FourthWall
Love & Destroy
- Location
- Chiraq
Is this space climate change, space refugees and space AIDS?
Seventh Sky - a space opera about international cooperation
- Thread starter Ford Prefect
- Start date
- Worldbuilding
Emote Control
Plenty of genius, not enough sense.
Great to see this back!
Little detail -- sophont rights should also be independent of "subspecies, metamorphic stage, or any other status". This is SF, after all.
Little detail -- sophont rights should also be independent of "subspecies, metamorphic stage, or any other status". This is SF, after all.
Last edited:
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is this space climate change, space refugees and space AIDS?
Well, I mean, there are still planets lol
Good point! I don't like subspecies compared to ethnicity, however.
FourthWall
Love & Destroy
- Location
- Chiraq
Since it's space opera, everything has to be "Space X". Which would make SpaceX into Space SpaceX.
Olay there are still some kinks to iron out, but the system works.
The Mobile Suit Problem
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
THE MOBILE SUIT PROBLEM
Since their invention, mobile suits have represented one of the key pieces of military hardware in the galaxy. As technology has advanced so too have the capabilities of mobile suits, and in modern times they are generally considered to be one of the most powerful weapon systems in operation. Mounting a unison core, equipped with complete perfect armour and advanced unified force control, a mobile suit is both incredibly fast and incredibly durable. Very little can hit an active mobile suit and what little can hit one is unlikely to do any damage. To defeat a mobile suit required the deployment of another mobile suit, resulting in an escalating arms race of operation capability such as higher output photon drives, AI support integration and weapon familiars. This capability has distorted the modern battlefield.
It is no exaggeration to say that a single SVA-606 Barbatos mobile suit, the mainline unit deployed by the AE Cosmo Force during the Ptolemaic War, would be able to defeat the military forces of the entire human diaspora prior to contact with the Astreans. While not invincible, mobile suits are strong enough that states fielding only conventional forces willy typically be unable to resist any mobile suit equipped aggressors. Even access to critical effect weapons is not effect. As such, acquiring mobile suits becomes a priority for most states, particularly military dictatorships.
This is the so-called Mobile Suit Problem, expressed in Falamecian as veltgetter-mesune and referring to a self-destructive mania or obsession. Fearful or desirous of the capabilities of mobile suits (and often both fearful and desirous), national governments will expend considerable effort to obtain a mobile suit or the technical and industrial capacity to build one.
As even small numbers of mobile suits represent a considerable investment. They require a mixture of advanced nanomachinery and metamaterials and access to transuranic alloys, along with the capacity to manipulate exotic matter, build photon drives and develop high end artificial intelligence. Among young states having the industry necessary to meet even one of these requirements is exceedingly difficult to acquire. For those first encountering interstellar spaceflight, or example, the energy needed to create transuranic alloys is generally completely out of reach. This leads to attempts to purchase 'off the shelf.' As Charter States tend to have highly regulated arms industries, more often than not this means turning to non-Charter signatories, who often charge ruinous prices.
While this can be economically disastrous, there are other critical elements. The first is that operating a mobile suit requires a unison core. If one wishes to receive unison cores from the ARIA, one must adhere to the strictures of the Charter of the Seventh Sky. If one wishes to receive unison cores elsewhere, one must rely on a larger Verge state or the Grandian Empire, which can be dangerous prospects. In all these scenarios governmental policy can shift dramatically to best please a new benefactor, even in situations where the benefactor makes no explicit demands. Short-sighted shifts such as these have been known to harm citizens and disrupt state development.
The second critical element is the individual aptitude necessary to operate a mobile suit. In order to best integrate with the the suit's systems, an operate needs a sufficient level of psycho-resonance aptitude, which can sometimes be rare. In cases where it is rare, governments desperate for mobile suit capability will use conscription to force those with the aptitude to enter the military. Others will engage in dangerous experimentation and modification programs to artificially raise that aptitude. Combinations of both are not unknown.
As the mobile suit problem is well-known, the ARIA has a number of action committees dedicated to finding means to counteract it. Currently it is known that the best way to reduce the effect of the mobile suit problem is to reduce the amount of conflict in the galaxy, an unfortunately an extremely difficult task even for the ARIA.
Since their invention, mobile suits have represented one of the key pieces of military hardware in the galaxy. As technology has advanced so too have the capabilities of mobile suits, and in modern times they are generally considered to be one of the most powerful weapon systems in operation. Mounting a unison core, equipped with complete perfect armour and advanced unified force control, a mobile suit is both incredibly fast and incredibly durable. Very little can hit an active mobile suit and what little can hit one is unlikely to do any damage. To defeat a mobile suit required the deployment of another mobile suit, resulting in an escalating arms race of operation capability such as higher output photon drives, AI support integration and weapon familiars. This capability has distorted the modern battlefield.
It is no exaggeration to say that a single SVA-606 Barbatos mobile suit, the mainline unit deployed by the AE Cosmo Force during the Ptolemaic War, would be able to defeat the military forces of the entire human diaspora prior to contact with the Astreans. While not invincible, mobile suits are strong enough that states fielding only conventional forces willy typically be unable to resist any mobile suit equipped aggressors. Even access to critical effect weapons is not effect. As such, acquiring mobile suits becomes a priority for most states, particularly military dictatorships.
This is the so-called Mobile Suit Problem, expressed in Falamecian as veltgetter-mesune and referring to a self-destructive mania or obsession. Fearful or desirous of the capabilities of mobile suits (and often both fearful and desirous), national governments will expend considerable effort to obtain a mobile suit or the technical and industrial capacity to build one.
As even small numbers of mobile suits represent a considerable investment. They require a mixture of advanced nanomachinery and metamaterials and access to transuranic alloys, along with the capacity to manipulate exotic matter, build photon drives and develop high end artificial intelligence. Among young states having the industry necessary to meet even one of these requirements is exceedingly difficult to acquire. For those first encountering interstellar spaceflight, or example, the energy needed to create transuranic alloys is generally completely out of reach. This leads to attempts to purchase 'off the shelf.' As Charter States tend to have highly regulated arms industries, more often than not this means turning to non-Charter signatories, who often charge ruinous prices.
While this can be economically disastrous, there are other critical elements. The first is that operating a mobile suit requires a unison core. If one wishes to receive unison cores from the ARIA, one must adhere to the strictures of the Charter of the Seventh Sky. If one wishes to receive unison cores elsewhere, one must rely on a larger Verge state or the Grandian Empire, which can be dangerous prospects. In all these scenarios governmental policy can shift dramatically to best please a new benefactor, even in situations where the benefactor makes no explicit demands. Short-sighted shifts such as these have been known to harm citizens and disrupt state development.
The second critical element is the individual aptitude necessary to operate a mobile suit. In order to best integrate with the the suit's systems, an operate needs a sufficient level of psycho-resonance aptitude, which can sometimes be rare. In cases where it is rare, governments desperate for mobile suit capability will use conscription to force those with the aptitude to enter the military. Others will engage in dangerous experimentation and modification programs to artificially raise that aptitude. Combinations of both are not unknown.
As the mobile suit problem is well-known, the ARIA has a number of action committees dedicated to finding means to counteract it. Currently it is known that the best way to reduce the effect of the mobile suit problem is to reduce the amount of conflict in the galaxy, an unfortunately an extremely difficult task even for the ARIA.
I like this a lot- obviously brings to mind of all sorts of mech anime, but codifying it as a recurring phenomenon immediately opens up a lot of plot hooks for stories of any scope (individual to government-wide).
Healthcare and Medicine
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
HEALTHCARE AND MEDICINE
The most visible products of an interstellar society are the tools that make that society possible: stellar level power sources, relativistic drives, faster than light warp engines, space colonies, planetary engineering. Less visible, but in no way less important, is the technology protects and promotes the health of the individuals that live in that society. Much of the galaxy, especially within Charter Space, benefits from enormous advances in medical science. While sickness is still prevalent, an enormous array of infectious diseases have been eradicated from the face of the galaxy, and the capacity of states and organisations to respond to health crises is incredible.
In Charter Space, the ARIA and its signatories benefit from the Necia Miadis Lios (lit. 'Stellar Health Organisation') or NEMIL, a specialised agency under the ARIA Development Group that is concerned with public health at an interplanetary and interstellar scale. NEMIL's mandate covers the containment and eradication of both communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases, the mitigation of their effects and the promotion of general good health. To this end it is concerned with issues such as proper nutrition, food security, occupational health, substance and abuse and more. Alongside equivalent agencies in major states, NEMIL drives the development of international reporting and networking on health issues.
What follows is a sample of medical developments that the people of galaxy benefit from.
DESTRUCTIVE SURGERY
Despite the dangerous sounding name, destructive surgery is one of the most vital developments in modern medicine. Taking advantage of the stable, life-supporting conditions of the modern amnio tank and making use of high precision medical drones and robotics, destructive surgery can literally take a body apart into its component pieces. A broken or fractured arm can can be stripped down to the bone, the individual pieces put back together and then the muscle strands and blood vessels and nerves thread back together, leaving it completely restored. The largest units commonly found in hospitals can remove and replace a person's entire central nervous system, or separate out every bone and organ. This allows for precise repair of even minute issues with extremely minimal risk.
LIMB AND ORGAN REPLACEMENT
With a combination of amnio tank technology and element printed frames, even a field hospital is capable of building a replacement limb or internal organ essentially on demand. in the case of a proximal forearm amputation in a human or ledipalap, a replacement limb can be grown and reattached in as little as an hour with immediate partial functionality. Full functionality can be expected to return within a day. Despite advancements in cybernetics, this kind of organic replacement is preferred due to its overall convenience. With anti-rejection drugs even a DNA linked cybernetic prosthesis can be rejected, and bring significant health risks to the user. Rejections are practically unheard of with amnio-grown replacements.
TELOMERE LENGTHENING AND TELOMERASE REPLENISHMENT
With the exception of the alcysis and some animals from their homeworld, all sophonts die of old age eventually. Medications and procedures exist which allow for the extension of life are relatively common, though are mainly used to combat the effects of aging. While the alcysis are known to be biologically immortal and only die due organ failure as their bodies grow too large, it is not medically possible to stave off death entirely. Even the Astreans, who benefit from the most advanced medicines and care in the galaxy, have not been able to achieve such a feat--though Queen Scheherazade is said to have been born two and a half thousand years ago, she has relied extensively on stasis technology. Despite this, the Astreans life expectancy of roughly 500 years is largely the result of a variant of telomerase replenishment technology.
Different species respond differently to these treatments. At one extreme are the Grandians, who do not respond to such treatments at all, at the other is the ceidai, who can almost double their life expectancy. Humans, for example, have a natural life expectancy that averages to 85 years, and with readily available medication comfortably extend that past 100 with no reduction in quality of life.
REGENERATOR
A generic term for medicine that stimulates cellular and molecular regeneration to superhuman levels. It was original developed as a battlefield equaliser against the Grandians, who possess the ability to swiftly recover from incredibly grievous injuries, which makes them incredibly resilient in inertial combat. While no medicine can truly replicate Grandian high-speed regeneration, the effect of something like caudozyne, used by the AE Cosmo Force, comes close. A dose of regenerator can repair ruptured organs or a broken spine, a necessity for mobile suit operators.
