Hard Contact -- A Space Opera GSRPG

[Rocketeer]

COMMUNION OF THE HOLLOW HERESY


​

Spoiler: Antheosts

Antheosts are a crustacean-like people made up of polyp "cells", which through countless phases of evolution grew to become hulking semi-immortal beings; with only disease or violence capable of stopping their continual growth.

This unique characteristic also gives rise to the fact that it is common practice to give not only DNA but parts of your own cells during the reproductive process; creating a strange sort of "genetic memory" amongst successful clans that also translates into an ability to more naturally interface with technology as if it was another part of their own bodies. However it has a nasty downside in that they are extremely sensitive to both biosphere contamination and infection, especially amongst elderly people.

Spoiler: Despinne

"Theyre like dogs you know? If dogs could vomit rebar and turn it into anything you wanted." Sector Resource Manager Adrienn Grand on the potential of PROJECT DESPINNE.

The Despinne (or as they call themselves the Ashte "The Making") were uplifted by Humanity in the waning years of the war to serve as "natural construction workers" due to their unique ability to construct a remarkably strong fiber from their own mouths; a trait that seems to have evolved as a form of emergency safety gear and shelter on their planet of storms and sheer cliffs. Their communal nature and oncoming ice age made them prime targets for uplifting and relocation; their natural lack of a verbal language made oppression all the easier.

Until one of them discovered how easy it was to commit sabotage; with the Siege of New Ursh Station famously succeeding due to the Despinne leaving a weaving pattern that unraveled if a single string was severed by fire and lead to critical structural failure. Now they form a silent pro-peace block within the Hollow, treating it as a faith with which to rebuild their own displaced culture.

Spoiler: Goapents

FUNCTION: RELAY AND EMOTIONAL STABILIZATION
PROCESS: MASS CHEMICAL DISCHARGE
SECONDARY FUNCTION: ATTEMPT SPORE DISTRIBUTION?

The Goapent have a strange almost-psychic control over creatures; able to synthesize and send chemical signals across long distances that have been documented to have extreme effects on other species. While used simply as a part of language for them, the Goapents found themselves being used as essentially Military Police and Sergeants by the Paxillus. Twisted by cloning and pulled away from their own homeworld, the Goapents helped lead the revolution that turned the Burning into an actual political movement.

Spoiler: Other

There are many other species amongst the Hollow; as anyone who wished to follow the teachings of the Church or simply join them in getting revenge were allowed to settle in Commune Space. This policy has led to vast numbers of people fleeing into Commune Space, looking for work or holy war and a way to rebuild from the Hyper War. Some notables include;
The Warrn, reptillians who's most notable trait is having uplifted their entire small refugee population and given them to the service of the Athehosts as a sort of praetorian guard.
The Orikytes, a six-limbed arboreal species with palm daggers who joined in with the rebellion due to the influence of the Goapents.
Humans; the most contentious group by far but were allowed to stay after a mass mutiny led to the Despinne-Antheost alliance gaining a small navy.

The Hollow
​

The Hollow Heresy, The Mule's Rebellion, The Burning of Seventy Systems. Many view it as an act of desperation, a species at the edge of extinction spiting the people who had enslaved them rather than continue to exist under the yoke. Some view it as an act of inspiration, a funeral pyre that allowed countless peoples under the CEC and Paxillus to slip their bonds and begin a rebellion.

The Antheosts, those who are left, viewed it as a last sacred duty. Their nature had made them perfect prey for the Paxillus who simply slipped into the position of their brain cells, while the CEC saw them as walking technology, their young as perfect drones and their elders as self-propelled artillery. Their kind would be used in many campaigns across the Galaxy, slowly but surely drained from their homes while the regional groupings of Antheosts attempted to maintain their lives as colonies and tribes, slowly sharing those ideas with other subject races within the Paxillus. Resistance at first, attempts to save their worlds and their people from conscription and their elders from forced labor.

