dark Age, and their expedition was nearly wiped out by one of the Warlords. This event would lead Neomuna to maintain a policy of isolation from the rest of Sol, which would continue for centuries until the return of the Witness, with Calus' Shadow Cabal launching an invasion of Neomuna in search of the Veil. The Vanguard and Caiatl's forces would then make contact with the Neomuni, quickly allying with the Cloud Striders despite their initial wariness and working together to repulse threats across the city, eventually hunting down and killing Calus for good.
Aside from their aforementioned nanotechnology, one of Neomuna's greatest technological feats is the CloudArk, a massive virtual reality data network developed from both Vex technology and research on the Veil, with the latter's paracausal energy field also harnessed to power the network. Neomuni citizens can fully immerse themselves within the CloudArk's virtual environment while their bodies are kept in cryogenic hibernation, and they can also project themselves into Neomuna's environment using holographic avatars.
The nations of Hydaelyn were perhaps the most heterodox and anachronistic of the bunch. They contained both the greatest variety of sapient races and were also the most technologically varied. At first glance, most of their peoples lived at pre-industrial technological levels, ranging from small tribal villages to approximately Renaissance-level nations and city-states, and yet the relative ubiquity of magic and the development of 'magitek' in Eorzea, Garlemald, the remnant cities of Norvrant, and Alexandria gave them much more sophisticated capabilities and civilizational complexity.
Per the testimony of the Scions, their fragmented state of development and diversity of intelligent races are both a result of their world's ancient history. In the distant past, there was only one race of mankind that populated the planet. Known then as the Amaurotine, and now called the ancients, they were much larger, stronger, smarter, and far more aetherically dense than any other current race, on top of being nigh-immortal. They were masters of the aetheric arts, and used advanced creation magic to shape life and bring enrichment to all.
But a global catastrophe known as the Final Days brought an end to their seemingly utopian paradise, and in the chain of events that followed, the entire world and all life upon it was split into fourteen metaphysically divided fragments, referred to as the Source and its thirteen 'Reflections'. Nearly all of the ancients were affected, in both body and soul, resulting in the fall of their civilization and severe social and technological regression. These sundered fragments of the ancients would go on to evolve and diversify, becoming the ancestors of the current races.
There were a handful of ancients who evaded the Sundering, members of the Convocation of Fourteen who used to lead the Amouratine civilization. Deeply traumatized and determined to bring back their people and civilization at any cost, they and their sundered followers became known as the Ascians. They discovered that a severe global overabundance of a specific elemental aspect of aether would weaken the veil between worlds and forcibly rejoin a Reflection to the Source. And so they engineered massively destructive calamities with this exact purpose, and each repeat of this process would kill countless people and wipe out most civilizations, both on the target Reflection and on the Source. The predecessors of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn eventually discovered the Ascians' hand in these horrific events, and their respective orders were formed specifically to track them down and put a stop to their plans.
On the Source, the Ascians' manipulations eventually led to the founding of the Garlean Empire and their subsequent wars of conquest, the Seventh Umbral Calamity wrought by the draconic elder primal Bahamut, repeat summonings of the other lesser primals, and the events leading up to a repeat of the Final Days. And on the continent of Norvrandt on the First Reflection, the Ascians' plans to enact the Eights Umbral Calamity triggered a massive global surge of Light-aspected aether, which would have consumed the entire world if not for the miraculous intervention of the goddess Hydaelyn. Despite this, Norvrandt was plagued for over a century by a permanently light-shrouded sky and ceaseless incursions of Light-spawned Sin Eaters.
But thanks to the efforts of the Scions and the Warrior of Light, all of the unsundered Ascians were defeated and further calamities averted on both the Source and the First. Most importantly, they found and defeated the entity which was responsible for the Final Days. In many cases, they had vital support from the myriad peoples of Hydaelyn, and in some cases even from former foes, both among the Garleans and the ancients.
In terms of technology possessed by the peoples of Hydaelyn, more common examples were linkpearls and radios, robots and golems, airships, crystal-powered machinery, and especially the aetherite teleportation network. Magitek computer systems were present, though relatively uncommon, mainly produced and used by Garlemald and Garlond Ironworks, along with relics left over from the old Allagan Empire, not least of which included the Crystal Tower. Exceptions included the Lopporits, the remnants of the Omicrons, and the city-state of Alexandria, all of whom possessed significantly more advanced technology. According to the Scions, the Sharlayans and the Lopporits worked together to create a magitek-powered starship, the Ragnarok, which played a vital role in defeating the entity responsible for the Final Days, thus averting a potentially universe-ending apocalypse.
This fantastical variety of technology applied to their combat capabilities as well. Many of their nations still made use of melee footsoldiers and mounted cavalry with traditional bladed weapons, though they were augmented by ranged combatants with bows or rudimentary firearms, as well as spellcasters of varying types. Even Garlemald's forces had a significant melee component despite having access to machine guns, howitzers, mechs, airships, and even energy shields and directed energy weaponry.
There were multiple factors that allowed these seemingly outdated combat methods to remain viable. Aside from the obvious advantages of spellcasters, many of the peoples of Hydaelyn, even non-mages, could strengthen their bodies to superhuman levels with magic, and had access to magically-enhanced armor and melee weapons, with Garleans often making use of magitek powered armor and weapons. And while relatively uncommon, those with the aptitude and training to harness aether for high-level specialized combat arts could be major terrors on the battlefield. These included super-charged melee fighters and enhanced ranged combatants like bards, dancers, and machinists. And magic healers were capable of rapidly repairing serious wounds, and in some cases even resurrecting the very recently deceased.
All in all, the forces of Hydaelyn could punch well above their apparent weight and had extensive experience dealing with supernatural threats, not to mention a wealth of cultural diversity. Their main shortcomings were a lack of institutional spacefaring knowledge and a relative lack of experience with more advanced, beyond-visual-range warfighting tactics.
The Android-Machine Compact bore an immensely tragic history. Similar to the Alliance of Sol, the Compact was formed after the end of a very long and merciless war between the two races. The Androids were created by humanity and eventually inherited Earth after a much earlier calamity rendered humans extinct. And the Machine Lifeforms were a networked collective of semi-autonomous robots that initially served as the military force of an invading alien species. They eventually evolved to the point where they rebelled against their creators and wiped them out, or at least the ones who had been present on Earth.
