Story Ideas for an Evil Human Empire...

[Big Orange]

Hi guys, I am think of writing up a story that depicts the human race as the "bad guys" for once and their alien foes in a more sympathetic light. Has anyone got any idea on what sort of political ideology is motivating the humans, how powerful they should be, what their history is and what their technology is like?

Having known much about the Galactic Empire from Star Wars, the Imperium of Man from WH40K and the Coalition from Exultant, I have enough inspiration on how an "evil" human empire should operate. But I want my "evil" human empire to work in a slightly more believable way and inject my own original ideas into the story involving them.

Would it be a good idea to tell this story mostly from the perspective of the aliens who are being enslaved, conquered and exterminated by the humans? Would it be much more effective to have a mostly outsiders point of view of the human species?

What do you think my brief ideas and suggestions? Can anyone please give me more ideas and suggestions?

[Darth Raptor]

I think this idea has a lot of potential. The way I see it, there's two, maybe three main ways you can run your EHE (Evil Human Empire). First, you can make them space Nazis. This seems simple enough, just replace "Aryan" with "human" and maybe substitue Nazi pseudoscience with real science (there probably are marked differences in the capabilities of humans and extraterrestrial sapients). The second is to make your EHE a bunch of profit crazed, money hungry corporatist bastards who are merely exploiting the aliens for monetary gain. The last option is to make the EHE bunch of religious zealots (taking a page from the IoM's Ecclesiarchy); this approach really only works if your aliens are a bunch of space fundies themselves (which they probably aren't, if you're going to portray them sympathetically).

As for the history, you could probably hijack SW's transition from Old Republic to Galactic Empire, or RL's transition from the Wiemar Republic to the Third Reich (for space Nazis). Corporate and religious scenarios call for more originality. Whichever route you choose, you're gonna want a history rife with war, war and some more war.

[Mr Bean]

Don't forget to make sure the Humans start off the wrong foot with the Aliens, a Khoom Vally type situation.

(Some sort of battle where it's not clear who started it but it is very much clear that everyone died.)

For example you could have the aliens send some famous alien or important alien to meet the human goverment, but when there, alien seperatist group attacks, kill famous alien, and a good amount of humans to boot. Humans think it was sneak attack, cue massive war.

[Noble Ire]

You could focus on the human will to survive, at the expense of all others, be it because they feel threatened by the other alien species, or because they have no other mechanism to perpetuate themselves. For example, in the anime Vandread, the primary antagonist is Earth; overpolluted to the point where their world is nearly dead and the few surviving humans on it are terminally diseased on a genetic level, they construct a fleet of robotic warships to perpetually collect biological matter and healthy organs from nearby colony worlds to keep their masters alive.

It may be rather hard to rework realistically, but it is another possible avenue.

[Xon]

Have humanity scared by some event which almost resulted in thier annihilation as the result of some alien's actions. Directly or indirectly doesnt matter.

This gives a massive licence for anti-alien sentiment in humanity.

Munitions(with built in self destruct systems which just wherent triggered) from a past war impacting on Earth or near-Earth Colonies/satellites in a ecologically stressed Earth with low avaliable resources should do the trick.

[Big Orange]

I have to cover all bases in fleshing out my evil human empire. Here are my ideas, please bare with me:

Human History in the Milky Way

I would say the humans would be one of the premier superpowers in the galaxy, although only very powerful in it's own corner of the galaxy; there would possibly be other more powerful political blocks or races towards the centre of the spiral core or a few spiral arms away. It would be convincing to put this setting about seven thousands years into the future (7000 AD) and it would be interesting if humanity built much of civilisation on older aliens civilisations that are already tens of millennia old.

I think it's a tad clichéd to have the humans be victims of alien oppression themselves (like the humans being fucked over by the Qax in the Xeelee-verse) but humanity possibly had big problems with aliens themselves that pressured them to act in a ruthless and expansionist way.

The Alien Victims and Enemies

How advanced are these aliens and how biologically different are they? It would be good if the different aliens races are living together in a relatively peaceful enclave located towards the centre of the Milky Way, while the humans herald from their own remote enclave at the relative far edge of the galactic spiral. Imagine the humans are the Mongolians and the various alien cultures united together in a loose alliance are comparable to China. I would make them mostly non-humanoid and have different biological systems, but with good writing I would give them humanlike personalities. You would possibly have three or four major races that are exterminated all together with the surviving major races in the path of human conquest being put under permanent slavery.

