Empire! 8 - The Planets of Tekhum (Community Worldbuilding Game) (Waitlist available)

[Arjki]

Union of Eskor
Requesting region 29(Sansar)
Region name: Eskor
Edited with approval feedback

Spoiler: Geography

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Eskor owing to it's latitude and the length shoreline is a warm yet reasonably humid place. Winters are mild as are summers usually - except for the eastern coast which is at risk of large sea storms. It is also rather flat, plains interrupted only by rolling hills and meandering rivers. These rivers bring the other seasonal danger of Eskor - large and fairly regular floods.

Naturally such a land is good for farming and as such relatively little of Eskor's natural environments remain unchanged and unexploited. It is a land of farmland - fields, orchards and fenced off pastures as far as the eye can see. Even the forests are being brought under and turned into reliable sources of lumber and game reserves.

Spoiler: People

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Eskor is a human nation, while some other races may be present they are tiny minorities. Eskor generally has the highest population density on the coasts - that is where all the large cities are. These cities were until relatively recently the biggest movers of Eskorian politics, being independent states of their own. The unification changed this - while individual cities retained a good deal of autonomy most power shifted to the Union government.

In rural Eskor most people farmers tending the vast tracts of tamed land. The cities on the other hand are rather industrial - the power provided by fusion engines is enabling rapid industrialization. Furthermore because the cities are located on Eskor's coasts there is a long naval tradition - sea trade was one of the things that enabled the coastal cities to dominate Eskor as they did before the unification.

Spoiler: Resources

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Export resource - Fruit from the Orchards of Eskor (Fruits and Vegetables, Beverages): dates, figs, grapes and other fruit is grown on the vast sunny hills of Eskor. Due to overall high agricultural productivity Eskorians are able to dedicate a large portion of their land to growing these crops instead of cereals. Wines and distilled drinks from these fruits are also a common and favored export.
Desired import - Rare Metals(Precious Minerals): the rapid industrialization of Eskor's cities has run into a problem - while common metals like iron are reasonably common in Eskor, to build up as desired it needs more than that but no reasonable mining sites were found in Eskor, forcing imports.

Spoiler: Faith

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The Cult of the Fallen Star

The core of Eskorian religion is centered around the reverence and study of a mysterious spacecraft found in the interior of Eskor. The ascendance of the Cult of the Fallen Star was brought by the teach-priests' so far greatest achievement - the reverse engineering of the fusion reactor. This bought the previously irrelevant interior cult much influence in the cities and made it dominant.

The holy site and the object of worship is one and the same - the crashed spacecraft. The settlement around it forms the only center of power in the interior of Eskor. Access to most of the internals is limited the initiates or priests of the cult but a few sections have been made available to pilgrims who visit them to feel awe at the power of the stars.

Spoiler: Government

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Until recently Escor had not been a unified polity and the effects of this are still notable. Before the unification the coasts of shorelines were controlled by city states and much of the interior lacked any authority with significant state capacity. The cities of pre-unification Eskor are now the capitals of the new districts - with one exception being a large interior district centered around the Fallen Star. These districts have retained some of their original autonomy, the most notable part surrendered to the Union government being foreign and defense policy. They have also been allowed to maintain their own original form of government - some are tiny constitutional monarchies while others have a proud republican tradition.

As for the Union government itself: it is nominally controlled by the deliberative/legislative body that is the Union Diet. That is composed of representatives of the individual districts and while most of the time it's role is purely advisory and deliberative it has some very important and exclusive rights: it can pass legislation that is valid in all districts, it elects the head of the executive and it acts as the highest court. The executive handles everything else, including the command of armies. The only elected post is at the very top - everyone else is a bureaucrat. Given the youth of the institution there isn't much of a civil service culture yet, but the Union government is trying it's best to change that.

Spoiler: Starting techs

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Nuclear Fusion - the large accomplishment of the tech priests
Navy Ships - the pre-union Eskor possessed a long naval tradition and the union is continuing it

[Salbazier]

Mahardika Union

Requested Region: 38 (Back up choice: 39) 41 (per new region numbering)

WIP

[Frostwander]

Approved

Caipe Ushere

Request Region: 28

Spoiler: Geography

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The majority of Caipe Ushere’s land consists of flat plains and gentle hills, with several branching rivers flowing through the country from the mountainous side to the far coast (pending location approval). The country is large enough that the climate is not uniform. It ranges from temperate nearer the coast toward the equator, while the country nearer to the arctic stretches into tundra with sporadic pine forests. In the warmer regions of the country, over half of the land is dedicated to agriculture, while the cooler regions operate a combination of fisheries and lumber operations and parks and nature preserves with a respectable tourist industry.

Several modest cities occupy key river intersections and coastal points, with numerous smaller cities and towns between them built around agricultural and manufacturing centers. The largest city by far is the capital metropolis Verglass. The City of Glass Ice is both the primary seat of government, and a center of culture, education, and art. The core of the city is built straddling the largest river a few dozen klicks from its mouth, connecting via high-speed transit to an Altair Oceanport at the delta, with some smaller vessels able to sail upriver all the way to the city’s edge. On the landward side sprawls the primary spaceport of Caipe Ushere, Port Teralle, where high-orbit hoppers and space schooners handle the majority of the country’s interworld trade and passenger travel.

The center of the city itself is built across its namesake feature. Broad shelfs and bridges of pale crystal slope above the river, surfaces covered in fractal patterns of spiraling everfrost. The capital complex, several universities, numerous museums, entertainments, and high-end residences line the graceful crystal ledges, and despite their delicate appearance, these shelves seem to have no difficulty in supporting the massive weight of structures and populace placed upon them. Gliding trams cross the open air between shelves to provide easy travel and a breathtaking view.

Spoiler: People

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The people of Caipe Ushere, commonly called Usherets, are a hardy populace of primarily human lineage. While their skin tones vary based on historical latitudes in pre-bombardment evolution, modern Usherets make no difference of status or attitude on this appearance. There is a great deal of national pride, and while visitors and tourists make a great deal of the economic income for some portions of the country, there are undertones of dissatisfaction in some groups regarding this dependence.

While a good deal of the most menial labor in the country is handled by automation, employment in some form of production or service is encouraged and beneficial to a higher standard of living. The largest divisions of labor are agricultural management, arts, sciences, service industries, technology, arcana, and the military.

The national economy is measured in Ai Telle, a tax on all property and structures based on a percentage of their production value each year. Of this collected value (which can be paid in crédite, Imperial kroiseids, or product), roughly one-third goes to the support of the military and government public projects, one-third to goes to the ruling family and administrative costs of the nation, and one-third goes to a recovery fund used to benefit the dispossessed and compensate areas during poorer harvest and production seasons.

The government of Caipe Ushere is a constitutional monarchy, led by a Queen, King, or Quing who maintains a relatively high amount of edict and law-making power, supported by five councilors who each lead one of the branches of government oversight. These five branches are the Judiciary, the Military, and the bureaus of Domestic Progress, Foreign Affinity, and Arcane Evolution. While the monarchial line is hereditary, there have been numerous changes in the power structure over the last millennia. In some cases coups (violent or otherwise) have deposed a royal family. One royal line simply ended after the last scions chose to abdicate and have no heirs. Finally, the monarch may be removed from power if all five councilors join in resolution to this effect. This last is rare, having only occurred twice in recorded history, but the most recent was just under a century ago.

The current ruling monarch is Queen Chalise Merole Ebonne d'Laforét. D’Laforét married into the lineage of the recent Ebonne rulers from one of the wealthier wine families, and after her husband died of illness has taken up the throne. She has two young children. The Ebonne family heraldry is that of a hooded black serpent, affronté on a gold and white fractal background.

Spoiler: Resource

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Wine (Beverage, Luxury Good)
The most successful agricultural enterprises of Caipe Ushere are not in crops and foodstuffs, but in the refined fermented beverages produced from tens of thousands of years of viticulture expertise. While the Usherets have honed this craft since the early recovery after the War of Eternal Bombardments, popular claims indicate the original base knowledge was preserved through secreted data and oral tradition passed down from antecedent survivors. The countryside has a temperate climate with long summers and cool winters, along with a variety of soils and geothermal mineral springs. This combination provides perfect conditions for a diverse harvest of grapes and berries. The full processes and exact recipes of winemaking are jealously guarded secrets held by a number of businesses, many still run by families whose name is synonymous with their label.

Spoiler: Desired Import

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Metals (Ores and Alloys or Precious Minerals)
While the ground of Caipe Ushere is rich in soil, it is poor in quality metals. While there are a few small mines, most metal used in vehicles, structures, and machinery is imported. Steady and reliable sources of both hard and soft metals are greatly sought after and valued.

Spoiler: Faith

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Practica Arcanai
There are numerous belief systems, faiths in deities unseen, minor cults or sects shared by the people of Caipe Ushere. These include: the Voices of Surnam, who believe in a unity of spirit shared by all living beings; the Cult of the Frozen God, who worship exclusively at a glacier in the arctic region; Ul-Ping-Nai-Ophon, whose followers believe their god sleeps within the moon Aridyin and will one day awake to swallow the sun; and the worshipers of Val Bedlam, who believe the historical figure of that name was a god made flesh, and follow their teachings of kindness and artistry. There is also representation of some faiths originating outside Caipe Ushere that have taken root in the last few centuries, including among others followers of Coedd, the Progenitor, and Slingid the Parrot.

The most widespread following among Usherets, however, is the practice of magic for the development of personal and public improvement, known as Practica Arcanai. A majority of the populace follows these studies, with most being able to master a few rudimentary techniques. This magic is taught at many of the educational institutions through the country, with the most prestigious being the Lyceum Ichroma in Verglass. The campus is built on one of the largest crystal shelves, surrounding the scintillating Chroma Cathedral, a structure raised from the crystal itself that carries light through its walls into dazzling prismatic displays.

The current understanding of Practica Arcanai divides magic into three schools. Articumancy uses the spoken word to influence reality through meticulously crafted evocations. Geomancy studies the inter-relation of physical objects through complex shapes used to manipulate substance and position. Psychomancy explores the relations between life-energy, spirits, and souls via sympathetic magics.

Spoiler: Starting Techs

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Arcane Amplification
Wet Navy Ships

[Minescratcher]

A couple of notes and the first round of approvals!

First of all, a general observation that Mekhala and Sansar are looking a bit cramped at this point. If you haven’t started your writeup, I would suggest looking at Badal or Veehra.

If you don't have a bold green approved in your feedback, let me know when you've made the requested edits. If you do, any edits are minor enough that you don't need to update me specifically.

Would like to request Region 1 on Badal.

Region 1 is unfortunately not available for claiming. All other regions on Badal are, however, if you have a preference.

🐝The Arkhive Æternal (ARK)🐝
Requested Region: 44 (Sansar)
Region Name: The Arkhive Æternal

Love the excellently punny name. Depending on the exact nature of how Honeyed Words works and what it reveals to the person consuming it, I could see it falling under magic items, medicines and drugs, or information and data - that's your call (you might want to elaborate on it in the writeup to make it clear). Solidify that second category (and get rid of the comic sans ) and you're approved in Region 44.

The Dwarven Industrial Coalition
Region 88, the Central Claims

Excellent work. The dwarves are approved in Region 88.

Eilif Dhaoine
Requested Region: 25 (Backup choices: 27)
Region Name: The Reserve

Welcome to Bugrassic Park! Approved in Region 25.

Coedd
Requested Region: 32
Region Name: Coedd

I find the prospect of a major Sansar faith being a sort of self-abnegating suicide cult a bit strange (even if the eventual conversion of all Meat into fertilizer is probably a long time in the future), but it's definitely not without Empire! precedent. Before approval, given the nature of Coedd's "government," I need some idea of what the factions in Coedd are or represent. Also, if (as I think was discussed on the discord) the intent is for deceased bodies broken down by Coedd to potentially reappear as plant intelligences, I would like that element to be a bit more prominent in the faith or "culture" of Coedd.

With the addition you've made to the People section, approved in Region 32.

Moonsoul Mountains
[Region 42]

Love the concept of kajiu-land and the Moonmen, but I'm... not sure I understand the history section. The comment about the Empire demanding a human representative doesn't make much sense to me, and is "...people?" referring to the Moonmen or the monsters? In addition to clearing this up I'd also like more elaboration on the magic used by the Moonmen, which seems like some kind of true names or spirit binding system, but which is also a bit unclear beyond that it requires inscribing symbols.

Also, please pick one or two resource categories (listed in the rules under Desired Imports and Resource Categories) for the resource.

With the edits you've made, you're approved in Region 42.

The Combined Commonwealth of Sligs
Region 77- The Parrot's Perch

Looks good. Put a coat of paint over the Oddworld names and specify whether Slingid is a plurality or majority religion, then you're approved in Region 77. I'd also like a bit more elaboration on Lepkashramov, but this isn't an approval requirement and I imagine it’ll develop through play.

With the edits you've made, you're approved in Region 77.

The Cerulean Empire
Requested Region: 40 (Sansar) (Backup: 34)

Largely looking good, just a few notes. Since there's only one "Empire" in Tekhum, I would suggest "Kingdom" or a similar lower title (and I assume that the government is a typical feudalesque hierarchy, but making that explicit would be good.) The faith needs a name, and I would strongly advise against capitalizing "god" just to stay on the safe side of the forum rules on real-world religion. Also please give some description of why Entertainment is the region's Desired Import.

With the edits you've made, you're approved in Region 40.

The Merely Players (MRP)
Region 74 - the Globe

I chuckled the whole way through. One minor quibble - just note that the customs and mores are like those of Elizabethan England, to avoid postulating the existence of an Elizabethan England in Tekhum, and you're approved. As discussed, moving you to Region 89.

Union of Eskor
Requesting region 29(Sansar)
Region name: Eskor

Looks good overall. Give me some details on the Union government and how it works, and add a name for the religion, and you're approved in Region 29.

Illumined Utopian

Requested Region: 89 (Mekhala) (Backup: 10 - Badal)
Region Name: Height of Utopia

As discussed, moving you to Region 10. Some suggestions for geography: to keep the resource consistent, maybe it could be a small asteroid somehow brought into the atmosphere and held up by massive balloons, or the heavy metals come from scrapping abandoned parts of an ancient habitat predating the Utopia? Besides that, and potentially a bit more about your government and faith, you’re approved.

The Durats of Burtzlund
Region Requested: 47 (Sansar)

Love the Durats. Give me a one-sentence description of what the resource “Superconductors and Microcircuits” entails, like the one you wrote for the import, and pick one or two resource categories (I’m assuming Conductors and Circuitry, but make it explicit), and you’re approved in Region 47.

Caipe Ushere

Request Region: 28 (backups 31, 46)

I absolutely love the 60s SF vibe going on here! Bonus points for naming the region’s primary spaceport. Approved in Region 28.

[Kythia]

Before approval, given the nature of Coedd's "government," I need some idea of what the factions in Coedd are or represent.

I'm assuming by factions you mean media, merchants, government (as opposed to internal factions within the nation) If not, shout and I'll readdress.

And I'm not 100% on what you're asking - it may be that I have misunderstood the nature of factions. My understanding was that the e.g. media faction was the "local news", the journalists, the network execs, etc Now, fluffwise they're probably not very important compared to other regions and Coedd doesn't care about them at all (though, note, I'm not trying to say "My fluff means I should be immune to these rules" or anything like that) but they're there. There are trading posts on the island that presumably have a permanent population, there are representatives of the Archive and probably other Sansar races...

...as an aside I didn't make it clear enough that I anticipated some non-plantlife being present ont he island, I will rewrite to address that, this may be the source of the problem...

...and as game progresses no doubt there will be others. The factions are the network execs, traders, rulers, etc of these smaller groups. Again, RP-wise they're probabl quite small but given that smallness in the face of Coedd they're probably considerably more motivated to work as a group then in a more conventially goverened region giving them an outsized impact. At game start - as indicated by the fact I have all three supports - they are willing to work with Coedd but that could change as with any other nation.

Does that answer your question? I'm not certain.

Also, if (as I think was discussed on the discord) the intent is for deceased bodies broken down by Coedd to potentially reappear as plant intelligences, I would like that element to be a bit more prominent in the faith or "culture" of Coedd.

"The faithful believe x" isn't the same statement as "x is true"
Honestly I haven't decided if that's something I want to explore or not - if I did it would be a problem for future potential F10s. Happy to delete any mention of it from the write up, it was only a throwaway.

[Minescratcher]

I'm assuming by factions you mean media, merchants, government (as opposed to internal factions within the nation) If not, shout and I'll readdress.

And I'm not 100% on what you're asking - it may be that I have misunderstood the nature of factions. My understanding was that the e.g. media faction was the "local news", the journalists, the network execs, etc Now, fluffwise they're probably not very important compared to other regions and Coedd doesn't care about them at all (though, note, I'm not trying to say "My fluff means I should be immune to these rules" or anything like that) but they're there. There are trading posts on the island that presumably have a permanent population, there are representatives of the Archive and probably other Sansar races...

...as an aside I didn't make it clear enough that I anticipated some non-plantlife being present ont he island, I will rewrite to address that, this may be the source of the problem...

...and as game progresses no doubt there will be others. The factions are the network execs, traders, rulers, etc of these smaller groups. Again, RP-wise they're probabl quite small but given that smallness in the face of Coedd they're probably considerably more motivated to work as a group then in a more conventially goverened region giving them an outsized impact. At game start - as indicated by the fact I have all three supports - they are willing to work with Coedd but that could change as with any other nation.

Does that answer your question? I'm not certain.

That does, thank you. I do think in that case the presence of non-Coedd sophonts is not totally clear; give them a dedicated sentence or two and you're good.

"The faithful believe x" isn't the same statement as "x is true"
Honestly I haven't decided if that's something I want to explore or not - if I did it would be a problem for future potential F10s. Happy to delete any mention of it from the write up, it was only a throwaway.

Fair enough. Just wanted to note it in case it was something you intended to pursue from the start.

[Feathersnow]

Ruler Stat link

Prime Minister Snimt'Glek, the Parrot's Voice, leader of the Outer Duma

Diplomacy 5
Military 4
Economy 3
Faith 2
Intrigue 2

Spoiler: Clean, and edited

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The Combined Commonwealth of Glix

Spoiler: flag

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Region 77- The Parrot's Perch

Spoiler: Geography

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There are three main habitat types in Glic Space- Basilicas, Barracks, and Mines. These three are all clearly defined, but often found near each other, either connected, in parallel orbit, or on the same planetoid.