Regenerator is only rarely used in civilian medicine, usually only in emergencies. The process of regeneration is extremely unpleasant and often painful. Further while regenerator is highly effective it is no substitute for proper medical care, as it is not a directed process. Soldiers who have used it multiple times to survive a battle often require medical attention afterwards in order to correct unusual regenerations. Overuse of regenerator can be fatal.
CYBERNETIC PROSTHESES
While significantly less popular than organic replacement, cybernetics is still an area of research interest and the industry has continued to develop. Modern prosthetics are distinguished from earlier generations by their complete integration into the central nervous system, rather than being attached to peripheral nerves. Combined with advances in materials and software integration this makes a mechanical replacement almost indistinguishable from a real limb. For the average person a mechanical replacement is arguably even an improvement, however as a rule the installation of such a prosthesis involves lifelong use of anti-rejection drugs. However for those who cannot make use of traditional organic replacement surgery cybernetics is an essential field.
Cultural attitudes towards cybernetic prosthetics differ considerably from place to place, especially when considering elective prosthetics. Some countries have histories of cybernetics weapons programs, the fallout of which is still felt in the modern day, and some younger states still pursue the alluring idea of the mechanically augmented supersoldier. While weaponised or 'combat' prosthetics can be very powerful, they are highly regulated and often illegal. Within Charter Space such enhancements are seen as outmoded compared to physical conditioning, so any such research is generally done by 'black' corporations.
The most visible products of an interstellar society are the tools that make that society possible: stellar level power sources, relativistic drives, faster than light warp engines, space colonies, planetary engineering. Less visible, but in no way less important, is the technology protects and promotes the health of the individuals that live in that society. Much of the galaxy, especially within Charter Space, benefits from enormous advances in medical science. While sickness is still prevalent, an enormous array of infectious diseases have been eradicated from the face of the galaxy, and the capacity of states and organisations to respond to health crises is incredible.
In Charter Space, the ARIA and its signatories benefit from the Necia Miadis Lios (lit. 'Stellar Health Organisation') or NEMIL, a specialised agency under the ARIA Development Group that is concerned with public health at an interplanetary and interstellar scale. NEMIL's mandate covers the containment and eradication of both communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases, the mitigation of their effects and the promotion of general good health. To this end it is concerned with issues such as proper nutrition, food security, occupational health, substance and abuse and more. Alongside equivalent agencies in major states, NEMIL drives the development of international reporting and networking on health issues.
What follows is a sample of medical developments that the people of galaxy benefit from.
DESTRUCTIVE SURGERY
Despite the dangerous sounding name, destructive surgery is one of the most vital developments in modern medicine. Taking advantage of the stable, life-supporting conditions of the modern amnio tank and making use of high precision medical drones and robotics, destructive surgery can literally take a body apart into its component pieces. A broken or fractured arm can can be stripped down to the bone, the individual pieces put back together and then the muscle strands and blood vessels and nerves thread back together, leaving it completely restored. The largest units commonly found in hospitals can remove and replace a person's entire central nervous system, or separate out every bone and organ. This allows for precise repair of even minute issues with extremely minimal risk.
LIMB AND ORGAN REPLACEMENT
With a combination of amnio tank technology and element printed frames, even a field hospital is capable of building a replacement limb or internal organ essentially on demand. in the case of a proximal forearm amputation in a human or ledipalap, a replacement limb can be grown and reattached in as little as an hour with immediate partial functionality. Full functionality can be expected to return within a day. Despite advancements in cybernetics, this kind of organic replacement is preferred due to its overall convenience. With anti-rejection drugs even a DNA linked cybernetic prosthesis can be rejected, and bring significant health risks to the user. Rejections are practically unheard of with amnio-grown replacements.
TELOMERE LENGTHENING AND TELOMERASE REPLENISHMENT
With the exception of the alcysis and some animals from their homeworld, all sophonts die of old age eventually. Medications and procedures exist which allow for the extension of life are relatively common, though are mainly used to combat the effects of aging. While the alcysis are known to be biologically immortal and only die due organ failure as their bodies grow too large, it is not medically possible to stave off death entirely. Even the Astreans, who benefit from the most advanced medicines and care in the galaxy, have not been able to achieve such a feat--though Queen Scheherazade is said to have been born two and a half thousand years ago, she has relied extensively on stasis technology. Despite this, the Astreans life expectancy of roughly 500 years is largely the result of a variant of telomerase replenishment technology.
Different species respond differently to these treatments. At one extreme are the Grandians, who do not respond to such treatments at all, at the other is the ceidai, who can almost double their life expectancy. Humans, for example, have a natural life expectancy that averages to 85 years, and with readily available medication comfortably extend that past 100 with no reduction in quality of life.
REGENERATOR
A generic term for medicine that stimulates cellular and molecular regeneration to superhuman levels. It was original developed as a battlefield equaliser against the Grandians, who possess the ability to swiftly recover from incredibly grievous injuries, which makes them incredibly resilient in inertial combat. While no medicine can truly replicate Grandian high-speed regeneration, the effect of something like caudozyne, used by the AE Cosmo Force, comes close. A dose of regenerator can repair ruptured organs or a broken spine, a necessity for mobile suit operators.
Regenerator is only rarely used in civilian medicine, usually only in emergencies. The process of regeneration is extremely unpleasant and often painful. Further while regenerator is highly effective it is no substitute for proper medical care, as it is not a directed process. Soldiers who have used it multiple times to survive a battle often require medical attention afterwards in order to correct unusual regenerations. Overuse of regenerator can be fatal.
CYBERNETIC PROSTHESES
While significantly less popular than organic replacement, cybernetics is still an area of research interest and the industry has continued to develop. Modern prosthetics are distinguished from earlier generations by their complete integration into the central nervous system, rather than being attached to peripheral nerves. Combined with advances in materials and software integration this makes a mechanical replacement almost indistinguishable from a real limb. For the average person a mechanical replacement is arguably even an improvement, however as a rule the installation of such a prosthesis involves lifelong use of anti-rejection drugs. However for those who cannot make use of traditional organic replacement surgery cybernetics is an essential field.
Cultural attitudes towards cybernetic prosthetics differ considerably from place to place, especially when considering elective prosthetics. Some countries have histories of cybernetics weapons programs, the fallout of which is still felt in the modern day, and some younger states still pursue the alluring idea of the mechanically augmented supersoldier. While weaponised or 'combat' prosthetics can be very powerful, they are highly regulated and often illegal. Within Charter Space such enhancements are seen as outmoded compared to physical conditioning, so any such research is generally done by 'black' corporations.
SVA-808 Flauros
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
SVA-808 FLAUROS
The SVA-808 Flauros is a ninth-generation, operator-AI paired, twin-core, all-environment tactical mobile suit developed for the Astral Era Cosmo Force (AECF) and its member states. The Flauros has a complicated design history history. While it is considered to be part of AECF's New Century Plan, it was originally a component of the wartime Lemegeton Project, a replacement to both the mainline SVA-606 Barbatos and the special duty use SVA-707 Astaroth. The suit was designed primarily as a ground dominance weapon, but also has air superiority, anti-orbital defence, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, West Meridian Heavy Industries, built most of the SVA-808's movable frame, perfect armour, main drive, weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Arayashiki Intelligent Systems provided AI and electronics integration, drone management and operator systems. The twin-core vacuum phase transition array and fundamental force control systems were developed by LEAR.
The Flauros was variously designated X-22 and NCP-22 before it formally entered the prototype stage in late SC0276 as the SVX-808. Being based on the SVX-303 Bael and combat data of Victoria Shinra-Bansho posed considerable difficulties for designers which resulted in numerous delays, particularly in terms of making the machine manageable for ordinary operators. Despite its protracted development and various operational issues,AECF officials consider the SVA-808 a critical component of the service's decisive combat power. Its combination of stealth, physical performance, situational awareness and wave motion effects enable unprecedented strike capabilities without the use of support equipment. Most AE member states are also pursuing Flauros purchases.
As the first true ninth-generation mobile suit built by humans it represents a major step in the technical capabilities of the solar system. The Flauros is considered to be superior to the Falamecian Elspeth and competitive with some variants of the Valmeth, but is still in limited production. Units are deployed where possible for operational testing.
ORIGINS
The Lemegeton Project was a rapid prototyping project designed to develop battlefield functional eighth-generation mobile suits capable of combating the Black Army, a powerful Reyathai PMC, on equal footing. Prior human mobile suit designs were considered unsuitable for combat against a premiere force made up of career alcysis soldiers, and in SC0270 it seemed likely to AE planners that they would be facing that kind of foe. Primarily focused on baseline capability rather than advanced functionality, its final products were highly regarded in terms of strength, durability and mobility. The Astarothin particular is considered one of the most sophisticated eighth-generation models currently still in circulation. Despite this, AE planners wished to leverage one of their most valuable assets, Victoria Shinra-Banshou, to create a more decisive weapon system.
This weapon system would be the X-22, the most ambitious technological project for AE since the construction of the Bahamut-class SCVs. Ultimately that ambition was not realised, but the existing work was shifted to the New Century Plan and its focus on counter-Grandian warfare. Victory in the Ptolemaic War gave the AE, and its various member states, a positive reputation in combat operations, and other states began to view them as being potentially significant in the event of a fifth Circum-Solar War. The eventual SVA-808 reflected this potential role, and is designed to compete with Grandian assets, including Grandian mobile suit forces.
DESIGN
Overview
The SVA-808 is a true ninth-generation mobile suit, and mounts a GN/GTR-172 twin-core vacuum phase transition device as its power source. Utilising two class-A Unison Cores in tandem, the GN/GTR-172 is not only capable of producing energy far in excess of previous human-built phase transition devices, but better able to manage topological defect within the device, resulting in incredibly stable performance. Combined with the slower saturation cycle that comes with twin-core designs, this means that the SVA-808 has both improved moment-by-moment performance, superior endurance and reduced maintenance burden. Compared to the SVA-707 and its GN/GTR-112-A, the improvement is estimated to be as much as 200% in every category, including cost.
The mobile suit's West Meridian MS8-WM-100 augmented photon drives are shoulder-spaced and feature pitch-axis thrust reflection with a range of ±90 degrees; each drive has maximum thrust in the 70,000 kN class. The main drive unit is assisted by full spectrum photon verniers in the 400 kN class. Maximum speed without external stores in atmosphere is Mach 15.2, increasing to above Mach 25 at 30,000m. Unassisted surface to GEO-equivalent time is just over 17 seconds. Without accounting for saturation cycle limits, the SVA-808 can complete a Trans-Lunar Injection, the so-called 'Apollo Run,' in 55 seconds. Overall velocity is limited mainly by the speed of anti-enthalpy calculations.
