SDNW5 Discussion Thread I

[Zor]

Once again i am going to mention it, does anyone else want a trade route, because the Unified Imperium is offering one.

Zor

[OmegaChief]

I'm always happy to have more trade routes Zor!

[Skywalker_T-65]

Arcadia is always open to more money. We love the money...

(In all seriousness, yes I am open to getting a trade route Zor)

[Imperial528]

I'd be open to the embassy project, Omega. Would you prefer the Cernan delegation to be built in Old Cernan (Think a sort of Brutalist Revival style) Neo-Cernan (Similar to Old Cernan but lighter in tone, closer to modernist designs but with hints of classical) or Castorian? (Classical-esque, with a heavy dose of statues of people wearing powered armor)

Also, I would like to be near the Chamarrans, if just to see their reaction when a Cernan history geek starts preaching about their Great and Glorious Human Creators, all while not knowing just how disapproving of humans the cat people are.

Oh, and if they build brutalist-like buildings, the engineers will insist that such creations are the pinnacle of beauty and architecture.

[Skywalker_T-65]

You can take the Chamarrans Imperial...better to have hilarious Cernan preaching, than the blue people keeling over from cat allergies.

Though with Arcadia's trade relationship with Bastian, I may end up next to the other cat people, which would defeat the purpose. And being near the Chamarrans is similar to the Umerians being near the Grays...since the Chamarrans act like the Furlings are in charge of Arcadia, not the Arcadians themselves.

[Zor]

Arcadia is always open to more money. We love the money...

(In all seriousness, yes I am open to getting a trade route Zor)

Thanks.

Zor

[Simon_Jester]

The Umerian embassy will be rebuilt in accordance with the post-Chrome Age, post-Grimdarkian revival culture, best exemplified by Orbit City

[Skywalker_T-65]

You know...that pic so doesn't fit my image of the Umerians. Weren't they supposed to be mad scientists ruled over by tyrants? Then again, I could be wrong...but hey, if that's what the cities look like then the image works I guess.

[Simon_Jester]

Look at the architecture.

To answer that: Umeria is a very... multi-level state. The demographics that come to mind:

The Fringe: relatively underdeveloped planets with low population densities. As far as the Umerian planned economy is concerned, these are mostly valuable either for military purposes or resource extraction. The population is sociologically different from the majority in the Umerian core worlds, and the Ministries of Welfare, Ecology, Finance and Industry don't really handle them gracefully. This leads to periodic secessionist movements every fifty years or so, the most recent one being the Browncoat Uprising of 3291-92. About 25% of the population, roughly, lives out here.

The Core: these planets are more developed and urbanized. Much of the population lives in arcology-cities, usually with extremely deep bunkers dug underneath them.* The population is socially stratified according to the Umerian citizenship "type" scheme.

*Umeria lives next door to Shepistan, the Umerian idea of a bomb shelter is ridiculous.

_____

Basically, you have four classes of citizens: Type One, "small child," Type Two, "too young to make decisions for themselves without a keeper," Type Three, "normal adult," and Type Four, "high-quality individual." Most people proceed from Type One to Type Two in their early teens, and from Type Two to Type Three in their late teens. Some never make it to Type Three.

A modest minority of the population is Type Four- so designated because they score highly on one or more of the following:
-Personal reliability
-Intelligence
-Education
-Aptitude in a specialized and useful field

Field grade military officers, senior scientists, and most people trusted to run any kind of business are Type Fours- there's a chicken-and-egg process here, where pretty much the same evidence that got you promoted also gets you approved as a Type Four. Conversely, people lacking in these traits are the ones who never make it past Type Two and have the functional equivalent of a child welfare staffer checking in on them every few weeks to make sure they haven't done anything dumb lately... for the rest of their lives.

Umerians deal with the dislocation of labor due to automation in part by having an enormous 'social support bureaucracy' that exists to spend time and energy making sure everyone's doing OK, and to endlessly barrage everyone with surveys for diagnostics. It would probably be annoying to normal people, but Umerians are used to it much as they're used to not voting.

Business exists on sufferance in Umeria, nationalization of things which were nominally signed over to private individuals is common, and foreign investment is virtually nil.

Hm. What else?