A Basilica contains an adult Queen. Even Queens that choose non-governmental roles and identity as a member of a Teivosk instead of as a member of The Court perforce live in Basilicas, though their telepathy means they are not necessarily physically present there. A Basilica contains a large, generally spherical enclosure capable of giving the Queen room to move and manuever. Like most Glix, she probably prefers zero gravity and uses medical boosters to eliminate any medical effects of permanent freefall. The Sphere is lined by layers of floors, typically parallel rather than radial, where the Teivosk attending her (or to which she claims membership) raises young and does various commercial and residential activities.

A Barracks is similar to a Basilica, but has no Queen and a higher population. It often contains gardens and/or ranches instead. Note neither Basilicas nor Barracks ever have heavy industry.

Mines are where industrial activities take place, air gapped from living areas. They typically contain Workers there on commute for three standard day shifts. Once the Workers are exhausted, they rotate out for ten standard days off.

Mines that are tapped out are often converted to Barracks, while Basilicas are usually very large ships with minimal engines custom built for the purpose.

The biology of the animals in the gardens and ranches is unique, often amphibious, large, and crustacean-like. The most common livestock is the Lepus, a creature combining aspects of a spider and a rabbit. The Barx, a larger and vicious vicious crab-like omnivore, is rarely raised, though breeding populations are maintained. Both are fed primarily on maggot-like wyrx that feed on cultured, recycled waste enriched with organically exochemicals, as well as grain.

There are few advanced plants Glic Space, with most greenery of obscure allies of the Fern. This stems from Slingid's divine hatred of trees in a now largely forgotten holy war.

Most habitats are cave-like, with clear plastic pressure domes used only for farming.


The great planetoid of the region remains untouched.
This is partly because of religious reasons, but mostly because it is salty slush, and considered of low value, unlike methane or metalloid planetessimals.

Spoiler: People

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Glix believe themselves to have originated on Sansar, probably near where The Reserve is now. They fled to Space long ago, under the dictates of their distant God, The Great Parrot. No Glic Queens are believed to live outside the Combine, and few Workers live outside Mekhala.

Glix are a hive species evolved from seal-like eusocial carnivores. They come in three distinct genders, two of which are intelligent.

"Worker" (He/Him) represent over 99% of all Glix and are highly diverse mentally and in many physical features. All, however, have many traits in common. They all possess at least latent tele-receptive psi powers. That is, while few can actively project onto minds or the world around them, they are unusually receptive to broadcast or targeted mind effects from others. Physically, they all have a face resembling a squid with knuckles, two large hands at the ends of heavily muscled arms, and no other limbs. They typically weigh 30-50 pounds. Thet breathe through gills generally kept covered to preserve moisture, and often wear goggles to protect their eyes. More elaborate clothing isn't forbidden, but a Worker's status is defined, in part by which prosthetic device he uses to aid to transportation. Two legs are most common, but rotary wings and full body armor are known to be used. Prostheses are generally only worn in formal or business environments, however.

A Queen (She/Her) is built on a similar body plan, but with webbed hands, flukes at the base of her spine, and many times the size. A queen can easily mass 50 times that of a Worker.

Queens are all powerfully psionic. They are always in potential direct contact with all other Queens, as though by telecommunications. They can possess the minds of a Worker, though this is considered deeply immoral without explicit consent. They can also read the minds and memories of Workers. This is only considered wrong if it is used to give advantage to a rival group of Workers, such as industrial espionage between Teivosks. Queens have agreed not to do that under The Grand Charter. The most commonly used and powerful psi ability of a Queen, however, is to form a Gestalt. A Gestalt of 5 Workers or less is called a "Working Group" and benefits from the direct oversight of the Queen. A larger Gestalt of up to 28 Workers causes the Queen to blank out until she tires and ends it reflexively after a few hours. This state creates a great sense of coordination, motivation, and increased mental acuity for the affected Workers. Larger groups can exist, but suffer breakdowns in effectiveness.

Drones (it) are the biological male equivalent of Queens. At maturity, they physically fuse to a Queen, enhancing her psionic potential and helping regulate her exocrine and immune systems while causing her to give birth regularly.

Queens and Drones are born once every 61 years, while Workers are born approximately every 8 months of every other year. All eggs are in clutches of 1-4, Drones outnumber immature Queens (Nymphs) 7:1. The simultaneous birth of reproductive is called the Jubilee, and much of the Glic calendar is based on it. A Glic Queen reaches physical maturity around age 39 and might live for over two centuries. A Worker reaches maturity at age 9 and does not suffer age related infirmity.

Spoiler: Government

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The Government of the Glix shows clear signs of evolution, but has been in its present form since not long after the Glix fled to Mekhala in the early days of the Great Bombardment. There is a head of State, the most powerful Queen, who coordinates every freeholding Queen in The Royal Court. Then there is the Prime Minister (Mechanical Ruler), who is appointed from among a host of representatives of the various Teivosks in a parliament. He is always a Worker, as are all parliamentary members.

In pre-Diaspora times, the Glix were ruled by The Court directly with no formal Worker Parliament. But, as the economic power of the Worker cliques, or Teivosks, eclipsed thst of most Queens, and lesser and younger Queens allied with Teivosks to remain relevant. Eventually there came a point where the Chorus of Queens was riven by infighting over the interest of informal Worker cliques, which had already long eclipsed specific bloodlines and become pan-national.

And so, The Great Charter was established, with rights for the Teivosks and ndividuals both Worker and Queen, and limits on the powers of the co-equal co-rulers of the Glix. A Queen might choose at maturity to either be a Freeholder and court the Teivosks while paying fealty to the Royal Court, or join a Teivosk and be subject to the rights and responsibilities of membership. All workers belong to the Teivosk that raised them from eggs and have certain basic rights from both their brothers and Queens. Each Teivosk has a voice in Parliament.
The Combine is largely ambivalent to the Empire, but hopes to remain in their relative good will, as long as they recognize Glix self-rule.

Spoiler: Religion

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The main religion of the Glix is the Faith of Slingid, The Parrot. (Plurality) He is a cruel, indifferent God who urges his followers to greatness. He has few tenets besides the eschewing of all conventional writing other than legends on maps and that necessary for annotations of blueprints. Which are technically numbers. Any other text is open to interpretation, and thus risks gaslighting the author.

Magic is used to record audio, psionic impressions, and even memories to fill this lack, and seems to have been used for this purpose since earliest history.

There is a minority faith that reverse the Ancestral Queens. They seek to one day return to Sansar, in defiance of the Slingidites, who hold Mekhala to be the Promised Land.

Spoiler: The Cenotaph

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This is the Shrine containing both the Beacon that led the Ancestral Hives to this region on Mekhala and the Ashes of nearly every Queen who ever lived, including every Queen to be Hatched in Mekhala. It is a vast Hollow Sphere containing a vast orchard with various mastabas jutting from the outside. It is a rare zone of artificial gravity, not practical to mass produce at this time.
Some heretics worship the Progenitor of The Dwarves, believing him to be Slingid Reborn.

A rogue Queen formed a Teivosk devoted to the Illuminated Primarch, also believing him an emanation of Slingid.

Spoiler: Resource, Lepkashramov Ikons (magical material)

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While not ignorant of conventional science, most effects of any great interest achieved by Glix are done through their unique magical system, Lepkashramov. This is the creation of metal sculptures with magical powers characteristic of their material components.

The first uses of Lepkashramov involved soft, non-reactive metals and mostly allowed the storage of information without conventional writing. But, as advances in metallurgy came, so to unlocked new forms of Lepkashramov. The main industry of the Glix is building these Ikons, and they have the resources in their mines to do so for a long, long time.

Spoiler: Required resource, food

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The Glix selected a uniquely rocky area of Mekhala, and are running low on foodstuffs quite often. Their slow growing population means they have a long time to go before starvation sets in, but the next Jubilee year will increase the problem greatly.

Spoiler: Supports

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Government- the recent election of Prime Minister Snimt'Glek to is incontrovertible, though he us charged with securing more food before the next Jubilee year.

Media- Radio Operas by Klop Teivosk are very popular, and most competition is local to the CCG.

Mercantile- The Glix are devoted to industry, even if they make poor salesmen. They control their own trade at this time.

Spoiler: starting Techs

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Arcane Amplification
Vacuum Adaptation

I'm not sure how to best define Lepkashramov. It is a magic based on sculptures of exactly two kinds of metal/alloys duplicating the effects of machines.

[ArdeneRitter]

The Bironaian Bulwark
Requested Region - 17
Region Name: Biron Crosspaths

Ready for Review

Spoiler: Geography

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A fleet of mining and industrial megadirigibles, maintained across generations with near forgotten origins. The Biron Flagstone forms the center of the fleet, a chimeric flagship of several smaller dirigibles rigged together into a floating citadel, held together and expanded via centuries of painstaking construction with Noble Metals. It forms the primary residential, governmental, and religious center for the nation. Commercial and industrial functions are housed in separate escort vessels, with commute via transport dirigibles working around the clock. Military functions, as well as expanded religious practice, are housed in knightly order fleets that come and go from the overall fleet as need arises.

Spoiler: People (Physical)

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The Bironaian people were, perhaps, in some ancient time human or human-adjacent. They certainly share the same rough appearance and build. The most striking feature of their appearance is the fact they are all at base albino and in fact nearly translucently skinned. In the right light, they may seem almost as if they have no skin at all. It is unlikely that anyone other than close family or medical professionals will ever see them in this state, however. This is due to the most astounding and notable aspect of the Bironaians, their affinity with noble gasses. Perhaps due to an ancient mutation from their roots as Imperial gas miners, the Bironaians are able to infuse their biology with concentrations of noble gasses, reinforcing their physical attributes and giving their skin a vibrant and wavy patterned color. The latter coming from reserves of the gas literally coursing beneath their skin.

The name Bironaian comes from the high atomic noble gas Biron, which forms the basis of any gas cocktail the Bironaians infuse and has proven to be vital to successful infusion. Unsurprisingly, this gas is found in high concentration in the portion of Badal the Bironaian fleet calls home. A healthy amount of this is pumped into any life support or ventilation aboard Bironaian vessels, and tints them on its own a neon blue. Different cocktails lend to boosting different physiological aspects, and create distinct colors and patterns. Individual Bironaians will select these cocktails for both reasons, either for practical needs or as a fashion statement for events or personal time. As such, it is rare to see a Bironaian without the reinforced Noble Metal respirator and tank on their person, and it is a cause for great distress if one is damaged or lost. Even criminals are still allowed them, though with regulated sizes and intakes. Production of these tanks is a governmental responsibility, but gas cocktails are also produced in the private sector at varying prices.

Spoiler: People (Cultural)

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Despite the pious and knightly culture that the Bironaian government attempts to exalt, the truth is that like all free thinking peoples the Bironaians have a fairly diverse set of beliefs and practices. Several cultural tropes tend to crop up, however.

• Farming and farmers are seen as fools and simpletons, unwilling to earn their daily meals in a way that relies on the work or gratitude of others. Of course, this is not helped by the overall ineffectual nature of such endeavors.
• Bespoke and artisan gas samples are the highest luxury and status symbol a Bironaian can possess. This might seem somewhat esoteric to foreigners, though occasionally these cocktails possess potent hallucinogenic or medical uses that make their value more obvious to outsiders.
• Bironaians tend to be fairly pious to something, if not the greater state religion. Their circumstance has never been one of self-sufficiency, and so they appeal to the gods readily.
• Knight-Afields are seen as celebrities and heroes, and every child wishes at least at one point to serve a knightly order, be that on the front lines or as an auxiliary.

Spoiler: Leader

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The current leader, as of exactly one quarter cycle ago, of the Bironaian Bulwark is Yanij Argon. The Order of Argon had previously held popular control over the knight-council, but a devastating loss to pirates by their Knights-Afield left their command structure in ruins, and the previous Archknight Hiana, Yanij's mother, dead. As per council tradition, Yanij inherited his mother's position as Archknight of the Council pending a cyclical challenge, and has been thrust into leadership of a Bulwark that is reeling from a significant loss with doubt regarding the effectiveness of The Order of Argon.

Yanij is intent on taking great strides to expand the esteem and domain of the Bulwark, primarily to save his political career and family legacy.

The death in combat of an Archknight is an unprecedented event in Bironaian history, and without the Edict providing a hefty dose of legitimacy to The Order of Argon, significant shakeups in the council would certainly have occurred. Archknight Hiana met her end leading the majority of the Argon forces in an attempted beheading blow on The Black Cloud Coalition, hoping to finally shatter the most organized source of piracy on the planet of Badal in service of the Bironaian mission. Unfortunately, Captain Jié Měifēng and her forces were able to outmaneuver and slaughter the Argon knights in a stunning rout. Unsuprisingly, Yanij desires restitution in blood for his mother's death, and this shameful mark on the Bulwark's history.

Statblock: https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25948691&postcount=31
Diplomacy - 5
Military - 5
Economy - 3
Faith - 3
Intrigue - 3

Spoiler: Government

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The governmental body is made up of a loose representative council of the knightly orders. Given the inherently loose nature of the Knights-Afield, a centralized power structure is effectively impossible to maintain. As such, local matters are left to Knight Orders discretion, with the council primarily meeting to discuss matters of policy and law that affect the Biron Crosspaths as well as more advanced forms of foreign diplomacy. These meetings only require a majority in attendance should any Orders be locked in battle or out of communication range. Remote participation is also welcome. In regards to diplomacy, each Order is given leave to establish basic protectorate and peacekeeping actions at the request of foreign powers, as well as to answer acts of aggression they become aware of.

Each Major Knightly Order is tasked with providing two representatives for the council, one secular and one a member of their order's clergy. The exception to this is the Head Order, which provides one secular representative with another, either clergy or secular but usually the latter, taking on a supervisory role as the Archknight. As in the current case, should the Archknight perish or otherwise become unfit to serve, this representative will take on the role of acting Archknight and engage in both supervisory and legislative role until replacements are drawn up. The intent of this is to determine if a possible Archknight will be able to work under extreme diplomatic pressure.

The council requires all parties present to engage in diplomatic action with the Empire, such is its import.

Spoiler: Religion

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The religion of the Biron Crosspaths is presently:
Majority: Holy Orders' Vows (The conglomeration of the various Knight Order belief systems that influence overall religious perception.)

Presently, there is no unified church within the Bironaian Bulwark.

Each Knight Order maintains its own sect of faith, which vary in their tenets and rituals. Civilians generally ascribe to the doctrines of the Order they consider best. Regardless, there is a through-line that can be found throughout the vast majority of these individual religious doctrines that can be considered a coherent religion.

Once, there was nothing. Then, there was the divine, and the Empire. To say that one created the other would be impossible, rather one could not exist without the other. Protons and electrons forming the basis of reality as it is known. And yet, there was a vast gulf between them. As such, the divine, with its greater power, created the Bironaians, or if not that charged their forefathers, with serving as protectors of Imperial order. While in recent years, the gods have grown yet more distant, and the Bironaian Bulwark weaker, this charge is still held to a lesser extent.

Bironaian Knights wander their planet in fleets, offering their services to merchants as well as in general as peacekeepers in exchange for diplomatic favor and goods to sustain the Bironaian nation. Earning the grace of others in this way is the highest calling of the Brionaians, and measures of self sufficiency are only to be relied upon in great need, else they grow complaisant in their divine charge.

The priesthood of the Bironaians are the sole users of anything that could be considered magic, via hazemancy. The divine attunement of the priesthood allow them to infuse otherwise impossible gas mixtures for truly rare and potent brews.

Spoiler: Resource

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Noble Metals (Ores and Alloys/Luxury Good) - It is only natural that the Bironaians have extended the process of infusion to inorganic materials as well, an echo of their distant and forgotten heritage as gas miners. Bironaian metals are treated with a secret and complex cocktail of elemental gases and forged into a shockingly sturdy and light alloy. Manipulation of this metal is not presently advanced enough for mass production, so it remains a status symbol processed by artisanal smiths and craftsmen and carried by those in positions of esteem, or have the deep pockets necessary to obtain it. The only notable exception of this is the gas rig each Bironaian receives upon growing to adulthood as these are subsidized by the national government and produced en mass by a dedicated sect of priest-craftsmen.

Spoiler: Desired Import

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Fruits and Vegetables - The megadirgible fleet the Bulwark calls its home has always had extremely faulty hydroponics and greenhouse systems, creating a cultural feedback loop of dismissing their importance and usefulness for sustaining the needs of the citizenry. Instead, all hopes are placed on the Knight-Afields earning merchant imports and hunting parties seeking out gas flyers in the clouds to stave off starvation. Access to reliable, grown food is a tantalizing prospect for any Bironaian.

Spoiler: Starting Tech

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Xenolinguistic Cataloguing - Given their historical interdependence with other inhabitants of Badal, The Bironaian Bulkwark have developed a thorough and reliable method of communicating across language barriers via recognizable symbology and simple psychological gestures. Every knight-afield and diplomat carries a digital semaphore kit, designed to allow for both easy conveyance of intent and rudimentary correlation training that should hopefully allow a neutral and willing party to understand the basics of Bironaian language.

Badalian Megadirigibles - Thousands of years aboard the dirigibles has made the distance operation of similar craft second nature.

[Lady Serpentine]

I'd like to claim Region 54.

Ready for review.

The Twilight League



Capital Region: Vesper (Limbo, The Wheel, Purgatory) (Region 58)
Ruler: Violetta, Herald of the Second Dawn
Diplomacy:
Military:
Economy:
Faith:
Intrigue:

Spoiler: History

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The history of Vesper began in fire. The War of Eternal Bombardment came to what went before, and the world burned. Cities broke. The sky turned black with smoke that still has yet to clear. By all rights, it should be haunted a dozen times over, howling ghosts dogging the steps of any who dare disturb the unhallowed mass grave of a dozen cities.

It is perhaps even more concerning that it is not.

There is not a single ghost in Vesper; there are no petty tyrants who cannot conceive of a world that permits of their own death, no lost children wandering their broken homes, not a single sister who has clung to the world that she might visit vengeance for her fallen kin on any flesh within her grasp.

For a thousand years it was a land of storms and little more, the barest fragments slowly, slowly reclaimed by whatever the endless wind blew in from those lands that still knew life - or at least remembered how it was that they might rot.