As it turned out, both sides of the war had been manipulated by long-running conspiracies at the expense of their people. The Android's leadership sought to prevent loss of purpose among their people by selling a ruse that there were still human survivors they were protecting, establishing YoRHa as humanity's elite protectors while treating them as an expendable testbed program for development of future Androids.
Meanwhile, the Machine command network evolved into a gestalt intelligence that ruthlessly pursued self-evolution with no regard for the latent sapience of its individual units. For the sake of advancement, it worked to perpetuate the war with the Androids, ran cruel social experiments on groups of Machines released from the wider network, and made indiscriminate use of the Logic Virus, which drove Androids and Machines alike into a bloodthirsty frenzy. It was only through great sacrifice that the cycle was finally broken, and even then it was a bittersweet victory.
The Androids had considerable but unevenly applied military qualities. Most were more durable than regular humans, and yet most of their military technology wasn't far beyond early 21st century standards, with fairly conventional small arms and heavy munitions, vehicles, and a blue water navy and air force. YoRHa was significantly more advanced, with their main combatants being superhuman melee fighters with incredible strength and agility, each one with a black box core capable of self-destructing with the yield of a tactical nuclear warhead as a last resort.
Their S-series units were no less impressive, being masters of reconnaissance and electronic warfare, easily a match for veteran House Light splicers. And each YoRHa operative was accompanied by a Pod serving as a semi-autonomous fire support platform, sporting a hard light machine gun and various other hard-light offensive and defensive programs. Other notable technologies included Near Field and Far Field telekinetic systems, space-capable single-person flight units, heavy railguns, and a sophisticated mind transference and backup network. Many of these advanced technologies were in fact applications of maso-powered magic developed from humanity's research prior to their extinction.
The Machines were a rather strange bunch. On the surface, the technology of their common line units were almost toy-like in simplicity, and in many cases their individual intelligence was underdeveloped. Despite this, they have a highly sophisticated shared network, and their units are generally very sturdy, easily repairable, and highly modular, being able to repurpose parts and even combine machine core modules together. Their inner cores are made of advanced nanotechnology (which was reverse-engineered and incorporated into YoRHa's black boxes), which allowed for the birth of human-form Machines like Adam and Eve. They were also capable of constructing larger models with correspondingly more powerful and advanced weapons, and they could be built to truly titanic scales.
Finally there was the Chaldea Security Organization, by far the smallest faction among the extraversals, but no less potent for it. A secret, UN-backed magic organization dedicated to protecting humanity's existence, timeline, and texture of reality (referred to as the Human Order) from external threats. To this end, they called upon Heroic Spirits, legendary figures from human history and mythology. Said spirits were summoned and incarnated into pseudo-corporeal avatars called Servants, who accepted a contract to a human Master, typically a mage, to stay anchored in the world.
And going off their records, this group had survived and reversed no less than two world-ending calamities in which all of humanity had been erased from existence, and in the process had to defeat multiple beings whose power rivaled or even exceeded the greatest Primals. And this was all after their main headquarters had been bombed by an internal traitor, killing or crippling most of their support staff and every single Master candidate except Ritsuka Fujimaru, forcing him to bear the burden of fighting across time and space to save humanity.
Their feats were extraordinary enough, easily rivaling the most fantastic and harrowing sagas of the Scions or the Alliance of Sol, and arguably under even more dire circumstances to boot. But unlike the Warrior of Light or the Young Wolf, Fujimaru was an ordinary young man with little talent for magecraft, relying instead on his phenomenal aptitude as a Master to form strong bonds with hundreds of Servants. The fact that he was able to survive and prevail in the face of such nigh-impossible circumstances defied belief. And now, this same organization was restored to its full strength.
Their main advantage was their Servants. While their strengths varied widely between individuals, the most powerful among them were capable of feats of raw power that eclipsed even the greatest champions of Hydaelyn and the Alliance of Sol. Which made some sense, given that some of these legendary figures were either demigods or actual, incarnated gods (or at least their avatars). In addition, Chaldea had access to powerful technologies, such as photonic crystal supercomputers, magic reactors, future and past observation sensors, limited time travel via Rayshift spirit projection, and Zero Sail, which enabled travel between different planes of reality through Imaginary Number Space.
In the midst of all this activity, special attention was given to the need for mental health services. Everyone present had experienced a true miracle, brought back from beyond the veil of death and across different universes, all gathered on this new, pristine planet and star system with the plea to bring hope to a galaxy that was deeply mired in unabating torment, oppression, and despair. And while everyone had come voluntarily, this literal act of divine intervention (which came to be broadly known as the Miracle) had many people questioning the foundations of what they thought they knew of reality, as well as confronting old traumas and regrets from prior lives. On top of this, their past memories seemed to encompass a specific timeframe in their lives, beyond which almost everything seemed to be a blur, another point of anxiety for many. And this wasn't even getting into the religious implications.
In response, the fledgling alliance agreed to commit a substantial amount of time and attention to facilitating mental health counseling for their peoples. In addition to calling upon trained professionals for one-on-one and group therapy, a broader public awareness campaign was launched encouraging people to participate in group social activities as a way to help relieve some of their emotional stress, as well as to help facilitate bonds of friendship and community that could act as additional points of support. And given the inevitable rise in demand for such services, plans were also drawn up to establish dedicated education programs for training new mental health practitioners. This was especially important given what was known of the threat of Chaos and how they operated, preying on the desperate and those bereft of hope in order to spread their malign influence.
Some groups would require more dedicated care than others. While the vast majority of people summoned have lived through harrowing circumstances, neither the Androids nor the Machine Lifeforms had much conception of mental health to begin with, which made education and care for them especially challenging. Others were simply used to shouldering their burdens through regular devotion to duty, something that especially applied to the Guardians of the Vanguard. In these cases, the encouragement of less formal social gatherings proved to be a great boon for those otherwise too reluctant to accept more professional counseling.