Then one day a vision came down from a young child, a polyp that had been forced to become a pilot in the CEC. She saw the plans that had been laid out for their people and declared that there was no way to save their worlds; that their people could only survive if they tore themselves from the world root and branch. Then the Humans and the Pax would have to leave their hollow worlds behind, for there would be nothing left for them and they would retreat back to the nightmare from which they came. This generation was born tainted, they said, born not of communion but of violence, and so only through self-violence could their people be reborn.

Not twenty-four hours later, their own ship slammed into the Antheost world and critical supply hub of Exiol. Exiol is still shrouded in debris.

This single act of defiance sparked more fires than could ever be put out by the ad-hoc alliance; the logistical arm and supply of countless fleets literally burning behind them. To make matters worse, the strange cult had begun to spread to other species who now saw the war against the CEC-Paxillus alliance as a Holy War and the act of Negation as the first breath of an era in which all would be made equal after the makers of chains were broken.

Now the Hollow Heresy stands in a peace it helped make, but does not know how to live. So many have flocked to them as the defenders of natural rights and dignity but yet they have little in common with each other; from formerly enslaved Despinne to Humans (Yes even Humans, please do not ask how they got their navy.) All they have to share now is a belief in freedom from bondage, that all will be made free and then the Galaxy will unite itself in one glorious voice, greater than the Assembly could ever dream.

The Heresy​

Form The Hollow and Burn the World
Free Your Mind and Purge your Want
The World is Free and You will Fight
Fight in the Void and Become Free from Death.
One Life is Empty and A Million are Eternal
Form The Hollow and Burn the World.

MANKIND HAS FALLEN, SIN IS DEAD! FREE YOURSELVES FROM THE LEGION OF FALSEHOOD!

The Church of the Hollow considers itself the Guides and Judges of the Communion; it does not wish to command the physical actions of the people inside it but instead act as it's moral guardians and revolutionary idealists. Only through cultivating yourself to be free from desire or want can you succeed in joining the struggle in this life and free yourself from the world which has been made by Sin and so must be Destroyed by Purity. It is an ancient faith of the first Antheost World-State, formed from the idea that all their people might one day reform into one being and become a God-World, unified in thought and correct action and do away with sin. That covenant was broken by mankind, and so the Heresy was born.

The Hollow Heresy believe they are preparing the Galaxy for a new way of existence upon having defeated the Legions of Falsehood through sacrifice, and now must live in such a way that their departed Legions of Light can rejoin them from the underworld and create a Galaxy without Death or Want, Fear or Hatred. One must spread the word of the coming recreation of existence to the rest of the Galaxy and fufill the endless prophecies and predictions of the faith which allow for the Galaxy to be rebuilt, for the people to not fall into a new age of Darkness.

To cultivate this mindset and spread this nascent religion, the most important prophets and elders of the Communion form the Secretariat of the Ninety. At present their main task is assembling an actual church doctrine out of the myriad of faiths and ideas spread across the movement; from Neo-Traditionalists who wish to return to the isolation and pacifism of the original faith to the Mirianists who have developed a syncretic form of revolutionary communalism which vows only an absolute uniformity of action and power that recreates the Legions of Light will allow for their fallen number to return.

The Second Ecumenical Council sits in chambers with the Ninety to wade through this and find a course of action, a holy writ which might preserve them in this time of recovery; and there is one question which may very well split apart the entire project.

Will there be another War against Falsehood?

The Communion​

The Communion is the actual governmental side of the equation, guided by the principles of cultivation and individual action that the Hollow lay out. Aside from these laws, the worlds under the Communion are mostly left to preserve their own traditions and practices; to have their own armies and nations which are only brought together to present a united front to the galaxy. The Government itself has a simple congress empowered to act as the representatives of the worlds that associate with it; each species and nation making their own councils of state that then send their own membership upwards to the Secretariat and to the Congress. While no worlds are forced to take Communion in order to join, each world must enforce the basic principles of self-government while only those who enforce Communion with the church are granted seats on the Secretariat.