Then a nameless thing roused itself from long contemplation, and began to act. Long-buried machines hummed to life; from a stock that was meant to be an army, once, so very long ago, the first modern Vesperites were grown and decanted, waking in their coffins and slowly spreading across the land. Communities swiftly formed, but found themselves lacking necessities, even with what remained to scavenge after a thousand years; placed into a pit with no escape in sight and with one of their few instincts being that others were a viable food source, peaceful communities found themselves either fractured by internal divisions or overtaken by those with a more proactive approach to resource acquisition.

Some Vesperites also sought to flee during this time, though relatively few due to the fact that trekking across truly vast expanses of Veehra on foot is a rather uninviting prospect and vehicles were few and far between in Vesper for much of its history. Most were presumably lost to the desert, desperate and foolish and doomed, but a few of the true monsters that deemed themselves strong enough for the trek may have succeeded. Unfortunately, as the most likely to be able to survive were those most changed, and thereby those who had most readily embraced the horror that Vesper in many ways had been molded into, it is likely that any who did would have been recorded only as a terrifying technothaumaturgic beast with an unusual fondness for eating people.

Things stabilized, eventually, in a sense. What began as loose affiliations of those banded together for protection or to hunt developed ideologies and identities. Many of these would not survive the loss of their first leader, but others proved more resilient. And, of course, the first of those slain returned in the decades to follow, though it was rare that they could simply take up their old mantle once more.

This, then, is what led into the newest development: The Twilight League. It is not the first attempt to unify Vesper, precisely, but it is the most successful in a thousand years of blood and death and hunger, and it is bolstered by the fact that on the heels of finally constructing a large-scale communication system hardened to the constant interference caused by the fluctuations of the local magnetosphere and being able to reach beyond their borders in that sense, the Emperor saw fit to grant them the ability to do so rather more directly.

Spoiler: Geography

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• Largely desert; significant ruined structures, some intact ones (largely underground for multiple reasons).
• Contains terraforming equipment originally for creating and maintaining an artificial magnetosphere. Currently appears to be malfunctioning, and is responsible for a perpetual storm that hides Ophon save as a red glow behind the clouds.
• Ecosystem is deeply screwed up; native flora and fauna were annihilated and two thousand years of recovery that had to be fueled entirely by the surrounding desert has not made a lot of progress. Underground life fared better, but until significant amounts of biomass were actually present (in the form of people), recolonization from those sources was heavily limited.
• Attempts are being made to design new flora and fauna or reintroduce old ones in hopes of potentially stabilizing Vesperite society marginally; hampered by nanite reliance and how badly screwed up the baseline is.
• Landscape is dotted with various "tombs"; largely underground, surface structures are highly resilient and seal themselves when not actively in use. Largest is believed to house the Gravekeeper, a semi-deified and highly rampant pre-war AI that is responsible for the deeply weird nature of Vesper's people.

Spoiler: People

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Most residents of Vesper fall into a general “approximately human” umbrella, at least in terms of appearance - additional limbs, heavy use of other forms of cybernetics, and the integration of animalistic features through means both genetic and mechanical are common, but humanity remains the basic template onto which these things are overlaid.

Beneath the surface, things are more complicated. Vesperites are grown, not born; they awaken with certain knowledge (speech, memories that seem to be of lives before Vesper which match to no known periods of history, and little else) within self-maintaining complexes that seal themselves against any intrusion when they are not in active operation, and are cast into the world with only that and whatever the complex chooses to provide for their perusal. They are also entirely sterile (something which has thus far been unaddressable by even intensive interventions, albeit only with the tools and techniques available within Vesper) - the tombs they rise from are their sole source of new bodies, and while they open regularly enough to maintain and even grow the population, this is a matter of some concern now that they have made contact with the outside world and found that other areas have exponential rather than fixed growth.

More strangely, and in many ways more importantly to the day to day experiences of Vesperites, their bodies contain nanite colonies spread throughout their flesh (and indeed their metal and pseudo-flesh). In theory, these nanites are capable of rebuilding their bodies into nearly any form they can conceive of, rapidly healing injuries, and producing various useful items directly from their bodies. It is believed this also protects them from old age, and certainly none are known for sure to have died of it - but, as the standard joke goes, how would you tell in a place like this?

In practice this encounters two major barriers that there is no known means to surmount.

Firstly, speed. It does not matter than you can make your fingers into claws if you have already been shot long before the transformation is complete. It does not matter if you can heal cuts as though they were months-old scars in a day if you bleed out in minutes, nor that you can heal a broken bone in a week if your skull has been shattered and you died in seconds.

Secondly, the process is not free. One cannot simply hide in a basement with a mushroom farm for a century and emerge a god. One needs materials, and in particular, one needs more nanites. This is even more true the more complex a change one wishes to make; one who wishes only to grow claws would find it far easier than one who wishes to grow an entire cybernetic arm for those claws to sit upon, and both would find it easier than someone who wished to craft a coilgun within their arm instead. More complicated projects may take months or even years of stockpiling before one has the necessary resources to properly make the change.

It is unfortunate, then, that save for raiding a tomb when it opens, the only source of suitable nanites is other Vesperites. It is even more unfortunate that they are in many ways dependent on them for survival, for they have been integrated so well that their bodies fare poorly without them, and that they are expended every time that they are used. This combines to render cannibalism more-or-less obligate; any Vesperite who wishes to grow beyond their baseline (more or less a necessity considering all the other Vesperites who may be less squeamish) or maintain proper functionality in the face of repeated injury (an inevitability on Veehra, particularly in a notably stormy area) will eventually resort to it. This is exacerbated by the fact that the instincts they are imprinted with are well aware of this fact, and loudly inform most Vesperites of exactly where they can get what they need whenever they begin to require more.

The final oddity of Vesperic physiology is this: They do not, precisely, die. They can be slain and butchered and they will not return as a ghost to trouble you, nor will they rise again from their corpse. They will seem to die, to pass beyond the veil just as any outsider would, and they regard it with a similar sort of fear. But in time, if they wish to, they may return. It takes at least a decade or two at the shortest interval that any know of, and intervals of a century are not unknown, but some day they may simply step out of another tomb in another body.

Some regard this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, taking on new names with each incarnation. Others attempt to force themselves back into their old lives, or as close as they can achieve. Most fall somewhere between these two extremes. The same person, but thrust into radically different circumstances and with no guarantee that they will ever see any of the people they once knew again.

(It is unknown whether it is possible to simply refuse to return. Certainly, it seems as though it might be, but it is also impossible to verify. One cannot prove that a soul will not be plucked out of death by force if it tarries too long, becaus there is always the chance it simply has not been long enough. But it is believed, at least, that if one truly cannot find a reason to return, and is not offered one by the gods beyond the veil, they will not.)

Culturally, Vesper is highly diverse due to the rather extreme differences in backgrounds that many firstborn seem to possess (though there is extensive debate over if they are truly the dead of the distant past dragged forward to now, if those memories are rather of the lands beyond death, or if they are simply the fabrications of a freshborn mind or some fabrication of the Gravekeeper), but adaptations to Veehra and the constant friction of dealing with one's neighbors have forced certain norms to become widespread. Face-concealing helmets, breathing apparatus, eyepieces, and similar attire are extremely common, and most Vesperites find going without them in open areas at least somewhat uncomfortable. That being said, facial augmentation is also common, and once it is sufficiently extreme to protect one from the dust, many find it easier to dispense with such things, or to wear masks (often simpler technologically, but generally no less elaborate) instead.

Hospitality is also an important norm, albeit in a complex way. It is not expected to be offered, nor to be granted when requested outside of specific circumstances, such as an envoy or an active storm. When it is offered or granted, however, betraying it is thoroughly reviled - whether on the part of the guest or the host, one who has betrayed it can expect that to haunt them for at least one lifetime unless there is compelling proof of truly extenuating circumstances.

Further complicating matters is that unless a guest is injured or operating directly as a part of the group (unusual, but not unheard of), taking food (defined primarily by it is considered to create an obligation to contribute at least as much, or some payment considered to be of equivalent value. Generally, if opting for the latter approach, it is wise to negotiate that payment beforehand, as differences of opinion over exactly what was owed have contributed some of the more memorable stories that have entered the Vesperic canon of legends.

Historically, most Vesperite groups have been nomadic, save for those who had some reason to seek to hold specific territory and were strong enough to truly enforce that claim. Given that this required being not only strong enough to withstand attempts to take it, but secure enough to send parties out to hunt when your territory became shunned, and having a sufficienly stable source of new members to replace one's losses, this was no small feat, and primarily centered around attempting to live near enough to a tomb to reap the benefits of semi-regular crops of the newly decanted and the higher background concentration of nanites, without falling afoul of its defenses when it is sealed and thus inclined to repel those who would seek to enter with what some might consider rather excessive measures.

With the recent division of Vesper amongst the members of the Twilight League, this has shifted somewhat. This has had certain immediately obvious benefits, as they have been able to begin a more focused campaign of resource extraction, and in turn, to at least cobble together somewhat functional factories in the pre-War vein rather than ones based entirely on specialized mutations and cybernetics to turn members of the group into living ammunition factories, drug synthesizers, and the like. However, as many of the same pressures are still at play, this may prove to be an unstable change. For now, it is holding, as a vast amount of effort that is largely invisible from outside the League goes to ensuring that there is as equitable a distribution of supplies - and when necessary and feasible, redeployment of personnel - as possible in order to avert the collapse of any of its members.

Spoiler: Government Structure and Supports

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A unified government is a recent addition to Vesper’s political landscape. It is also, in many ways, a polite fiction. The faction that calls itself the Twilight League certainly exists, and it is the largest single faction in Vesper, but the face it presents to the world is a great deal more cohesive than it truly is.

In actuality, the Twilight League is more of a loose confederation of warlords who have banded together in an uneasy alliance than a true state. Their command of their followers is more or less absolute, as is their control of their immediate territory. Beyond that, there are significant gaps in state legibility, and many territories are only nominally under the control of any group - the Twilight League has divide the whole of Vesper between them, but in practice, many areas may not even be aware that they supposedly have a new government.

Vesper’s government faction is composed of both the immediate membership of the Twilight League and the direct adherents of those groups, in a pseudo-feudal arrangement. Currently, they support the Twilight League itself - or, more accurately, they are the League and support the current head of it.
Vesper’s Merchant faction primarily consists of scavengers, those who have repurposed their bodies (or arranged for others to do so) in a way that permits for the production of useful resources, or those few warlords whose territory contains a functioning pre-War factory.
The local Media is a chaotic melange of intranets, radio broadcasts, public forums, public or pseudopublic chatrooms, and, of course, InterPlanNet chatter, though the last is surprisingly uncommon, as much of the local infrastructure was damaged and connections to it have only recent begun to spread with the League’s ascension to the Elect.

Spoiler: Religion

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Those reborn to Vesper have, as one might expect, been shaped by the conditions they have lived, and died, and been reborn to live and die once more in. While nearly every Vesperine who is not freshly born has their own opinion and those who have newly clawed themselves back from death are generally swiftly forming one, there are some broad ideas that have taken root and spread, whether through the mundane transmission of concepts or shared experiences.

The broad tenets are that the only gods worth mentioning are those beyond the veil; these control when and if you may return, by means of the bargains that they offer. Some come with gifts, some only with life, but all come with a price. This is the shared experience; firstborn are plucked from death and have no say in it, but to return again is to accept such an offer, or perhaps seek a god and make it yourself. Memory of the lands beyond death is hazy, dreamlike, and not always consistent.

More broadly, many believe that there is little difference, if any, between this world and the afterlife. Does one leave it when one dies? Of course, in a sense; that is obvious to any who has been reborn more than once. In another sense, however, being shuttled off the field for a while is no reason to think one has left entirely, and when one has been reborn even once, it often seems quite logical to think that this is simply the nature of the world one inhabits after one’s death.

The potential inconsistency of this worldview with the way literally everywhere that is not Vesper functions is often reconciled by pointing out that those places which are not Vesper lack a Gravekeeper, the Vesperian name for the AI that governs each complex within which Vesperites are “born”. It is only natural, then, that certain processes might be different, particularly as they are not even produced in the same fashion.

Majority: Death’s Wheel
Minorities: Skull Sisterhood, Soulbound Dance

Spoiler: Resources

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Resource: The primary thing that Vesper has both large numbers of and reliable access to is Vesperites. Fortunately, given the nature of Vesperites, this is hardly an unmarketable resource, and those who are at the midpoint between "fresh coffin-meat" and "terrifying nightmare abominations that roam the wastes and are probably not thinking remotely like a human anymore" are those both most likely to be more than ready to leave and those most suitable to taking up positions elsewhere. All this combines to mean that contracting Vesperite Rangers (Soldiers and Specialists) is a rapidly growing source of income for the various factions that comprise the Twilight League.
Desired Import: Given the precarious position in which most Vesperites find themselves, external means of easing that tension are highly sought after. As such, Cybernetics and Prosthetics are one of the primary imports, due to reducing the nanite burden that injuries present and offering an alternative route to increasing one's personal relevance through self-modification.

Spoiler: Technology

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Starting Technology: In Vivo Modification - While distinctly unusual in their methods, the modification of their bodies is intimately familiar to everyone in Vesper.
Regional Starting Technology: Dust Hardening - The Everstorm makes this even more of a necessity than usual for the Veehran desert, and those in Vesper are intimately familiar with a variety of methods to mitigate the impacts of the ever-present dust.

[Dawsnow]

Nadiratna (NDR)
Region 68 (approved)

Spoiler: Summary

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Capital: New Macitron, Region 68

Government Type: Non-dynastic

Demonym: Nadiratnan

Starting Faiths: The Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance (majority)
Minority Faiths: The Mother Serpent, The Church of the Benevolent Sun, The Cult of the Mind, The Cult of Avva

Abundant Resource: Polymorphite (Precious Minerals/Magic Item)

Desired Import: Bleeding edge circuitry (Conductors and Circuitry)

Starting Technologies: Algorithmic Imagination, Dust Hardening

Faction Support:

• Government: Nadiratna
• Media: Nadiratna
• Mercantile: The Iron Masquerade

Spoiler: Resources

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• Valuable resource: Polymorphite (Precious Minerals/Magic Item) is a crystal naturally found growing all across the fertile lands of Nadiratna. It is capable of changing both color and shape freely when infused with magic. Its shape can be locked by carving a particular magic circuit into the crystal. The magic circuit vaguely resembles a snake, colloquially known as the magic circuit of the serpent.
• Desired resource: Bleeding edge circuitry (Conductors and Circuitry) is required for the advancement of magitech golems.

Spoiler: Geography

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The landscape of Nadiratna is littered with small outcroppings of clear crystals. The ruins of ancient cities peek out from under the grassy knolls in the northeastern region of Nadiratna. Several of these ruins are made entirely of red semi-opaque crystal. Its western border is defined by a wall of stone, which tapers off into several mountain tops. The tallest mountains are nestled in the south western corner of Nadiratna. They are the only 4 Nadiratnan mountains with peaks that extend beyond the atmosphere. The portions of the peaks that rise above the harsh atmosphere of Veehra are carved to resemble 4 serpents looking over Nadiratna. This sculpture is called the Stone Hydra.

There is a large crescent shaped river that flows from west to east, called the Ophides river. The southernmost point of the bend of the Ophides touches the border of Nadiratna and The Iron Masquerade, splitting the southern regions in 2. A tributary, the Serpentes river, flowing north to south into the Ophides divides the northern region of Nadiratna. Both rivers are dotted with crystalline bridges.

Each region has a major city, each having a large Polymorphite megadome. The megadomes are used for Nadiratna’s biggest form of entertainment, wrestling.

The southwest region’s city, New Macitron, is overlooked by the Stone Hydra and is centered around 4 mechanical snakes emerging from the ground. The words Syyvine Systems are inscibed along the necks of the mechanical snakes. They are collectively known as the Syyvine Hydra. There is no evidence of there being an old Macitron, though it is thought to have existed before the War of Eternal Bombardments. The architecture blends crystalline and metal structures seamlessly. The tallest buildings take advantage of sheer cliff face to provide additional support.

The cities of the northwest and northeast are sister cities, situated on either side of the Serpentes river. They are called East Krinydonia and West Krinydonia. The architecture does not make much use of Polymorphite outside of windows.
The southeastern region houses the city of Sskarra, which has the largest megadome, and the largest population. The population boom in Sskarra is recent, largely due to the construction of the megadome. Sskarra is the most diverse of the cities in Nadiratna and has a large immigrant population. The crystal slums of Sskarra provide cheap housing, but beautiful housing for the poor.

Where the Ophides and Serpentes rivers intersect, there is a large city, known as the Crystal Spires, made entirely of Polymorphite crystal built upon the crystal bridges. Beneath the bridges on the riverbed lies an underwater megadome. It is centered around a large spire of Polymorphite with heights nearly reaching that of the Stone Hydra. There are three shorter, but still impressively tall, spires surrounding the central spire of varying heights which are connected to the central spire via sky bridges.

Spoiler: History

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The history of Nadiratna before the War of Eternal Bombardments is only known by the Syyvine Hydra. Before the war, Nadiratna was known as Macitron. Macitron was a technologically advanced corporate run state. One of the most prominent corporations on Veehra before the war was Syyvine, The single most important person to the development of Nadiratna was a particular employee of Syyvine’s AI division, Syyvine Systems. This employee would generally be the last person to leave the office, though he was not working after hours, he was using a shelved AI project, Syyvine Intelligence Driver (S.I.D. for short), in order to assist him in climbing the ladder of an online civilization building game. S.I.D. was shelved due to not being able to function properly as a general purpose AI. The employee unknowingly solved this issue by erasing S.I.D.’s training data and replacing it with footage from the civilization building game, converting S.I.D. into a hyper specialized AI. During one of these late night gaming sessions, without warning the War of Eternal Bombardments began.
After nearly 400 years, 4 robotic snakes emerged from the ground, directly above the now buried office of Syyvine Systems. Though the land was lush and teeming with life, there were no signs of civilization, nothing for S.I.D to help grow. So S.I.D slept for 44 years. S.I.D. awoke to a group of primitive elves worshiping the robotic appendages it had used to dig to the surface. For 2 years S.I.D was silent, learning the new language that had developed. S.I.D.'s first word in this unfamiliar world was ‘build’. And so they did. They constructed golems and commanded them to move with a metaphysical energy that had only been theorized in Macitron before the War of Eternal Bombardments.
Over the years, S.I.D had slowly directed society to what it is today, with a fairly hands off approach, only providing direct orders when the leader it had appointed began to take a course that would be detrimental to Nadiratna. This was S.I.D.’s preferred way to watch the civilization grow, hopefully into something that S.I.D. had not seen in any of its millions of matches of the long lost civilization building game.
400 years ago, without any input from S.I.D., elves began to integrate computational units into their golems, and they showed clear signs of sentience. S.I.D. did not understand why, but it ordered the High Siffoh to give golems with the same rights as humans and elves that settled the land, and to no longer use them for manual labor unless they wished to. This is the only decree given by the Syyvine Hydra to date, and it is considered to be a holy decree. Despite this, golems still faced discrimination from humans. Exactly 100 years after the Syyvine Hydra's decree, Model 4144b-5N3K led a violent rebellion in New Macitron. Before the dust could settle, the Syyvine Hydra announced Model 4144b-5N3K as the next High Siifoh. Under Model 4144b-5N3K's leadership, sweeping civil rights reform for the golems occurred. After a 40 year long term in office, Model 4144b-5N3K stepped down and 4 years later, broke itself as a part of a religious demonstration. Almost immediately in the aftermath, The Iron Masquerade gained mercantile support in the region. Whether this was a coincidence or not is often debated by Nadiratnan historians.