Movable frame
The outer frame is constructed from West Meridian's proprietary Airgetlam II perfect armour. The transuranic alloy is based on the atomic structure used in the SVX-303's Airgetlam I armour, modified for ease of mass production. While there is a drop in performance, the reduced energy cost has made Airgetlam II economical for production outside of Venus. Overall performance is similar to Airgetlam I due to the use of Alice Electric's new model Iona nanomaterials that feature energy absorption in the 8 GW range, an 18% improvement, and much improved self-repair functions. Strike surfaces, such as the SVA-808's claws, continue to use West Meridian's Excalibur IV. The outer frame also incorporates dual layer metamaterials, with Arayashiki's Argent Miroir providing passive stealth functions and Diamant Miroir translucent coating serving to scatter beam weapons up to capital class with minimal damage. Overall durability is top class even without accounting for field effects, while passive stealth characteristics are competitive with advanced Zoan and Falamecian models. The 808's frontal RCS signature is 0.0001m2, and in invisible mode photon perturbation is less than 0.2%. These metamaterials also allow the SVA-808 to freely alter its coefficient of friction.
Primary motive power is provided by a layer of psycholith liquid crystal, a programmable matter that serves as an alternative to artificial muscle. Utilising the SVX-303's combat data, the Flauros enjoys a raw lifting capacity of 12,000 t.
Electronics
Key electronics include the Arayashiki/Alice Electric AS/AER-900 electronic warfare system, Arayashiki's AS/AFF-96 infrared to ultraviolet Advanced Aggressor Warning system, utilising 72 individual sensors to provide full spherical coverage, and the Arayashiki/Fantoma Instrumentality AS/AFI-777 active scanning fused radar/lidar. Effective search range is 450,000 kilometers. Of these, the the AER-900 is arguably the most technically complex, which serves as a passive sensor detector by treating the entire body as a phased array for all-round radar warning receiver coverage. It can automatically cue the AFI-777 to target potential electronics sources, confining emissions to a narrow beam to increase overall stealth.
The AFI-777 has a low-observable, active-aperture, scanned array that can track multiple targets under any planetary or astrological conditions. Emissions can also be focused to overload enemy sensors as a basic form of electronic attack. The array changes frequencies more than 120,000 times per second to lower interception probability and has an effective search range of 450,000 km. The AFI-777 incorporates full air-to-ground functionality, including high-resolution synthetic aperture mapping, ground moving target indication and track, anti-clutter silhouette/pattern matching and other modes). Sensor information is processed by the operator's AI, a Super Wizard type capable of processing up to 12 quadrillion instructions per second. This filtered data is delivered via the psycho-resonance effect, at the level of the subconscious.
The SVA-808 also incorporates other expected forms of active and passive sensing, broadly replicating the EEV-9 ARGUS system present on the SVA-707. This includes low light assistance, thermal imaging, high resolution terahertz scanning, air pressure and turbulence tracking, mass spectrometry, sonar and vibrational sensing.
By changing the internal topology of the GN/GTR-172 it is also possible for the SVA-808 to operate as a degeneracy radar, albeit one of limited resolution beyond a single system. This capability combined with the advanced electronics allows an SVA-808 to act as a makeshift Aerospace Warning and Control System, should an alternative not be available. The SVA-808 is also capable of performing warp calculations to a limit of 600 lightyears, though it is not capable of warp travel itself.
Internal systems
As a ninth-generation unit, the SVA-808 emphasises wave motion effects, and exhibits very advanced fundamental force control. In terms of interference strength it is considerably superior to previous human mobile suits, and is only noticeably inferior to the SVX-303 at zero range. Its electromagnetic and gravity control is battleship grade, allowing for boarding actions aboard Grandian SCVs. Inertial control systems feature markedly improved response times, a persistent issue with the SVA-606 that was only partially rectified in the SVA-707. With the Flauros, negating and generating inertia is functionally reflexive. With improved sensitive in its control systems, a skilled operator can precisely manipulate the various fundamental forces to perform feats with the Flauros that would be essentially impossible with earlier models.
Of particular importance is the SVA-808's capacity to manipulate surrounding atmosphere, allowing it to reduce the impact of high speed movement on the surrounding environment.
In terms of fixed armaments, the mounts two Griever R-100 Curtain Call accelerators and an Arayashiki Valravn information weapon. The R-100 is a familiar weapon to operators of the SVA series, an inertial accelerator firing 5mm variable ammunition with a tunable muzzle velocity of up to 25km/s and a variable rate of fire up to 20,000RPM. While of limited use against units equipped with complete perfect armour, the R-100 is still effective for missile defense or anti-satellite purposes and is useful in harrying opponents. The Flauros mounts one in each arm. The Valravn is an active hacking device designed to provide access to even hardened military systems. While not infallible, its suite of attack and barrier programs are well-regarded internationally. The Valravn is sufficient powerful that it can force connect with many devices and easily suborn civilian electronics.
The SVA-808 features a battlefield triage suite that can keep an operator alive despite the rigours of inertial combat. While the SVA-707 focused on doses of caudozyne, the SVA-808 is more sophisticated, improving long term endurance. Like all mobile suits the SVA-808 is also able to perform battlefield hypnosis and can modify the effect of the operator's combat conditioning.
The SVA-808 incorporates an element printer in both hands, which can work in tandem to produce larger objects. It also has four wire anchors, one under each wrist, and one mounted on each hip.
Compared to both the SVA-606 and 707, which relied on additional equipment to control drone weapons, the SVA-808 has a fully integrated broadcast power system. With the excess of energy produced by the GN/GTR-172 phase transition device and a more efficient entanglement system, the Flauros can natively manage multiple active attack systems without needing to worry about operational time limits.
The SVA-808 Flauros is a ninth-generation, operator-AI paired, twin-core, all-environment tactical mobile suit developed for the Astral Era Cosmo Force (AECF) and its member states. The Flauros has a complicated design history history. While it is considered to be part of AECF's New Century Plan, it was originally a component of the wartime Lemegeton Project, a replacement to both the mainline SVA-606 Barbatos and the special duty use SVA-707 Astaroth. The suit was designed primarily as a ground dominance weapon, but also has air superiority, anti-orbital defence, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, West Meridian Heavy Industries, built most of the SVA-808's movable frame, perfect armour, main drive, weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Arayashiki Intelligent Systems provided AI and electronics integration, drone management and operator systems. The twin-core vacuum phase transition array and fundamental force control systems were developed by LEAR.
The Flauros was variously designated X-22 and NCP-22 before it formally entered the prototype stage in late SC0276 as the SVX-808. Being based on the SVX-303 Bael and combat data of Victoria Shinra-Bansho posed considerable difficulties for designers which resulted in numerous delays, particularly in terms of making the machine manageable for ordinary operators. Despite its protracted development and various operational issues,AECF officials consider the SVA-808 a critical component of the service's decisive combat power. Its combination of stealth, physical performance, situational awareness and wave motion effects enable unprecedented strike capabilities without the use of support equipment. Most AE member states are also pursuing Flauros purchases.
As the first true ninth-generation mobile suit built by humans it represents a major step in the technical capabilities of the solar system. The Flauros is considered to be superior to the Falamecian Elspeth and competitive with some variants of the Valmeth, but is still in limited production. Units are deployed where possible for operational testing.
ORIGINS
The Lemegeton Project was a rapid prototyping project designed to develop battlefield functional eighth-generation mobile suits capable of combating the Black Army, a powerful Reyathai PMC, on equal footing. Prior human mobile suit designs were considered unsuitable for combat against a premiere force made up of career alcysis soldiers, and in SC0270 it seemed likely to AE planners that they would be facing that kind of foe. Primarily focused on baseline capability rather than advanced functionality, its final products were highly regarded in terms of strength, durability and mobility. The Astarothin particular is considered one of the most sophisticated eighth-generation models currently still in circulation. Despite this, AE planners wished to leverage one of their most valuable assets, Victoria Shinra-Banshou, to create a more decisive weapon system.
This weapon system would be the X-22, the most ambitious technological project for AE since the construction of the Bahamut-class SCVs. Ultimately that ambition was not realised, but the existing work was shifted to the New Century Plan and its focus on counter-Grandian warfare. Victory in the Ptolemaic War gave the AE, and its various member states, a positive reputation in combat operations, and other states began to view them as being potentially significant in the event of a fifth Circum-Solar War. The eventual SVA-808 reflected this potential role, and is designed to compete with Grandian assets, including Grandian mobile suit forces.
DESIGN
Overview
The SVA-808 is a true ninth-generation mobile suit, and mounts a GN/GTR-172 twin-core vacuum phase transition device as its power source. Utilising two class-A Unison Cores in tandem, the GN/GTR-172 is not only capable of producing energy far in excess of previous human-built phase transition devices, but better able to manage topological defect within the device, resulting in incredibly stable performance. Combined with the slower saturation cycle that comes with twin-core designs, this means that the SVA-808 has both improved moment-by-moment performance, superior endurance and reduced maintenance burden. Compared to the SVA-707 and its GN/GTR-112-A, the improvement is estimated to be as much as 200% in every category, including cost.
The mobile suit's West Meridian MS8-WM-100 augmented photon drives are shoulder-spaced and feature pitch-axis thrust reflection with a range of ±90 degrees; each drive has maximum thrust in the 70,000 kN class. The main drive unit is assisted by full spectrum photon verniers in the 400 kN class. Maximum speed without external stores in atmosphere is Mach 15.2, increasing to above Mach 25 at 30,000m. Unassisted surface to GEO-equivalent time is just over 17 seconds. Without accounting for saturation cycle limits, the SVA-808 can complete a Trans-Lunar Injection, the so-called 'Apollo Run,' in 55 seconds. Overall velocity is limited mainly by the speed of anti-enthalpy calculations.
Movable frame
The outer frame is constructed from West Meridian's proprietary Airgetlam II perfect armour. The transuranic alloy is based on the atomic structure used in the SVX-303's Airgetlam I armour, modified for ease of mass production. While there is a drop in performance, the reduced energy cost has made Airgetlam II economical for production outside of Venus. Overall performance is similar to Airgetlam I due to the use of Alice Electric's new model Iona nanomaterials that feature energy absorption in the 8 GW range, an 18% improvement, and much improved self-repair functions. Strike surfaces, such as the SVA-808's claws, continue to use West Meridian's Excalibur IV. The outer frame also incorporates dual layer metamaterials, with Arayashiki's Argent Miroir providing passive stealth functions and Diamant Miroir translucent coating serving to scatter beam weapons up to capital class with minimal damage. Overall durability is top class even without accounting for field effects, while passive stealth characteristics are competitive with advanced Zoan and Falamecian models. The 808's frontal RCS signature is 0.0001m2, and in invisible mode photon perturbation is less than 0.2%. These metamaterials also allow the SVA-808 to freely alter its coefficient of friction.
Primary motive power is provided by a layer of psycholith liquid crystal, a programmable matter that serves as an alternative to artificial muscle. Utilising the SVX-303's combat data, the Flauros enjoys a raw lifting capacity of 12,000 t.