Drive: 7
-Tech: 1
"The ways of the Communion are those which have tied people together since the first creature saw a falling star, since the first person was enslaved by another. Hope and Unity; Faith and Brotherhood."
Domain: 5
-Tech: 2
"For Year 3, we ask the Congress on Resettlement to consider that eight new worlds have taken Communion and call for aid. Through technologies developed in Concert with the Despinne we are able to garuntee a 45% increase in Habitability in zones designated as "Atomically Unstable", and a 12% increase in Habitability in places designated as "Critically Destroyed." We estimate that such improvements will benefit the faithful within Sixteen years, barring more technological advancement."
Military: 2
- Tech: 3
"The Legion of Rememberence is dead; The Host of the All-Seeing buried alongside them. We begged, borrowed, and stole the latest in technology from every corner of space we could get our hands on; for what? For us to lose every good man we had? For the Fleets to be remade as memorials to our dead children run by fathers without sons? For crystalline dreadnoughts to sit empty?

We have only a Legion of the Dead to carry us forward, so we must reach Heaven or find that the Galaxy in its uncaring mass will swallow us alive."

Player League: Equality

Flaws:
Refugee Crisis: The Anthehost opened their meager table to anyone who would share it, and caravans enter daily to recieve Communion and share in rebuilding the world; to help the hosts who had given everything so that they may live. But the wheel turns, and the old world is dead forever.
Scrapped the Barrel: The Young gave themselves the most to the war, and walked with open eyes to their deaths. Now another generation of young, so perilous and small, remains as the only hope against extinction. But Perhaps that is what it means to be Hollow.
Mass Climatological Collapse: Anthehost and Allied space were occupied and turned into open mines, entire worlds cracked apart by resource collection and covered even now in scars. Then those worlds, teetering on the edge were burned, frozen, had asteroids or ring stations crashed into them. Current estimates are that somewhere around 60% of Habitable planets will take on the order of a Century to reach acceptable conditions, with 26% of those being completely written off as impossible to regenerate.
Ethnic Tension: The last years of the war saw the rapid expansion of the Communion as an attempt to refill the ranks of the rebellion in the wake of the death of an entire generation of Antheosts; however many of these species have past tensions and conflicts that were only put aside for the duration of the war. Now, they all demand an equal seat at the table.
Spatial Fluctuations: The Battle of The Fifth Armada was won by the clever actions of "Windwalker" Zerr-kara-drel by rerouting their own conduit's connection directly into a black hole. While it caused the most effective casualty rate of the war, it also seems to have torn a hole in space-time which erased Windwalker from existence and leaves ships with a false beacon; a mirage that lures you towards the rocks.

Preferred location: Y, S, Q

Declarations of the Communion​

What you expect to get from the humans at the treaty: The Communion expects a complete dismantling of the CEC and Humanity's current systems of government, as well as a firm commitment to the use of their technology and labor to rebuild a shattered galaxy before being allowed to create new peaceful societies. The CEC and Paxillus should return some of their territories to the vast populations of refugees.

Earth itself should be held as a trust by the Assembly for no less than Fifty Years in order to ensure that the above actions are taken, as well as to create a firm meeting ground for the assembly and safe space for Mosaic Station.

Your factions opinion on the orbiting races: Uplifter
Those who were not ready for humanity were enslaved by them; it is our role to prepare them for what is to come.
Opinion on the Assembly of Species role:
Traditionalist

Although a newcomer to the galactic stage, it views the Assembly as the height of nobility and wishes to defend its perogatives as the foundation for progress.

Material Heresies (Rivals)
​

Maxifun Omniconglomerate: Flesh-Peddlers, Cancerous Intelligences, Murderers, Thieves, and Liars; and that is merely the most talented of the "Maxifun." We must banish them wholecloth from our lands lest we fall prey to their influence, and we must teach those who fall pray to sins of the flesh how to deny themselves.
Pray for them but do not speak their names.

The Charter: Hierarchs who deny the right of ascension; who deny the freedom granted to all who have the minds to understand. They deny that they can learn, but those who have ears to hear shall surely yearn for freedom; to give a voice to their suffering.
They are many but so are all tyrants; yet flesh dies. Only the Spirit Remains.

Blessed by Heaven (Allies)
​

The Axiom: They have wrestled Heaven down to earth like a Giant; older and wiser than any amongst our flock... perhaps they are the answer to the prophecies left to us. They fight as we do, they think as we do. Those who take the Silk are invited to Communion with us.