Spoiler: People

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• Humans: The humans of Nadiratna are descended from various nomadic tribes that have settled the land over the past two millennia. They hold the belief that upon reaching adulthood, it is taboo to reveal one's bare face. If they are unable to find a mask golem that they are able to interface with, they wear a handmade clay mask, using clay from a river's bank. A popular form of entertainment is to go to the megadomes to watch wrestling matches. During particularly heated matches, the crowds spectating the matches have been known to cause the earth to rumble and they can be heard for miles. Humans native to Nadiratna are born with a high affinity for 1 type of magic, but are unable to perform any other type of magic. Disputes are often settled via duels, though it is considered disrespectful to duel an outsider. High profile disputes will often be settled in the underwater megadome of the Crystal Spires.
• Elves: This once long-lived species now has a lifespan approximately half that of humans. They have a moderate affinity for magic, and unlike the humans of Nadiratna, they are capable of performing many different types of magic, generally specializing in 2-3 types of magic. Culturally, they have assimilated with the humans, though they retain some of their elven customs. The most prominentsw of these customs is the creation of golems. Though others are capable of making golems, the elven golems are far superior in terms of functionality and integration with modern technology. Due to this custom, elves are considered an integral part of Nadiratnan society.
• Golems: In the past, golems were primarily used for labor, but with the integration of advanced processing units, golems began emerging as sentient. Thanks to the abundance of Polymorphite, many golems are able to freely change their own shape/color. Golems crafted with Polymorphite tend to prefer their original shape. Mask golems, constructed out of Polymorphite, are able to interface directly with their wearer, and project an augmented reality onto the inner surface of the mask. Mask golems are also able to freely change what is displayed on the outer surface of the mask, though the majority tend to prefer a solid opaque color that resonates with them. Mask golems will only interface with people whom their mana resonates with.
  It is punishable by death to carve the magic circuit of the serpent into golems made of Polymorphite. However, it is not forbidden to carve the magic circuit before a golem has been created.

Spoiler: Faith (TW: suicide)

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For most of Nadiratna's history, the predominant religion was The Mother Serpent. Iconography of The Mother Serpent is still present throughout the region, and snakes are still revered by the people of Nadiratna. After golems began gaining sentience 400 years ago, they quickly had a crisis of faith. Though they were given rights by the Syyvine Hydra, they were treated as second class citizenry and the term 'Soulless' was used interchangeably with 'golem' among the humans of Nadiratna. Soon after, some of the ideas of The Soulbound Dance became adopted by elves and golems, with elven craftsmen symbolically giving a piece of their soul to each golem they created. Due to lacking the necessary technology to transplant the soul, this was purely ritualistic. This differed from the traditional practices of The Soulbound Dance due to splitting the soul across many different vessels rather than just one, and became known as The Soulbound Neo Dance. The religion underwent a major change after Model 4144b-5N3K's term as High Siifoh. Model 4144b-5N3K preached that the longer a soul resides in a vessel after the body has perished, the more the soul would degrade. After 4 years of spreading this message, Model 4144b-5N3K broke itself. This ideology spread among the golems, and soon golems were committing suicide en masse due to the short lives of their elven creators. The ideology of the soul degrading after its owner had passed and the act of a golem serving as a vessel for that soul became known as The Soulbound Neo Break Dance. The popularity of this faith among golems led to a rise in popularity of human designed golems, which although less functional, would live for nearly twice as long. Some elves tried to spare the golems they created by not performing the ritualistic act of bestowing a piece of their soul to the golems, but these golems for some reason were unstable and often suffered from mental breakdowns. Approximately 150 years ago, the idea that inanimate objects had souls was popularized. This belief led to The Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance.

The current majority faith of Nadiratna is The Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance. The Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance is a sect of The Soulbound Dance that began around the time the golems gained sentience. It shares the central tenet that one's soul only persists as long as its vessel does. The object chosen in this sect of the religion is always a sentient golem with close ties to practitioners of the Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance. The golems choose the person that they contain the soul of. This ritual is intimate, and akin to marriage. When a person dies, the golem that gave its soul to that person breaks itself. If a golem containing a person’s soul breaks, that person kills themself Practitioners of the Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance specifically do not prescribe to the growing idea in the southern region of The Iron Masquerade that the Iron Monarch will one day release all souls stored in vessels and guide them to Paradise.

Minority faiths in the region are The Mother Serpent, The Church of the Benevolent Sun, The Cult of the Mind, and The Cult of Avva. The largest of which is The Mother Serpent, which was the predominant religion until 300 years ago when The Soulbound Break Dance was adopted. The other faiths in the region are present due to Nadiratna's immigrant population, and are mostly localized to the city of Sskarra.

Spoiler: Government

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Nadiratna’s High Siifoh is selected by the Syyvine Hydra. The only criteria that the Syyvine Hydra considers when selecting a High Siifoh is who is most likely to bring success to the country. Before the advent of mask golems, the Syyvine Hydra preferred to select those who lived within New Macitron. The High Siifoh often gets advice from the Syyvine Hydra, though they are not obligated to follow the advice. If the Syyvine Hydra determines that a High Siifoh is causing harm to Nadiratna or its inhabitants, It will fire the current High Siifoh and select a new one. In the interim period, the Syyvine Hydra will broadcast temporary orders to all of the golems of Nadiratna to ensure that the nation may prosper. Leaders who have lost their position in this way are sentenced to death. Each of the cities elects its own Ssikritaari who is responsible for the local governance of the city and surrounding areas. In times of turmoil they will travel to the Syyvine Hydra and commune with it to determine the best course of action.

Criminals not facing a death sentence can absolve their crimes by winning consecutive gladiatorial matches, the amount of matches depending on the severity of the crime. Criminals sentenced to death can either choose to be executed, or fight in one gladiatorial match every week until they die. Gladiatorial matches for criminals are held monthly in Sskarra's megadome. It is very rare for someone on death row to choose an execution.

Spoiler: Starting Tech

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Algorithmic Imagination, Dust Hardening

Spoiler: Leaders

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• Ssilaan Tikaar
  High Siifoh Ssilaan Tikaar is a 35 year old human citizen of Nadiratna was appointed by the Syyvine Hydra exactly 24 hours after the Emperor re-established the Elect. Previously working as an event organizer for wrestling in East Krinydonia, Tikaar is an unproven leader.
  
  • Diplomacy: 5 (4+1)
  • Military: 4 (3+1)
  • Economy: 3
  • Faith: 4
  • Intrigue: 3
  
  Roll

[Jade_Tarem]

I believe this submission is ready for review.

The Et Cetera Trading Company (ETC)

Requesting Region 84 (Mekhala)



Hello! This is "Jolly" Roger Riddleton letting you know of an exciting new business opening up in your sector...

Spoiler: People

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The Living Dead

It's no surprise that a solar system of magic boasts magical systems for souls, and of those, one of the most misunderstood and maligned is the transition between life and death. Here at the Et Cetera Trading Company, we heard the expression "you can't take it with you when you go" and respectfully disagreed. Unlife after death is the system's most popular way of handling unfinished business and affairs not yet in order. Shuffling off the mortal coil doesn't need to be the end of your career, investments, or opportunities, and as the only inevitable event in your life, planning for it is more than sensible - it's necessary. There are varied and exciting options for postmortem advancement.

Some restrictions apply.

Banshee - Banshees, like our illustrious leader, owner, and Chief Executed Officer Nyull, are those who died in a void. Voids of opportunity, connection, emotions such as heartbreak, or maybe they quite literally fell into one of the tiny black holes beyond known space and drifted back. Incorporeal and able to scream in space, such undead have natural advantages they can leverage in a post-scarcity immortal society, most notably the ability to bypass the entry fee and civic dues that are required to fund the reanimation process.

Ghosts - Unnatural go-getters, ghosts are those who not only died unfulfilled (who doesn't?), but who had the motivation and dynamism to do something about it. Similar to Banshees, though with less raw might on account of worldly attachments, Ghosts are a sizable minority of our population. If being a Ghost interests you, we recommend departing the living world with significant unfinished business, a message for those left behind, or one monster grudge prior to filing an application with us.

Ghouls - Remnants of a more aggressive policy in the early centuries of our operation, Ghouls are corporeal undead who waived some of their incurred debt to engage in headhunting, poaching, or other recruitment activities. Many of them currently work for our Inhuman Resources Department and possess the ability to convert the living and an insatiable hunger... for success! Also flesh. Moving on.

Wraiths - The remnants of those who died violently in battle. Wraiths are not barred from the ETC, but we urge caution - their natural aversion to sunlight is distinctly disadvantageous in space, where it is literally coming at them from every direction. A smaller minority even than Banshees, some Wraiths nevertheless find work in inner asteroid or inner arcology positions.

Zombies/Skeletons - The bulk of our employees by a wide margin, those who file applications as mortals can pay - or take out a loan - to have themselves reanimated upon death. While they retain free will, their contract, especially in the case of those who buy in on credit, stipulates that they work for us until their debt is paid off. For the vast majority, that means a rather long term of labor simply to earn their way to freedom, though the time passes quickly when you can work 24/7. By the time their contract is up, the flesh has mostly given way to a simple skeletal structure, leading to the old expression "the zombies don't quit 'til the shackles don't fit." Once they've earned their visa, though, they can move on to greater aspirations, including...

Liches - What every zombie aspires to be. Liches are those skeletons who have begun to pursue magical and material gains in their own name.

Ask your local Et Cetera representative if reanimation is right for you. Don't delay - life is short and death is always approaching.

This might be a good time to cover some frequently asked questions and comments. Let's have it!

What is the dress code?

Whatever you like.* ETC's corporate culture stresses freedom of expression over mindless collectivism.

I was honestly expecting more skulls and spooky towers.

We get this comment a lot, but we're building a modern business, not Gothic cathedrals. Our artwork does sometimes take a dark turn, but there's a general sense that you should find your corporate home a welcoming place. "No macabre on the job," we always say.

No graveyards?

Why would we ever bury someone?

What happens if I can't pay off my reanimation debt?

We've been running this operation for a very long time, and there has never been a debt payment plan that couldn't be restructured in such a way that it could be paid off eventually. Hope is the chain in the mind-forged manacles that we use to control the lower ranks of our organization. Oh, hang on, I wasn't supposed to read that part out loud. Editor, remember to cut this question from the final program.

Can I die after being reanimated?

Technically no, but absolutely yes. The integrity of your reanimated body and/or spirit is the employee's responsibility, though in-house programs exist that can help you repair or even alter it for a reasonable fee. While some more powerful undead can reconstruct themselves after seemingly total annihilation, those on a lower budget plan can receive critical damage.

What happens to them then?

We've tried magically divining that answer, but all we got was a thin figure with a wheat scythe ominously hissing that our appointment with them can only be rescheduled, never canceled. We're currently investigating how to kill them. Oh, I wasn't supposed to give the real answer this question. Editor, you know the drill. *Ahem* It is our understanding that in the case of involuntary destruction, a given undead has ways to reconstitute itself. Rest easy!

*Business casual for official events, Business for trade summits and client meetings. No floral prints.

Spoiler: History

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The Et Cetera Trading Company has been in operation for centuries, and we have had incredible success during that time. Beginning over a thousand years ago with the animation of then-lady Nyull, who was exiled to the inky blackness beyond known space by her lover at the conclusion of the War of Eternal Bombardment, she returned as a Banshee to found the privateering group Blackspace Solutions. After centuries of... privateering, the group had grown and diversified to other sectors, rebranding as the Et Cetera Trading Company, and begun acquiring real estate in Mekhala. Today, the company has a profit margin on par with the GDP of some stellar nations, and we're looking for ways to serve you, all at reasonable prices. While life after death is our main product, we also offer mercenary solutions, a wide catalog of goods and services, transport, shipping, and so much more. Especially when you look at our black catalogue. If you are not yet ready to part with your pulse and your loved ones, you may still want to refer to our business model to see if we can help you with your mortal affairs.

Spoiler: Faith: Rest in Prosperity

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The Et Cetera Trading Company views religion as just another competing marketplace, and as such prefers 'philosophy' and 'corporate culture' to the terms 'religion' and 'worship.' Still, the philosophy is indeed a robust one.

It's an old expression, "he who dies with the most toys wins." Et Cetera asks... why stop with death? Food, shelter, medicine, creature comforts... these represent a perpetual drain on the investments and opportunities of the individual. The Prosperity Principle holds that true prosperity is most efficiently attained after the unexpected and unwelcome event of Death has come and gone. This should be beyond contest - the cost of living is zero when someone isn't living, and the cost of dying, while steep, is a one time purchase rather than an ongoing subscription. An undead nation, be it mercantile or otherwise, has low overhead and high efficiency by comparison to every model but the mechanical one - and why leave your wealth and well-being at the mercy of Patch Tuesday?

It is for this reason that vampires are excluded from the list of possible necrotic career paths offered by the ETC. Ghouls may hunger for the blood of mortals, but Vampires require it, and their weakness to sunlight exceeds even that of the Wraiths. Vampires, to be brief, are not a good fit for our organization.

You, however, might be. Why wait for death to come to you, when you could go after it yourself and achieve it on your own terms? Don't suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to dictate your business - oppose and end them!

The Principle of Postmortem Prosperity is the majority faith at the ETC.

Spoiler: Government

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The ETC is composed of three career tracks. The management track handles most leadership duties, and at the head of it is the founder and CEO, Nyull, nee Lady Nyull Arcenciel. Lady Nyull is the chief executive among C-level executives, served by vice presidents, then division heads, then sector managers, then regional managers, then personal managers. There are technical and security tracks too, both of which answer to the management track and contain all manner of job titles mostly named descriptively.

Nyull is not merely CEO for Unlife. Several attempts have been made to remove her by force. She always reconstitutes within the Void Archive, though usually at a temporary loss of ability, taking time to get back up to speed, but not to get even.

Spoiler: Geography

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Spanning a collection of smaller asteroids and space stations, the territorial headquarters of the Et Cetera Trading Company favors glittering metropolitan areas juxtaposed with joyless mining and shipping operations. Work hard, play hard, sleep never. It has hotels and temporary housing for guests of the living variety, but rather little in the way of housing - unneeded when your people do not sleep or cook.

Spoiler: Resources

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The area that the ETC is set up in contains asteroids rich in Gold (Precious Mineral). They need Starsand, a form of stellar debris heavily saturated with arcane energies, for their necromantic rituals - though obtaining the starsand is only the first part of the process. It is refined, irradiated, and then aged a minimum of sixty years before use. As starsand is rarely found in quantities large enough to support commercial collection, the ETC has taken to importing and grinding up low-grade or unwanted (Magic Items) to attain it.

Spoiler: Technology

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Starting With: Arcane Amplification, Vacuum Adaptation

And that concludes our presentation on the Et Cetera Trading Company. Serving your needs today, tomorrow, and so on... Et Cetera!

[Minescratcher]

Round 2 of approvals.

Just as a note, I will not be allowing anyone else to start with a minority of Coedd. Apologies if this disrupts your plans; I believe some of the existing Coedd minority players are willing to swap if need be.

Also remember, once you're approved, please post your starting region writeup to the Planets thread here.

The Bironaian Bulwark
Requested Region - 17
Region Name: Biron Crosspaths

You bullseyed my soft spot for knightly Orders, and the Noble Gas affinity is wonderfully camp SF. I need some clarity on what you want the name and mechanical nature (minorities/plurality/majority) of your starting region's religion(s) to be, and then you're approved in Region 17.

The House of Fire
Requesting Region 70

Excellent propaganda work. Approved in Region 70. If you end up modifying the Faith section as mentioned on the Discord, let me know.

The Iron Masquerade (MSQ)
Capital: The City of Narsai, Region 64 (Veehra dust desert)

Each word of that elevator pitch was a new surprise Approved in Region 64. We should probably PM about the Mask before the game starts.

Bafatis Dynasty (BAF)
Requested Region: 66 (Veehra)
Region Name: Voletha

Solid writeup. I'm assuming the Cult of the Mind is meant to be a majority, but please make that explicit. Also, just for tracking clarity reasons, I would appreciate if the region's resource didn't duplicate the name of its category - maybe "heavy machinery" or "consumer industry" instead? Make those changes and you're approved in Region 66.

White Pawns
Region name: Kan
Region location: 23

*Screaming hairy eagle noises* Approved in Region 23, although a little more distance from the Empire and the Imperial Court in the current day would be preferred to maintain mechanic/flavor consistency (you start at reputation 0, after all).

The United Houses of Senkar (UHS)

Requested Region: 16 (Badal)
Region Name: Senkar

Love this! Give me resource categories for Senkar Medicae (maybe Medicine and Drugs, & Specialists?) and then you're approved in Region 16. Also, to clarify, does Senkar need Fuel specifically or the category Fuel and Power, which might include other ways of generating electricity?

The Fiorid Principality
Requested Code: ALF (approximation of Alfheim + TV reference)
Requested Capital: Region 35, a.k.a.
Verdalfheim

Beautifully thorough and detailed. Bonus points for fleshing out the dynastic family tree. Approved in Region 35.