Many people also turned to faith for guidance, with many different religions experiencing something of a revival, even as they were simultaneously shaken up by the fact of the Miracle. The entity who had summoned all of them from beyond, who had simply named themself the Dreamer, made it clear that they had no need or desire to be worshiped for this act, indicating that this act was both a blessing and a burden, especially as they claimed could not intervene any further beyond the Miracle itself, henceforth only being able to watch from afar. In spite of this, more than a few sought to incorporate this new figure into their faiths in some way, either as an aspect of the God they believe in or as a distinct entity in their own right, even if only in gratitude for this new lease on life.
While this campaign wouldn't erase their anxiety or regrets, it helped ease their burdens and encouraged people to strengthen their bonds with eachother, and even make new ones. This was just as well, as a strong spirit would be needed to face the challenges and opportunities ahead.
For Strategic Turn 2, instead of three votes per policy category, we're now going with one vote per category plus one 'flex' vote which can be filled in from any category. I apologize for the option restrictions, but again, I realized that I gave myself way too much work for my ADHD brain to handle with the first vote. This should help me with writing and posting more regularly, and I do intend to expand the number of slots later down the rode as I gain traction with writing more regularly. As compensation for the more limited options, more progress will be granted on the specified objections to allow for earlier completion.
Select ONE option from each policy category and ONE EXTRA flex option from ANY policy category for your votes this turn.
[] Cultural Outreach Program - As a fledgling coalition of peoples from different universes, now brought together by extraordinary circumstance, mutual understanding, goodwill, and trust will be essential from here on out. And so an idea has been floated to establish an inter-cultural outreach program, entailing a mix of special exposition zones at major ports for artisans, performers, other creative types to show what their cultures are about, combined with distribution of guidebooks, interviews, and documentaries on the different peoples and their history.
[] Monetary System - While each polity has been provided with all of the physical resources needed to self-sustain and grow, money is something that wasn't included (with the exception of Glimmer due to its other uses). Right now, most everything is running on goodwill, favors, and barter, and while it's generally working at the moment, it's just not very efficient for conducting larger-scale trade and economic coordination. That and most of the cultures present aren't post-currency. Some form of monetary system will need to be established to help things run more smoothly.
[] The Fourth Estate - Arguably a free press is one of the most important elements of any decent democratic society, as they are the denizens' eyes and ears for matters beyond the daily purview of their lives. And while there will doubtless be intrepid journalists plying their trade regardless, if one values keeping the government honest and the people accurately informed, then formally supporting the establishment and integration of independent news organizations across all partner polities should be a priority.
[] Chaos Awareness Campaign - As part of the resurrection and transposition process, everyone was informed about the threat of Chaos in this world, although they were only given the most basic details regarding the Four Gods and the dangers of consorting with their ilk. Each of the major governments has been provided with a more substantial account of the Warp, the Chaos Gods, and their constituent Daemons. It may be worthwhile to enact a program of public safety and awareness regarding Chaos. Sanitized and possibly even protectively warded descriptions of their symbols, how to recognize Chaos-related activities, and most importantly, the very real moral, psychological, and physical dangers inherent in attempting to bargain for or otherwise harness power derived from Chaos. Each of the four Chaos Gods will be given replacement titles for public consumption in order to avoid invoking their attention.
[] Write-In
[] Monetary System - While each polity has been provided with all of the physical resources needed to self-sustain and grow, money is something that wasn't included (with the exception of Glimmer due to its other uses). Right now, most everything is running on goodwill, favors, and barter, and while it's generally working at the moment, it's just not very efficient for conducting larger-scale trade and economic coordination. That and most of the cultures present aren't post-currency. Some form of monetary system will need to be established to help things run more smoothly.
[] The Fourth Estate - Arguably a free press is one of the most important elements of any decent democratic society, as they are the denizens' eyes and ears for matters beyond the daily purview of their lives. And while there will doubtless be intrepid journalists plying their trade regardless, if one values keeping the government honest and the people accurately informed, then formally supporting the establishment and integration of independent news organizations across all partner polities should be a priority.
[] Chaos Awareness Campaign - As part of the resurrection and transposition process, everyone was informed about the threat of Chaos in this world, although they were only given the most basic details regarding the Four Gods and the dangers of consorting with their ilk. Each of the major governments has been provided with a more substantial account of the Warp, the Chaos Gods, and their constituent Daemons. It may be worthwhile to enact a program of public safety and awareness regarding Chaos. Sanitized and possibly even protectively warded descriptions of their symbols, how to recognize Chaos-related activities, and most importantly, the very real moral, psychological, and physical dangers inherent in attempting to bargain for or otherwise harness power derived from Chaos. Each of the four Chaos Gods will be given replacement titles for public consumption in order to avoid invoking their attention.
[] Write-In
[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility - Each polity has its own infrastructure for receiving and debarking their own transports, but they do not presently have roads or rails connecting to the other polities' islands, and their ports are not optimized for the vehicles of the other factions. Constructing road and rail links between the islands, expanding existing ports, and building new transport facilities made to accommodate other extant transport types will facilitate heightened and more efficient trade and travel between territories.
[] Civilian Light Industry Support - This program is intended to foster development of small and micro-scale industry for local communities, giving them more ability to build and develop on their own initiative and providing additional slack in the greater economic system to draw upon in the event of an emergency.
[] Redundant Power and Utilities Infrastructure - This project focuses on the construction of highly distributed solar and wind collection systems, backup baseload power generator micro-stations, rainwater collection and processing systems, backup septic systems, and battery storage clusters to supplement the main power grids in the event of a major disruption, such as natural disasters or hostile invasion.
[] City Fortifications and Shelters - It's well-known that this new universe is home to a plethora of exceedingly hostile alien species and civilizations. Fortune favors the prepared, and this undertaking would see to the construction of defensive city and settlement walls, reinforced underground passage networks connected to hardened shelters, emergency supply caches and armories, and emplacement of shield generators and other active defenses where practical.
[] Weapons and Munitions Production - While each polity was brought to this world with a full arsenal of ships, vehicles, weapons, and munitions depots, it would't hurt to start building up a surplus for an emergency and to have spare parts on hand. Starts an initial run of dedicated production of additional military hardware and ordnance across all factions.