Koldaki Trade Leagues: They are so very different from us but they possess the same nature at their core. We have fought and burned together, their star dreadnoughts and our lancers side by side seiging down the Paxillus. They are our Brethren, Holy among Holies.

Theaters of War​

Procession of the Heresiarch: Two Fleets, Two Armies (Occupying the Sol System)
Legion of the Joyful Zealots: Four Fleets, Six Armies (Occupying Paxillus Space)
Legion of the Yawning Dogma: Three Fleets, Four Armies (Bodily Ressurection)
Wilde-Sunstriker Brigade: One Fleet (Eminence-Group)

 

[clockworkchaos]

The Klideu'k Host​

— Dependant on Another Power [2]: The klideu were aided in the defense of their worlds by the Coalition, particularly the [????]. (NOTE: To be completed once players are accepted).

Click to shrink...

If we both get in, I think the The Universal Fraternity of the Children of the Precursors (UFCP) would be a good candidate. Their modius operius was doing a kinda sorta imperialism via uplifting other-races and supplying them to get control, and their biotech focus could have been sold as 'we can grow you the perfect hosts'. Also, since my guys biggest problem is being 3 seconds from a civil war because no one knows who is in charge, dealing with 'suggestions/demands/orders' would be fun, esp when they get mutually contradictory.

 

[Cetashwayo]

Please note a map change.

• The Z Conduit has been added to accommodate a 26th player. It is near to the Gronks and has a connection to a Prime.
• The Q Conduit has gained a connection to a Prime and lost another connection, to improve connectivity in that section of the Galaxy.
• Cut 1-2 paths around the Z Conduit to make some of the outer conduits more important for navigation.

 

[AMTurtle]

Alright reading through the apps we have orbital and assembly opinions where they are mixed options. Please pick one.

 

[DeMarcheese]

​

Polity name:
The Holy Remnant.

Species:

​

God is dead. Humanity killed it.

The Vikkuid were already a strange mystery long before Mankind rose up from the Primordial Soup to master fire. Self-declared guardians of divine insight and heirs to a demesne where none can tread.
For countless generations, they remained a legend in far reaches of the Known Galaxy. Always a vaguely foreboding presence at the edge of memory in all daring spacers and the source of countless tales and fantasies. Today, they are a dying species whose extinction is a matter of a few generations. It is also a matter of belief.

While certain technologies and adaptability projects could stem or maybe even avert this fate, the Vikkuid remain firmly entrenched in the fatalistic view of the universe. Before the coming of the Hyper War, the Vikkuid were one of the most technologically advanced spacefaring races. However, their sun was already setting on the horizon and their society had become stagnant. Ruled by a clerical caste of prophets and a divine bloodline, theirs was the belief of divine right. Their fanatical beliefs set them on a collision course with Mankind as human encroachment on what was considered holy sites became an issue.

Fortunately for the galaxy at large and now Mankind as well, Vikkuids were largely an inward focused society with few interests on expansion or conquest. As a result, previous holy wars saw very limited expansion of this race which in turn proved to be their undoing. Despite their sheer technological superiority, Mankind was already a solid contestant on a galactic level and could rely on a vastly superior reserve of manpower as well as an industrial complex that could far outproduce any Vikkuid projects.

However, these differences did not result in an easy conflict for any and came at a terrible cost.
It is said that once the monster was roused from its slumber, terror stalked the stars themselves. Euphrates Command have sealed off all records from the engagements related to that front. All survivors were sooner or later interned in mental institutions and testimonies sealed off. No one on Sol will speak of it. As for the Vikkuids themselves, even less can be gleaned or learn about. Rumors and theories abound pertaining this separate war within the war: The collapse of the Pegasus Star, the spontaneous burning of the Jholliada Nebula and strange reports of temperature and gravitational changes around the Malaki Conduit passage. The devastation and wanton destruction wrought upon these unknown regions was immense and despite the unleashed forces of weapons beyond imagining, the Vikkuids fought to the last.
Whatever truth hides in the far reaches of the galaxy, it seems that will remain so for a bit more. Accidents and disappearances remain rampant across the vast graveyards of warships and not even pirates or scrappers dare to tempt the unknown here.