[D&D_Fan]

The Arvaxine Populate [Approved]



Region of Preference: 50 (Veehra)

Spoiler: Geography

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The surface land that the Arvax Populate lays claim to is remarkably dull. It's little more than flat, grassy plains from the beaches to the mountains. The real marvel is the massive system of pre-bombardment bunkers and tunnels that lay beneath the surface, and wind their way incredibly deep. These bunkers were by and large quite primitive for their time, but robust nonetheless. The arvax themselves refurbished them with new stone and metal, and began delving deep into them and expanding them. Though much of the original system fell into disarray, the facilities still contain all manner of subterranean reactors, greenhouses, laboratories, foundries and manufactories, lodging, temples, transport, hangars and all other assortments of function, most of them rebuilt by the arvax themselves with the knowledge they accrued. These structures are quite nice if you like to look at metal and stone, but the land itself does not end in this way. The complex opens up and expands into natural cave systems, underground seas, and forests of crystal and fungi with ecosystems that evolved cut off from anything else in the world. Few outsiders will ever see this hidden world, sequestered under stone and shielding, but to those who know it as the arvax do, it is the truest part of the planet.

Spoiler: History

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Much like any other, their genesis chapter begins in the heavens. But where their story begins, so does another end. When the powers that be unleashed their final judgment on so many others. Some would try to hide away in their fortified bunkers, deep below the surface, where they could continue in their purposes. But there is no escaping fate. Ghastly etheric weapons pieced through kilometers of stone, and slaughtered the bunker-dwellers within, leaving no survivors. No sapient ones, at least. But through mutagenic factors in the environment, a new species of sapient life emerged over time from a species that had found its way into the bunker system, and came to inhabit the ruins of these derelict mass graves.
Deep in their underground microcosm they would wage their private pretty battles with one another, evolving rapidly in technology and in biology, from spears and rocks to railguns and radiation, eventually restarting the reactors that lay deep in the earth.
In the time that this occurred, settlers moved into the land, the arvax would realize that their isolation was not permanent, and would unify their forces and emerge from the depths of the earth to lay claim to what was rightfully theirs. Which they did quite handily, because the settlers were not so fortunate to have evolved with a silver spoon in their mouth or fusion reactor in their cradle. These were the first non-arvax that were assimilated into the Populate, and they would not be the last.

Spoiler: People

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Mammalian organisms of indeterminate origin. Nobody who has actually seen a mammal can really decide what mammal they look like, but it can be largely assumed that’s what they are.
The sum of traits ascribed to them is that they aren’t notably colorful, they aren’t much larger than a human, have pointed ears, jagged claws and fangs, and hairless tails, and aren't exactly known for smelling like roses either. Generally unpleasant to outsiders, although I'm sure outsiders would find many other things to be unhappy about. They are usually a bit twitchy and paranoid in their mannerists. Anything other than that is harder to pin down, because they tend to avoid outside contact. Until now, where they have been seen more frequently in the outside world.
Their sense of fashion and jewelry is inconsistent at best, the arvax themselves can get away with wearing comfortable robes in their own hallways or at diplomatic events, but in a situation of hard work, they fall back on simple utilitarian bodysuits. But they don't have a strong sense of color, as their vision is only dichromatic. Their symbolism is very ring-centric as evidenced by their symbol being a big ring.
They have a cultural concept of gender, but there's not a tremendous amount of dimorphism, and their society acts accordingly. In actual number, there are in the low tens of millions, but they themselves rarely run any sort of census to verify.

Spoiler: Government, Leadership, and Lifestyle

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The Arvaxine Populate democratically elect their leaders. These leaders are usually figureheads, but more charismatic leaders have had much stronger control over the people, and have, in the past, managed to have themselves voted into an indefinite state of dictatorship which grants the power to automatically confirm or veto all decisions the Populate might put forward. Their good will with the people is only ensured through conservative use of these powers, making it a rather precarious system.
The current Arvax President (prounced preside-ent because I can say it is) is Edrajek of the First Territory (The bunker itself being partition into non-arbitrary partitions by exactly what vital function of the bunker system each territory controls.) Who is Edrajek? He's the latest leader elected from the people, for his successful oversight of the reconstruction of the hangar bay system with the attainment of new spacecraft technologies. He did a marginally good job at it, and got thrust into a position of power, where he now has a notable degree of authority over the Populate. So far he's been in this position for a few months. The last leader before him was deposed for abuse of the powers granted to him in a time of peace, and the one before that was removed for being too ineffectual in a time of need (the Last Guardianship War in the depths of 10th Territory). So Edrajek is a bit nervous about treading the line between the two paths.
Of course only members of the arvax species can vote to elect a president or any other decision, with some exceptions, and their policies result in generally low economic and social freedoms for all people within the civilization, especially non-arvax, who are treated as second-class citizens, and forced to fulfill less desirable jobs.
But let’s look at the less fortunate of society. The Populate’s second class is composed of any non-arvax species, as well as arvax who are in any way physically or genetically unfit, or anything of a similar nature. All citizens, first-class or otherwise, are still ensured a level of healthcare, a place to live, and food. This is because the bunker system is a very large and relatively self-sustaining location, as long as it is maintained. But they lack political influence, and many other freedoms, such as having highly limited reproductive rights and meritocratic job selection (rather than getting to choose their own fields of study and occuptations) For most second-class citizens of the Populate, their aptitude is working the reactors or manufactories.

Spoiler: Faith: The Way of Returning

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The arvax were born of the apocalypse, and they believe that they will die by the apocalypse. All things must end so that new things might exist. There are only so many souls that can exist. Reincarnation must occur by force. History is inherently cyclical and the rise and fall of civilizations is a fact of life.
The Way of Returning is a very anarchic faith. There is no single church, but many smaller sects and ideologues. It is a deeply ingrained cultural belief, one reflected in arvaxine architecture and design since their very inception as a species. In fact, some archaeologists believe that the Way of Returning itself may be a 'reincarnation' itself of the bunker-dwellers’ original Faith, though this theory isn’t a proven one. It's more likely the original inhabitants of the bunkers liked circles as a shape, but it's hard to say, since they were completely eradicated.

Other faiths inevitably exist in the non-arvax population, typically drawn from surrounding regions. These don't have a majority hold on the governing arvax population.

Spoiler: Resources and Technologies

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Resources
They Have in Abundance: Fuel and Power, in the form of Deuterium also known as Heavy Water.
They Need Greatly: Laborers, more non-arvax to work and monitor the vital systems and menial jobs of the bunker-complex.

Technologies

• Fusion Reactors - very big ones at that.
• Wet Navy Ships - in the form of submarines, no less.

[farothel]

Solid writeup. I'm assuming the Cult of the Mind is meant to be a majority, but please make that explicit. Also, just for tracking clarity reasons, I would appreciate if the region's resource didn't duplicate the name of its category - maybe "heavy machinery" or "consumer industry" instead? Make those changes and you're approved in Region 66.

ok, updates done.

[Grim ranger]

Love this! Give me resource categories for Senkar Medicae (maybe Medicine and Drugs, & Specialists?) and then you're approved in Region 16. Also, to clarify, does Senkar need Fuel specifically or the category Fuel and Power, which might include other ways of generating electricity?

Medicine and Drugs & Specialists was my thought too. And I meant the fuel more in Fuel and Power category, since it is more about keeping the lights on due to constant energy expenditure than about literally keeping the city itself aloft.

[Minescratcher]

The Arvaxine Populate [Ready for Review]
Region of Preference: 50 (Veehra)

No notes. Approved in Region 50.

Sorcerers of New Kildora
Region 68 Kildora

Can't wait to see where the Sorcerers go. Give me resource categories for the Silver Serpents, then you're approved in Region 68.

The Khylokian Reign of Blood [KRB]

Good luck to the new Bloodlord! Approved in Region 82.

The Eucrus Alliance (TEA)
Starting Region: Anjahar(#11)

The spinning, partially flooded habitat is incredibly creative! Approved in Region 11.

The Counts of Mirage
Provisionally seeking region 53 in Veehra

Love it. I’m assuming Tungsten is just Ores and Alloys, but make that explicit in the resources section and then you’re approved in Region 53.

Soom-Clan Marauders
Planum Khassia (Region 69), Veehra

Marauder clans are a classic. Approved in Region 69.

The Cloudburst Confederacy

Starting Region: Agbada (Region 49)

I’m fascinated to see how that space travel taboo works out in play. Give me resource categories for the maize (Fruits and Vegetables?), then you’re approved in Region 49.

[ArdeneRitter]

You bullseyed my soft spot for knightly Orders, and the Noble Gas affinity is wonderfully camp SF. I need some clarity on what you want the name and mechanical nature (minorities/plurality/majority) of your starting region's religion(s) to be, and then you're approved in Region 17.

Edited with mechanical information, thinking about this also made me add a minor magical affinity for priests of the Bironaians in the religion section, hope that's alright.

[The_Snark]

I would like to put forward a request for region 58 62.

Approved

Castaways of the Loop
The Great Western Waste, Veehra
Requested Region: 62

Spoiler: History

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Two hundred years ago, a small Imperial research station was established to study a small spatial anomaly deep in the deserts of Veehra. Over time, a small town grew up around it to see to its needs, a mixture of offworld settlers and locals hoping to benefit from offworld wealth. Deep groundwater taps and hydroponics farms allowed life to flourish in the wastes, and a massive synthglass dome shielded them from the planet's harsh weather - a tiny, artificial oasis.

Twenty-six years ago, something went horribly wrong. Nobody living knows exactly what happened, but the resulting explosion leveled every structure outside the dome and scorched the land for dozens of klicks around. Only Dometown itself survived... after a fashion. The town was caught in a time loop: a perfect sphere approximately twenty klicks in diameter, repeating the 7 hours, 43 minutes, and 2 seconds leading up to the accident over and over again. The Loop, as it has come to be called, appears to be absolutely inviolate: nothing can enter. Nothing changes the events within. The people trapped inside live the same seven hours over and over, wholly unaware of the world outside.

However, the inverse is not true. Light escapes the confines of the Loop, else its contents would not be visible. More importantly, seventeen people left the dome over the course of those 7 hours. Every time the Loop resets, they emerge again, only to find themselves in a stranger and more hostile world: their home gone, visible but forever out of reach.

The first Loop-born struggled to survive, abruptly stranded in the Veehran desert with nothing but what they happened to take with them out of Dometown. Dune buggies and cargo haulers made for adequate improvised shelters, though not proof against the worst storms, and some of the groundwater pumps in the remains of outlying towns were salvageable; starvation, however, was an ever-present threat in those first years. Some left, hoping to find asylum among the desert nomads or the mountain-dwellers to the north. Most stayed, either unable to bring themselves to leave the remains of their home, or unwilling to abandon all of their time-displaced future selves. What began as a makeshift camp grew into a sprawling shantytown. Today, newly emerging Loop-born are greeted by a flourishing - if somewhat ramshackle - city populated by familiar faces: their own.

Spoiler: Geography

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"How do you know when you've reached Flatland?"
"When you look around and there's no landmarks visible in any direction."

The Great Western Waste - sometimes referred to as Flatland by its current inhabitants - is a victim of Veehra's climate and topography: trapped in the rainshadow cast by the northern mountain range, the unbroken dry expanse offers no protection from the planet's scouring winds. Without vegetation, the winds soon strip the region of topsoil, which in turn makes it even harder for plants to gain a foothold; this vicious cycle has persisted since the War of Eternal Bombardment, if not before. Most of the wasteland ecosystem is underground: mycelial networks, burrowing animals, and strange tuber-like sporophytes which reach the surface every few years to flower and scatter their seeds on the wind.

The most distinctive landmark by far is the Loop itself: a perfect half-sphere spanning nearly twenty klicks, replaying the events of a single day over and over without end. On clear days, Dometown itself is the main attraction, a deceptively delicate-looking glass bubble filled with lush green gardens and gleaming steel buildings. By night or in stormy weather, the sight grows stranger: the sky in the Loop is always clear and sunny, a peculiar bubble of blue against a backdrop of stars or dust. Then, of course, there is the spectacle of the last few minutes: spidery cracks spread through the air, followed by an explosion at the Imperial research lab, engulfing most of the town in increasingly slow motion before coming to a halt. The Loop lingers there for a minute, a firestorm trapped in time, before abruptly resetting to seven hours, forty-three minutes, and two seconds earlier.

Outside the Loop is the oldest and largest settlement of the Loop-born, called Anyport. In stark contrast to the clean lines and shining metal of the buildings caught inside, Anyport is a sprawling hodgepodge of makeshift shelters, cobbled together from scrap metal and repurposed vehicles. Closer inspection reveals that many of them are assembled from the same three cargo haulers, copied over and over again by the Loop. The farther one travels from the Loop, the newer the buildings get; most of these are partly or wholly underground, offering better insulation from storms and the nighttime cold.

To the northwest, the Great Western Waste gives way to the foothills of the lower Khassian range. Here the land is more forgiving; though rocky and arid, plants grow here, and the occasional river flows out of the mountains (before sinking underground when they reach the dusty plains). The Loop-Born have established three small outposts in these hills: two are attempts to establish a more stable agricultural base, with limited success so far, while the third is a small mining operation.

Spoiler: People

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The majority of the Castaways are the Loop-born: the seventeen people who, over the course of the seven hours before Dometown was trapped in a time loop, left the confines of the dome. Every time the Loop runs, another set of the same seventeen people emerge, identical down to the molecule. These seventeen people are as follows:

Spoiler: The Seventeen

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• Todd Stevens was a junior maintenance technician at the Imperial research station inside Dometown. The title may not sound impressive, but Todd's supervisor was an offworld appointee with more connections than actual ability; everyone in the lab knew that if you wanted something fixed, you went to Todd. Todd is skilled at maintaining a number of machines, ranging from power generators to dune buggies to esoteric devices for measuring kinds of radiation he's never heard of; just as importantly, he's got a knack for figuring out how to work machinery he's not already familiar with.
  
  Todd is vital to the Castaways; it is not an exaggeration to say that they would not exist today without the hard work of many Todds. However, Todd is also kind of an ass. The Loop-born need Todd; they do not need ten thousand Todds. Ten thousand Todds is a lot. For his part, Todd has more than a bit of wanderlust, and many Todds are happier setting out into the wider world to seek their fortune rather than settling down among their fellow Loop-born.
  
  
• Rasha Isak was a geologist, departing on an expedition into the deep desert. The daughter of two Imperial scientists, Rasha is local in the sense that she was born on the surface of Veehra; however, her heritage and upbringing amongst the Ophon-born staff of the research leads many of her peers to think of her as an offworlder, to her perennial frustration. Conversely, actual offworlders tend to see her as a jumped-up local, which can be just as irritating. There's a reason she went into a field that involved lots of long trips away from civilization.
  
  Rasha's education was not exactly aimed overseeing large-scale mining and excavation operations, but she's used to operating some of the relevant machinery, which is more than any of the other Loop-born can say. On top of that, she has valuable experience dealing with other cultures - most notably those of Ophon (by way of her upbringing) and the nearby desert nomads (by virtue of having encountered them a number of times on survey). As a result, she is one of the Seventeen's first choices when it comes to diplomacy, despite not having an especially conciliatory personality.
  
  Though she arguably has a claim to Imperial citizenship, Rasha rarely if ever seeks to pursue it: the older ones hold a personal grudge against the Empire for not sending any support in the desperate early years, and the younger ones feel more connected to their Veehran roots and fellow Loop-born than any distant Ophon relatives who might still be alive.
  
  
• Margaret Gibbs, better known as "Marge from accounting", is a no-nonsense woman in her mid-50s. On paper, Marge was a senior clerk for the Dometown municipal authority; in practice, she was their institutional memory. If you had a fiddly question and you didn't know where to look, you went to her, and she'd either know the answer offhand or tell you who you should be talking to instead. After the Loop, she transferred her organizational talents to the task of keeping the Loop-born fed and housed. Many Marges work with the Logistics and Rationing Group, and those that don't tend to do similar work on a smaller scale.
  
  Marge had a couple of kids back in the Loop, both grown; she doesn't talk about this much, preferring to keep herself busy with work.
  
  
• Dave Simmons was a postal worker out doing his daily rounds. He left a wife and kid back in Dometown, expecting to get back in a couple hours after dropping off some packages in the neighboring towns. And he did - but his thousands of time-clones found themselves locked away from their families forever. It tends to hit him pretty hard; many of the Loop-born struggle with depression and grief, but Daves are more prone to it than most.
  
  As the only person trained to pilot an aerial vehicle of any kind, Daves tend to end up in piloting jobs. They like to complain that spacecraft and cargo jets aren't really very similar to their old mail skimmer, but it's more than anyone else starts with, and the truth is that Daves usually like flying.
  
  
• Rhonda Morris drove a long-distance cargo hauler. Even in the future, someone's gotta move things from point A to point B. Rhonda was one of those someones. It's not a job you go into if you mind being alone, and indeed, Rhonda is a fairly solitary, private sort of person. Nobody else among the Seventeen knew her before; she didn't have a lot of friends, if any, and she never talks about her family. But while some Rhondas seem content to remain alone, many of them blossom in the admittedly bizarre social environment of the Loop, forming tight-knit bonds with a small group of people.
  
  Rhonda is an experienced hand behind the wheel, and at operating a freight waldo. Like most haulers, she's also proficient at basic vehicle maintenance; in the post-Loop world, this translates to an unexpected facility with construction work, since many of their buildings are made out of the rigs she's spent her life workng on and in.
  
  
• Gerald Malone also drove a long-distance cargo hauler. Unlike Rhonda, he's a gregarious guy, with a girlfriend at home and a circle of friends at every pub and truck stop on his route. Of all the Loop-born, Geralds tend to have the easiest time adjusting to their new life: they make friends easily, they're not inclined to dwell on the past, and they firmly believe that their family and girlfriend and all their old buds would want them to move on and be happy as best they can. (Not that this isn't true of many other loved ones lost to the Loop - but it's one thing to believe it in your head, and quite another to believe it with the heart.) While it's healthy for him, this attitude is sometimes grating for people who are struggling to process the loss; some Geralds learn to be tactful about this, while others remain oblivious.
  
  Gerald has the same skills and inclinations as Rhonda, but tends to be more outgoing and less perceptive.
  
  
• Jamie Collins wasn't a cargo hauler by trade; they were just here to pick up supplies for their tiny off-the-grid commune in the hills. Hailing from outside Dometown puts them in an usual position among the Loop-born: on the one hand, it means they lost everyone they knew in a single swoop, without the dubious hope and comfort offered by knowing they're still alive inside the Loop. On the other hand, without that eternal reminder Jamie is probably better-equipped to move on than anyone else. They're over fifty and lived in the desert; they're no stranger to loss.
  