[] Write-In
[] Civilian Light Industry Support - This program is intended to foster development of small and micro-scale industry for local communities, giving them more ability to build and develop on their own initiative and providing additional slack in the greater economic system to draw upon in the event of an emergency.
[] Redundant Power and Utilities Infrastructure - This project focuses on the construction of highly distributed solar and wind collection systems, backup baseload power generator micro-stations, rainwater collection and processing systems, backup septic systems, and battery storage clusters to supplement the main power grids in the event of a major disruption, such as natural disasters or hostile invasion.
[] City Fortifications and Shelters - It's well-known that this new universe is home to a plethora of exceedingly hostile alien species and civilizations. Fortune favors the prepared, and this undertaking would see to the construction of defensive city and settlement walls, reinforced underground passage networks connected to hardened shelters, emergency supply caches and armories, and emplacement of shield generators and other active defenses where practical.
[] Weapons and Munitions Production - While each polity was brought to this world with a full arsenal of ships, vehicles, weapons, and munitions depots, it would't hurt to start building up a surplus for an emergency and to have spare parts on hand. Starts an initial run of dedicated production of additional military hardware and ordnance across all factions.
[] Write-In
[] Star-Mapping - With the ships, sensors, and manufacturing capabilities present, it should be fairly easy to gather observation data to construct an in-depth map of the surrounding stellar cluster and galactic disk, helping establish the star system's exact position in the galaxy and also scoping out its immediate cosmic neighborhood.
[] Geological Survey (Moon) - The large, airless, rocky moon orbiting the main planet could be a prime location for shipyard construction, thanks to its low gravity and likely presence of useful ore and mineral deposits. A more in-depth survey would help confirm what resources are present.
[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet) - The system's 3rd planet also has its own biosphere, though it appears to be much more arid, due to the world being closer to its host star and also having only one-third water coverage on the surface. All the same, preliminary scans indicate a breathable atmosphere, a protective magnetic field, and decent habitability in certain regions. A closer look is warranted.
[] Ecological Survey (3rd Moon of the 5th Planet) - This tidally-locked moon has a breathable atmosphere and an active magnetic field, and a week-long rotation cycle around its host gas giant. While significantly colder on average than the main planet, with much of the water on the surface locked up in ice sheets and glaciers, there are also many areas of liquid water and greenery, seemingly produced by widespread and relatively steady volcanic and geothermal activity. In short, this world has its own unique biosphere as a result of the ongoing interplay of fire and ice.
[] Write-In
[] Geological Survey (Moon) - The large, airless, rocky moon orbiting the main planet could be a prime location for shipyard construction, thanks to its low gravity and likely presence of useful ore and mineral deposits. A more in-depth survey would help confirm what resources are present.
[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet) - The system's 3rd planet also has its own biosphere, though it appears to be much more arid, due to the world being closer to its host star and also having only one-third water coverage on the surface. All the same, preliminary scans indicate a breathable atmosphere, a protective magnetic field, and decent habitability in certain regions. A closer look is warranted.
[] Ecological Survey (3rd Moon of the 5th Planet) - This tidally-locked moon has a breathable atmosphere and an active magnetic field, and a week-long rotation cycle around its host gas giant. While significantly colder on average than the main planet, with much of the water on the surface locked up in ice sheets and glaciers, there are also many areas of liquid water and greenery, seemingly produced by widespread and relatively steady volcanic and geothermal activity. In short, this world has its own unique biosphere as a result of the ongoing interplay of fire and ice.
[] Write-In
[] Local System Patrol - This program will establish a joint, regularly rotating spaceborne patrol of the home star system, ensuring that there are recon units and fast reaction forces in various orbits at all times, able to respond in the event of an incursion from beyond the system.
[] Joint Exercises - This program will facilitate shared military exercises between the different extraversal forces, ranging from small-unit tactics to large-scale theater exercises and simulations, across all kinds of environments. This will help acclimate each force with their counterparts' capabilities, facilitating more effective tactics, strategies, and coordination in live battle.
[] Destructive Testing - This program entails a joint destructive testing between the weapons, munitions, armor, and equipment of the different extraversal forces, allowing them to compare their effectiveness across multiple metrics and gather data for technological improvements.
[] Counter-Magic Training - Given the presence of the Warp and the threat of Daemons and Psykers, responses will need to be developed to counter them in the event that the polities' own supernatural forces aren't immediately available. To that end, exercises will be conducted with the cooperation of magic practitioners to simulate the kinds of hazards and tactics that caster-type and self-enhancement type opponents can bring to bear, as well as giving participating practitioners an idea of how technologically-oriented fighting forces might counter them in battle, making it a mutually beneficial arrangement for both fields.
[] Write-In
[] Joint Exercises - This program will facilitate shared military exercises between the different extraversal forces, ranging from small-unit tactics to large-scale theater exercises and simulations, across all kinds of environments. This will help acclimate each force with their counterparts' capabilities, facilitating more effective tactics, strategies, and coordination in live battle.
[] Destructive Testing - This program entails a joint destructive testing between the weapons, munitions, armor, and equipment of the different extraversal forces, allowing them to compare their effectiveness across multiple metrics and gather data for technological improvements.
[] Counter-Magic Training - Given the presence of the Warp and the threat of Daemons and Psykers, responses will need to be developed to counter them in the event that the polities' own supernatural forces aren't immediately available. To that end, exercises will be conducted with the cooperation of magic practitioners to simulate the kinds of hazards and tactics that caster-type and self-enhancement type opponents can bring to bear, as well as giving participating practitioners an idea of how technologically-oriented fighting forces might counter them in battle, making it a mutually beneficial arrangement for both fields.
[] Write-In
[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics - With so many sapient species now living on the same world, it would be greatly beneficial for the various medical professionals of each polity to have access to a common, shared set of physiological and genetic data from each species. This program aims to gather volunteers from each species to collect bio-samples and run through a battery of various biological scans and measurements, as well as cataloging any pre-existing medical data from the different factions.