Electronics
Key electronics include the Arayashiki/Alice Electric AS/AER-900 electronic warfare system, Arayashiki's AS/AFF-96 infrared to ultraviolet Advanced Aggressor Warning system, utilising 72 individual sensors to provide full spherical coverage, and the Arayashiki/Fantoma Instrumentality AS/AFI-777 active scanning fused radar/lidar. Effective search range is 450,000 kilometers. Of these, the the AER-900 is arguably the most technically complex, which serves as a passive sensor detector by treating the entire body as a phased array for all-round radar warning receiver coverage. It can automatically cue the AFI-777 to target potential electronics sources, confining emissions to a narrow beam to increase overall stealth.
The AFI-777 has a low-observable, active-aperture, scanned array that can track multiple targets under any planetary or astrological conditions. Emissions can also be focused to overload enemy sensors as a basic form of electronic attack. The array changes frequencies more than 120,000 times per second to lower interception probability and has an effective search range of 450,000 km. The AFI-777 incorporates full air-to-ground functionality, including high-resolution synthetic aperture mapping, ground moving target indication and track, anti-clutter silhouette/pattern matching and other modes). Sensor information is processed by the operator's AI, a Super Wizard type capable of processing up to 12 quadrillion instructions per second. This filtered data is delivered via the psycho-resonance effect, at the level of the subconscious.
The SVA-808 also incorporates other expected forms of active and passive sensing, broadly replicating the EEV-9 ARGUS system present on the SVA-707. This includes low light assistance, thermal imaging, high resolution terahertz scanning, air pressure and turbulence tracking, mass spectrometry, sonar and vibrational sensing.
By changing the internal topology of the GN/GTR-172 it is also possible for the SVA-808 to operate as a degeneracy radar, albeit one of limited resolution beyond a single system. This capability combined with the advanced electronics allows an SVA-808 to act as a makeshift Aerospace Warning and Control System, should an alternative not be available. The SVA-808 is also capable of performing warp calculations to a limit of 600 lightyears, though it is not capable of warp travel itself.
Internal systems
As a ninth-generation unit, the SVA-808 emphasises wave motion effects, and exhibits very advanced fundamental force control. In terms of interference strength it is considerably superior to previous human mobile suits, and is only noticeably inferior to the SVX-303 at zero range. Its electromagnetic and gravity control is battleship grade, allowing for boarding actions aboard Grandian SCVs. Inertial control systems feature markedly improved response times, a persistent issue with the SVA-606 that was only partially rectified in the SVA-707. With the Flauros, negating and generating inertia is functionally reflexive. With improved sensitive in its control systems, a skilled operator can precisely manipulate the various fundamental forces to perform feats with the Flauros that would be essentially impossible with earlier models.
Of particular importance is the SVA-808's capacity to manipulate surrounding atmosphere, allowing it to reduce the impact of high speed movement on the surrounding environment.
In terms of fixed armaments, the mounts two Griever R-100 Curtain Call accelerators and an Arayashiki Valravn information weapon. The R-100 is a familiar weapon to operators of the SVA series, an inertial accelerator firing 5mm variable ammunition with a tunable muzzle velocity of up to 25km/s and a variable rate of fire up to 20,000RPM. While of limited use against units equipped with complete perfect armour, the R-100 is still effective for missile defense or anti-satellite purposes and is useful in harrying opponents. The Flauros mounts one in each arm. The Valravn is an active hacking device designed to provide access to even hardened military systems. While not infallible, its suite of attack and barrier programs are well-regarded internationally. The Valravn is sufficient powerful that it can force connect with many devices and easily suborn civilian electronics.
The SVA-808 features a battlefield triage suite that can keep an operator alive despite the rigours of inertial combat. While the SVA-707 focused on doses of caudozyne, the SVA-808 is more sophisticated, improving long term endurance. Like all mobile suits the SVA-808 is also able to perform battlefield hypnosis and can modify the effect of the operator's combat conditioning.
The SVA-808 incorporates an element printer in both hands, which can work in tandem to produce larger objects. It also has four wire anchors, one under each wrist, and one mounted on each hip.
Compared to both the SVA-606 and 707, which relied on additional equipment to control drone weapons, the SVA-808 has a fully integrated broadcast power system. With the excess of energy produced by the GN/GTR-172 phase transition device and a more efficient entanglement system, the Flauros can natively manage multiple active attack systems without needing to worry about operational time limits.
Emote Control
Plenty of genius, not enough sense.
Superb technobabble!
The only complaint I have is that lack of threadmarks. Other that that, brilliant!
The only complaint I have is that lack of threadmarks. Other that that, brilliant!
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thanks. Unfortunately I fell out of the habit of doing them and now there's a backlog that I don't want to do lol
Emote Control
Plenty of genius, not enough sense.
As the song goes, all you gotta do is do it.
Calendars and dates
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Something I feel I should actually formalise is the calendar and dating systems used. I have a rough idea of how these different calendars interact, but I've never written it down. So we'll try to make heads and tails of when this whole thing is taking place. This might make a few of the dates I've listed a bit wonky, but it's all planning, anyway.
Relative to us, Seventh Sky takes place in the late-23rd century. Or it might be the early 24th century. Because the Thirteen Hour War was so devastating it still isn't clear when it took place, though most historians agree it probably concluded in 1983, and they count their calendars from there. From the first post this means that humans first signed the Charter of the Seventh Sky on, pretty much, the 200th anniversary of the Thirteen Hour War. In a way, signing the Charter is them closing the book on that chapter of their history.
The Earth Federation implemented a new calendar, the Star Century. It counts its 'year zero' as the end of AD1983, so SC0001-01-01 began on 1 January 1984. The Star Century replicated the same year structure as the Gregorian calendar, so it has the same days and months, though it's likely that convention was heavily influenced by remaining scraps of ISO 4031, so it would have been the norm to refer to months by number rather than name. Dates prior to SC0001 are referred to with 'Before Star Century' or BSC. BSC0001-01-01 would be 1 January 1983. BSC0083-04-12 would be 12 April 1901.
Star Century dating is still in use, and is the official calendar of the Ptolemaic Federation, the successors of the Earth Federation. The official calendar of humans based in the solar system is the Revolutionary Century, which is based on the French Republican Calendar. Due to historical ambiguity caused by the Thirteen Hour War, it is pegged directly to SC dates, and worked backward from there. They also use the four digit year styling inherited from the Federation, but otherwise use the same system, so the months are named after weather. There are twelve months of 30 days, split into three weeks of 10 days. The days of the week are primidi, duodi, tridi (first day, second day, etc) leading to decadi (tenth day). Each day of the year also as a specific individual name which are rarely used in official documentation, but appear in media and art. It would be normal for someone to say their birthday takes place on Sylvie, rather than 27 Ventose. The year also features five (or six, on leap years) additional days which represent major holidays. SC0001-01-01 lines up with 11 Nivose RC0192.
The opening post says that humans have been signatories for 'nine decades.' That definitely doesn't line up with many of the dates I've listed in previous articles, but we'll go with it, and say the 'current date' is around the middle of SC0292 (AD2275), and for convenience we'll say it's around 11 May. This makes it 21 Floreal RC0483.
You can immediately see some issues, of course. After all, even before the message from Astrea humans enjoyed an interplanetary civilisation, where the characteristics of the planets are significantly different. A day on Earth and a day on Mars are essentially the same, however a day on Venus is 116 times as long. A year on Mars is twice as long as a year on Earth. I figure that initially the Federation mandated a Coordinated Universal Time based on Earth, and as most habitats outside Earth are artificial they can match up. This is probably really easy on an O'Neill Cylinder, and the cloud cities on Venus move, setting their day-night cycles as they drift in and out of the sunshade. On Mars they probably just stop clocks at midnight to calibrate for the additional 37 minutes, creating a local custom. That said, timezones are probably a huge mess. Make sure to consult your automatic calendar converter so you don't call someone in the dead of night.
But what about the rest of the galaxy?
I figure that every species (with the exception of maybe the limofils and heshret) have their own dating system. I imagine the situation is often similar to our own today, where there are many different calendars based on cultural, political or religious heritage, but one or two have reached international usage. On Ledith for example I imagine the Falamecian, Papilir and Hymenon calendars are in common usage, but other ledipalap nations have their own as well. That probably works well enough internally, but there's hundred of Charter states. Given that, and given the need to facilitate relations between states, I think there must be some kind of universal dating system. I've used UC to note this (though confusingly I mixed them up in the human diaspora posts).
I picked UC because of Mobile Suit Gundam and its 'Universal Century' calendar, and it will do for now.
In the opening post the ARIA is noted as having been established in AD2112, then in the third post the establishment date is given as UC2038. I think I'll keep the UC2038 but knock it back to AD2102 (that would make the ARIA 173 years old in the modern day, approaching a 'big' anniversary, which I like). I named one of the months in the third post Decis, so I was thinking maybe one of these galactic years only has ten months. I think the universal dating system is probably based on the Astrean year, given their position in interstellar society. It probably predates the ARIA and I think, given some of the other things mentioned, the current dating system started with the tutelage era, when the Astreans were directly teaching the Grandians.
Overall I think this is probably reasonably functional because most sophonts in Seventh Sky are relatively similar because of DNA from Astrean travelers. That being the case the planetary conditions they developed under, such as distance from their star, will be reasonably similar. So orbital period won't be hugely different, at least for homeworlds. I haven't really worked out the maths on this, but my feeling is that Astrean years are probably longer overall even if they have less months. Maybe 400 days or so, which is 1.1 times an Earth year. So, if the starting date of the ARIA is UC2038, and UC2038 is equivalent to AD2102, and the current date is AD2275, then it should be UC2195. Or so.
I guess that's not a big anniversary anymore lol
The UC dating system is probably pretty widespread, even outside Charter Space. However people in the Verge are really cautious never to use it on any documents or negotiations with the Grandians, who hate everything associated with the Astreans. Instead, the Grandians make use of an era naming system, where the current era is named after the sitting emperor. They probably also use an imperial year system that counts from the mythical founding of the Empire by the first Arca dynast. Let's say that the current Grandian year is Rinka 21. You'd think this might be kind of inconvenient because Grandians die fairly young and it might get confusing, but no Grandian emperor would be caught dead with the name of a previous Grandian emperor. On the other hand they're terrible bureaucrats, so the changeover period is probably fairly sloppy.
In all, that makes the current year in various dating systems:
AD2275
SC0292
RC0483
UC2195
Rinka 21
As a practical example, Asher's birthday is Amaryllis. He was born on 24 Vendemiaire RC0459. This is SC0268-10-16, or 16 October 2261. His birth date would line up with UC2174, making him 21 in galactic years, which basically lines up with the first year of the Rinka period.
Relative to us, Seventh Sky takes place in the late-23rd century. Or it might be the early 24th century. Because the Thirteen Hour War was so devastating it still isn't clear when it took place, though most historians agree it probably concluded in 1983, and they count their calendars from there. From the first post this means that humans first signed the Charter of the Seventh Sky on, pretty much, the 200th anniversary of the Thirteen Hour War. In a way, signing the Charter is them closing the book on that chapter of their history.