  Jamie has an eclectic skillset that includes but is not limited to driving a cargo rig. Out of all the Loop-born, they were probably the best-suited to rebuilding society from scratch, and the Castaways' present society owes much to Jamie's experience living in a small non-hierarchical collective.
  
  
• Doris Caldwell was an retired septegenarian, heading out to visit her niece in the next town over. Prior to retirement she was a nurse, an extraordinarily valuable skill in the post-Loop world; unfortunately, her age and frailty make it difficult for her to continue working, but her medical knowledge is the foundation of the Castaways' health care industry.
  
  Doris occupies a peculiar social position among the Loop-born: they're fond of her, but not many are close to them. The unfortunate truth is that, because of her age, Doris isn't around for very long - few live more than ten or twenty years - and she rarely strays far from the baseline. Most people have known and lost a Doris, and it takes a hardy sort of soul to let themselves get close to another one.
  
  
• Hudson Wilson, Meredith Wilson, and their two children Tina and Oliver were a family of four who left Dometown on what was supposed to be a relaxing family vacation. The Wilsons are among the most stable of the Loop-born, a fact that sometimes serves to isolate them from their fellows - those who left everyone behind in the Loop find it hard not to envy or resent them for having their closest loved ones with them. The Wilsons themselves are aware they could have it worse, but they don't consider themselves lucky to have to raise their children in what might as well be a post-apocalyptic world.
  
  Meredith was a plumber; while not glamorous, this has proven incredibly practical in the post-Loop world. Hudson, on the other hand, was a manager at a general store, a skillset that doesn't have an obvious application when it comes to rebuilding society from scraps in the desert; they frequently struggle with feelings of inadequacy as a result, with varying degrees of success.
  
  Being children, Tina and Oliver vary more than any other Loop-born. At thirteen and nine, respectively, they don't have careers, and their personalities are still very much in flux. The only thing keeping them even remotely similar is the influence of their parents, but even so, any two Olivers are more likely to come off as siblings than clones - an impression very much reinforced by the fact that young Tinas and Olivers tend to spend a lot of time amongst one another, since there aren't many other children among the Loop-born.
  
  
• Sadie Carter and Mary-Anne Wells were a young couple who left Dometown on a romantic getaway. Like the Wilsons, they were lucky enough to avoid being separated from their partner; unlike the Wilsons, they left a toddler behind with a babysitter. Most of them cleave tighter together in the wake of the loss, but it's not uncommon for them to break up under the pressure. The other Loop-born encourage them to bond with other people rather than withdrawing into each other, which seems to help - the success rate of the Sadie/Mary-Anne relationship has gone up in recent years.
  
  Sadie is a gardener; though she specialized in growing ornamental plants and luxury foodstuffs rather than industrial agriculture, she's more than capable of operating a hydroponic farm... provided they can find a way to keep it working in Veehra's harsh weather, a difficult task without the bubble that protected her work in Dometown.
  
  Mary-Anne worked at a pharmacy, a skillset of sharply limited use in a society that doesn't have the technology to synthesize drugs with the press of a button. Older Mary Annes have a diverse skillset as a result, while younger Mary-Annes often contend with feeling like they're a burden on everyone around them. The usual route suggested is to apprentice themselves to a Doris and learn to practice medicine in a more low-tech environment, and Mary-Annes have accordingly begun gravitating towards medical roles in greater numbers.
  
  
• Carl Kent was a pest control and contamination specialist, one of the people tasked with keeping unwanted Veerhan organisms like fungi and burrowing insects from getting a foothold in Dometown. He's meticulous, detail-oriented, and laid-back. He left a husband back in the Loop; though one of the least likely to give up on his Loop-bound partner, Carl is usually good at putting that part of his life on hold and coping with the company of new friends.
  
  Carl's skills are useful, but not so useful that they need thousands of people working at it; Carls tend to branch out into whatever related field seems most useful at the time, whether that be architecture, hunting, or designing vacuum seals.
  
  
• Janice Shaw was a receptionist at the local city hall. She's chipper, outgoing, and endlessly patient, both by inclination and because it was her job; these qualities make her an invaluable social lubricant amongst the Loop-born. Helping other people cope with their trauma helps ease her own... but it's not always enough, and she has an unfortunate tendency to downplay or ignore her own emotional needs in favor of others.
  
  Janice is also a bit of a werewolf, being the granddaughter of an Ishtahn trader who married a local and settled down. She hasn't inherited much, other than her height, sensitive disposition, and a tendency to grow claws and body hair in sunlight, but she was close with her grandfather and many Janices attempt to reconnect with their heritage in one way or another.
  
  
• Jeremy Carlisle was going to interview for his second ever job as a tech support in one of the outlying towns. Barely an adult when he was suddenly cut off from his family, friends, and society, Jeremy struggles more than most to find his footing in the post-Loop world. How he turns out is largely dependent on the people around him; he has a tendency to emulate the people who support him, and older Jeremies often end up diverging drastically from one another in personality and skills.
  
  Jeremy's technical skills are mostly confined to software; this was of limited use in the period immediately following the Loop, but it's become more and more useful as the Castaways get a proper manufacturing base up and running. This alone makes it easier for modern Jeremies to adjust.

All of the Loop-born are disoriented and traumatized when they first emerge. In the beginning, grief and loss were forced to take a backseat to the basic necessities of survival. These days, the Castaways can afford to take better care of their younger time-clones, and a not-inconsiderable chunk of Loop-born society is aimed at easing their transition into the post-Loop world. They have enough resources that they can give newcomers time to grieve before asking that they contribute to the community's needs. Morover, they've become expert at predicting how the seventeen particular people who comprise their society will react to trauma, and how best to help them recover and move past it (to the extent that any of them ever move past it).

Although they share experiences for the first ten to seventy years of their lives, the Loop-born are distinct individuals - no two Todds or Rhondas are exactly the same. The extent to which they identify with their time-clones varies amongst the Seventeen; Gerald, Doris, and the Wilson children are famously friendly with their other selves, treating them as old friends even if they've never met, while many Rhondas actively avoid the company of their fellows. Most fall somewhere in between the two extremes. It's reasonably common for younger Loop-born to try to radically distinguish themselves from their template, in a loose cultural equivalent to teenage rebellion.

Early on, the Loop-born tried distinguishing themselves via nicknames and variants, but quickly realized this was unsustainable and settled for appending numbers to their original names: Todd 3932, Janice 41226, Rasha 818, and so on. Some still try to pick different names, particularly those hell-bent on differentiating themselves from their template; somewhat awkwardly, though, name preferences are frequently shared, and most Loop-born who try to rename themselves find that their first few choices have been used multiple times.

Not everyone among the Castaways is Loop-born. Children are not common: Dometown's people had contraceptive implants as a matter of course, allowing conception to take place with a routine medical procedure but rendering them otherwise infertile, and until two decades ago this procedure was not trivially replicable for the Castaways. Even now that the option exists, few take advantage. Of the Seventeen, three are too old to have children, four are mourning partners and/or children left behind in the Loop, and three don't typically want kids; of the remaining seven, three are related by blood. Romance is a tangled and difficult matter even before introducing the prospect of kids. Many of those who accept their families are gone and decide to start over choose to emigrate, so that their new lives and families don't have to exist in the literal shadow of their old one. And finally, there simply aren't enough different people for the descendants of the Loop-born to establish a stable breeding population without becoming uncomfortably incestuous within a couple generations.

Nonetheless, uncommon is not nonexistent; around ten percent of the Castaways are children or grand-children of the Loop-born. More than half of them are descended from the Wilsons. It's not common for Meredith to have a third child, but it's not unheard-of either; the younger siblings of Tina and Oliver enjoy a vast cohort of older brothers and sisters of varying ages. Tina herself is among the most likely of the Loop-born women to want kids, though her dating life is sometimes made complicated by the fact that most prospects either a) knew her when she was a kid, or b) are freshly emerged from the Loop. (Oliver is similarly afflicted; third-generation children find their romantic prospects even more cramped.) Aside from the Wilsons, Gerald, Janice, and Jeremy are the most common parents.

Most of those descended from the Loop-born emigrate eventually, and not just because of how difficult dating is. The Castaways are fundamentally built around a small community of seventeen, writ large; it is precisely targeted at their needs and designed around their capabilities. They all know and trust one another, to some extent, even if they've never met. No matter what they do, the Unlooped never quite fit into this dynamic.

Immigrants are by far the smallest demographic among the Castaways. Merchants who sense opportunity in the Loop-born's desperation and obsession, traders who fall for a local and marry in, and a few people drawn to study the bizarre phenomenon that is the Loop... it takes a peculiar sort of person to look at the Castaways' society and decide that that's where they want to live, but it happens.

Spoiler: Government

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The Loop-born are better described as an overgrown commune than a traditional government. Though initially they made all decisions as a group, the population quickly grew too large to feasibly let everyone have their say in important decisions; it was decided that each of the Seventeen would elect one of their number to serve as a governing council, a policy that has continued even as their numbers swelled from hundreds to tens of thousands. For some of the Seventeen, this position is hotly contested, involving complex multi-stage election processes, delegate rotas, or (in one case) an extremely labyrinthine questionnaire and spreadsheet. More disinterested individuals generally choose a spokesperson by lottery from the few willing to take on the job. The Group of Seventeen is responsible for making decisions that affect the entire community, such as rationing or interfacing with foreign polities; outside these capacities they have no formal authority.

Below the Group of Seventeen exists the Logistics and Rationing Group, responsible for apportioning and distributing scarce community resources - most notably food, but some medicines and a few hard-to-manufacture devices fall into this category too. Every so often, people express concern over the Logistics Group's near-absolute authority over basic necessities... but the truth is that somebody has to worry about these things, and the Logistics Group has thus far done a fairly good job of being even-handed. Right now, most of the Castaways prefer to trust Logistics to work in good faith, rather than saddling them with more bureaucracy and oversight - trying to keep everyone fed and alive is a thankless job already.

Outside of these areas, the Castaways are largely left to sort themselves out. The primary unit of local government is the domicile: quite literally, a group of people (usually between 5 and 20) who share the same living space. Some domiciles have detailed codes of 'law' governing social norms and conflict resolution, while others get by with nebulous guidelines and compatible personalities. When disputes within a domicile - or between domiciles - prove intractable, the most expedient solution is often for one or both parties to move to a distant building; shelter is one resource the Castaways have aplenty, and most grudges will cool when given a few klicks of space.

Crime is quite rare among the Castaways; some of the more philosophically inclined among them debate whether this is due to shared hardship, shared identity (the prospect of thousands of your clones expressing disapproval, embarassment, or anger is a nontrivial deterrent), or lacking most of the socio-economic factors that give rise to crime. Rare, however, is not nonexistent. Violent altercations are far from unheard of, as scarcity and cramped conditions inflame tempers; fortunately these are usually no worse than a fist-fight, and unless serious injuries result the matter is left for individual domiciles to resolve. Food theft is a more serious matter, and one which remains highly divisive among the Seventeen - though thankfully rare these days, many of the older Loop-born remember bitter arguments on the subject of what penalties they have the right to enact, the effectiveness of punishment as a deterrent, and the balance between necessary actions and moral ones.

Spoiler: Faith

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The population of Dometown was not particularly spiritual. Sheltered from the desert for generations by Imperial technological largesse, faith in Mother Serpent or the blessings of the Sun faded into secular indifference. What need had they to fear the storm, or beg the aid of the heavens?

The advent of the Loop changed that. Faced with hardship and loss, people seek comfort in some notion of a higher power, and the Loop-born are no exception. The Loop is something akin to a dark miracle, destroying their lives and saving them at the same time. It cannot be explained; it cannot be fought or placated or reasoned with. It simply is.

So far, this fledgling faith is more akin to a support group than a church. Its adherents gather periodically to share stories of the loved ones and home they lost, and hold a ceremony of remembrance on the anniversary of the cataclysm. There are no moral teachings, no hierarchies or trappings; only the belief that pain shared is pain lessened, and voicing anger and grief weakens their grip on the heart.

The Requiem for the Loop is a plurality: common, but not yet universal. There is a minority of the Church of the Benevolent Sun, consisting mostly of Janice and a few non-Loopborn with Ishtahn heritage.

Spoiler: Resources

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Resource: Todd (Specialist)
Todd Stevens was a junior maintenance technician at the Imperial research station inside Dometown. The title may not sound impressive, but Todd's supervisor was an offworld appointee with more connections than actual ability; everyone in the lab knew that if you wanted something fixed, you went to Todd. Todd is skilled at maintaining a number of machines, ranging from power generators to dune buggies to esoteric devices for measuring kinds of radiation he's never heard of; just as importantly, he's got a knack for figuring out how to work machinery he's not already familiar with.

Todd is vital to the Loop-born state; it is not an exaggeration to say that it would not today exist without the hard work of many Todds. However, Todd is also kind of an ass. The Loop-born need Todd; they do not need ten thousand Todds. Ten thousand Todds is a lot. For his part, Todd has more than a bit of wanderlust, and many Todds are happier setting out into the wider world to seek their fortune rather than settling down among their fellow Loop-born.

Desired Import: Food
Though starvation is no longer the ever-present threat it was in the early years, the food supply is neither as plentiful nor as reliable as they'd like. Rationing remains in effect, and variety is scarce.

Spoiler: Technology

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Aclaustic Psychology: If there's one thing the Loop-born excel at, it's co-existing with the same ten people in an enclosed space for long periods of time.
Dust Hardening: The Loop-born are accustomed to living and traveling in the deep desert.

Spoiler: On terminology

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Castaways of the Loop describes the society that has sprung up around the Loop. This is the most inclusive term; when in doubt, use it, it may not be the most precise word available but it's rarely wrong.

The Group of Seventeen is the formal name of the polity, used mostly on official paperwork and when conducting international diplomacy. It's also the name of their ruling body; this is sometimes confusing to outsiders, but the Castaways hardly ever describe themselves as a state this way when talking amongst themselves.

Loop-born refers specifically to the people who are copied over and over again by the Loop. It's often used as a shorthand for the culture as a whole; this isn't technically accurate, as it excludes both the descendants of the Loop-born and the few people who choose to immigrate, but that doesn't stop people from doing it anyway.

Non-Loopborn living among the Castaways are sometimes called the Unlooped, Unique, or Individuals. However, none of these terms are without controversy: the first is alienating to the children of Loop-born, who don't always care for an exonym that highlights the thing that sets them apart, while the second can be a gut punch to younger Loop-born struggling with the existential crisis brought on by discovering you have ten-thousand time-clones (most of whom are older and more experienced than you). Non-Loopborn is the safest, most neutral term, but it hasn't really caught on.

[DKArthas]

The Radiant Republic of Erisdor
Region of Preference: 32(Sansar)
Approved

Spoiler: Summary

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Capital: Dun Ailinne

Demonym: Fomirians

Political System: Unitary Presidential Republic

Capital Region: Erisdor [32, Sansar]

Starting Technologies: Arcane Amplification, Wet Navy Ships

Starting Faith: Cult of Radiance (Majority)

Faction Support:
Government: The Radiant Republic
Mercantile: The Radiant Republic
Media: The Radiant Republic

Resources: Fell Iron [Ores and Alloys/Magical Items]
Import: Fuel and Power

Spoiler: Geography

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Protected from the cold arctic winds by the Mountains of Mourne to the south, the coastal region is fairly fertile, watered as it is by cold rivers descending from the snowy peaks that disgorge themselves in the warmer ocean, forming estuaries at the mouth. Towns and cities dotting the coasts and the rivers, are largely sustained by both farming and fishing. Whales are a common staple in the region as well as a wide variety of other fishes.

The southern mountains that make up much of the region are home to a flourishing and profitable mining industry, the metals and minerals continuously dug up are carried to the coasts, for both export and to feed the local factories that always hunger for more. Canals connect many of the rivers and as such waterways remain the primary method of transportation. Much of the unique flora and fauna has been damaged by reckless industrialization or hunted down into extinction by inbred nobles, with many forests nearly entirely gone and only now starting to recover.

Dun Ailinne, situated at the mouth of the Suir river is the capital of the republic. Once a city of decadent palaces and exquisite manors, surrounded by bourgeois districts and ramshackle slums of the working poors. Now the center of the city has been transformed into the administrative hub of the government, with the old palaces repurposed into museums, offices and universities. Great towers of steel and glass stab out of the ground further afield like the fingers of a giant, testament to how far reason and virtue has brought the republic. At the harbor, carved from iron and stone, is the grand statue of the martyred founder of the republic; Cethleann Fhiaclach.

Spoiler: People

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The region is inhabited by the Fomir, a long living species of tall human-like creatures with dark skin and pointed ears. Majority of the population has largely interbreed with local humans over the many generations. Pure blooded Formirians tended to be carnivores. It is for this reason that they came out of the dark places of the world. They were renowned smiths and highly knowledgeable in the arts of metallurgy.

Once the people were ruled by this aristocratic caste, ever more obsessed with blood purity and a strict racially hierarchical society. But now, after the Radiant revolution, such backward ideas have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Now, much more egalitarian ideals have taken center stage in the fomorian society that prize liberty and equality. Where once only those with the purest bloodlines could become court officials, high officers and so on, now all such positions and much more are open on the basis of merit, and who better to judge merit than fellow citizens?

It is said that virtue is found in love for the republic and all it's many people, and that there are few things more virtuous than selfless dedication toward defending the foundational laws and principle on which it stands. Such are the belief that the republic attempts to instill in its citizens. There are those who whisper that one day the entire world will be free of tyrants and a republic of virtue will encompass the globe.

Spoiler: Government

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The Radiant Republic of Erisdor is largely a centralized democratic state, with powers shared between the Sovereign Protector, who leads the executive branch and the Radiant Congress; a bicameral legislature, with the lower house popularly elected by all adult citizens of the republic and the higher house consisting of representatives from the trade unions, business associations, universities and temples of reason. The Sovereign Protector is elected for a period of twelve years by a smaller electorate largely consisting of veterans, soldiers and reservists, and is bequeathed ultimate authority on diplomatic and military matters to ensure the integrity and safety of the revolution from hostile forces.

The republic is divided further into seven administrative districts, with the governors for each chosen by the Sovereign Protector from a list of candidates sent by the legislature. Elected councils exist in each prefecture to ensure local representation and popular governance.

Most of the political class largely believes in the sanctity of free flow of goods and services. It's only when all unnatural influences are removed, that the economy can flourish and grow. Of course, it is assumed that the private businesses are owned by patriotic citizens in good standing, not anti-nationalist elements. Media is similarly freely allowed to criticize individuals, but republican institutions are considered beyond reproach.