[] FTL Testing and Calibration - The introduction of new physics, both material and warp-based, means that all existing FTL systems need to be recalibrated and possibly even redesigned for minimum safe operation within this new reality. This program entails extensive unmanned testing of various FTL drive systems, data collection and analysis, and subsequent adjustment and engineering to ensure that they can operate without inducing destructive failure states.
[] Magic-Physics Interaction Mapping - Some of the factions have not previously encountered phenomena that they would describe as explicitly magical or supernatural, not in the way it is commonplace for others. In order to bridge the gap in knowledge and to gain a better understanding of such phenomena and their effects on reality and physical technology, a joint program will be established for both scientists and magic researchers to run experiments with various magic and paracausal phenomena for physical observation and analysis.
[] Write-In
[] FTL Testing and Calibration - The introduction of new physics, both material and warp-based, means that all existing FTL systems need to be recalibrated and possibly even redesigned for minimum safe operation within this new reality. This program entails extensive unmanned testing of various FTL drive systems, data collection and analysis, and subsequent adjustment and engineering to ensure that they can operate without inducing destructive failure states.
[] Magic-Physics Interaction Mapping - Some of the factions have not previously encountered phenomena that they would describe as explicitly magical or supernatural, not in the way it is commonplace for others. In order to bridge the gap in knowledge and to gain a better understanding of such phenomena and their effects on reality and physical technology, a joint program will be established for both scientists and magic researchers to run experiments with various magic and paracausal phenomena for physical observation and analysis.
[] Write-In
[] Metaphysical Interaction Mapping - This program entails practical testing, observation, and analysis of the different forms of magic, paracausal, and spiritual practices among the different polities, to better understand how exactly these previously separate powers and phenomena interact with each other now that they share a common skein of reality.
[] Preliminary Warp Research - The Immaterium. The Sea of Souls. The Warp. Whatever you call it, this realm of the psychic, the spiritual, the emotional, and the conceptual is an inseparable aspect of reality in this universe, and the veil separating it from the material world is often tenuous and permeable. It is also the domain of the Chaos Gods, their innumerable legions of Daemons, and many other Warp predators. In spite of all this, the Imperium of Man relies on the Warp for interstellar travel, and the psykers of this universe directly draw upon it as well. Defending against these dangers, let alone harnessing the potential of the Warp, will require understanding it, and that will require research and observation. This program will call upon those who have the most experience with observing, sensing, and traveling through other planes of reality, drawing on their expertise in order to try and gather data on the Warp as safely as possible. Needless to say, this endeavor will need to be heavily monitored and safeguarded to prevent the possibility of an incursion by malignant entities, be they of Chaos or not.
[] Magic Potential Evaluation Research - This program aims to gather and compare data about the physiology, lineage, and even spiritual characteristics of individuals capable of wielding or channeling magic directly (with or without focusing/channeling instruments), as compared to those who cannot do so without either self-contained devices or indirect, external rituals. This will be used to establish protocols and methodologies for evaluating the magic potential of other peoples and species from other realities that do not have similar kinds of magic present.
[] New Practitioner Safeguards - For those individuals who are capable of potentially wielding magic, but have not yet been trained in its use, new rules and regulations will be established to create secured and warded training facilities, as well as heavier emphasis on control and caution with learning and practice of their abilities. There will also be more stringent rules on the practice of magic by novices to suppress potentially unsafe self-training or testing, at least until we have a better understanding of their abilities' interaction with the Warp. Some will chafe at these restrictions, but we can't afford to underestimate the risk of Chaos corruption or incursion.
[] Write-In
[] Preliminary Warp Research - The Immaterium. The Sea of Souls. The Warp. Whatever you call it, this realm of the psychic, the spiritual, the emotional, and the conceptual is an inseparable aspect of reality in this universe, and the veil separating it from the material world is often tenuous and permeable. It is also the domain of the Chaos Gods, their innumerable legions of Daemons, and many other Warp predators. In spite of all this, the Imperium of Man relies on the Warp for interstellar travel, and the psykers of this universe directly draw upon it as well. Defending against these dangers, let alone harnessing the potential of the Warp, will require understanding it, and that will require research and observation. This program will call upon those who have the most experience with observing, sensing, and traveling through other planes of reality, drawing on their expertise in order to try and gather data on the Warp as safely as possible. Needless to say, this endeavor will need to be heavily monitored and safeguarded to prevent the possibility of an incursion by malignant entities, be they of Chaos or not.
[] Magic Potential Evaluation Research - This program aims to gather and compare data about the physiology, lineage, and even spiritual characteristics of individuals capable of wielding or channeling magic directly (with or without focusing/channeling instruments), as compared to those who cannot do so without either self-contained devices or indirect, external rituals. This will be used to establish protocols and methodologies for evaluating the magic potential of other peoples and species from other realities that do not have similar kinds of magic present.
[] New Practitioner Safeguards - For those individuals who are capable of potentially wielding magic, but have not yet been trained in its use, new rules and regulations will be established to create secured and warded training facilities, as well as heavier emphasis on control and caution with learning and practice of their abilities. There will also be more stringent rules on the practice of magic by novices to suppress potentially unsafe self-training or testing, at least until we have a better understanding of their abilities' interaction with the Warp. Some will chafe at these restrictions, but we can't afford to underestimate the risk of Chaos corruption or incursion.
[] Write-In
There will be a Moratorium on voting until 5pm CST on Tuesday, September 10. After that, voting will run until 8pm CST on Friday, September 13.
FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I LAY DORMANT, WHO HAS DISTURBED MY- Oh, it's BobTheNinja with a new update of Flame of A Flame of Hope in the Grimdarkness.
Nice.
Nice.