The Earth Federation implemented a new calendar, the Star Century. It counts its 'year zero' as the end of AD1983, so SC0001-01-01 began on 1 January 1984. The Star Century replicated the same year structure as the Gregorian calendar, so it has the same days and months, though it's likely that convention was heavily influenced by remaining scraps of ISO 4031, so it would have been the norm to refer to months by number rather than name. Dates prior to SC0001 are referred to with 'Before Star Century' or BSC. BSC0001-01-01 would be 1 January 1983. BSC0083-04-12 would be 12 April 1901.
Star Century dating is still in use, and is the official calendar of the Ptolemaic Federation, the successors of the Earth Federation. The official calendar of humans based in the solar system is the Revolutionary Century, which is based on the French Republican Calendar. Due to historical ambiguity caused by the Thirteen Hour War, it is pegged directly to SC dates, and worked backward from there. They also use the four digit year styling inherited from the Federation, but otherwise use the same system, so the months are named after weather. There are twelve months of 30 days, split into three weeks of 10 days. The days of the week are primidi, duodi, tridi (first day, second day, etc) leading to decadi (tenth day). Each day of the year also as a specific individual name which are rarely used in official documentation, but appear in media and art. It would be normal for someone to say their birthday takes place on Sylvie, rather than 27 Ventose. The year also features five (or six, on leap years) additional days which represent major holidays. SC0001-01-01 lines up with 11 Nivose RC0192.
The opening post says that humans have been signatories for 'nine decades.' That definitely doesn't line up with many of the dates I've listed in previous articles, but we'll go with it, and say the 'current date' is around the middle of SC0292 (AD2275), and for convenience we'll say it's around 11 May. This makes it 21 Floreal RC0483.
You can immediately see some issues, of course. After all, even before the message from Astrea humans enjoyed an interplanetary civilisation, where the characteristics of the planets are significantly different. A day on Earth and a day on Mars are essentially the same, however a day on Venus is 116 times as long. A year on Mars is twice as long as a year on Earth. I figure that initially the Federation mandated a Coordinated Universal Time based on Earth, and as most habitats outside Earth are artificial they can match up. This is probably really easy on an O'Neill Cylinder, and the cloud cities on Venus move, setting their day-night cycles as they drift in and out of the sunshade. On Mars they probably just stop clocks at midnight to calibrate for the additional 37 minutes, creating a local custom. That said, timezones are probably a huge mess. Make sure to consult your automatic calendar converter so you don't call someone in the dead of night.
But what about the rest of the galaxy?
I figure that every species (with the exception of maybe the limofils and heshret) have their own dating system. I imagine the situation is often similar to our own today, where there are many different calendars based on cultural, political or religious heritage, but one or two have reached international usage. On Ledith for example I imagine the Falamecian, Papilir and Hymenon calendars are in common usage, but other ledipalap nations have their own as well. That probably works well enough internally, but there's hundred of Charter states. Given that, and given the need to facilitate relations between states, I think there must be some kind of universal dating system. I've used UC to note this (though confusingly I mixed them up in the human diaspora posts).
I picked UC because of Mobile Suit Gundam and its 'Universal Century' calendar, and it will do for now.
In the opening post the ARIA is noted as having been established in AD2112, then in the third post the establishment date is given as UC2038. I think I'll keep the UC2038 but knock it back to AD2102 (that would make the ARIA 173 years old in the modern day, approaching a 'big' anniversary, which I like). I named one of the months in the third post Decis, so I was thinking maybe one of these galactic years only has ten months. I think the universal dating system is probably based on the Astrean year, given their position in interstellar society. It probably predates the ARIA and I think, given some of the other things mentioned, the current dating system started with the tutelage era, when the Astreans were directly teaching the Grandians.
Overall I think this is probably reasonably functional because most sophonts in Seventh Sky are relatively similar because of DNA from Astrean travelers. That being the case the planetary conditions they developed under, such as distance from their star, will be reasonably similar. So orbital period won't be hugely different, at least for homeworlds. I haven't really worked out the maths on this, but my feeling is that Astrean years are probably longer overall even if they have less months. Maybe 400 days or so, which is 1.1 times an Earth year. So, if the starting date of the ARIA is UC2038, and UC2038 is equivalent to AD2102, and the current date is AD2275, then it should be UC2195. Or so.
I guess that's not a big anniversary anymore lol
The UC dating system is probably pretty widespread, even outside Charter Space. However people in the Verge are really cautious never to use it on any documents or negotiations with the Grandians, who hate everything associated with the Astreans. Instead, the Grandians make use of an era naming system, where the current era is named after the sitting emperor. They probably also use an imperial year system that counts from the mythical founding of the Empire by the first Arca dynast. Let's say that the current Grandian year is Rinka 21. You'd think this might be kind of inconvenient because Grandians die fairly young and it might get confusing, but no Grandian emperor would be caught dead with the name of a previous Grandian emperor. On the other hand they're terrible bureaucrats, so the changeover period is probably fairly sloppy.
In all, that makes the current year in various dating systems:
AD2275
SC0292
RC0483
UC2195
Rinka 21
As a practical example, Asher's birthday is Amaryllis. He was born on 24 Vendemiaire RC0459. This is SC0268-10-16, or 16 October 2261. His birth date would line up with UC2174, making him 21 in galactic years, which basically lines up with the first year of the Rinka period.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The fact that they're using the french revolutionary calender is goddamn perfect.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Because of the disruption caused by the Thirteen Hour War, a lot of the past was lost, and in a way humans in 7S are something of a blank slate. They started over from "zero" (with this V2) and entrusted the future to the next generation. So when people were pushing for the implementation of the Revolutionary Century calendar they probably had a very limited idea of where the original came from or the context in which it was created. Even today there are probably fundamental misconceptions about it.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some additional notes about the RC calendar. At the end of each year there are five complimentary days. They are not part of the calendar as such. Rather, they fit between 30 Fructidor and 1 Vendemiaire. This 'new year' period represents the major holiday season in the Solar System, though how they are celebrated depends a little on where you live. In general people celebrate the things done in the previous year, in art, culture, science, etc. They are community celebrations that emphasise what we have done to help each other. In leap years there is a sixth complementary day, the Festival of the Revolution, which is the most important holiday in the RC calendar and, unsurprisingly, celebrates the spirit (if not necessarily the acts) of the Stardust Revolution. This is also the day that the Ptolemaic Federation sends the most letters of complaint.
These are not really religious holidays. There is one major religious holiday which is commonly celebrated in both the Solar System and Ptolemies: the Festival of the Dead, which falls in the winter quarter. Not much of contemporary religious practice survived the Thirteen Hour War, and the only human religion is reaper-worship. There is also the Thunder Festival in Thermidor, but that is mainly celebrated on Venus and in some places on Mars. Outside of local holidays, like most people in the galaxy humans celebrate the Falamecian vernal equinox, albeit in its internationalised and commercialised form.
These are not really religious holidays. There is one major religious holiday which is commonly celebrated in both the Solar System and Ptolemies: the Festival of the Dead, which falls in the winter quarter. Not much of contemporary religious practice survived the Thirteen Hour War, and the only human religion is reaper-worship. There is also the Thunder Festival in Thermidor, but that is mainly celebrated on Venus and in some places on Mars. Outside of local holidays, like most people in the galaxy humans celebrate the Falamecian vernal equinox, albeit in its internationalised and commercialised form.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
They were very plug and play when it came to the RC calendar. The sample they had set out the five day festival period between years, so they kept it. Other holidays just fall on dates like they do in our calendar.
Also that idea of 'time outside time' is appealing to Martians, who have watches that automatically stop for 37 minutes at midnight lol
ARIA Headquarters
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ACALIA RIAMEL
The ARIA is headquartered in Palais, in a complex designed by a board of architects led by Riati Pinaris, and built by the architectural firm Pinaris & Ranmere. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the ARIA since its completion in UC2052. It is located in the Araniburo neighborhood of southern Palais, on twelve hectares of grounds overlooking Lake Ramsar. Its borders are Peace Avenue on the west and south, East Papilir Street on the north and Lake Ramsar to the east. The term "Araniburo" was once used as a metonym for ARIA Headquarters and the ARIA as a whole, but has since fallen out of fashion
The headquarters holds the seats of the principal organs of the ARIA, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, but excluding the Interstellar Court of Justice, which is seated in the Zoan city of Roanel. It is also the seat and chief office of the Secretary-General of the ARIA, who serves as the complex's Director-General.1 In addition to to the main headquarters complex, the ARIA maintains a number of subsidiary offices that serve as regional headquarters. Key offices include Falkia, Falamecia, opened in 2046 and the previous headquarters of the ARIA, Mira el Selhieza, Drasil, opened in 2080, and Neifan, Enfil, opened in 2096.
Although it is situated in Palais, Sylennium, the land occupied by ARIA Headquarters and the spaces of buildings that it owns are under the sole administration of the ARIA and not the Syl government. They are technically extraterritorial through a treaty agreement with the Syl government. However, in exchange for local police, fire protection and other services, the ARIA agrees to acknowledge most local, state, and federal laws. In saying that, the complex is secured by ARIA Protective Services Officers, who can be somewhat zealous when it comes to outside authorities. The complex is not open to the public, save during the sessional break when the General Assembly does not meet. Tours are available throughout the year.
STRUCTURES
The campus is some to several notable buildings. Most prominent are the Secretariat, which is the tallest building in Palais, and the Scheherazade Astrea Building. These are the most recognisable feature in depictions of the headquarters. It also includes the General Assembly building, the Dapha Viriditas Library, as well as the Seventh Sky Center, which is situated between the General Assembly and Secretariat buildings, offset from the Scheherazade Astrea Building. The main plaza between the front gate and the Scheherazade Astrea Building contains several hundred flagpoles, which fly a selection of member state flags on daily rotation selected by ARIA superintelligent AI Sessa. There is significant on-site, underground parking, but the competition for passes is fierce.2
GENERAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING
The General Assembly Building houses the ARIA General Assembly, which meets in the Grand Assembly Chamber, colloquially known as 'the Rotunda.' The Chamber currently houses just over 1200 delegates and has a current maximum seating capacity of 2,200. At 72m long by 48m wide, it is the largest room in the Headquarters complex. While physically large the number of signatories to the Charter of the Seventh Sky prevents a delegate from having their staff present in person, so the building has a highly robust wireless network designed to handle as many as 12,000 telepresence calls simultaneously with minimal bitrate noise.
The Chamber has two murals by the Papiliri artist Effand Limir. At the front of the hall is the rostrum containing the sandstone desk for the President of the General Assembly, Secretary-General and Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services and matching lectern for speakers. A 20m tall ARIA banner is hung from the wall immediately behind the rostrum. That rear wall is a curving, semi-circular paneled art piece produced with rare wood in Drasil. Beneath this paneled wall is seating for special guests and within the wall is sufficient space to allow staff to watch proceedings, and as historically been a preferred location for members of translation teams. The ceiling of the Rotunda is 24m high and surmounted by a shallow dome which contains Vinmir's Cosmos of the Heavens, a controversial mural-mosaic depicting Scheherazade Astrea, her sisters, and the mythologised founding of the ARIA. The entrance to the hall bears an inscription from the Rabaneth by Rabanestan poet Samii.