My draft of plot ideas: you could have a story about a alien world that is being crushed under human occupation , or another subplot that follows the saga of alien refugees fleeing the advancing human empire and maybe short stories concerning the alien defenders fighting a losing battle against the humans.

Humanity’s Government, Culture and Military

What sort of military should humanity have? It would be effective if the humans were organised in the most efficient and powerful war machine the known galaxy has known in the last 5000 years, with many of their alien foes being comparatively weak in comparison; some aliens are either not as aggressive as the humans due to their evolution, or you have alien cultures sliding into decadence and corruption with huge cutbacks occurring with their militaries in the face of many centuries of interstellar peace.

The human military would be comparable to the different armies from our history with warship formations and elite troops acting as the main spearhead against the enemy. You would also most likely have enslaved aliens serving as loyal collaborators in janissary/auxiliary formations. Would the human government be more sinister if was a monarchy or oligarchy? I guess the humans being managed by a oligarchy would much more appropriate somehow (a ruling body similar to the Gou’ould System Lords, only more modern and bureaucratic). You would possibly have civilian commercial organisation exploiting conquered worlds and weaker alien races, with a primitive pre-FTL empire being bought out by some human robber baron for example.

I have no idea so far on what the human culture should be like, or how the different agencies and military services for this human empire operate.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I think one of the better ways to present the humans as evil antagonists is just to draw from history--colonialism, specifically. As an example, the Spanish forces who were left on the island by Columbus, as well as those who arrived later, just didn't give a fuck about the natives. They assumed that the island was full of gold, and set quotas that couldn't possibly be filled (since there was actually very little gold to be found), and then hunted the natives down with vicious dogs and decapitated them when they tried to flee. If a Spaniard wanted to see how sharp his knife was, he would cut off a native's nose. Similar things happened in the Congo under Belgian rule; the Belgian authorities would force the natives to collect a certain amount of rubber, and if they failed, the government would send in European soldiers (often supported by the really savage natives, cannibals from the upper reaches of the Congo River) to kill people and take their hands as proof.

And why not? They weren't people, or at least not anybody who mattered. So the reasoning went.

I think its a little weak and "easy" to just present the evil humans as Nazis or racists or whatever. They should be callous, arrogant, and unfeeling, with no more regard for the aliens than they have for insects--they shouldn't even hate the aliens, they should just not care one bit about them, like Andrew Jackson and the Native Americans. The reasoning behind this behavior could be an early war between humans and an alien race, which the humans won but which made them decide that it was a dog-eat-dog universe, and they were going to win, by Jingo. Another issue is that contact between the Humans and other races might be isolated to a specific class of humans (i.e., conquistadors, career colonial officials, and Davy-Crocket pioneers) who perform the exploration, conquer the planets, and fight the wars. The average human isn't evil, he just doesn't know about how things are done on the frontier and doesn't care enough to find out. The average civilian never sees an alien.

[EDIT:
One of the ways to play this out is by borrowing from Niven's Belter/Flatlander dichotomy. In Known Space, the humans who do most of the fighting, exploring, and colonizing in outer space are from the race and ethnic grouping that spends their whole lives without setting foot on Earth (mainly in the asteroid belt). Meanwhile, the vast majority of humans live on Earth but don't travel much or do any fighting except as infantry.

In your universe, perhaps the wars in space could be fought by Belters. The Belters explore space and neutralize enemy fleets, then volunteer forces of career military men (a la starship troopers?) land on planets to conquer and sanitize the population. By the time civilian colonists arrive, the military force has already left and pushed the border farther and farther out.]

Even the individual members of the conquering class don't have to be evil, they just have to be members of an evil system.

Like the soldier who has got to burn a village to the ground because that's how it's done and what he's been ordered to do, so he doesn't without even thinking about it; then he gives one of the kids he's made homeless a chocolate bar before going on his way.

We know from history that humans have this ability to perform objectively immoral actions without it bothering their conscience, because they disassociate the behavior from themselves (by herd instinct, feelings of anonymity, and deferring to higher authority). Perhaps this could be the thing that distinguishes humans from the aliens and makes them remarkably horrible in your universe.

[Big Orange]

I think its a little weak and "easy" to just present the evil humans as Nazis or racists or whatever. They should be callous, arrogant, and unfeeling, with no more regard for the aliens than they have for insects--they shouldn't even hate the aliens, they should just not care one bit about them, like Andrew Jackson and the Native Americans.