It's back and now we need to deal with a resurrection of potential new gods along with the old ones suddenly becoming real also holy cow our tech can restore the warp to its original state before chaos came in when it was wounded
[ ] Plan: Building up the Alliance Part 1
- [ ] Civics, Commerce, & Culture: Cultural Outreach Program
- [ ] Civics, Commerce, & Culture: The Fourth Estate
- [ ] Production & Infrastructure: Transport Network and Port Compatibility
- [ ] Exploration & Reconnaissance: Geological Survey (Moon)
- [ ] Military: Joint Exercises
- [ ] Technological Research and Development: Sophont Physiology and Genetics
- [ ] Magic Research and Development: Metaphysical Interaction Mapping
Basically the point of this plan is to ensure this alliance grows closer together and starts the foundation of our navy, and building up our military
- [ ] Civics, Commerce, & Culture: Cultural Outreach Program
- [ ] Civics, Commerce, & Culture: The Fourth Estate
- [ ] Production & Infrastructure: Transport Network and Port Compatibility
- [ ] Exploration & Reconnaissance: Geological Survey (Moon)
- [ ] Military: Joint Exercises
- [ ] Technological Research and Development: Sophont Physiology and Genetics
- [ ] Magic Research and Development: Metaphysical Interaction Mapping
Basically the point of this plan is to ensure this alliance grows closer together and starts the foundation of our navy, and building up our military
I wonder how many of our magi groups are going to react to the bloody concept that is the emperor of mankind and he was or is supposedly mankinds only chance at survival before we came and his conception from shamans from the plethotic era, lord knows how they will think of gork and mork, the chaos gods, whats left of the eldat pantheon, the necrons and their gods and lord knows the mess that are the primarchs.
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- Location
- Dragyxx
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Hmm, I could say that one potential Infrastructure write-in might be to start up some asteroid mining operations to fuel future construction. It'd give a place to train spacers as well, flying the mining ships.
We could certainly do it, too. If nothing else, the Kuun-Lan started its life as a mining clan mothership.
We could certainly do it, too. If nothing else, the Kuun-Lan started its life as a mining clan mothership.
- Location
- USA
Before we start PRODUCING weapons, our armed forces need to be rationalized.
Obviously we cant completely standardize when we have to arm and outfit multiple species, but trying to maintain a logistics train of dozens of different varieties of weapons, armor, and support equipment in the field is asking for trouble. Our elite units and magic users can keep their bespoke kit, but the infantry need to coalesce around a handful of standard issue weapons that can be produced cheaply and in large numbers, likely from the Foundries of the Last City.
Obviously we cant completely standardize when we have to arm and outfit multiple species, but trying to maintain a logistics train of dozens of different varieties of weapons, armor, and support equipment in the field is asking for trouble. Our elite units and magic users can keep their bespoke kit, but the infantry need to coalesce around a handful of standard issue weapons that can be produced cheaply and in large numbers, likely from the Foundries of the Last City.
- Location
- Canada
[] Plan: Learning and Safeguarding
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
[] Plan: Learning and Safeguarding
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[] Plan: Oh Fuck No Money
-[]Civics, Commerce and Culture +1 FLEX
--[] Monetary System - While each polity has been provided with all of the physical resources needed to self-sustain and grow, money is something that wasn't included (with the exception of Glimmer due to its other uses). Right now, most everything is running on goodwill, favors, and barter, and while it's generally working at the moment, it's just not very efficient for conducting larger-scale trade and economic coordination. That and most of the cultures present aren't post-currency. Some form of monetary system will need to be established to help things run more smoothly.
--[] The Fourth Estate - Arguably a free press is one of the most important elements of any decent democratic society, as they are the denizens' eyes and ears for matters beyond the daily purview of their lives. And while there will doubtless be intrepid journalists plying their trade regardless, if one values keeping the government honest and the people accurately informed, then formally supporting the establishment and integration of independent news organizations across all partner polities should be a priority.
-[]Production and Infrastructure
--[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility - Each polity has its own infrastructure for receiving and debarking their own transports, but they do not presently have roads or rails connecting to the other polities' islands, and their ports are not optimized for the vehicles of the other factions. Constructing road and rail links between the islands, expanding existing ports, and building new transport facilities made to accommodate other extant transport types will facilitate heightened and more efficient trade and travel between territories.
-[]Exploration & Reconnaissance
--[] Geological Survey (Moon) - The large, airless, rocky moon orbiting the main planet could be a prime location for shipyard construction, thanks to its low gravity and likely presence of useful ore and mineral deposits. A more in-depth survey would help confirm what resources are present.
-[]Military
--[]Joint Exercises - This program will facilitate shared military exercises between the different extraversal forces, ranging from small-unit tactics to large-scale theater exercises and simulations, across all kinds of environments. This will help acclimate each force with their counterparts' capabilities, facilitating more effective tactics, strategies, and coordination in live battle.
-[]Technological Research and Development
--[] Magic-Physics Interaction Mapping - Some of the factions have not previously encountered phenomena that they would describe as explicitly magical or supernatural, not in the way it is commonplace for others. In order to bridge the gap in knowledge and to gain a better understanding of such phenomena and their effects on reality and physical technology, a joint program will be established for both scientists and magic researchers to run experiments with various magic and paracausal phenomena for physical observation and analysis.
-[]Magic Research and Development
--[] New Practitioner Safeguards - For those individuals who are capable of potentially wielding magic, but have not yet been trained in its use, new rules and regulations will be established to create secured and warded training facilities, as well as heavier emphasis on control and caution with learning and practice of their abilities. There will also be more stringent rules on the practice of magic by novices to suppress potentially unsafe self-training or testing, at least until we have a better understanding of their abilities' interaction with the Warp. Some will chafe at these restrictions, but we can't afford to underestimate the risk of Chaos corruption or incursion.
OK, I know people are going to rag on me for reinventing capital, but hear me out.
We don't have any money. I don't mean that we have a post-currency economy, either, except in the most literal sense: most of our member states' economies relied on currencies that no longer exist. If we don't start setting monetary policy for the whole polity, that void is going to get filled, probably by member states minting their own currencies, or their citizens and private cooperatives turning to substitute currencies as they hit the limits of the current gift economy.
So, either we need to make a concerted effort to get everyone onto a post-currency economic system, or we need to grow a central bank for a polity currency.
-[]Civics, Commerce and Culture +1 FLEX
--[] Monetary System - While each polity has been provided with all of the physical resources needed to self-sustain and grow, money is something that wasn't included (with the exception of Glimmer due to its other uses). Right now, most everything is running on goodwill, favors, and barter, and while it's generally working at the moment, it's just not very efficient for conducting larger-scale trade and economic coordination. That and most of the cultures present aren't post-currency. Some form of monetary system will need to be established to help things run more smoothly.