The Economic and Social Council is also housed in this building in an upper floor. The chamber the Council uses for sessions was originally donated by Zoa, but more recently a group of smaller nations donated a significant renovation and of the original design only the ceiling coral mural remains.
The remainder of the building is mainly devoted to office and conferences spaces for General Assembly business, along with the largest kitchen in the complex.
SCHEHERAZADE ASTREA BUILDING
Located centrally, the Scheherazade Astrea Building serves as the heart of the campus and a nexus through which people tend to pass while head to other buildings. It is a glass-fronted building some 80m in length in the shape of a shallow chevron. It is seven storeys tall, not counting any of the mezzanines floors at ground level. While mainly serving as an entrance for the rest of the complex, most administrative functions are handled from inside the building, and it houses the best equipped function rooms, so it is popular for meetings among staff from multiple arms of the ARIA. It also contains more than one restaurant and cafeteria, and is widely considered to be the best place to get coffee inside the fences.
Occasionally the Secretary-General has preferred to house their office in the Scheherazade Astrea Building compared to the Secretariat tower, and in general the office spaces there are considered premiere, and there is some competition among working groups in order to obtain those spaces. Supposedly the central core for Sessa is contained directly beneath the building, though this is unconfirmed. Officials prefer to converse with Sessa from the main interface room on the fourth floor.
The ground floor houses the largest art piece in the complex, the colossal mural From the Desert, Hope, which was donated by the Rabanestan government to celebrate the building's opening.3
SEVENTH SKY CENTER
Usually just referred to as 'the conference centre,' the Seventh Sky Center faces Lake Ramsar and, most importantly, contains the Security Council chamber. The chamber itself was a gift from Altera-Heim, though the mural at the rear of the chamber, Vanquishing the Devil atop Mount Rasho, is an unusual gift from the Grandian Empire. As a controversial work depicting a warlike subject, in previous years it has been rotated out with other artworks, such as a popular depiction of a bird being reborn from fire, however after such a changeover resulted in unexpected damage to the mural it has remained in place.
SECRETARIAT BUILDING
A 49-storey tower to the rear of the complex. Completed in 2052, it houses important offices such as the Secretary-General, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and ARIA Legal Counsel, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and others still. Initially a tower was not considered for housing the Secretariat and Riati Pinaris' original drafts do not include it. Pinaris was working under the assumption that the campus would be built on a larger site and preferred not to disrupt the Palais skyline. The tower was designed in a collaboration between famed architects Yusa Seimei and Selidi Resil Esta Maris, which was controversial with Palais residents who feared an particularly unusual structure. Seimei and Maris preferred to complement Pinaris' design, resulting in the so-called 'glass wall.'
The building is connected directly to the Scheherazade Astrea Building to the west and the Seventh Sky Center to the north, and would have an underground passage connecting it to the Daphna Viriditas Library to the south, save that an unfortunate flooding incident has rendered the tunnel unusable. The building houses the administrative functions of the ARIA, including day-to-day duties such as finance and translation. The east side has commanding views of the lake, while the west side has uninterrupted views of the Papiliri Alps.
DAPHNA VIRIDITAS LIBRARY
When Headquarters was first opened it possessed a small library, with the idea being that the ARIA could rely on an expanded Royal Palais Library for dedicated services. When the planned expansion fell through due to a lack of federal funding, then Secretary-General Daphna Viriditas sought to secure funding for an improved on-site library that incorporated the archiving functions handled elsewhere in the Secretariat. The end result, a five storey, fully staffed library accessible to ARIA staff and delegates, has become one of the successes of the campus. Since its completion the library has been expanded, including underground facilities and a storage annex.
The Library has two main roles. First, it is the main depository for ARIA documents and publications and maintains an essentially complete elextronic collection of materials of both specialized agencies and affiliated bodies. Second, the Library collects books, periodicals and other materials related to the organization's programs of activities, with over half a million hard copy items and two hundred billion electronic items. The Library is considered an essential part of the modern ARIA and is both well-staffed and well-funded, with very little dispute regarding maintaining and expanding its budget as necessary.
OTHER BUILDINGS
The Number 1 Annex is located to the east of the Daphna Viriditas Library and is mainly used for storage. As it is not in general use it is not directly connected to other buildings and only has one complete path to each it. In addition to stored items, the Number 1 Annex also contains offices for the special task organisation Aspira, who occupy three partitioned rooms on the second floor.
1In practice most administrative responsibilities associated with being Director-General of an ARIA Main Office are handled by the Deputy Secretary-General, who in turn generally delegates to a member of their staff. At the current date this is Chief Undersecretary Alis An Arma Allia Arid, sometimes called the Demon Lord, but only ever out of earshot.
2A consortium of interests has attempted to prevent Pleiorias Kantares from obtaining parking privileges on multiple occasions with no great success.
3It also delayed the opening of the building.
The ARIA is headquartered in Palais, in a complex designed by a board of architects led by Riati Pinaris, and built by the architectural firm Pinaris & Ranmere. The complex has served as the official headquarters of the ARIA since its completion in UC2052. It is located in the Araniburo neighborhood of southern Palais, on twelve hectares of grounds overlooking Lake Ramsar. Its borders are Peace Avenue on the west and south, East Papilir Street on the north and Lake Ramsar to the east. The term "Araniburo" was once used as a metonym for ARIA Headquarters and the ARIA as a whole, but has since fallen out of fashion
The headquarters holds the seats of the principal organs of the ARIA, including the General Assembly and the Security Council, but excluding the Interstellar Court of Justice, which is seated in the Zoan city of Roanel. It is also the seat and chief office of the Secretary-General of the ARIA, who serves as the complex's Director-General.1 In addition to to the main headquarters complex, the ARIA maintains a number of subsidiary offices that serve as regional headquarters. Key offices include Falkia, Falamecia, opened in 2046 and the previous headquarters of the ARIA, Mira el Selhieza, Drasil, opened in 2080, and Neifan, Enfil, opened in 2096.
Although it is situated in Palais, Sylennium, the land occupied by ARIA Headquarters and the spaces of buildings that it owns are under the sole administration of the ARIA and not the Syl government. They are technically extraterritorial through a treaty agreement with the Syl government. However, in exchange for local police, fire protection and other services, the ARIA agrees to acknowledge most local, state, and federal laws. In saying that, the complex is secured by ARIA Protective Services Officers, who can be somewhat zealous when it comes to outside authorities. The complex is not open to the public, save during the sessional break when the General Assembly does not meet. Tours are available throughout the year.
STRUCTURES
The campus is some to several notable buildings. Most prominent are the Secretariat, which is the tallest building in Palais, and the Scheherazade Astrea Building. These are the most recognisable feature in depictions of the headquarters. It also includes the General Assembly building, the Dapha Viriditas Library, as well as the Seventh Sky Center, which is situated between the General Assembly and Secretariat buildings, offset from the Scheherazade Astrea Building. The main plaza between the front gate and the Scheherazade Astrea Building contains several hundred flagpoles, which fly a selection of member state flags on daily rotation selected by ARIA superintelligent AI Sessa. There is significant on-site, underground parking, but the competition for passes is fierce.2
GENERAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING
The General Assembly Building houses the ARIA General Assembly, which meets in the Grand Assembly Chamber, colloquially known as 'the Rotunda.' The Chamber currently houses just over 1200 delegates and has a current maximum seating capacity of 2,200. At 72m long by 48m wide, it is the largest room in the Headquarters complex. While physically large the number of signatories to the Charter of the Seventh Sky prevents a delegate from having their staff present in person, so the building has a highly robust wireless network designed to handle as many as 12,000 telepresence calls simultaneously with minimal bitrate noise.
The Chamber has two murals by the Papiliri artist Effand Limir. At the front of the hall is the rostrum containing the sandstone desk for the President of the General Assembly, Secretary-General and Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services and matching lectern for speakers. A 20m tall ARIA banner is hung from the wall immediately behind the rostrum. That rear wall is a curving, semi-circular paneled art piece produced with rare wood in Drasil. Beneath this paneled wall is seating for special guests and within the wall is sufficient space to allow staff to watch proceedings, and as historically been a preferred location for members of translation teams. The ceiling of the Rotunda is 24m high and surmounted by a shallow dome which contains Vinmir's Cosmos of the Heavens, a controversial mural-mosaic depicting Scheherazade Astrea, her sisters, and the mythologised founding of the ARIA. The entrance to the hall bears an inscription from the Rabaneth by Rabanestan poet Samii.
The Economic and Social Council is also housed in this building in an upper floor. The chamber the Council uses for sessions was originally donated by Zoa, but more recently a group of smaller nations donated a significant renovation and of the original design only the ceiling coral mural remains.
The remainder of the building is mainly devoted to office and conferences spaces for General Assembly business, along with the largest kitchen in the complex.
SCHEHERAZADE ASTREA BUILDING
Located centrally, the Scheherazade Astrea Building serves as the heart of the campus and a nexus through which people tend to pass while head to other buildings. It is a glass-fronted building some 80m in length in the shape of a shallow chevron. It is seven storeys tall, not counting any of the mezzanines floors at ground level. While mainly serving as an entrance for the rest of the complex, most administrative functions are handled from inside the building, and it houses the best equipped function rooms, so it is popular for meetings among staff from multiple arms of the ARIA. It also contains more than one restaurant and cafeteria, and is widely considered to be the best place to get coffee inside the fences.
Occasionally the Secretary-General has preferred to house their office in the Scheherazade Astrea Building compared to the Secretariat tower, and in general the office spaces there are considered premiere, and there is some competition among working groups in order to obtain those spaces. Supposedly the central core for Sessa is contained directly beneath the building, though this is unconfirmed. Officials prefer to converse with Sessa from the main interface room on the fourth floor.
The ground floor houses the largest art piece in the complex, the colossal mural From the Desert, Hope, which was donated by the Rabanestan government to celebrate the building's opening.3
SEVENTH SKY CENTER
Usually just referred to as 'the conference centre,' the Seventh Sky Center faces Lake Ramsar and, most importantly, contains the Security Council chamber. The chamber itself was a gift from Altera-Heim, though the mural at the rear of the chamber, Vanquishing the Devil atop Mount Rasho, is an unusual gift from the Grandian Empire. As a controversial work depicting a warlike subject, in previous years it has been rotated out with other artworks, such as a popular depiction of a bird being reborn from fire, however after such a changeover resulted in unexpected damage to the mural it has remained in place.
SECRETARIAT BUILDING
A 49-storey tower to the rear of the complex. Completed in 2052, it houses important offices such as the Secretary-General, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and ARIA Legal Counsel, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and others still. Initially a tower was not considered for housing the Secretariat and Riati Pinaris' original drafts do not include it. Pinaris was working under the assumption that the campus would be built on a larger site and preferred not to disrupt the Palais skyline. The tower was designed in a collaboration between famed architects Yusa Seimei and Selidi Resil Esta Maris, which was controversial with Palais residents who feared an particularly unusual structure. Seimei and Maris preferred to complement Pinaris' design, resulting in the so-called 'glass wall.'