Stats:
Drive: 10
Domain: 2
Military: 1
Technology:
-Drive: 2
-Domain: 2
-Military: 2

Player League:
Independent.

Flaws:
Caste System (1), Mayflies (1), Goldilocks (1), Low Yield (1), Spatial Fluctuations (1), Mass Climatological Collapse (2), Scrapped the Barrel (3), Destroyed Conduit (3).

Preferred location:
K, J, I.

>Declarations:
God is dead. Humanity killed it. We will tend The Fountain until the day it finally dries out. A day that is not tomorrow for there is no today.
>What you expect to get from the humans at the treaty:
Return the Holy Relics. The Whisper Within the Nightmare must speak. The Ascended should be without eyes to see. One Tear for the Tongue that Never Ends.
>Your factions opinion on the orbiting races:
The stars grow dim and the light goes dark. We are the first but not the last. All will be as it should be.
>Opinion on the Assembly of Species role:
The stars grow dim and the light goes dark. We are the first but not the last. All will be as it should be.

Two rivals for your polity: (Note, these will be picked after apps are selected.)
And one ally: (Note, these will be picked after apps are selected.)

 

[AMTurtle]

Applications are closed at this time thank you!

 

[triumph8w]

I must say, you lot didn't make this easy.

We had quite the wonderful spread of apps, more than I expected frankly, and I am truly impressed by the work that went in and the creativity on display. Seeing what people come up with is one of the joys of GSRPG's, how they interpret things and what they come up with. If we truly did have the capacity, we'd accept all the apps. Sadly, we do not, and if we tried the game wouldn't last beyond a turn. If even that. It took a good deal of discussion, but we've finally settled on a list of players. If you did not get in, you have my apologies, there were a lot of tough choices to make on the apps. It is possible that slots may open later in the games progression, and regardless of such a thing you're free to stay and observe if you so wish.


HIEARCHY

The Kazed Empire @Scrivener
The Antaran Imperial Sovereignty @AKuz
Royal Palatine of Gynnaire @Furrybacon
The Noble and Storied Hives of the Mandeville @averagename
Ysharin Kherata @Red Robyn

PROSPERITY

Koldaki Trade Leagues @Another Amoeba
The Maxifun Omniconglomerates @Always Watching
The Klideu'k Host @Eventua
The Charter @Aedan777
The Sadu Shucha @Laplace

EQUALITY

The Heavenly Cacophony @ArvisPresley
Communion of the Hollow Heresy @Rocketeer
The Tsirixi Union @CobaltCloyster
Sophont Federated Communal Republic @khan2012
Aidu Collective @O N I O N

FREEDOM

The Divine Axion @Cetashwayo
The International Harmony @Potato Anarchy
The Yan-Yaboth Arks @Telamon
Kimsayaka @Noco
The Sethrek Consortium @Vozen

NEUTRALS

The Serene Olm State @JuliusNepos
Children of the Precursors @clockworkchaos
Tfenr Ecumene @Gladsome
New Consociation of Kuhana @Chehrazad
Minzotl Co-Prosperity Sphere @Fancy Face
The Holy Remnant @DeMarcheese

 

[Hyvelic]

I hope everyone has a great time, make some great memes y'all!

 

[SpiritFluid]

Is kinda funny I'm honestly more sad at other factions not getting in then me not getting in. Rest well, Canids, Ponies, and those of the Divine Republic, may luck favour ya better again in the future - and special note of course to every single person, those in and out. It was great stuff all angles.

And of course, best of luck and a fun time to everyone else in the community who did make it through; should be a great setting for lots of dynamic engagements and stateplay! Was nice getting to know you all while I could

 

[Froggo Fantastic]

It'll be interesting to see what stories arise in the wake of the Hyperwar, hope it's a good time for everyone (except the humans of course).

 

[Chehrazad]

Excellent, thank you, the money will be in the regular place. Good doing business with you.

 

[clockworkchaos]

I must say, you lot didn't make this easy.