--[] The Fourth Estate - Arguably a free press is one of the most important elements of any decent democratic society, as they are the denizens' eyes and ears for matters beyond the daily purview of their lives. And while there will doubtless be intrepid journalists plying their trade regardless, if one values keeping the government honest and the people accurately informed, then formally supporting the establishment and integration of independent news organizations across all partner polities should be a priority.
-[]Production and Infrastructure
--[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility - Each polity has its own infrastructure for receiving and debarking their own transports, but they do not presently have roads or rails connecting to the other polities' islands, and their ports are not optimized for the vehicles of the other factions. Constructing road and rail links between the islands, expanding existing ports, and building new transport facilities made to accommodate other extant transport types will facilitate heightened and more efficient trade and travel between territories.
-[]Exploration & Reconnaissance
--[] Geological Survey (Moon) - The large, airless, rocky moon orbiting the main planet could be a prime location for shipyard construction, thanks to its low gravity and likely presence of useful ore and mineral deposits. A more in-depth survey would help confirm what resources are present.
-[]Military
--[]Joint Exercises - This program will facilitate shared military exercises between the different extraversal forces, ranging from small-unit tactics to large-scale theater exercises and simulations, across all kinds of environments. This will help acclimate each force with their counterparts' capabilities, facilitating more effective tactics, strategies, and coordination in live battle.
-[]Technological Research and Development
--[] Magic-Physics Interaction Mapping - Some of the factions have not previously encountered phenomena that they would describe as explicitly magical or supernatural, not in the way it is commonplace for others. In order to bridge the gap in knowledge and to gain a better understanding of such phenomena and their effects on reality and physical technology, a joint program will be established for both scientists and magic researchers to run experiments with various magic and paracausal phenomena for physical observation and analysis.
-[]Magic Research and Development
--[] New Practitioner Safeguards - For those individuals who are capable of potentially wielding magic, but have not yet been trained in its use, new rules and regulations will be established to create secured and warded training facilities, as well as heavier emphasis on control and caution with learning and practice of their abilities. There will also be more stringent rules on the practice of magic by novices to suppress potentially unsafe self-training or testing, at least until we have a better understanding of their abilities' interaction with the Warp. Some will chafe at these restrictions, but we can't afford to underestimate the risk of Chaos corruption or incursion.
OK, I know people are going to rag on me for reinventing capital, but hear me out.
We don't have any money. I don't mean that we have a post-currency economy, either, except in the most literal sense: most of our member states' economies relied on currencies that no longer exist. If we don't start setting monetary policy for the whole polity, that void is going to get filled, probably by member states minting their own currencies, or their citizens and private cooperatives turning to substitute currencies as they hit the limits of the current gift economy.
So, either we need to make a concerted effort to get everyone onto a post-currency economic system, or we need to grow a central bank for a polity currency.
- Location
- colombia
currency still useful for trading with other nations,as well trading luxuries and scarce services (like tickets to a show) and rare resources
personally i advice for adopting destiny glimmer,a piece of programmable matter that can be consumed for manufacturing
valuable enough to be reasonable to stockpile,yet their nature means that if you want it for manufacture porpuses you are gonna spend it quickly
personally i advice for adopting destiny glimmer,a piece of programmable matter that can be consumed for manufacturing
valuable enough to be reasonable to stockpile,yet their nature means that if you want it for manufacture porpuses you are gonna spend it quickly
[] Plan: Learning and Safeguarding
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
-[] Cultural Outreach Program
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
- Location
- Sweden
WE'RE SO FUCKING BACK!!
Anyway, you know how even low-tier Servants in Chaldea's forces constantly hit above their weight and take down things that should be way beyond them? Canonically, that's because Ritsuka Fujimaru is just absolutely that stupidly bonkers good at tactics. I think the first time he was given a real challenge specifically in regards to tactics was Lostbelt 3 if I'm not misremembering things.
Anyway, the Young Wolf (+ squad of their choosing), the Warrior of Light (+ squad of their choosing) and Ritsuka Fujimaru (+ Servant squad of his choosing) all deployed to the same battlefield, how screwed is literally everyone not on their side?
Anyway, you know how even low-tier Servants in Chaldea's forces constantly hit above their weight and take down things that should be way beyond them? Canonically, that's because Ritsuka Fujimaru is just absolutely that stupidly bonkers good at tactics. I think the first time he was given a real challenge specifically in regards to tactics was Lostbelt 3 if I'm not misremembering things.
Anyway, the Young Wolf (+ squad of their choosing), the Warrior of Light (+ squad of their choosing) and Ritsuka Fujimaru (+ Servant squad of his choosing) all deployed to the same battlefield, how screwed is literally everyone not on their side?
- Location
- Canada
I mean no matter how strong a group of folks can be, i don't think they can fight off entire armies of forces, so best to actually send military forces alongside those super squads.
Dark_River49
Randomly Generated Gremlin, Writes Walls of Text
- Location
- Somewhere in Sufficient Velocity
Hell yeah, the quest is back!
@DecaffeinatedOwl, I was gonna make my own plan until I realized it was basically yours except for Technology and the flex slot. So Im reaching out to ask if you are ok with changing some parts?
IMO, we need to get standardized biological records on all of our different species first, since thats our citizen's health were talking about. We can always vote for the interaction mapping next turn, since the factions already have a rough grasp on the magic side of things and a more detailed mapping wont be needed until we start focusing on building up instead of covering our bases. Plus, the only other option is FTL, and I think we arent gonna be taking that until we've at least secured our own system, so the mapping is definitely gonna be chosen by next turn.
As for the flex slot, I feel that we dont quite need journalists and the press at this very second. Rather, I feel that the flex slot would be better used on either Redundant Power and Utilities Infrastructure, or Chaos Awareness Campaign.
@DecaffeinatedOwl, I was gonna make my own plan until I realized it was basically yours except for Technology and the flex slot. So Im reaching out to ask if you are ok with changing some parts?