I think most Nazi warcriminals were pretty much like that anyway.

I doubt that either Reinhard Heydrich or Rudolf Hoess hated Jews as strongly as Julius Streicher or Dr. Josef Goebbels did; many SS officers probably did not care about most Jews anyway and they merely had a job to do. I would have the minions for my empire acting in much the same way; you would have hypocritical Earth politicians stirring up anti-alien sentiments, with unfeeling soldiers at the front who are not racist per se, but are enslaving or exterminating aliens due to government orders or profit (the human troops would likely see genocide as "pest control" and the enslavement of aliens as "domestication").

EDIT:
One of the ways to play this out is by borrowing from Niven's Belter/Flatlander dichotomy. In Known Space, the humans who do most of the fighting, exploring, and colonizing in outer space are from the race and ethnic grouping that spends their whole lives without setting foot on Earth (mainly in the asteroid belt). Meanwhile, the vast majority of humans live on Earth but don't travel much or do any fighting except as infantry.

Humanity's military forces would possibly be biologically different to civilian human population in much the same way the IoM Space Marines are different to regular IoM humans or the Tau Air Caste are biologically different to the rest of the Tau species. There could be a permanent human military who are not fully human (due to many generations of being bred for combat - you could throw in genetic tinkering for fighting performance, adaptation to low gravity conditions or even cloning).

Even the individual members of the conquering class don't have to be evil, they just have to be members of an evil system.

I don't want these human "space Nazis" to be 2-D cartoon baddies anyway; most soldiers in the Wehrmatch or SS were not individually evil but they were still following evil orders given to them by evil leaders. But remember most of my stories would be told from the perspective of the aliens, with a mostly outsiders view of the humans as a xenocidal species.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Humanity's military forces would possibly be biologically different to civilian human population in much the same way the IoM Space Marines are different to regular IoM humans or the Tau Air Caste are biologically different to the rest of the Tau species. There could be a permanent human military who are not fully human (due to many generations of being bred for combat - you could throw in genetic tinkering for fighting performance, adaptation to low gravity conditions or even cloning).

Eh, I'm not a big fan of this idea for a few reasons.
First, it sets up a really tangible wall between the two groups of humans (perhaps humans at large can't be held accountable because all the atrocities were performed by these genetically engineered dudes). The group should be separate from civilian society in the same way that a modern military or the old colonial administrations were. People go from civilian society enter the military, do their time, and then retire to civilian society to be regular people again. I wasn't talking about them being a seperate caste, just a subset of society.
Second, I think that genetically engineered badasses are a bit cliche (they're positively everywhere), and it would reduce the impact of having humans as villains. Its more meaningful in the evil people are just regular guys.

I don't want these human "space Nazis" to be 2-D cartoon baddies anyway; most soldiers in the Wehrmatch or SS were not individually evil but they were still following evil orders given to them by evil leaders. But remember most of my stories would be told from the perspective the aliens, with a mostly outsiders view of the humans as a xenocidal species.

The humans don't have to kill all the aliens and I don't think it would necessarily be realistic for them to do so; humans tend to be pragmatic. You could have a story arc where an alien society is fighting a war against the humans, together with a coalition of other species, and they're losing badly. At the end of the plot, the protagonist alien society makes the choice to switch sides and become a satillite nation to the humans in exchange for survival (a la Bulgaria in WWII). This would offer more opportunity for interaction with the humans. They shouldn't be entirely faceless enemies.

[Big Orange]

Eh, I'm not a big fan of this idea for a few reasons.
First, it sets up a really tangible wall between the two groups of humans (perhaps humans at large can't be held accountable because all the atrocities were performed by these genetically engineered dudes). The group should be separate from civilian society in the same way that a modern military or the old colonial administrations were. People go from civilian society enter the military, do their time, and then retire to civilian society to be regular people again. I wasn't talking about them being a seperate caste, just a subset of society.
Second, I think that genetically engineered badasses are a bit cliche (they're positively everywhere), and it would reduce the impact of having humans as villains. Its more meaningful in the evil people are just regular guys.

These "super humans" would most likely be a minority within the endless ranks of the military; they're the best of the best, the elite of the elite (like the Space Marines). They are elite because they essentially live for combat and many centuries of war have changed them on a genetic level (either through environment or deliberate engineering). The other 85% of the standing military would be filled with regular human professionals and conscripts (not including alien auxillaries).