The building is connected directly to the Scheherazade Astrea Building to the west and the Seventh Sky Center to the north, and would have an underground passage connecting it to the Daphna Viriditas Library to the south, save that an unfortunate flooding incident has rendered the tunnel unusable. The building houses the administrative functions of the ARIA, including day-to-day duties such as finance and translation. The east side has commanding views of the lake, while the west side has uninterrupted views of the Papiliri Alps.
DAPHNA VIRIDITAS LIBRARY
When Headquarters was first opened it possessed a small library, with the idea being that the ARIA could rely on an expanded Royal Palais Library for dedicated services. When the planned expansion fell through due to a lack of federal funding, then Secretary-General Daphna Viriditas sought to secure funding for an improved on-site library that incorporated the archiving functions handled elsewhere in the Secretariat. The end result, a five storey, fully staffed library accessible to ARIA staff and delegates, has become one of the successes of the campus. Since its completion the library has been expanded, including underground facilities and a storage annex.
The Library has two main roles. First, it is the main depository for ARIA documents and publications and maintains an essentially complete elextronic collection of materials of both specialized agencies and affiliated bodies. Second, the Library collects books, periodicals and other materials related to the organization's programs of activities, with over half a million hard copy items and two hundred billion electronic items. The Library is considered an essential part of the modern ARIA and is both well-staffed and well-funded, with very little dispute regarding maintaining and expanding its budget as necessary.
OTHER BUILDINGS
The Number 1 Annex is located to the east of the Daphna Viriditas Library and is mainly used for storage. As it is not in general use it is not directly connected to other buildings and only has one complete path to each it. In addition to stored items, the Number 1 Annex also contains offices for the special task organisation Aspira, who occupy three partitioned rooms on the second floor.
1In practice most administrative responsibilities associated with being Director-General of an ARIA Main Office are handled by the Deputy Secretary-General, who in turn generally delegates to a member of their staff. At the current date this is Chief Undersecretary Alis An Arma Allia Arid, sometimes called the Demon Lord, but only ever out of earshot.
2A consortium of interests has attempted to prevent Pleiorias Kantares from obtaining parking privileges on multiple occasions with no great success.
3It also delayed the opening of the building.
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- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The current date is 24 Vendemiaire RC0228. The day is Amaryllis, which is Asher Fenech-Soler's birthday. Given that, I think it's a good opportunity to talk about Seventh Sky's protagonist!
ASHER FENECH-SOLER
Mostly known for being Fragile-Breaking Strayed-Light Over-the-Horizon's favourite accessory for parties and events, Asher Fenech-Soler is an operative in the ARIA Security Council's armed investigation unit Aspira. Hired directly into Espir Team as a 1st Lieutenant, Asher has only been an ARIA professional for a relatively short period of time, but has proven to be a reliable investigator and field operative. In addition to his other duties with Espir, he is the investigative lead on the Firestarter case file, demonstrating the trust his superiors have for him.
ORIGINS
Asher was born in Iram, a Venusian city-state in the West Habitable Meridian. Officially his parents are Haman and Adrien Fenech-Soler, though it is suspected that his actual father is Julius Sumner, the self-styled space adventurer, who Asher closely resembles. His mother is one of the directors of key Irami reputation bank Credit Soler and his father is a watchmaker who serves as lead designer at Joyeux, and the family is considered part of Iram's glitterati. While no longer politically active, in its time House Soler was a key player in the powerful anti-Federation Rayleonide bloc.
In his youth Asher attended South Horizon Elementary School and was an unremarkable student. In an attempt to improve his academic performance, his parents fostered him with Radhanath Celsus-Evander, a scholar based in Xanadu, for three years. Following this he managed to enroll in the highly-regarded Resonant Light Middle School, but missed out on his parents' first choice high school. Instead Asher attended Tranquility High School. Throughout his education, Asher was mainly known for his athleticism, and was a key player on Resonant Light's highly dominant boys' basketball team. At Tranquility he was an important player in their successful nationals campaign.
Initially Asher planned to continue through to higher education, intending to study political science, but the escalating Ptolemaic War, and news of the harm being done to Federation citizens, lead him to join the AE Cosmo Force out of high school. Due to his high psycho-resonance potential Asher was pre-selected for mobile suit training and opted to join SOF.
[tbc]
ASHER FENECH-SOLER
Mostly known for being Fragile-Breaking Strayed-Light Over-the-Horizon's favourite accessory for parties and events, Asher Fenech-Soler is an operative in the ARIA Security Council's armed investigation unit Aspira. Hired directly into Espir Team as a 1st Lieutenant, Asher has only been an ARIA professional for a relatively short period of time, but has proven to be a reliable investigator and field operative. In addition to his other duties with Espir, he is the investigative lead on the Firestarter case file, demonstrating the trust his superiors have for him.
ORIGINS
Asher was born in Iram, a Venusian city-state in the West Habitable Meridian. Officially his parents are Haman and Adrien Fenech-Soler, though it is suspected that his actual father is Julius Sumner, the self-styled space adventurer, who Asher closely resembles. His mother is one of the directors of key Irami reputation bank Credit Soler and his father is a watchmaker who serves as lead designer at Joyeux, and the family is considered part of Iram's glitterati. While no longer politically active, in its time House Soler was a key player in the powerful anti-Federation Rayleonide bloc.
In his youth Asher attended South Horizon Elementary School and was an unremarkable student. In an attempt to improve his academic performance, his parents fostered him with Radhanath Celsus-Evander, a scholar based in Xanadu, for three years. Following this he managed to enroll in the highly-regarded Resonant Light Middle School, but missed out on his parents' first choice high school. Instead Asher attended Tranquility High School. Throughout his education, Asher was mainly known for his athleticism, and was a key player on Resonant Light's highly dominant boys' basketball team. At Tranquility he was an important player in their successful nationals campaign.
Initially Asher planned to continue through to higher education, intending to study political science, but the escalating Ptolemaic War, and news of the harm being done to Federation citizens, lead him to join the AE Cosmo Force out of high school. Due to his high psycho-resonance potential Asher was pre-selected for mobile suit training and opted to join SOF.
[tbc]
Astrobiology in the Modern Era
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
ASTROBIOLOGY IN THE MODERN ERA
THE GALAXY IS FULL OF LIFE, and of that life approximately 0.001% is intelligent, self-aware and capable of metacognition. Put another way, approximately 0.001% of life in the galaxy is a sophont.
The process of evolution leading to intelligent life took billions of years. However, with the exception of the Astreans who possessed advanced technological civilisation more than a million years ago, anatomically modern sophonts have tended to appear between half a million to a hundred thousand years ago. By cosmological standards the introduction of intelligence to the galaxy is incredibly recent.
Moreover, it is unlikely. Our galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, yet very little life is found among them. Modern civilisation something of a miracle of astrobiology. Some other elements of astrobiology are, if not miraculous, at least very curious. The most interesting of these is cross-species similarity.
All sophonts exhibit distinct similarities despite evolving in different environments, and visually resemble ishuan, the species that made up the Astrean Kingdom. While significant differences in size, features, and other factors of biology are always present, relatively few species diverge from the ishuan body plan. During the early contact period, this lead human authors used the term 'humanoid' to describe aliens. In modern times the Astrean language term ishuanna (lit. resembling ishuan) has been adopted in most countries as a relatively neutral phrase.1 The term phanishuan or phanishuanna (lit. alike to resembling ishuan) is occasionally used to describe species that more significant differ from the baseline, as with the camas, who possess long, snake-like tails instead of legs.
Similarities are not strictly visual. Almost all sophonts can share the same environments, some with only minor adjustment necessary. With a two or three exceptions, sophonts can all breath the same air, for example, and most can eat the same food. To some extent this can be attributed to life bearing worlds having certain similar characteristics in terms of composition, but there are few, if any, astrobiologists who believe that current life occurred strictly by chance.
The precise cause of this phenomenon is not well understood by modern biologists, but it is widely believed to be related to Astrea's extensive exploration of the galaxy. Every world from which a modern intelligent species has emerged is recorded as having been visited by Astrean space travelers hundreds of thousands of years ago, and those same records are reasonably predictive of where intelligent life may be found.2 Due to the ishuan having been reduced to the seven sisters of Astrea, limited exploration of the causative mechanism has been undertaken. Currently accepted theory is that accidentally distributed genetic material had an effect on developing life, leading to convergence in evolution. A minority believe that the Astreans deliberately engineered the development of sophont life, though if there is evidence of this it has yet to be discovered.
Non-current theories posit that ishuan are the only 'naturally occurring' sophont species, and that absent Astrean influence, intentional or otherwise, other sophonts would not have arisen. However, some very ancient Astrean records, and a growing body of paleontological evidence, indicate that in previous galactic periods other intelligent species did exist, and in at least some cases may predate the ishuan.3 These species possessed morphology drastically different to modern sophonts, to the point that a great deal of fossil evidence may be simply unrecognisable to modern sophonts.
While extant species do share an appearance and other characteristics, they do still remain different species. At the most extreme there are modern sophonts that have non-carbon based biochemistry, such as the silicon-based heshret or ammonia-based vanade, but even carbon-based sophonts are not 'related.' This can result in issues, as many species are similar enough that people can mislead themselves into thinking that different species are interchangeable. For example, ledipalaps and humans are similar enough that they can share over the counter medicines, but a ledipalap doctor is in no way qualified to treat a human, and vice versa.
The precise impact of physiological similarity between intelligent species on the development of interstellar society is debated. Some argue that it is a major component of peaceable relations between nation-states, noting that, the Circum-Solar Wars aside, most interspecies conflict is relatively limited, and that intraspecies conflict is much more common. Proponents suggest that different species are similar enough to be recognisable to one another while also impossible to mistake as anything other than a different species, and that this is a psychological factor that must be accounted for.
Other theorists reject this argument as incomplete and not sufficiently evidenced, with some openly considering it naive: the phrase Circum-Solar Wars aside presents a very clear weakpoint in any argument.
1 In Grandia the preferred term is nirera, which means 'similar to us' or 'like us.' It is written with characters that can be read as 'wannabes.'
2 It is understood that this is how the human diaspora was first discovered, as a result of a routine review of exploration records.
3 The surviving Astreans have volunteered what information they can about this prior period, but even for Queen Scheherazade this is an essentially mythical time. While some records of this time do survive, they are enormously ancient, making them difficult to find, and often fragmentary or in need of extensive interpretation.
THE GALAXY IS FULL OF LIFE, and of that life approximately 0.001% is intelligent, self-aware and capable of metacognition. Put another way, approximately 0.001% of life in the galaxy is a sophont.