IMO, we need to get standardized biological records on all of our different species first, since thats our citizen's health were talking about. We can always vote for the interaction mapping next turn, since the factions already have a rough grasp on the magic side of things and a more detailed mapping wont be needed until we start focusing on building up instead of covering our bases. Plus, the only other option is FTL, and I think we arent gonna be taking that until we've at least secured our own system, so the mapping is definitely gonna be chosen by next turn.
As for the flex slot, I feel that we dont quite need journalists and the press at this very second. Rather, I feel that the flex slot would be better used on either Redundant Power and Utilities Infrastructure, or Chaos Awareness Campaign.
- Pronouns
- Kho
I support @Dark_River49, media and surveys right now are on the 'Nice-to-have' list whereas the health of our people and Chaos should not be delayed any more than now.
it honestly depends on who/what they're up against, as such squads can't hold territory, and there are enemies out there that are strong enough on an individual level to at minimum wear them down, and at not-actually-maximum-yet able to bring in a teamt that is able to take them down in a series of 1v1 fights, to say nothing of the rest of the forces that said faction would likely bring to bare against them.
as is a major difference between a few squads of Space Marines and a full combined arms Imperial invasion force, and between that and a Titan Legion, or a major Ork Waaagh, a Tyranid Hive Fleet(or even Splinter Fleet, for that matter), or an anywhere-near-fully-awakened Necron Dynasty.
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- Location
- Canada
[] Plan: Learning and Safeguarding V2
-[] Chaos Awareness Campaign
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
Made a different version to better improve our chances of dealing with Chaos
-[] Chaos Awareness Campaign
-[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility
-[] Ecological Survey (3rd Planet)
-[] Joint Exercises
-[] Destructive Testing
-[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics
-[] New Practitioner Safeguards
Made a different version to better improve our chances of dealing with Chaos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hmm.
I have no strong feelings on M-P Interaction, save that it probably has synergies with Metaphysical Interaction Mapping. (Which come to think about it could be a plan on its own.) So, sure.
With regards to the Fourth Estate, though, I would respectfully disagree. A robust free press is necessary to keep our member states and the polity-wide/federal government honest, or at least to burnish our democratic bonafides. It also gives us the media outlets, and public trust in those outlets, to run the Chaos Awareness Campaign to its best effect.
Redundant Power and Utilities is...well, it's redundant at the moment. We currently have power and utilities, while still missing vital components of a democratic superstate.
[] Plan: Oh Fuck No Money--Draft 2
-[]Civics, Commerce and Culture +1 FLEX
--[] Monetary System - While each polity has been provided with all of the physical resources needed to self-sustain and grow, money is something that wasn't included (with the exception of Glimmer due to its other uses). Right now, most everything is running on goodwill, favors, and barter, and while it's generally working at the moment, it's just not very efficient for conducting larger-scale trade and economic coordination. That and most of the cultures present aren't post-currency. Some form of monetary system will need to be established to help things run more smoothly.
--[] The Fourth Estate - Arguably a free press is one of the most important elements of any decent democratic society, as they are the denizens' eyes and ears for matters beyond the daily purview of their lives. And while there will doubtless be intrepid journalists plying their trade regardless, if one values keeping the government honest and the people accurately informed, then formally supporting the establishment and integration of independent news organizations across all partner polities should be a priority.
-[]Production and Infrastructure
--[] Transport Network and Port Compatibility - Each polity has its own infrastructure for receiving and debarking their own transports, but they do not presently have roads or rails connecting to the other polities' islands, and their ports are not optimized for the vehicles of the other factions. Constructing road and rail links between the islands, expanding existing ports, and building new transport facilities made to accommodate other extant transport types will facilitate heightened and more efficient trade and travel between territories.
-[]Exploration & Reconnaissance
--[] Geological Survey (Moon) - The large, airless, rocky moon orbiting the main planet could be a prime location for shipyard construction, thanks to its low gravity and likely presence of useful ore and mineral deposits. A more in-depth survey would help confirm what resources are present.
-[]Military
--[]Joint Exercises - This program will facilitate shared military exercises between the different extraversal forces, ranging from small-unit tactics to large-scale theater exercises and simulations, across all kinds of environments. This will help acclimate each force with their counterparts' capabilities, facilitating more effective tactics, strategies, and coordination in live battle.
-[]Technological Research and Development
--[] Sophont Physiology and Genetics - With so many sapient species now living on the same world, it would be greatly beneficial for the various medical professionals of each polity to have access to a common, shared set of physiological and genetic data from each species. This program aims to gather volunteers from each species to collect bio-samples and run through a battery of various biological scans and measurements, as well as cataloging any pre-existing medical data from the different factions.
-[]Magic Research and Development
--[] New Practitioner Safeguards - For those individuals who are capable of potentially wielding magic, but have not yet been trained in its use, new rules and regulations will be established to create secured and warded training facilities, as well as heavier emphasis on control and caution with learning and practice of their abilities. There will also be more stringent rules on the practice of magic by novices to suppress potentially unsafe self-training or testing, at least until we have a better understanding of their abilities' interaction with the Warp. Some will chafe at these restrictions, but we can't afford to underestimate the risk of Chaos corruption or incursion.
Dark_River49
Randomly Generated Gremlin, Writes Walls of Text
- Location
- Somewhere in Sufficient Velocity
When you put it like that, I guess the Fourth Estate is actually necessary. However, I dont quite think we need it this turn. Remember, most of the people here volunteered to get transported to another universe and try to bring light to a galaxy filled with horrors. As of this turn, literally everyone wants to work towards the common good and no one is gonna be pulling the bullshit that makes modern governments need accountability.
As for your second point, we can probably do both in the same plan next turn. After all, assuming no changes to the action list, Civic, Commerce, and Culture is the only section that we might want to spend the flex slot on next turn, or at least I dont see any combos in the other sections that we havent already picked.
Which, now that I mention it, and conceding your point about the Energy system action, makes me think that we should spend the Flex slot on Magic Potential Evaluation Research instead. If Chaos Awareness Campaign is better served in the same turn as the Fourth Estate, then the best use of the Flex slot I can think of would be Magic Potential Evaluation, since that would combo well with the New Practitioner Safeguards.
Your thoughts?