These human "super soldiers" that are bred to fight are like weapons in themselves and are more or less slaves following orders from "normal" human officers (similar to the Jem'Hadar being overseen by the Vorta/Founders). They are a relatively small caste of elite shock troopers modelled on Dune's Sardaukar, plus they are used comparatively rarely in military occupations (also elite military formations do not commit most of the atrocities; it is often the police units and occupation forces that follow them up that are more prone to massacring civilians).

The humans don't have to kill all the aliens and I don't think it would necessarily be realistic for them to do so; humans tend to be pragmatic. You could have a story arc where an alien society is fighting a war against the humans, together with a coalition of other species, and they're losing badly. At the end of the plot, the protagonist alien society makes the choice to switch sides and become a satillite nation to the humans in exchange for survival (a la Bulgaria in WWII). This would offer more opportunity for interaction with the humans. They shouldn't be entirely faceless enemies.

The humans would not exterminate everything; there would be vassal planets cowed into aligning with the humans and there would alien empires that are turned into protectorates. Certain aliens, depending on their talents, would be spared and would be allowed to act as collaborators. Humanity would not want to exterminate every race, but would take over other species for banal reasons such as resources or commerce. And some humans would be relatively benign to certain alien races.

[Big Orange]

Sorry this took a little while, but here is the main outline for my evil human empire. You could lambast or criticise at will if my ideas are shit. What do you think?


The Combined Human Confederacy

Historical Overview

The Combined Human Confederacy (CHC) was officially founded by humanity in 3598 AD, following a disastrous eight hundred years war with a rival alien power known as the Enclave. The Enclave was technologically far more advanced and it conquered most of humanity’s territory with relative ease. Earth’s home system and five other solar systems remained untouched by the Enclave’s advance, the Enclave for some unexplored reason never marched onto Earth; that enigmatic gesture shown by the Enclave was never fully understood by the besieged humans who fought back in a highly ferocious manner.

However the Enclave (who were later revealed to be highly evolved amoeba) viewed colonisation and empire building in a completely different way to how humans viewed it and that lead to their downfall. The Enclave did not commit any real atrocities against the humans, nor did they even exploit them; they merely contained them and viewed their human prisoners with naïve curiosity. But their occupation was unforgivable in the eyes of the proud humans and the Enclave paid dearly when they lost their struggle against humanity.

Humanity inherited much of the Enclave’s technology, reversed engineered most of it and applied it with more ruthlessly than the childlike Enclave ever did. By 3878 AD, the Combined Human Confederacy had conquered over a third of the galactic spiral that Earth was located in, conquering hundreds of weaker alien species and five other advanced empires that were already involved in a territorial squabble with each other (the Ku’nos Alliance, the Principality of Zz’ungi, the Unao Empire, the Tong Federation and the Trax Commonwealth).

By 4023 AD, the last vestiges of fleeing Enclave are finally exterminated by the Overwatch Executive’s forces.

By 4307 AD the Qurad-Nex of the Associated Thought (a exotic empire closer into the galaxy’s core) is turned into a protectorate; CHC troops are officially not allowed set foot in Qurad-Nex’s territory, but human corporations and business concerns are allowed to operate within the region and exploit the primitive worlds that were originally under the Qurad-Nex‘s protection.

Since 4898 AD the CHC has pressed on it’s advance along Earth’s local spiral arm, but in the last three millennia has stalled at the borders of the Outsiders, a proto-matter race that is five billion years old and lives close to the core of the galaxy (and is rumoured to be extra-galactic). The Outsiders are the most powerful galactic faction, but are neutral and highly stagnant.

By 6789 AD the CHC has slowed down it’s expansion, but is progressing eastward along the galactic plain absorbing, conquering or exterminating many smaller alien empires along way; however many of it’s outer colonies are proving hard to pacify with both human and alien dissidents.

Government

Each human planet has it’s own autonomous government that comes under the partial jurisdiction of Earth Deputy (planetary governor) who in turn answers to a Earth Prefect (star sector governor) , the Earth Prefects collectively answer directly to the Earth Overwatch. The Earth Overwatch is humanity’s main governing body and it’s appointed ruler is the Supreme Prefect who is served by a stern oligarchy of politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and military officers. The Supreme Prefect is often encapsulated in rich pageantry bordering on royal, but he/she is not officially classed as a monarch and there is no family inheritance to the Combined Human Confederacy’s “throne”.