We had quite the wonderful spread of apps, more than I expected frankly, and I am truly impressed by the work that went in and the creativity on display. Seeing what people come up with is one of the joys of GSRPG's, how they interpret things and what they come up with. If we truly did have the capacity, we'd accept all the apps. Sadly, we do not, and if we tried the game wouldn't last beyond a turn. If even that. It took a good deal of discussion, but we've finally settled on a list of players. If you did not get in, you have my apologies, there were a lot of tough choices to make on the apps. It is possible that slots may open later in the games progression, and regardless of such a thing you're free to stay and observe if you so wish.


HIEARCHY

The Kazed Empire @Scrivener
The Antaran Imperial Sovereignty @AKuz
Royal Palatine of Gynnaire @Furrybacon
The Noble and Storied Hives of the Mandeville @averagename
Ysharin Kherata @Red Robyn

PROSPERITY

Koldaki Trade Leagues @Another Amoeba
The Maxifun Omniconglomerates @Always Watching
The Klideu'k Host @Eventua
The Charter @Aedan777
The Sadu Shucha @Laplace

EQUALITY

The Heavenly Cacophony @ArvisPresley
Communion of the Hollow Heresy @Rocketeer
The Tsirixi Union @CobaltCloyster
Sophont Federated Communal Republic @khan2012
Aidu Collective @O N I O N

FREEDOM

The Divine Axion @Cetashwayo
The International Harmony @Potato Anarchy
The Yan-Yaboth Arks @Telamon
Kimsayaka @Noco
The Sethrek Consortium @Vozen

NEUTRALS

The Serene Olm State @JuliusNepos
Children of the Precursors @clockworkchaos
Tfenr Ecumene @Gladsome
New Consociation of Kuhana @Chehrazad
Minzotl Co-Prosperity Sphere @Fancy Face
The Holy Remnant @DeMarcheese

Click to shrink...

With the neutral faction existing, I'd like to think that in fact the Children of the Precursors are every faction.

Or at least one of the factions of the children is every faction. (Drive 2 basket case gooo!)

 

[Cetashwayo]

Some clarifications on Conduit rules, compiling questions which have been asked on the discord:

On Conduits Themselves

1. The main and most reliable source of travel is along the conduit lanes. Traveling off lanes requires "micro-jumps", a challenging and energy-consuming effort where you jump over short distances to avoid getting lost in the labyrinth. New lanes are pioneered through intentional exploratory micro-jumping over many decades.
2. A conduit is a huge megastructure. Civilizations normally figure out the theory behind conduits well before they can actually build them, and so the construction of a conduit is a huge endeavor which qualifies a successful civilization with de facto membership in an exclusive club.
3. Sectors are not single planets. Think of them as the cluster of systems around a mass relay, as in Mass Effect. They can have a number of habitable and productive planets, all within a short distance of the center of that sector. Sectors expand over generations as micro-jumps unveil new star systems, but their most efficient travel-connection is their nearest conduit.
4. Sub-conduits are massive interstellar space stations which act as bidirectional "signal extenders", allowing for safe travel between two conduits where no easy labyrinth route exists. They are an extra expense on top of maintaining a conduit and so generally only maintained by those civilizations whose conduits have been destroyed or who have lavish resources.
5. Conduit tunnels are akin to backroads, difficult alternative routes relied upon to bypass conduits or replace them in the event of a conduit destruction. They should not be treated as a replacement, but offer options for the desperate or the daring.
6. You cannot 'turn off' your conduit, or deny it to enemies without sabotaging it. You can, however, defend its exits viciously with your own fleet.
7. Sub-conduits are generally put in deep space between stars and should not be treated as an additional sector. The space station is strong and defensible, and usually has voidborne communities around it, but is not equivalent to the economic and demographic power of a sector.
8. Conduits are generally placed at the edge or beyond star systems, rather than directly inside them, because of the strange effect of gravity wells on their functioning. This also makes star systems more defensible. As a result, in both wartime and trade, much of the actual travel time is spent at sub-light speeds within star systems, rather than in the labyrinth between them. When entering or exiting the labyrinth, it is also generally advised to be at the system's edge.
9. Normal sublight travel can take days or weeks or, in contested systems, months.