The road to high government office passes through academia. The top ranking cabinet-level ministers are chosen by the Selection process, which features a literal black box that takes data and spits out lists of names. Nobody knows how it works, but Umeria hasn't collapsed into chaos in a really long time, so it's widely accepted that it does work.

Now, the mad science is something thrown in on the side. What might be called... outlandish behavior among high-caliber scientists is socially accepted and even encouraged, and I choose to assert that some really weird SCIENCE! is possible. That's where the mad scientists come in.

They usually don't run the place.

Anyway, the Umerian standard of living is not actually bad and the people are mostly not miserable or living in terror. That said, flying cars are rare (they're a practical necessity in Orbit City which is the only reason the state allows so many of them to be available there); flying omnilevihoverbuses are far more common.

Also, being on the fringe can suck, and the central state will be at best hamhandedly and vaguely benevolent in humiliating and not especially helpful ways. The same goes for urban underclasses, like the Vinarans. The Vinarans and the fringe share the essential problem that the central government just doesn't get them, and doesn't really care enough to change their ways enough to get them.

To sum up Umerian government and society in a nutshell, think...

"Absolute power wielded by people who didn't have to become backstabbing gits to get it, and who are changed regularly. But are kind of dorky."

[Skywalker_T-65]

Hmm...very interesting description there. That should actually make any interactions with Umeria easier. And I was joking on the picture, but hey, I can see that architecture (Joking on the picture...not the Umeria proper part). They would probably get along well with some of the more sciency type Arcadians and Furlings.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

On the subject of embassy buildings in the Capellan Authority, I intend on modeling the Haruhiist embassy after the Tokyo Big Sight. Semiannual "cultural festivals" may or may not take place.

[Imperial528]

Cernans do not, how to say this, like such flimsy architecture, such as that in Orbit City.

They instead partake in creating large, solid structures that emanate strength and power. They inherited this from their home culture, alas in the early times the cultural side of architecture was lost among more pressing concerns such as not dying from exposure. And thus, we get Brutalist Revival.

[OmegaChief]

I'd be open to the embassy project, Omega. Would you prefer the Cernan delegation to be built in Old Cernan (Think a sort of Brutalist Revival style) Neo-Cernan (Similar to Old Cernan but lighter in tone, closer to modernist designs but with hints of classical) or Castorian? (Classical-esque, with a heavy dose of statues of people wearing powered armor)

Also, I would like to be near the Chamarrans, if just to see their reaction when a Cernan history geek starts preaching about their Great and Glorious Human Creators, all while not knowing just how disapproving of humans the cat people are.

Oh, and if they build brutalist-like buildings, the engineers will insist that such creations are the pinnacle of beauty and architecture.

Prefernce is entirly up to the Cernians! Or if you'd prefer we could work up a joint story post where propoants for each design school from from Confederacy attempt to win over the Capellan planning commity to giving them the land plot.

On the subject of embassy buildings in the Capellan Authority, I intend on modeling the Haruhiist embassy after the Tokyo Big Sight. Semiannual "cultural festivals" may or may not take place.

We may want to build a climate controlled bio-dome around the place unless you want it to be an entirly in-doors thing! Warm summer days in Capella city are still clod enough to make Polar Bears shiver after all!

And cosplay traditional Haruiist outfits are not known for keeping thier wearers insulated!

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

We may want to build a climate controlled bio-dome around the place unless you want it to be an entirly in-doors thing! Warm summer days in Capella city are still clod enough to make Polar Bears shiver after all!

And cosplay traditional Haruiist outfits are not known for keeping thier wearers insulated!

If that's the case, the climate-controlled enclosure would have to be a necessity. Can't have people freezing to death out there, after all.

[Simon_Jester]

Cernans do not, how to say this, like such flimsy architecture, such as that in Orbit City.

You'd be surprised.

As to how that architecture squares with bunkers? Arrangements Are Made.

In general, most Umerian cities don't look like that, but it's a very distinctive style of theirs, a response to the... exuberance certain urban planners came down with after widespread use of antigravity vehicles in the Technocracy made the three-dimensional city truly practical.

[Imperial528]

Say Omega, how often does it snow on Adjora? I need to figure out how many Zambonis the embassy will need for the reflection pool, er, ice.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I would probably end up with two different embassies. One for the Republic of Arcadia, and one for the Furling Empire. Yes, the Furlings still have their own government, they just have people working in the Arcadian one also. As for designs...the Arcadian one would look more like this: Royal Palace of Stockholm.