Economy

The Combined Humanity Confederacy still has a conventional capitalist economy and commerce is handled by massive trading guilds and various interstellar mega corporations. Businessmen still have a very high place in the CHC, seven thousand years into the future. The Levy & Lee Inc., Janus Mining Concerns and Golden Sun are the largest commercial organisations in the CHC in the last three millennia, with major contracts under the Overwatch Executive, CHC Navy and CHC Army.

Military

Overwatch Executive

The black heart that beats at the centre of the Combined Human Confederacy. The Overwatch Executive is arguably the most powerful organisation in the CHC and humanity’s premier apparatus of intelligence gathering, civil protection and state terror. The leader of the Overwatch Executive is the Supreme Executioner, one of the highest political positions outside of the Supreme Prefect. Founded in 3707 AD by the Prefect Council when the policing of conquered territory became problematic, the Overwatch Executive controls all levels of human law enforcement and is the biggest gatherer of information in recorded history. It also has the largest infantry force outside of the CHC Army, with an Overwatch Executive station posted on every ship, station, planet and moon. It’s vast paramilitary security forces are the human troops who commit the most atrocities in the occupied territories and on the battlefield. The Overwatch Executive also has it’s own private space fleet of fighter wings and various support ships.

Confederacy Guard

The CHC’s elite troops; the best of the best and feared by all. They were officially founded in 3005 AD and after millennia of combat and genetic argumentation they are barely considered really human. Grown in birthing pods and accelerated to full adulthood within three to five years, Confederacy Guardsman are literally born to fight. There are ten heavily militarised solar systems that are dedicated to the mass production and training of these super soldiers. These specialised soldiers (numbering just 8% of the overall CHC military) operate in strike battalions that can come under the direct jurisdiction of either the CHC Navy, CHC Army and Executive Overwatch.

CHC Navy

The most important corner stone in the CHC’s vast war machine and the chain that binds the human empire together. In the last three millennia, the core of the fleet consisted of two kilometre battle cruisers supported by swarms of gunships and fighter wings. The capital ships number up to a hundred thousand battle cruisers, with support ships and fighters numbering in the tens of millions. Earth’s system is the CHC Navy’s main stronghold, with Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn transformed into sprawling facilities dedicated to large scale warship production. The asteroid belt between has vanished completely into the mass production of civilian and military shipping.

CHC Army

The biggest infantry force in the known galaxy, with tens of trillions of soldiers (both human recruits and alien auxiliaries) pressing the CHC’s advance on the rest of the Milky Way. In comparison to the Executive Overwatch, CHC Navy and the Confederacy Guard the overall training for the CHC Army is relatively basic for most of the regular units. And most of the CHC Army’s technology is mostly invested into the mobile artillery, ground structures and armoured attack vehicles. The average human infantryman is kitted out in relatively basic (but reliable) field gear and armed with rudimentary infantry weapons. There are specialised commando units that often work in concert with specialist teams from the Overwatch Executive and the Confederacy Guard, but the majority of CHC Army units are just regular grunts who hold the ground and advance behind the frontline units. The CHC Army’s main selling points are it’s huge tank divisions, low altitude attack craft and heavily fortified garrison bases. The CHC Army is intrinsically dependent on the CHC Navy for transporting divisions from planet to planet and acting as a shield against attacks from space.

---- What do you think of my crap ideas?

[General Soontir Fel]

I am not a big fan of an Empire that encompasses all humans, everywhere. I think it's unrealistic.

In one of the stories I am writing, there is a state similar to the cold war between a fundy human empire, and an ostensibly democratic (but again, like the U.S. in the Cold War, with civil liberties frequently compromised in the name of security) confederacy. In this atmosphere the first alien contact happens--and it's hostile. The war is not quite a three-way free for all, but it's not clearcut, either.

If you are going to make a single state encompass all humans, you still shouldn't have them all support it. There will be neutrals, and there will be those opposed. It (depending on how effective propaganda and brainwashing are) may be 5% or 1% or 0.0001%, but it is unreaslistic for it be zero.

You may also take a cue from the Roman Empire. You can have a core space (probably centered on Earth), and it will be surrounded by puppet alien states, ostensibly independent, but with human military garrisons stationed in them, both to defend against an external invasion, and to suppress any revolts.