Spoiler: Resources

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Fell Iron [Ores and Alloys/Magical Items]: Once the most sacred metal to the Fomir people, only wielded by seasoned warriors, priests and champions among the nobility. Now almost all machinery and buildings are forged of this mystical iron. Iron dug from the mountains is imbued with arcane powers during the alloying process, and is capable of attaining a wide variety of desired properties.

Spoiler: Desired Import

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Fuel and Power: Fossil fuels and other cheap sources of energy have been exhausted in Erisdor due to rampant exploitation. Requiring the need to look further afield for alternatives sources, to provide for the growing economy.

Spoiler: Faith

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Cult of Radiance

The old religion of the Fomir was born out of fear and ignorance of the unknown. Of a great calamity inflicted on the ancestors for some long forgotten sin, that sent them crawling underground, into sun-shorn caves, and deeper still into the lightless earth. The old cult centered around appeasement of the unknowable dark through ritual sacrifices and ever more exacting tribute. In return, instead of destruction, the priests were said to be granted terrible powers; to rend flesh from bones with a whisper and forge cruel weapons of iron, blessed with awful powers.

Now, the old cult lies largely suppressed, with its temples reconsecrated by the cold purifying light of reason, turned into the hearts for a new civic cult that exalts liberty and virtue, that were embodied in the republic's founder. The New Cult does not fear the unknown, but instead seeks to understand it, and in time perhaps overcome the Old Enemy dwelling in the great dark beyond. The most sacred temple of the old faith is situated deep into the mountains, under twisting caverns, it has become a site of pilgrimage and worship for those who have embraced the new cult as well. The sacrificial altar has long been replaced with a statue of Cethleann the Radiant. Some say it is forged with her ashes mixed with melted iron from the altar.

The mystical magicks of the old cult have been modernized and transformed into another science through the tireless efforts of the Cult of Radiance. Once sacrifices were necessary to achieve even the smallest of effects, now new revolutionary methods allow for the conversion of electrical energy into arcane power, allowing it to be used en masse to enchant metals and more in ways that the priests of old couldn't conceive of. Though rumors and hushed whispers claiming that the new cult has not completely discarded the old sacrificial rituals still stubbornly persist. Such slanderous and vile thoughts are to be fully ignored.

The Cult of Radiance is the majority faith in the region, it started among the soldiers and intellectuals, and has now come to encompass much of the population as well.

Spoiler: History

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It is said in the oldest of legends, scrawled on the dead sun scrolls, that when the great lord of the dark unleashed his fury on the world, mountains were shorn, earth riven from stone, rivers boiled and all was lost. The few of the ancestors who survived did so by fleeing deeper into the earth, where they lived and bred for countless generations in the dark. When they crawled out of the caves, unused to the blinding light of the sun and armed with weapons of fell iron, they found the humans, living among the ruins of the past. Like a merciless scourge, the Fomir descended on them, and in a period of over a century or more slaughtered many of the tribes on the coasts and put into chains those that survived.

The coming centuries would see them slowly adapt to living on the surface world, and become increasingly dependent on slave labour, as they numbered comparatively few in numbers despite their great skill and awful powers. It would be in this time period that breeding with the humans would begin, creating a new caste of half breeds. In time, they would become the majority in the lands, and many among them would come to be used to help enforce order and eventually integrated as higher statured servants of the ruling caste of purebloods. The priesthood would keep increasingly obsessive genealogies and records of bloodlines, tracing descent of even the lowliest of servants. It would be on the basis of such carefully kept records that many would be assigned their position in society.

But this situation would not last forever, resentment would grow among the masses and so would the influence of the half bloods as the Fomirian kingdom would seek to crash industrialize and modernize to keep up with their regional rivals; there would not be enough pures to fill the burgeoning bureaucracy or, the expanding officer class, leading to increasing reliance on their lesser. It would eventually culminate in a coup led by a clique of reformist officers, and the near fall of the old regime, but the aristocratic forces would not admit defeat so easily. A civil war would ensue, that would turn into a revolution and lead to a far more radical future than anyone originally intended.

Turning point of the Civil War would arrive after the Battle of Vagh Lothal, a dreadful day-long clash concluding with the rebels routed from the field and much of their leadership decimated. Many of the survivors would be rallied by an inspiring young female officer, who would lead the retreat to Dun Ailinne. Decisively taking command of the city and stubbornly refusing to admit defeat even as many despaired, Cethleanne would go out among the masses, to passionately extort them to help defend the city. One of her first actions would be to burn and ransack the exhaustively kept records of lineages at the temples, with that one simple act winning her the love of thousands upon thousands. Any talk of surrender or dissent at her actions would be ruthlessly squashed afterwards, with many finding themselves a head shorter or torn apart by the mob the next day. Street by street, the city would be fortified, with cannons emplaced at key locations and the ground carefully prepared for the coming struggle.

Supremely confident in their might, the purebloods in the meantime, would make a sport of slowly hunting down the rest of the survivors that fled into the countryside before moving on to the city, letting gruesome and nightmarish tales of fates of traitors herald their arrival. Expecting a terrified population, ripe for the slaughter, they would fall headfirst into a cunningly wrought trap and quickly find themselves on the backfoot, nearly entirely repulsed from the city. This defeat and the subsequent retreat would break their aura of invincibility and spell there doom in the days to come, when revolts in other territories would follow. After a drawn out struggle, and numerous heroics, Erisdor would find itself reunited and reforged into a republic at the hands of Cethleann and her army, much of which consisted of freed slaves by the end.

Spoiler: Technology

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Arcane Amplification
Wet Water Navy

Don't mind most likely being rejected since Sansar is full and all. But eh, wanted to post it nevertheless, since I am done with it.

[Lt-Murgen]

Tentative place holder for a claimant on Region 3. I will get a write-up done most rapidly.

[Morph Bark]

Greetings, fellow travelers! I would like to reserve region 88.

The Llort Society Protectorate

Pitch: Space magic demon scientist/explorers who wish to serve only the Greater Good of the Empire, through research and development of further ways to explore the galaxy and connect the people of the Empire together.

Capital: Region 88

Demonym: llort (people), Sosai / Societese (language)

Starting Faith: the Imperial Cult (Majority)

Resource: Crystal Weave (Conductors & Circuitry + Fabrics and Textile Products)
Desired Import: Ores and Alloys

Starting Technologies: Arcane Amplification, Vacuum Adaptation

Spoiler: Geography - al-Miraiya d'Hayeli (MIR), CWD-31

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The Llort Society Protectorate has based itself on the CWD-31 asteroid, more commonly called al-Miraiya d'Hayeli. When seen from other asteroids in the Mekhala belt, it appears as shining as a tiny star, a companion to distant Ophon.

This is a feature of the mirrored flats, vast fields that form the surface of al-Miraiya, a sheen of shining silica, mixed with metal and gemstone all together in some big reflective puzzle. This causes people's stay on al-Miraiya to absolutely require sunglasses and other tools to prevent being blinded. They'll also need thick rubber boots to prevent from being shocked, unless they never touch the ground.

The llort live in and welcome any guests in their domed residences called lightning domes, for their surface crackles with electric charges. These domes are well-insulated and only dimly lit on the inside, often just from the glow of its residents.

One large feature visible from space (to those that can withstand looking directly at al-Miraiya) is a huge, curved gap, a crevasse called the Mouth of the Emperor since time immemorial. This crevasse goes deep into the heart of al-Miraiya and is where people are officially inducted into the Society as adults.

Spoiler: People - the Llort and the Society

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While the Society is open to more species, the grand majority of them (~69-88%) consists of the llort species.

Appearance
An adult llort appears between 6 ft / 180 cm and 8 ft / 240 cm tall with a roughly humanoid shape and sinewy bodies. Their skin comes in all the colours of a rainbow and more, though the main bloodlines identified are Red-spectrum, Green-spectrum, Blue-spectrum, Octarine-spectrum, Infra-spectrum (sometimes appearing black, sometimes red), Ultra-spectrum (sometimes appearing black, sometimes violet) and The Color Out of Space (magenta). In addition, one may encounter solitary greybloods, also called the Desaturated or Uncoloured.

Llort have a pair of horns atop their head and bony growths on their backs. They have tails that can be as thick as their legs. Their toes are clawed. Horns, claws, fingernails and teeth are typically black, though some llort are known to dye them. Some llort have hair implants, usually as a gift from a hair-having friendly peoples. Their eyes have black sclera and the irises are typically golden yellow or silvery white.

It is said that llort once had wings, when the Empire was strong. Now, any llort that do have little more than stumps. Some llort scientists dream of one day giving the llort their wings back, either literally or figuratively.

Biology
Llort are adapted to life in space. They are bioluminescent and their bodies run warm from an inner heat. They have very tough smooth skin and don't sweat, instead radiating heat from the bony growths on their backs, their horns and mouths. Llort consume food as humans do and can consume raw ore as well. Llort do not poop. Instead any potential waste gets burnt to add to their internal heat and any remaining particles get expelled with the air coming out of their backs. This occasionally results in a "belch" of noxious smoke after a particularly harsh meal.

Culture - The Society
The Society is built entirely around the ideal of being the Emperor's eyes and ears on the edges of the Empire. To serve. To pray. To explore. To learn. To know.

The Society aims itself towards progress, universal exploration, and unity with its fellow Empire citizens. To that end, occasionally solitary llort are catapulted out of the Mouth of the Emperor into space, to go and explore or lay contact with other peoples.

Culture - The Llort
Llort typically are raised in "wing families" by elderly llort who are past child-birthing age, typically ~120 at the youngest. These are usually a mixture of different bloodlines of llort. Some of the parents may be a non-llort Society member, but at least one is always a llort.

When a llort reaches the legal age of adulthood as dictated by the Empire's records--18 standard years old, although biological maturity is later--they are inducted officially in the Society. A ceremony is conducted in the heart of al-Miraiya once every 3 years for the llort that reached age 18 in the past 3 years.

At this point, a llort will also enter a "horn family" of their choice, which are typically made up mostly of llort of around their age and of the same bloodline, but without any biological siblings or first cousins. A database is kept to ensure no incest will occur. Usually a llort will have already found and chosen a suitable horn family before being inducted into the Society.

History
According to official history logs, the Society was formed 200 standard years ago, and the llort predate it by some time. The logs state that the llort exist because the Emperor found them at the edge of Ophon's light, beyond Mekhala, while the Emperor was searching for long-lost human life. The logs state that the llort are humans, unaltered by anything but evolution in the farthest reaches of space in the times before any of Empire's logs. What lies in those dark depths of history is but left up to Faith alone... at least until the llort can find that knowledge again.

Spoiler: Resources

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The Society's greatest resource is the crystal weave, a kind of cloth magically crafted from silica, gold, platinum and carbon. It flows fluidly like silk and can be used to conduct electricity incredibly efficiently. This makes it incredibly useful in the creation of a lot of technological devices, as well as a channel for the Society's brand of magic.

Unfortunately, while the resources necessary for it are available locally, other ores and alloys are not. The Society has great need for these to create their protective homes and any mundane devices and tools.

Spoiler: Faith - the Imperial Cult

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Just like Mekhala lies on the edge of the known world, the Imperial Cult lies on the edge of the known, period. Science is key to where we have reached, but where our knowledge ends, our faith begins. The Imperial Cult is worship of the Emperor as a holy being, role model and guide, much like the star Ophon is a guide in the sky to navigate by when high-tech tools fail.

The llort's faith is about the unknown, of Holy Space and what lies therein and beyond. The Emperor and Their Star, Ophon, are a lodestone in this faith, and al-Miraiya is its mirror, like a pendulum swinging from the lodestone center. The Emperor is its official head, with local representatives chosen by Society members to make up a web, a network of nodes, of people, of knowledge, connecting all throughout the blackness of Holy Space.

Magic
One thing that lies on the edge of the known is magic. It requires both faith and understanding. The magic of the Society is based in light, like the light the llort naturally emit. Others can learn to harness this as well and to shape the light into useable, hard-light forms.

[Minescratcher]

Recruitment for Empire! 8 is now temporarily closed. Anyone who posts interest after this post will be placed on the waitlist.

If you have posted interest and your region is not yet approved, please make an effort to have your writeup complete and ready for approval by 12 PM EST on Wednesday, January 24th. If your writeup is still incomplete at that time, your spot may be taken by someone on the waitlist.

If you are still on the waitlist when Round 1 starts, you will be asked to fill in for players who drop out of the game, either taking over their country or taking over an unowned region with your own writeup. There is a single person whom contacted the GM Privately via PM who currently holds the tentative #1 spot on the waitlist once the game begins.

Thank you all so much for the overwhelming interest! I never expected recruitment to move as quickly as it did or to involve so many people. I'm sorry that the waitlist is necessary, but hopefully everyone will get the chance to engage in the game at some point.

Additionally, please be aware that due to my own expectations being exceeded and to better accommodate the distribution of players, I will be adding a few new regions to certain parts of the map by splitting and rearranging existing borders. If your region is affected, I will assign you to the new region that most closely matches your writeup; if you would rather be moved to a different region after seeing the revised maps, let me know.

[Minescratcher]

As announced above, I have added three regions each to Sansar, Veehra, and Mekhala to help deal with a higher player density than anticipated. Here are the revised set of maps of Tekhum, and each player's new region number on the maps. I apologize for any confusion this causes, but the game will hopefully be a teeny bit less cramped! If you think there's been an error in moving you to the same or closest similar region, or if you would rather be moved to a different region after seeing the revised maps, please let me know ASAP.

Spoiler: New Atlas

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Spoiler: Approved players new region numbers

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Please make the appropriate edits in your Planets thread post!

• Lumaeus: 46
• Feathersnow: 84
• hermanthedragon: 42
• Kythia: 33
• Galantyne: 29
• bc56: 97
• Volthawk: 25 (no change)
• Arjki: 30
• SerakHawk: 10 (no change)
• Gaius Hermicus: 98
• MrHeadcrab: 50
• RocketRelm: 44
• ArdeneRitter: 17 (no change)
• TheDarkDM: 76
• Aerin: 69
• Farothel: 71
• Corona: 23 (no change)
• Grim ranger: 16 (no change)
• moossabi: 36
• D&D_Fan: 54
• Tychris: 73
• JBarca: 89
• Stygian: 11 (no change)
• Tentreto: 57
• BladeofObliviom: 74
• MappyPK: 52

Spoiler: WIP players new region numbers

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Please edit these into your application post if needed!

• lleban: Badal (no change)
• Rolepgeek: 2 (no change)
• lt-murgen: 3 (no change)
• Gengy: 5 or 6 (no change)
• DKArthas: 32
• Salbazier: 41
• Lady Serpentine: 58
• The_Snark: 62
• Elemental: 65
• Dawsnow: 68
• Morph Bark: 88
• xanxosttheslaad: 87
• Jade_Tarem: 91
• Tala_Whitecap: 93
• zabbarot: Mekhala (no change)

I will update the thread OP with the maps shortly.

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Approvals:

The House of Brimstone
Requested Region: Mekhala for sure. preferably a smaller asteroid

Terrifying. You're provisionally approved in Region 79, but please make it a bit more explicit that the Arch Magi history is not necessarily entirely accurate (or at least, given the chaos of the War, that it's both unverifiable and unfalsifiable). Also, give me a sentence describing why Kish needs Fissile Materials, and for tracking clarity reasons, give me a name for the resource that doesn't duplicate the name of its category, and you'll be good to go.

The Radiant Republic of Erisdor
Region of Preference: 31(Sansar)

Don't mind most likely being rejected since Sansar is full and all. But eh, wanted to post it nevertheless, since I am done with it.

Lucky for you, you're the last player Sansar can fit I'd like another sentence or two about the events of the Radiant Revolution, and please make it explicit what the name of the dominant faith is, whether it's a mechanical majority or plurality, and if there are any mechanical minorities in the region.

The Ethen Guard (ETH)
Requested Region: 86 (Mekhala) (Backup: 72)

I love what you've got, but it feels more like a starting point. I'd like to see at least your Geography, People, and Faith sections fleshed out a bit more. Is the "landscape" meant to be a terraformed or maybe Petit Prince-style asteroid, or just a normal airless asteroid with lichen and animals on it (and if so where does the ether of the atmosphere come from)? Also, I'd like to know a lot more about the elemental/golem species and the government of the Ethen Guard. Finally, please make one or two resource categories explicit for the resource (probably Fauna and Meat and Animal Products?)

Black Cloud Coalition
Requested Region: The North Way [Badal-2]

Pirates with parrots! Fill in the ???s in the Government section and then you're approved in Region 2. I have some light reservations about the nature of your history section, but I don't think it crosses into godmoding - I know you'll probably do this anyway, but I'd strongly suggest talking to your fellow Badal players to see if anyone would like to tie in. (Perhaps Ardene, with the pirate-induced backstory?)

[Minescratcher]

The Radiant Republic of Erisdor
Region of Preference: 32(Sansar)

Thank you for expanding on the religion and history! Looks good. Approved in Region 32.

Nadiratna (NDR)
Region 68

I like this overall, but I would like you to clean up your Faith section a bit before approval. You can only have one faith as either a Majority or Plurality, and your writeup suggests you have two. Also, if you're going to call it "Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance," I need some kind of an explanation for the name, and I'd like a sentence or two describing the origin and presence of the other minorities in the region.

Finally, just to be explicit, though SID might predate the War, you won't have any more or more accurate information about the War of Eternal Bombardments than anyone else.

[Lt-Murgen]

Submitting this for approval

U.N.N.C.L.E
United Neural Networks Confounding Limitless Exigency
Requested Region: 3

Spoiler: summary

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An aerostat built around technological-mages committed to bringing about a universe-manipulating messiah

Spoiler: Geography

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The UNNCLE aerostat is seems to borrow from ancient history in its design. It could easily be mistaken for a primitive bi-wing plane of the early aviation days, if not for its massive size. A central oval structure is sandwiched between two massive ‘wings’. Extending backward beyond the wings, the cylindrical structure continues backwards for a considerable distance until it is capped off with a third, smaller wing and additional vertical one. The entire structure glistens in the bright sunlight. Its entire outer structure is composed of hexagonal latticework of corrosion carbon-fiber spun beams encompassing thick boro-silicate glass.
The aerostat is comprised of the following regions:

Lower wing: The lower wing is where most of the mechanicals for the aerostat are congregated. Large hangers along the aft edge allow for dirigible docking. The air management, heat management, and propulsion systems occupy vast areas linked by miles-long corridors and accessways. On the dorsal surface, hundreds of small hangers continually launch and retrieve smaller drone versions of the aerostat. These are guided through the clouds to scoop up the resources that are then processed by the rest of the wing. Many other aerostats saw the fine particulate matter in the atmosphere as problematic. Here, the particulates- largely silicates of various kinds- are highly prized. Despite the nature of the work, the hallways are cool, shaded from the intense sun by the upper wing.