Yes, even the Arcadian's take the Space Sweden thing seriously.

As for the Furlings, their buildings would be more like a mix of classical Greek and Roman buildings. So lots of pillars and domes. More elegant than the Arcadian buildings, but also a lot older style (in game, and in real life).

And I would request to be next to the Holy Empire. The Miyazakians (my version of Space Japan) who would come to the embassy would probably appreciate the cultural similarities.

[OmegaChief]

Say Omega, how often does it snow on Adjora? I need to figure out how many Zambonis the embassy will need for the reflection pool, er, ice.

Fairly often! The planet is basically a Hoth-alike, so snow and hail make up 99% of the precipitation (With rain being near mythical until they found more temperate planets).

Large snowdrifts can also happen, but the ambassadorial district will have various sheilding structures built around it to stop the various delegations from being snowed in by them.

[Skywalker_T-65]

So...Adjora is Hoth essentially? In that case the Arcadians would send the Space Russians Kurskians. They like the cold, after all, they are Space Russians TOUGH MEN!!

In all seriousness though, that just makes the Space Swedish Royal Palace idea better...that building already has to deal with cold. Add in some 1200 years or so of technology improving from where we are now and it should work really well.

EDIT: Also, in case anyone is curious, Arcadia (the planet) is not your average Earth-like world. It is partially tidal-locked, and thus has longer days/nights than normal. An Arcadian day is about 3 Earth weeks long. That lead to some interesting biosphere development, and interesting circumstances for the colonists. Needless to say, it took some getting used to...having three week long days/nights. Just thought I should get that out there in case anyone wants to write people on Arcadia (and how exactly could I make that work? Have it be a dual-planet system with a Mars-sized partner? Have it closer to the Sun (which is smaller/cooler than Sol)? Any ideas?)

(And there is a reason the Furlings didn't settle it! )

[Simon_Jester]

...How could you make what work?

I mean, yes, one possibility is a tide-locked dual-planet system. Or an Earth-sized moon of a gas giant, tide-locked to permanently face the giant on one side- in which case the giant is a major secondary source of illumination at night.

Or the planet could just happen to rotate very slowly without being tide-locked at all. Like Venus.

[Imperial528]

You could just have it that the planet has a very slow rotation due to some impact in the past or just as a result of planetary formation. Planets don't have to have relatively fast rotations.

Cerna itself is one of those worlds that had to be terraformed. When it was settled it was fairly Earth-like, had a surface gravity of around 1.1gs, an atmosphere with slightly less oxygen, and a near 24 hour day. However, it was mostly devoid of life and liquid water, outside of concentrations around the equator and extremophile organisms discovered at the poles and beneath the crust.

It was later discovered that the planet had suffered in the past a rather nasty impact of a small planetoid, although that left it with a clumpy ring a few small moons. Shortly after the impact the planet was hit by a particularly strong gamma ray burst, which pretty much finished off any surviving surface life. So when the Castorians arrived at it, hoping to find a habitable world, they found one with almost enough atmosphere, little liquid water, occasionally damaging meteor showers, and to top it off, bad storms. Now the planet is mostly Earth-like, and a good chunk of its rings have been used to add to the moons or for materials used with orbital constructions.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Hmm...I'll give this some more thought and post something later. I'm leaning towards the dual-planet, or Venus options at this point but we'll see later. I'm trying to put together something for all the major worlds, and this is what Arcadia got. Thus trying to figure this out.

EDIT: And Imperial reminded me...one of the planets will have been hit by a large (maybe not Mars sized, but still decently big) object and have a ring system thanks to that. Probably one of the Colony Capitals.

[Vanas]

Eh, I'm not precious and given apparent popularity, there's only one choice.

Bees will be quite happy to drop an embassy from orbit if needed. They're not really big snow fans, but they have Bee Science.

[Simon_Jester]

They are also goddamn masters of the urban heat island effect- on tiny, tiny scale.

Your other guys' embassy (if applicable)... hm. How about something built in a Klein bottle, with Maxwell's daemon parked at the entrance between the outside and the outside to keep the outside warm?

[Vanas]

I'm probably going to shelve them for now. If I'm going to use the crazy, I'll go the whole national hog with them.