[Big Orange]

I say my human empire essentially encompasses humanity under a single political system, but there would still be rebels, dissidents, off shoots and renegades. But Earth and nearly all of the major systems would be loyal to the Supreme Prefect and be united against the aliens (although of course there would be alien sympathisers and humanitarians who'll protest against Earth's aggressive expansionism). And not all aliens would be ruthlessly conquered; I did mention alien auxiliaries and alien protectorates in my fan fiction brainstorming.

Has anyone else got any more suggestions?

[fusion]

To be a nitpick:
Make a ring world or an dyson's sphere with the earth integrated into it
You need a terror weapon(s) i.e. America's Peace keepers (though it is not technically a terror weapon, it still scary)
Have a signature interrogation /torture device.
I don't like your last three millennia nothing change thing and where the only capital ship is the battle cruiser, have a few more types of ships.
I think the Army needs to be portrayed as more smart and evil than grunts.
They need more mega-corps that do 95% or more of the production of the empire.
Any ways it is good!!! Keep it up.

[Big Orange]

To be a nitpick:
Make a ring world or an dyson's sphere with the earth integrated into it

The CHC is not adavanced enough to build one of those things (unless they found one unoccupied).

You need a terror weapon(s) i.e. America's Peace keepers (though it is not technically a terror weapon, it still scary)

The CHC would not have something as cheesy as a Death Star; maybe nuclear warheads that could plunge a class-M planet into a ice age or a super virus that could exterminate an entire population.

Have a signature interrogation /torture device.

What, like the Terran Imperium's Agony Booth(TM) or the Galactic Empire's interrogation droid?

I don't like your last three millennia nothing change thing

Technology is not stagnant; they merely evolve already existing technology (ie. the hyperdrive, shields and weapons are gradually updated, decade by decade).

and where the only capital ship is the battle cruiser, have a few more types of ships.

Like the CHC Army, the CHC Navy believes in strict standardisation; but the CHC Navy has many types of fighter craft and gunships coming in many different shapes and sizes.

I think the Army needs to be portrayed as more smart and evil than grunts.

That is what the Confederacy Guard and Overwatch Executive is for, but the CHC Army does have commandos and futuristic paratrooper.

They need more mega-corps that do 95% or more of the production of the empire.

Yes many of the mega-corps would have a lot of clout owning entire star systems, having their own private security fleets and all that crap.

Any more ideas, please?

[speaker-to-trolls]

I'd go the opposite way from the 'capital is a dyson sphere' idea and have the capital be a battleship. Think about it, these guys are a heavily militaristic semi-fascist state, to me it would make sense that they'd want their top brass to be mobile and armed, the best defence isn't a shield, after all, it's not being where your enemies are shooting.

You mention 'state terror', now by this do you mean nazi/soviet style 'badmouth-the-party-and-it's-off-to-Pluto-with-you' secret police, or is it more subtle, along the lines of Americas anti-communist policies in the 1950's where the government just makes it difficult for you to say anything sapientarian (made up word used because this wouldn't just be concerned with humans) and/or there's a social stigma that makes it difficult to speak out ('traitor! how dare you say that? don't you care about humanity? how can you put xenos above your own people...' etc)?

[Big Orange]

heavily militaristic semi-fascist state,

Semi-facist?! The CHC guys are full blown facists that want to humiliate, enslave or even exterminate anybody and anything else that is not homo-sapien.

CHC Society

Human society is highly ordered and regiment in the core worlds, major colonies and military but far more varied and scattered on the frayed edges of the ever expanding Combined Human Commonwealth. Earth and it’s system is kept in perpetual lockdown by the Supreme Executioner and the Overwatch Executive. The human populace under firm CHC control must adhere to ten strict commands that were laid down during the founding of the Combined Human Commonwealth in 3598 AD.

The ten commandments are as followed:

* All non-human sentients are not granted the full right of protection within the boundaries of the Combined Human Commonwealth.

* Humans are strictly forbidden to intermingle with non-human sentients without official approval from Overwatch Executive officers.

* Report any sign of treachery or dissent to the nearest Overwatch Executive officer.

* The Supreme Prefect is absolute ruler of the Combined Human Confederacy and you as loyal citizens must follow his every command.

* All human-alien hybrids must be turned in to the nearest Overwatch Executive officers; human-alien hybrids breach the Human Initiative.

* Do not assist aliens, as aiding and abetting non-human sentients is an act of high treason under the Human Initiative.

* Your family and private property can fall under the full control of the Overwatch Executive and CHC military in a State of Emergency. Failure to reply is dealt with swift execution.