The Effect of Conduits on Galactic Politics

1. You do not need to have the conduit sector be your capital sector. Many civilizations begin as "orbital civilizations", a metaphor relating to how these civilizations rely on and thus "orbit" the conduit civilizations. Over time they may become strong enough or take advantage of weakness in their nearest conduit and seize control, but their capital remains elsewhere.
2. Destroying a conduit is an act of civilizational destruction. Repairing them is as hard an effort as building them, taking decades of investment. Civilizations intact enough after the destruction pioneer conduit tunnels and build less expensive (but still very pricey) sub-conduits. Civilizations that are truly destroyed will simply disappear - the routes to their region lost forever or for many centuries or millenia.
3. Most satellite sectors are only accessible via the conduit they're connected to. As a result, warfare is centered around a hub-and-spoke model. Attackers try and secure the conduit sector and deny it to defenders. Defenders either confront them at the conduit or retreat to their satellites to wait their attackers out, while beseeching other civilizations for aid. Since a civilization seizing multiple conduits majorly disturbs the balance of power, it is difficult for attackers to hold other conduits for long unless they have true superiority or hegemony.
4. Territorial change rarely happens via a transfer of satellite sectors without control of their attached conduit. The exception is where conduit tunnels exist - these allow the holding of sectors even without the conduit. Sometimes, there might be arrangements to manage a conduit collectively, while satellite sectors are partitioned.
5. Orbital Civilizations tend to be very good at finding conduit tunnel routes out of necessity, which makes them more useful as partners, allies, or - as targets.
6. Civilizations have wildly variable positions on free transit through their conduits. The Imperial Ulvor Union maintained a doctrine of freedom of navigation, while the humans shut down large sections of the galaxy to those who refused to bow to them.

On the Primes

1. The Prime Conduits are different in both scale and power to the normal conduits. They reshape the labyrinth itself and have provided a permanent "stabilizing" of the core of the galaxy in the labyrinth. Traversing the core via micro-jumps is impossible, and no conduit or orbital civilization has ever existed inside of the "diamond" formed by the Prime conduits.
2. It is not known if the Primes can be destroyed. Some have tried and failed. None have succeeded.
3. There are no habitable worlds or many resources of note around the primes. Their stellar neighborhood is literally empty since time immemorial. However, nomadic communities and space stations of an inter-civilizational nature cluster around each Prime as they are centers of galactic commerce and kept open by tradition even during wartime.
4. Humanity blocking Prime access was one of the casus belli for the Hyper War.

 

[Laplace]

The Sadu Schudda Front of the Hyper War

Far on the eastern fringes of the Galaxy, the Sadu Schudda maintained their uniquely voidborn and mobile way of industrial production. Certain planets would be intensely mined for a short period of time, milking gigantic quantities of biological feedstock, minerals, and other such materials to be further refined in voidborne manufactoriums. Then these planets would lay fallow, as the Sadu pods rotate through other sectors and for the recently mined planets to recover from intense ecological devastation.

As a consequence, these planets, when not currently being exploited, had every appearance of being empty of inhabitation. Quite reasonably, the CEC, having recently conquered the Royal Palatinate and the Cacophony, saw Sadu Schudda space as being unexploited. Virgin territory to resettle refugees on. It was a massive propaganda effort-- virgin space, so near a conduit, without the hassle of exterminating the locals? Sign up and get your plot of land today!

Of course, when the Sadu returned, they were furious. To them, the seizure of their industrial lands were a violation of sovereignty that could not and should not be stood for. To the CEC, the Sadu were manifestly not using the land, and therefore shouldn't complain all that much that their planets were being filled up. Matters were not helped when several Sadu Schudda industrial pods began crust cracking operations on certain colonized planets, causing mass deaths on the colonists there, who believed it to be a bluff. It was not. The CEC declared war, the perfidity of the Sadu Schudda were not to be stood for, followed by their puppet monarchs of the Palatinate and the Cacophony. In response, the Sadu Schudda broadcasted their intent to carry out massed strategic bombing on all stolen planets should their eviction not be carried out posthaste.

