Tanasinn wrote:I know we've stated that cyborgization is something pretty well-accepted within the Empire (or are at least moving towards that), but how widespread is it in fact? Is it something limited mostly to representative upper/middle classes, with a 1984-esque underbelly of "all-natural" proles?
This is kinda important to the development of my little nation: a lot of their propaganda for expansion involves raising up the worthy poor out of the dregs the Empire left them to suffer in.
Your nation could be poor. Maybe your faction got started doing, like, something that got obsoleted by another company, and now makes it's money as a waste treatment factory town the size of a planet. If your biggest industry went under you might end up like a planetary Detroit. Some people will be rich and wealthy and there will be some good industries on your world, but it could be a very third-world sort of feel if your economy is depressed and the work you DO have available kinda sucks.
BTW, here's my unoffical, unsanctioned and utterly personally concoted Imperial OOB without the Ships. Let's see if we can get some feedback. If people hate this idea of the Empire, cools. If they don't, alright too. We're just slowly shaping it up, and if we can say "Looks good" then we can probably all figure out how we used to fit into it. Plus, we need this for the Remnant factions.
The Holy Solar Empire of Fortress Terra
(Unoffical, and Before the Fall)
Summary
A ‘water empire’ where security and resources are controlled solely by the authority of Earth, and the surrounding colonial civilizations submit to the central authority or are starved, sieged and eventually destroyed by weapons of immense power. Hail Terra!
Factions
Terra’s nations are considered factions, not totally autonomous nor is any idea of political and theological independence from the larger human family permitted. Self-sufficency is exceedingly rare among factions, as most are organized around a particular industry or ideology, much like a trade guild, and Earthlike planets are rare. The few blue gems in space have nearly unanimously been claimed by Earth as Imperial property. As a result, most faction must make do with worlds that are sorely lacking in several categories and trade for their other goods. The Empire is exceedingly strict about allowing a faction to branch out into multiple industries, and has particular interest in controlling the production of foodstuffs and heavy industry building materials. As mere individual expressions of Earth’s primacy, the outlying cultures have many responsibilities, including:
-Tithe some of your labors to Holy Sol.
-Follow the Holy Observances.
-Respect all Imperial Dictates and Laws.
-Maintain a regulated militia that meets Imperial guidelines.
In exchange, all member factions of the Solar Empire are provided with a well-organized trade network to allow their private industries to flourish and for their worlds to expand far beyond the original limitations of the worlds they settled on. They are also given the full might of Fortress Terra’s security, both against their rival factions and against the barbarians and alien nations that exist outside along borders of Imperial space. It would not take much more than a small barbarian raid with a few nuclear weapons for millions or billions of citizens to die, so the threat is very real indeed.
History
Fortress Terra arose from the combined stresses of a populace exploding on Earth and the dangers of outside attack. It was not until the first age of colonization had passed that Earth became Terra to the human race, and that Terra became Fortress Terra to the galaxy. As the first colonists began dreaming of separate, peaceful nations that would one day eclipse Earth, the nations of Terra were locked in a war against alien forces who feared Humanity’s spread.
Using great weapons developed in the gulf of time between when the first Generation ships left Earth and when they arrived at their destinations, a FTL-equipped Earth lashed out at the nonhuman aggressors. Colonies that had spent generations as small communities of independent thinkers landed on worlds to the open arms of Imperial Military police, whose FTL allowed them to arrive on these worlds first to set up defenses for the attacks they had already fended off.
Beholden already to the Empire for their safety in the face of such an out-of-context threat, the masses of Humanity fell under Imperial control, and swelled its power base. A cargo cult of Earth sprang up, nearly worshipping the immense power of those humans who had stayed behind, and who even now stood as sentinels against the alien and barbarian nemesis. But, as with everything, there was a cost.
Human primacy and the facist worship of the mother planet, and of humanity’s own destiny, did not allow the far-flung colonies their own nations. Earth would not protect and serve and not demand tribute, and as they would claim, all the colonies that had ever left were merely agents of Terra’s own will, scattered to the stars to feed her needs, not for the benefit of the colonists themselves. All good would flow from Earth to the colonies, but all goods would flow from the colonies to Earth. In control of trade, of military, and of ideology, the Empire ruled a productive if not happy millennia before situations would contrive its downfall.
Government
The Government of Holy Sol and Fortress Terra is a labyrinthine bureaucracy of checks and balances, but the regional Governors are under the direct watch of a Board of Oversight, allowing for territorial matters to be handled with efficiency and without unduly complicating Imperial matters as a whole. This causes a degree of corruption, as a faction of the Empire can at times offer more to a Governor than they can afford to pass up.
Counterbalancing this is the Inquest, a separate wing of the government concerning itself with policing the military and governmental lower echelons, and for handling matters of ideological discord amongst the colonies. Reporting to the Justice department, the Inquest monitors the Governors and the faction’s regional governments to insure that the primacy of Fortress Terra is assured. Believing that a tree rots from the roots, they also patrol the citizenry, but such a huge population is difficult to police, and employ massive data-mining operations instead of actual roving agents.
Religion
Holy Sol refers to the Sun, but what makes Sol of importance is the relation to Earth, the mother of humanity. Not simply the cradle of man, Earth is the protector, mentor, and soul of humanity. The Empire believes that the end of their own evolution as a species will lead to an interconnectedness of all things, and that humanity’s relationship with the Earth and all of it’s infinite variation will create a deification of mankind itself.
This has some basis in reality—humanity has so far been unbeaten by any alien force, even though they have had far less time to advance. Partly this is due to the unique nature of human biology and the advantages of the Sol system’s makeup, giving Earth a suitable arena to have grown and matured without the help of extra-solar assets. There are entire civilizations of aliens that were wiped out from orbit because their worlds contained no oil or coal, and they had stagnated in an agrarian age.
Faced with a seeming superiority, the idea of Apotheosis of Man drives humanity, as they believe that any other species capable of this will do the same, and the first to achieve such an interconnectedness will by definition become the God of the new age. If there is a god of any sort, they believe, surely it blesses man above all others to have given it such a blessing. And while the final result of this final evolution to a single creature of Humanity is unknown, it must be one step closer to the great destiny of their species.
Weaponry and Technology
The Empire has widespread use of advanced man-machine interfacing technology, long ago making the ‘first step’ towards an interconnected Human Engine by perfecting the ability for the human mind to interface with or even exist within an artificial construct. They also have exceedingly powerful technology across the board, from blazingly fast FTL capable of going millions of
c to weapons of mass destruction that can tear apart entire star-systems, their advance has only been slowed by the abilities of their colonies to work together.
The majority of this technology, however, is expensive and requires galactic infrastructures to maintain, keeping it solely in military hands. Civilians have access to far less advanced vehicles and weaponry, rarely achieving more than ten thousand
c or above megaton range in firepower. These militias are mighty the, but no match for the Empire, and this is by Imperial edict and not mere chance.