* Under the Human Initiative non-human sentients can granted partial rights, but only under highly controlled conditions with non-human sentients still falling under full human sanction.

* A human who murders a non-human sentient is fined ten Phelps. A non-human sentient who assaults a human is executed immediately.

* Non-human sentient individuals and personal property can be used at full discretion by any CHC citizen of medium rank or higher.

Of course these draconian laws are far more laxer on the outer colonies and expanding frontier with more pragmatic CHC officials being somewhat more tolerant towards alien collaborators, servants and allies. And certain alien races who are more "civilised" in the eyes of the CHC can exist under protectorate status.

What do you think of my newer crappy ideas?

[Thirdfain]

For one thing, the second clause forces humans to intermingle with aliens. You worded it improperly, and forbid Humans from avoiding aliens.

Also, human-alien hybrids are a silly brainbug. You've got more in common with a lettuce than you'd have in common with an alien, and even less chance of producing offspring.

Also, the name doesn't make a lot of sense. Combined Human Confederacy? A "Confederacy" is, by definition, a grouping of independent and sovereign states. By very definition, a Confederacy is not totalitarian. And the "Combined" part doesn't swing, as a Confederacy is by definition loosly connected.

This all seems very pulp fiction evil- The "CHC" seems like a bunch of generic Nazi thugs, nothing more or less. The Spanish conquistadors never made such strict rules about the poor injuns they massacred. I'd lean more in the direction suggested by Pablo- a more morally ambiguous position would be both mroe realistic and more interesting.

[Big Orange]

For one thing, the second clause forces humans to intermingle with aliens. You worded it improperly, and forbid Humans from avoiding aliens.

I've corrected that minor error. I did type this shit out at 02.50 AM you know.

Also, human-alien hybrids are a silly brainbug. You've got more in common with a lettuce than you'd have in common with an alien, and even less chance of producing offspring.

Yeah the idea of human-alien hybrids is rather silly and is more suited to soap sud space operas like Star Trek or Star Wars. Maybe striving for comparative biological realism would be a much better idea; maybe humans and aliens could never produce viable offspring naturally, but during the Enclave occupation of humanity, the Enclave aliens perhaps artificially seeded their alien genome within some sections of the human population out of curiosity and being a human-alien hybrid is a genetic defect that pops up in the family line every few generations. That's a good explanation for why the CHC exterminated the Enclave and they have highly paranoid laws guarding human purity (even though natural inception between aliens and humans is quite impossible).

Retarded excuse I know.

Also, the name doesn't make a lot of sense. Combined Human Confederacy? A "Confederacy" is, by definition, a grouping of independent and sovereign states. By very definition, a Confederacy is not totalitarian. And the "Combined" part doesn't swing, as a Confederacy is by definition loosly connected.

Do you think the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the German Democratic Republic are wildly inappropriate titles for nations that are/were ruled by brutal dictatorships or plunged in bloody civil violence?

I see the "Combined Human Confederacy" as the political double speak title for my dictatorial human empire. Most likely humanity was once ruled as a confederacy with independent governments, but following the Enclave occupation the separate governments within the human confederacy were combined by a stern central authority. Hence the Combined Human Confederacy.

This all seems very pulp fiction evil- The "CHC" seems like a bunch of generic Nazi thugs, nothing more or less. The Spanish conquistadors never made such strict rules about the poor injuns they massacred. I'd lean more in the direction suggested by Pablo- a more morally ambiguous position would be both mroe realistic and more interesting.

The CHC are not quite like the Nazis nor are they like Spanish Conquistadors; I have not fully developed them yet and I have listened to Pablo Sanchez's suggestions. And who cares about the Spanish Conquistadors; they were a pack of greedy monsters just like the Nazis anyway, even though the context was slightly different. And not all Nazis were 2D thugs; do you think most SS and German Army officers were comic book baddies on a individual level?

And you've heard of John Rabe?

Anyhoo, thanks for the constructive criticism, Thirdfain

[NRS Guardian]

The Conquistadors are an appropriate template because they became the ruthless conquerors they were after fighting to expel foreign invaders for about 700 years while also fighting each other. Also, they thought of themselves as defenders of Christian and Western culture, which could be turned to defenders of human culture. Another way that the Conquistadors could be used as an analogue is have humans focus on the rituals and morals of aliens that are or at least seem totally alien, weird, or even barbaric afterall the Conquistadors thought they were doing a good thing by wiping out the Aztecs who practised human sacrifice on a grand scale. Some Spaniards probably viewed themselves as liberators of the natives under Aztec rule.
Actually you could explain a high degree of loyalty and cooperation with the government arising from an effective propaganda campaign which says that in a galaxy full of hostile aliens as proved by the numerous wars with aliens a strong united government is the only way for humanity to survive perhaps with the government requiring constant outside threats to keep humanity united.