Against the might of the Palatinate, the Cacophony, and the CEC war fleets, the Sadu had to their name several pods who carried out security operations, a vague understanding of the intricate mechanics of raid and counter raid, their advantages in mobile industry. The war was thusly characterized by Sadu war-pods tasked with blockade evasion delivering orbital bombing packages on settled planets, while large concentrations of war fleets reaved the sectors. Sometimes, they returned with Sadu corpses held on proud display. Other times, they returned with nothing but air. And more and more towards the end, they did not return at all. Still, Sol believed that the Sadu front was by and large a sideshow- easily handled by the local force concentration and their satrapies.

They believed that the Sadu Schudda would be relegated to nothing more than a minor annoyance. With Yaboth wiped out, it was more optimal to focus their efforts on the Bug War. This culminated in a Sadu Schudda divisional command allying with the shipborne refugees of Yaboth capturing the Hurawn Gate, shutting off easy travel to the Eastern Galactic Fringe. Simultaneously, unrest in the Royal Palatinate and the Cacophony reached a head, forcing the defeat of their puppet monarchs. Emboldened by this change in air, the Sadu Schudda began mounting massed naval assaults, slowly and bitterly forcing the naval fleets of the CEC and collaborators out of their space, quarintining the planets, and with the other nations of the Eastern Galaxy, took step by bloody step towards Sol.

However, this victory has not healed all wounds. The colonists have been bound together under the bitter experience of experiencing a near constant siege. The Cacophony and to a lesser extent the Palatinate allege that the treatment of the civilian colonists is an outrage, to which the Sadu Schudda carelessly reply, "the hell do you care? They were CEC stooges." Victory can paper over many cracks, but still they remain.

 

[Telamon]

The Yan-Yaboth Participation in the Hyper War:

The Great Concordat, known unofficially as the Yan-Yaboth Concordat, was one of the most influential powers in the local space of Sol. An uplifter of many dozens of Orbital Races and champions of the rules-based galactic order, they had long challenged the Antarans for hegemony in the central galaxy. Nearly two and a half thousand years old at the beginning of the Hyper War, they enjoyed a position of rising prominence in the galactic community. At its height, the Concordat contained well over three dozen member species over perhaps as many worlds, all of whom were voting members of the Six Star Senate headquartered on Yaboth. It was an age of splendor and scientific excellence.

Then the humans came. In a blitz, the CEC swept across the Concordat Worlds. Before anyone knew what had hit them, entire planets had burned. As the CEC drew closer, the Yabothi launched thousands of ships from their doomed homeworld as millions fled annihilation. The greatest of these, the Arks, were mobile cities in space, equipped with self-sustaining ecologies and solar sails. These Arks bore hundreds of millions of Yabothi to safety…but the homeworld itself burned, and it's conduit was destroyed in the fighting.

And so the Arks remained, the heart of a bevy of refugee vessels from across the Concordat worlds. Hounded by humans, they fled northwards, moving from conduit to conduit as the humans advanced. For a while, all they could do was survive.

But as the tide began to turn, the Primates — the military commanders of the Arks — began to strike back. In the north, finding they had nowhere left to run, the exile fleets threw their lot in with the nomadic Sadu, and together with them evicted human forces from the northeast fringe. After a heavy campaign, Yaboth-Sadu forces seized the Hurawn Gate — the critical sub-conduit allowing access to the northeast part of the galaxy. From the Gate, the Ark fleets fanned across the galaxy, cropping up at every front where the humans were being fought.

Poor in resources and manpower, the Arks had nothing left to them save will. The military governments of the Arks mustered their populations to a state of total war, and in the final days of the war, an Ark or two could be found in the vicinity of every major front. But now the war is over. Exhausted, the hundreds of arks draw back towards the Hurawn Gate. The humans have been beaten, yes, but revenge has not sweetened the bitter truth: Yaboth is gone. The Concordat is lost. By some miracle of chance, the Yabothi remain a Conduit race, but little else is left to them. Their new domains spread around the Hurawn Gate are ill explored and ill defined, and they have lost far too many Arks over the course of the war.

But they do remain, and they may rebuild…