The process of evolution leading to intelligent life took billions of years. However, with the exception of the Astreans who possessed advanced technological civilisation more than a million years ago, anatomically modern sophonts have tended to appear between half a million to a hundred thousand years ago. By cosmological standards the introduction of intelligence to the galaxy is incredibly recent.
Moreover, it is unlikely. Our galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, yet very little life is found among them. Modern civilisation something of a miracle of astrobiology. Some other elements of astrobiology are, if not miraculous, at least very curious. The most interesting of these is cross-species similarity.
All sophonts exhibit distinct similarities despite evolving in different environments, and visually resemble ishuan, the species that made up the Astrean Kingdom. While significant differences in size, features, and other factors of biology are always present, relatively few species diverge from the ishuan body plan. During the early contact period, this lead human authors used the term 'humanoid' to describe aliens. In modern times the Astrean language term ishuanna (lit. resembling ishuan) has been adopted in most countries as a relatively neutral phrase.1 The term phanishuan or phanishuanna (lit. alike to resembling ishuan) is occasionally used to describe species that more significant differ from the baseline, as with the camas, who possess long, snake-like tails instead of legs.
Similarities are not strictly visual. Almost all sophonts can share the same environments, some with only minor adjustment necessary. With a two or three exceptions, sophonts can all breath the same air, for example, and most can eat the same food. To some extent this can be attributed to life bearing worlds having certain similar characteristics in terms of composition, but there are few, if any, astrobiologists who believe that current life occurred strictly by chance.
The precise cause of this phenomenon is not well understood by modern biologists, but it is widely believed to be related to Astrea's extensive exploration of the galaxy. Every world from which a modern intelligent species has emerged is recorded as having been visited by Astrean space travelers hundreds of thousands of years ago, and those same records are reasonably predictive of where intelligent life may be found.2 Due to the ishuan having been reduced to the seven sisters of Astrea, limited exploration of the causative mechanism has been undertaken. Currently accepted theory is that accidentally distributed genetic material had an effect on developing life, leading to convergence in evolution. A minority believe that the Astreans deliberately engineered the development of sophont life, though if there is evidence of this it has yet to be discovered.
Non-current theories posit that ishuan are the only 'naturally occurring' sophont species, and that absent Astrean influence, intentional or otherwise, other sophonts would not have arisen. However, some very ancient Astrean records, and a growing body of paleontological evidence, indicate that in previous galactic periods other intelligent species did exist, and in at least some cases may predate the ishuan.3 These species possessed morphology drastically different to modern sophonts, to the point that a great deal of fossil evidence may be simply unrecognisable to modern sophonts.
While extant species do share an appearance and other characteristics, they do still remain different species. At the most extreme there are modern sophonts that have non-carbon based biochemistry, such as the silicon-based heshret or ammonia-based vanade, but even carbon-based sophonts are not 'related.' This can result in issues, as many species are similar enough that people can mislead themselves into thinking that different species are interchangeable. For example, ledipalaps and humans are similar enough that they can share over the counter medicines, but a ledipalap doctor is in no way qualified to treat a human, and vice versa.
The precise impact of physiological similarity between intelligent species on the development of interstellar society is debated. Some argue that it is a major component of peaceable relations between nation-states, noting that, the Circum-Solar Wars aside, most interspecies conflict is relatively limited, and that intraspecies conflict is much more common. Proponents suggest that different species are similar enough to be recognisable to one another while also impossible to mistake as anything other than a different species, and that this is a psychological factor that must be accounted for.
Other theorists reject this argument as incomplete and not sufficiently evidenced, with some openly considering it naive: the phrase Circum-Solar Wars aside presents a very clear weakpoint in any argument.
1 In Grandia the preferred term is nirera, which means 'similar to us' or 'like us.' It is written with characters that can be read as 'wannabes.'
2 It is understood that this is how the human diaspora was first discovered, as a result of a routine review of exploration records.
3 The surviving Astreans have volunteered what information they can about this prior period, but even for Queen Scheherazade this is an essentially mythical time. While some records of this time do survive, they are enormously ancient, making them difficult to find, and often fragmentary or in need of extensive interpretation.
Emote Control
Plenty of genius, not enough sense.
It's back!
Species List III
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Vanade - a species originating from a world that supports an ammonia based biochemistry. One of the very few sophont species that cannot breathe oxygen, the unique conditions of their homeworld means that if they wish to travel abroad them must make use of environmental suits. While you can can see what vanade look like online, most people tend to think of the animated faceplates of their exosuit helmets. Because they are not 'in competition' with other species for habitable environments, many vanade nations have become exceptionally wealthy in the planetary settlement industry.
Uslan - a species with some characteristics of bears. Noted for a relatively dramatic, if simple, sexual dimorphism, with male uslan often being more than three times the weight as female uslan. Few uslan nations are Charter signatories, though immigrant communities thrive inside Charter space. The largest uslan nations rely on expansionism in the verge to support their struggling economies. Uslan are, alongside humans, the only species to possess true round ears.
Coleo - a species most notable for possessing additional limbs in the form of muscular hydrostats--tentacles--emerging from the small of the back. These tentacles utilise a kind of 'liquid muscle' that allows for both surprising strength and great flexibility. Coleo are sometimes stereotyped as excellent multitaskers, due to the unique nerve and brain structures that control their tentacles, but they are probably as bad as everyone else on this front. Compared to other species, coleo possess advanced vision, with no blindspot and the ability to distinguish the orientation of polarised light. They also exhibit higher touch sensitivity and spatial awareness. However, they have somewhat poor hearing, and many coleo utilise hearing aids when interacting with members of other species, who lack facial pattern changing. Coleo are a rare example of a strictly carnivorous species.
Scaldris - a species most known for its polymorphism, possessing three morphologically distinct male sexes. Distinguished by size and physical appearance, it is believed to be a holdover of an unusual r/K-strategy blend in a relatively hostile environment. Different scaldrisian cultures have responded to this trait in a variety of ways, ranging from competitive territorialism, elaborate socio-religious contract-making to collective 'free love' polyandry. Sharp delineations in cultural norms means that scaldrisian countries can be very strongly opposed to one another.
Rokuta - a species where, like velsune and inharaita, the female of the species is larger than the male. Unlike the velsune and inharaita, the rokuta have not been successful. The rokutan homeworld, which possessed scarce resources to begin with, has been scarred by both poorly regulated industrialisation and, more importantly, widespread nuclear war. Organised rokutan societies have generally collapsed, returning back to earlier fission-fusion clan structures. As their world is located deep in the verge, and on the other side of heshret territories, it has been difficult for the ARIA to meaningfully assist. Short tempered and aggressive, many rokuta consider themselves a 'martial species' along the lines of the alcysis or uslan, remembering an ancient history of powerful sabre-toothed warriors, but rokuta are somewhat small and weak. They are robust, however, with an unusually high tolerance for head trauma.
Melus - an aquatic, phanishuanna species with swimming tails instead of legs. Due to a sense of evolutionary comradery, many melusine nations maintain good relations with the powerful ceidai. Due to the need for specialised and very heavy accommodations, they do not travel often and they are a rare sight for most people, but like other post-aquatic species they exhibit advanced spatial awareness suitable for a space pilot or inhabitant of low-g environments. Despite limited space exploration, their major states are wealthy and technologically advanced. Evolutionary adaptations to undersea navigation have gifted many melus with beautiful voices, so while you might not have met a melus, you have definitely heard one on the radio.
Uslan - a species with some characteristics of bears. Noted for a relatively dramatic, if simple, sexual dimorphism, with male uslan often being more than three times the weight as female uslan. Few uslan nations are Charter signatories, though immigrant communities thrive inside Charter space. The largest uslan nations rely on expansionism in the verge to support their struggling economies. Uslan are, alongside humans, the only species to possess true round ears.
Coleo - a species most notable for possessing additional limbs in the form of muscular hydrostats--tentacles--emerging from the small of the back. These tentacles utilise a kind of 'liquid muscle' that allows for both surprising strength and great flexibility. Coleo are sometimes stereotyped as excellent multitaskers, due to the unique nerve and brain structures that control their tentacles, but they are probably as bad as everyone else on this front. Compared to other species, coleo possess advanced vision, with no blindspot and the ability to distinguish the orientation of polarised light. They also exhibit higher touch sensitivity and spatial awareness. However, they have somewhat poor hearing, and many coleo utilise hearing aids when interacting with members of other species, who lack facial pattern changing. Coleo are a rare example of a strictly carnivorous species.
Scaldris - a species most known for its polymorphism, possessing three morphologically distinct male sexes. Distinguished by size and physical appearance, it is believed to be a holdover of an unusual r/K-strategy blend in a relatively hostile environment. Different scaldrisian cultures have responded to this trait in a variety of ways, ranging from competitive territorialism, elaborate socio-religious contract-making to collective 'free love' polyandry. Sharp delineations in cultural norms means that scaldrisian countries can be very strongly opposed to one another.
Rokuta - a species where, like velsune and inharaita, the female of the species is larger than the male. Unlike the velsune and inharaita, the rokuta have not been successful. The rokutan homeworld, which possessed scarce resources to begin with, has been scarred by both poorly regulated industrialisation and, more importantly, widespread nuclear war. Organised rokutan societies have generally collapsed, returning back to earlier fission-fusion clan structures. As their world is located deep in the verge, and on the other side of heshret territories, it has been difficult for the ARIA to meaningfully assist. Short tempered and aggressive, many rokuta consider themselves a 'martial species' along the lines of the alcysis or uslan, remembering an ancient history of powerful sabre-toothed warriors, but rokuta are somewhat small and weak. They are robust, however, with an unusually high tolerance for head trauma.
Melus - an aquatic, phanishuanna species with swimming tails instead of legs. Due to a sense of evolutionary comradery, many melusine nations maintain good relations with the powerful ceidai. Due to the need for specialised and very heavy accommodations, they do not travel often and they are a rare sight for most people, but like other post-aquatic species they exhibit advanced spatial awareness suitable for a space pilot or inhabitant of low-g environments. Despite limited space exploration, their major states are wealthy and technologically advanced. Evolutionary adaptations to undersea navigation have gifted many melus with beautiful voices, so while you might not have met a melus, you have definitely heard one on the radio.
I feel like this is a reference to something but it just makes me think of like, obscure bigoted slurs about people's ear shapes being a core facet of the setting
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Was it Dragon Age that had multiple anti-elf slurs based on their ear shape?
It's actually a reference to, (and a bit of a self-deprecating joke about) my, uh, approach to alien design for Seven Sisters. In Seven Sisters all the Pleiadians had elf ears, so one of the things they found weird about humans was the fact that they had round ears. That's something I've retained for 7S, so that humans have an easily mentioned distinguishing feature of some kind lol
Bigotry in 7S is often more internal than external, in that aliens of the same species have much more history than they do with other aliens. That isn't to say that there aren't interspecies prejudices, and in the real world people actually do seize on things like the size and shape of a person's ears to make fun of them ... so it's actually not impossible that ear shape actually comes up in that context.
And I mean, if you're going after humans in 7S, the only notable features they have is 'almost blowing themselves up, twice' and 'has round ears'