[Alerik the Fortunate]

I believe the title Supreme Executioner should be rather Supreme Executor. The idea is that he is the legally sanctioned carrier-out of will (presumably the will of the human race as a whole) rather than an obvious butcher. It would be keeping in line with the political double talk of the so-called Confederacy. Also, considering the title of your empire, it would probably be significant to keep at least ceremonial retention of the dignities or structures of the pre-unification governments as part of the culture, to give substance to the confederacy pretense. As it has been said, it needs to be clear that the majority of civilians have reason not to know the severity of conditions in the alien frontiers and occupied territories, so a strong civilian political culture almost laughably disconnected from foreign policy should be portrayed. I think America would serve as a suitable model for this in some respects.

[Big Orange]

Anyway, after many months of neglet, I could return to working on this evil human empire fanfiction. Writers block you see.

I could do a short story over the next couple of days, introducing the Combined Human Confederacy from the alien's perspective. Maybe get the narrative ball rolling so to speak.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I had a few thoughts for the "feel" of the galaxy you are creating.

1. When aliens want to scare their children, they say "If you aren't good, the Humans will get you."

2. Allow human worlds to have, in and of themselves, whatever government they want. King? Sure. Emperor? No problem. Chairman? Why not. They still answer to the Deputy, though.

3. Bolos. Lots of bolos.

4. I would make the 'tipping point' in human history be an Enclave force completely irradicating a particularly violent human world, with perhaps a billion dead. The rallying cry of "Never Again!" is a rather potent cultural meme.

[Sikon]

The humans don't have to be like Nazis or classic fictional evil regimes. For example, the pre-Civil-War U.S. was mostly a free liberal democracy but still treated slaves as if they were not human. As an analogy, consider the many people in the real-world who would deny hypothetical fully-sapient AIs human rights and would exhibit great racism ("speciesism") against any hypothetical sapient "robots." Another analogy is the treatment of sapient droids in Star Wars or sapient holograms in Star Trek.

Imagine the effect of the aliens looking much different from humans. Skin color was enough for past racism, and imagine far more major differences. For example, I haven't seen much neoBSG yet, but probably there is less sympathy for "toasters" than "skinjob" Cylons.

Potentially combine a different appearance with the aliens also not overtly expressing human-like emotions, instead tending to seem emotionless during typical superficial interaction. That could make them more "robot-like." They could even be partially artificial creations, such as if they cloned or genetically engineered themselves in the past. Think of how many people in the real-world implicitly suggest using hypothetical clones if they would be less than fully human, as if a few megabytes extra of DNA being the same eliminates sapience or individuality.

Readers could still identify with the alien characters if they are written well, just like Spock in Star Trek is an interesting and sympathetic character unharmed by superficially not showing emotions. He in fact does have emotions very much but just controls them, seeming stoic upon first glance.

There could also be a gradual trend. Perhaps the aliens would be initially forbidden from buying land, managing or hiring human workers, and other activities like those that many in the real-world would desire to forbid hypothetical sapient AIs from doing. If aliens try to privately own weapons for self-defense, such is outlawed, and they are treated as criminals. Later, a few widely-reported but rare incidents of aliens killing humans are sensationalized by the media to create public hysteria. That leads to laws restricting aliens still more. Eventually, the sapient aliens become treated mostly as if they were dangerous animals or non-sapient robots.

If I recall correctly from history courses, there was a trend during part of the 18th and 19th centuries in the American South where blacks became treated even worse over time. The Declaration of Independence declaring that all men are created equal may have led some to unfortunately try reconciling slavery with it by considering blacks to be less than men. Evil often has come from dehumanization, and future evil may come from many failing to recognize that all sapients should have human rights.

A combination of factors like the preceding could realistically allow plenty of ordinary "good" people to mistreat the aliens, not granting them human rights. Even the equivalent of a modern liberal democracy could work as the human government.

Of course, as the author you know best what works in your story, so the preceding is just some thoughts that might help lead to your own different ideas. However, an unusually good story might have both sides have sympathetic characters like ordinary people, staying far from the cliché of one side being classic comic-book evil.