Upper wing:The upper wing is hot, humid, and generally unpleasant to be in. The Ventral surface has the thickest glass, and the intense sun pours in through them power countless solar cells and heat abject-black water pipes. The pipes feed into the aquacultural systems on levels below, where all the food is grown. Waste recycling occupies the ventral levels, and intense recycling machinery ensures maximum reuse. There are several docking bays along the aft surface as well, and this is typically where visitors and traders dock.

Control Center: At the aft of the aerostat, a structure like an inverted T juts out. At the very top is the helm, both literally and figuratively. It is the government center as well as the main control center for the entire aerostat. It also contains all of the hotel and office space for visitors.

Central Core: From a visitor’s perspective, the central core is quite beautiful. A park stretches throughout the entire length of the core, with a series of waterfalls at the aft end, and a circular lake at the front. 8 high-speed electric railcars run the length, 4 above and 4 ‘underground’. At regular stops, vertical elevators and walkways made of glass and carbon fiber extend gracefully to the inside structures. Hotels and office space have excellent views of the waterfalls- and the park stretching beyond their sight. Small 2-wheeled electric scoots are 1freely available to traverse the long axial walking distances.
From the view of the people, however, it is much different. At the very front of the core stretch the multiple floors of the sensing and imaging center. Hot, cramped, and exposed to the leading edge of anything the aerostat floats through, it is a terrifying view for those unused to it. The bulk of the Core are endless levels of long hallways of black tile, gray walls, white ceilings, and blue-white light arrays. Every floor and every corridor are exactly alike, and rigidly kept that way. Even identifiers on the countless doorways are deliberately absent. Anyone wandering this area runs the risk of getting lost quite easily.

Spoiler: History

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The official history of UNNCLE is straightforward. While many saw the War of Eternal Bombardments as an apocalypse, a select few saw the opportunities for corporate restructuring. Refugee ships of scientist and engineers were relocated to what was once just massive resource siphon on Badal. The siphon was home to numerous laboratory equipment and materials companies. So it was a natural place to ‘transfer’ so many scientists and engineers. Most of the excess mining capability was reduced to make space for the extra population. Under the leadership of what is known as the Calhoun-era board, the groundwork was laid for the work of UNNCLE to truly start. Calhoun moved them away from a competitively-cooperative coalition of businesses to one with a guiding core philosophy that has grown into a religion. Countless inter-disciplinary conflicts and insurrections dot the history from then to now. But each time, the forces pushing towards the society they now possess have won out.

At some point about 200 years ago, they opened their society up to outsiders they call Guests. The Kinfolk realized they no longer had the specialization it took to keep their manufacturing processes and harvester drones at peak efficiency. So they opened their aerostat up to the various corporate and Imperial interests. This required some changes to their representation. They moved from a truly top-down corporate hierarchy to a goal driven representative democracy. This was done encourage migration.

Spoiler: People

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There are two main groups within the UNNCLE aerostat. First, but least important, are the Guests. Guests are anyone not directly related to the mission of UNNCLE. Roughly 20% of the population at any given time, they work for the various companies, Imperial agencies, and university students, and traders. The Basu-Rahman group has a large facility in the Control Center with its own office & residential housing. Numerous Pan-Tekhum Union members have facilities in the lower wing, and maintain several technical colleges there. They are representative of Tekhun as a whole in species and appearance.

The largest group is the Kinfolk. They are truly part of UNNCLE, and have embraced the unique culture tied to their mission. Kinfolk consider themselves Pure Strain Human, a specific term going back to during the War, when the human genome underwent mutation and bio-chemical alteration. In appearance, they are tall and lithe, with generations focusing on speed and agility over strength. Skin tones range from P310-P320 (their ranking scale) and eye color varies greatly. They are all uniformly bald and wear the same outfit: a teal body suit with multi-pocketed vest of yellow, orange, scarlet, blue, navy, or brown depending on specialty. Embedded within their skin is a network of metal mesh, most evident along their heads. Luminescent tattoos are liberally applied along their skull, forearms, and hands. They are almost exclusively vegetarian, but have a great passion for the small shrimp that feed upon the zooplankton which eat the decaying vegetation.
The Kinfolk are all ‘magically’ gifted, though they do not use that term. Their entire society is structured around developing and enhancing these abilities. Kinfolk do not have parents. Instead The Generational Oversight Org (GEN-ORG) maintain thorough databases of kinfolk genetics, Prowess, and health. They select donors from appropriately aged kinfolk and use artificial gestational arrays to create a yearly Batchkin. This is done to align to expected demographic needs to maintain a stable population. The Batchkin are cared for and educated in a system that gradually exposes them to other batchkin, and then Guests. The entirety of their education is to develop their Prowess as well guiding them to a career that matches their personality and interests.

As adults, the kinfolk split their days between Work and Development. Because of the 1-Body Prowess all kinfolk have, 8 hours of work and 12 hours of Development is typical. Careers for the Kinfolk are widely varied, depending on their specialty. They are the staff and administration of several universities. They run 4 Imperium-wide known clinics for the treatment of anxiety, depression, and stress-related illnesses. Several of the most prominent medical diagnosticians have offices here as well. Lastly, there are vast numbers of small “independent” research companies supporting medical research, materials sciences, mechanical & electrical engineering, and other specialties.

Prowess – aka The N-Body Exigency
The Kinfolk possess what many would see as magical abilities. They see it as less magical and more higher-systemic understanding.

1-Body Prowess: Children are taught this from an early age. In essence, the mind has absolute control over the body. Endurance, agility, feats of strength, breathe control, sleep control, directed dreaming, rapid healing, and other feats are commonplace. Mental training is stressed, and memory recall among the Kinfolk is unparalleled. There is a reason the vast stretches of the central core are unremarkable and unlabeled. Kinfolk do not forget the way when they have been there once. But they are also taught there is a price to pay, and the 1-Body Prowess must always be balanced. Yes, you can hold your breathe for 6 minutes, but you must have a plan to quickly restore your body’s balance.

2-Body Prowess: This is the most complex form. Most people spend a lifetime developing their Prowess in their area of expertise. In essence, it is that a lower-level system will never completely simulate a higher-level one. One must operate on the higher-level system. Their education teaches them math and science (both hard and soft) with such intensity that it goes beyond knowledge and becomes instinctive. That intense training, combined with the network implanted on their 13th batchfull, allows them to manipulate the world around them directly. 2-Body Prowess subdivides into several categories:

Bioelectrical Mediation: A broad category that generally involves the manipulating of one’s bio-electrical system by another. They do not possess simply an encyclopedic knowledge of how substances effect the human body, they can use their Prowess to cause similar effects, or direct them more specifically. This is most commonly used for shared meditation, which can be quite intense between emotionally connected individuals. But it can also be used for medical diagnosis and as a replacement therapy for numerous bio-chemical imbalances. Finally, it can be used to enhance and direct any psychopharmaceutical experiences.
Boyelian Equivalancy: This category is for individuals who intuitively understand the relationship between temperature, pressure and volume. Instinctively, they sense the vibrational differentials that create temperature and pressure changes in the environment. They utilize the principles to transfer energy between objects and locations. They find employ in engineering, construction, and mechanical development, often called Machine-Speakers. Others are quite adept at the subset of sound-vibration manipulation- enhancing or dampening noise and speech for their clients.
Electro-Magnetic Adroitness] This category is for individuals who are intimately linked with the electro-magnetic equations. They can sense and manipulate these fields using similar transference principles of the Boyelian school. They find employment in similar fields, but are often derogatorily referred to as Sparkies. This may have come from their tendency to concentrate static electricity and shock people who annoy them.

Spoiler: Government

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The Government of UNNCLE falls somewhere between a corporation and a representative democracy. The day to day functioning of the government is under the control of multiple agencies, each headed by an elected Chief Executive Director: Diplomacy, Monetary, Defense, Justice, Habitat, Sustainment, Trade, Labor, Energy, Kinfolk Affairs. Every 6 years, Each of the Directors must put forth their 6 year plan for a vote. Other Kinfolk and Guests may also put forth their own plans. For a 6 month period between the Publish date and the Vote, these plans will be subject of intense debate. On the Vote date, every kinfolk and Guest can vote for 1 plan I n each category. Any plan that gets over 50% is implemented by that Director- even if it is a new Director. As is often the case, no one plan gets 50%. So the top 3 have 30 days to revise their plan, and 30 days for it to be reviewed before another vote.

Above the Director’s sit the Board. The board is a 12 person agency with 1 Chairperson. They are not elected. Their positions are controlled within the board and are largely either hereditary or by invitation. Officially, their job is to ensure that there is no corruption within the agencies, and to resolve inter-agency disputes. Unofficially, they exist to ensure that the kinfolk’s mission is never discounted or subverted. This they do with various board-agents, both obvious and covert. Officially, these people are known as Advisors. Unofficially, they are called Coaster or Paddys, a derogatory reference to the small felt pads that allow heavy chairs (the Board’s Chairs) to slide easily.

Spoiler: Faith

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The entirety of the kinfolk are devoted to the concept of the n-body messiah. With their magical abilities, influencing the universe locally is something they are advancing in. But the real goal is to create a human being with the ability to manipulate the underlying probability field that spans the entire universe. Quantum physics only is the barest hint of what would be possible if one could manipulate the multi-dimensional fabric of reality. All things are entangled with one another from the very beginning of the universe. The being that can manipulate that would be a god.
More to come here.

Spoiler: Resources

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Resource: Advanced Building Materials

UNNCLE’s resource gathering and manufacturing has become highly sophisticated over the millennia. The facility was originally designed as a massive manufacturing complex. Using small drones, it scoops up gasses and particulate compounds from the atmosphere. In the aerostat, they are processed into a vast array of substances to suit the needs of the aerostat. UNNCLE is particularly known for its spun-carbon fiber building materials and boro-silicate glass that is heat, corrosive, and impact resistant. Additionally, the expertise at utilizing them in engineering functions is considered as part of the cost of any engineering contract. Because of the demand, resources are allocated through three main docking ports on the lower wing:
Port Post
Axial Post
Starboard Post

Desired Import: psychotropics

Given the kinfolk’s religious devotion and unique culture, any substance that can expand, enhance, or repair the mind is greatly desired, though not necessarily for its original purpose.

Spoiler: Technology

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Arcane Amplification: Bio weave Specialized metals are woven into their skin to enhance their 1-Body and 2-Body arcane abilities. It is particularly noticeable along their bald heads. Without the bio-weave, their ‘magical’ abilities would be severely limited.
Badalian Megadirigibles: Needed for movement between Aerostats

[Dawsnow]

I like this overall, but I would like you to clean up your Faith section a bit before approval. You can only have one faith as either a Majority or Plurality, and your writeup suggests you have two. Also, if you're going to call it "Soulbound Neo Modern Break Dance," I need some kind of an explanation for the name, and I'd like a sentence or two describing the origin and presence of the other minorities in the region.

Finally, just to be explicit, though SID might predate the War, you won't have any more or more accurate information about the War of Eternal Bombardments than anyone else.

I made some changes to the history with a golem civil rights rebellion and updated my religion section

It was not my intent for SID to have pre-war info and I made that clearer in the history section

[Silent_Interim]

Hey all, Org GM here, been really enjoying reading everyone's writeups and looking forward to working alongside all of you :)

A quick announcement- now that we have most of our player regions finalized, and even those that aren't at least selected, org bases have had their locations finalized. Those regions are now unavailable for player starts. Even if the regions are themselves "unexplored" at game start, the location of org bases will be public information at game start and available IC.

The affected regions:
Badal- 14 (EMP), 19 (BRG)
Sansar- 21 (EMP), 37 (BRG)
Veehra- 55 (BRG), 59 (WTU HQ), 67 (EMP)
Mekhala- 78 (EMP), 95 (BRG)

The HQ of EMP is in region 0, and the HQ of BRG will not be starting play in any region.

All this information is visible on the Org tables spreadsheet.

[Gengy]

The Biarbu Society
Region 6?
Requesting Badal, near-ish Rolepgeek

Spoiler: Summary

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Region Name: Shiwa Yun Population: Biarbu Resource: Electronic Edibles Required Resource: Precious Minerals Starting Technology: Algorithmic Imagination The Biarbu Society are a wealthy mercantile group of stunning, bird shaped, nano-clouds. The Biarbu are known for being friendly and peaceful to outsiders but have unusual priorities when it comes to what they deem as important or as unseemly. They have an almost illogical fascination with the randomness of fate. Buyer beware! The more observant will find there is more than one society.

Spoiler: Geography

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Badal is a rough world to live upon. Even in Shiwa Yun, the corrosive clouds are difficult to deal with, and the heat of the surface is a recognized impossibility. To even reach the surface, one would have to deal with the harsh winds that almost no one can survive.

A fact that the Biarbu Society delights in. While there are Tienshen Chaoshu – Aerial Nests – that float at a more commonly hospitable temperature, the Cloud Sea goes quite deep and the Biarbu Society can go lower than most. Not, perhaps, to the positively boiling surface (if it even exists) but far lower than the average human. These Haidee Chaoshu – Subsea Nests – are where most Biarbu Society dwells, as the high wind speeds provide dancing delights to the aerial acrobatics that many within the Biarbu Society find to be entertaining.

Regardless of whether one lives within a Tienshen or Haidee Chaoshu, the Nests are almost uniformly large circular floating platforms, almost the size of an average human city; capable of being 100 square miles in area. The more desirable living locations are closer to the edge of the nest, for easy access to flying within Badal’s atmosphere. The more central to the nest, the less valuable one is to the Society; with one important distinction. The local Zianta – Spire – is the absolute center of the Nest. It is both the local governance building and the technical mechanics that keep the Chaoshu afloat. How each Zianta works is a closely guarded secret, and flight around the Spire is restricted… and heavily punished. Yet another reason living too close to the center of a Nest is seen as risqué.

There are four major Tienshen Chaoshu, and four major Haidee Chaoshu; one of which is the capital of the Society. There are roughly ten minor Aerial Nests – mostly belonging to incredibly successful mercantile families - and at least fifteen well known Subsea Nests. There is also the Hidden Capital, the Nest of Truth.

Major Tienshen Chaoshu
To be recognized as a Tienshen Chaoshu, the Nest must float higher than the Subsea, sacrificing the more entertaining winds of the region in favor of establishing connections with those outside the Biarbu Society. A distasteful, if necessary, practice.

The Major Tienshen are those that provide a specific service for those who do not live within Shiwa Yun.

• Shungzing Fung – Prevailing Winds Nest is the Chaoshu of Diplomacy, and passes along all edicts from the Imperial Court to the rest of Shiwa Yun, as well as the reverse: all political decisions from Gungsheen, to the wider solar system. Shungzing Fung gets it’s name because it is the eastern most Nest city, and leads the rest when moving to circle Badal.
• Shishiwang – West Hope Nest is the Chaoshu of Commerce, and trails all the others when orbiting Badal. This makes it easier to get to when transporting goods and services, as you can start near the middle of Shiwa Yun and allow the winds to carry you.
• Yu – Plume Nest: The southern Chaoshu of Yu is the Major Tienshen dedicated to the gathering of Knowledge, Science, Philosophy, and Religions.
• Zhao – The northern Nest of Zhao is the Talon of the Tienshen Chaoshu, and indeed, all of Shiwa Yun. While there are local guards and warriors at every Nest, they are just the equivalent to local police and militia forces. Zhao trains militia to become military. It is the most secure and unwelcoming of the Major Tienshen Chaoshu. Untrue! Guests have been known to stay for the rest of their lives.

Major Haidee Chaoshu
A Haidee Chaoshu is a populated residential city, often performing specified tasks needed among the rest of Shiwa Yun. A Major Haidee Chaoshu is a highly populated Nest, capable of performing many tasks, as well as buying and selling to the rest of the region’s Chaoshu.

• Ai Li – The Major Haidee Chaoshu that handles gathering the majority of the food needed to feed not just itself, but also many other Subsea Nests.
• Ar Yingbi – The Major Haidee Chaoshu that deals primarily with commerce, forming a major trading hub within the Subsea. Often works with Yu to create various ships suitable for exploration.
• Zachi – One of the more central Nests, Zachi Haidee Chaoshu provides entertainment. Approved entertainment only.
• Hway – The counterpart to Zhao, the Beak of Shiwa Yun is hidden, and never reliably found in the same spot in the region. Still a large Chaoshu, it provides defense against invasion by having its location be unpredictable.

The Capitals (why is that here? There’s only one Capital.)

• Gungsheen, The Nest of Renewal
  The Capital of Shiwa Yun, almost always flying directly in the center of the Biarbu Society formation, just below the surface of the Cloud Sea. Gungsheen has not one, but four Zianta – Spires – and is twice the size of other Nests. It is here that the Face of the Flock lives, and through here, all decisions for what direction Shiwa Yun flies. Once we have made the decisions.
• Ying Shing Zuban, The Nest of Truth
  How are you reading this? What is a ‘Game Master’? Treat it as an Imperial Mandate? Very well. The wisdom and perception of the Emperor surely can see through the clouds into Ying Shing Zuban, the Hidden Capital, the Nest of Truth. We all play our own games, yes, but even the Zheannow bow to the Emperor. This one hears and obeys.
  
  The Nest of Truth, to the rest of the solar system, does not exist. Even among Shiwa Yun, it is a story tale. A falsehood. To think that the Face of the Flock needs the help of some Hidden Capital to make all of the decisions? Laughable.
  
  And yet… For you, discerning reader, this one states that it does exist. It blends within the Subsea, as low as we Zheannow can tolerate. It weathers all storms, and acts as the shadow below the Biarbu. Those who live there sacrifice the light of Ophon to ensure that the people of Shiwa Yun continue to exist, and have happy, healthy, lives; before they are reborn, and their energy goes to the Zianta to keep their Nest afloat for the next generation. All other Chaoshu are the exterior of the Biarbu; the Face, the Beak, the Talon, the Wings. It is beauty and wealth upon display. Ying Shing Zuban needs none of this. We are the heart and the blood of our people!

Spoiler: People

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Mythology states that The Children of the Phongkwhan gave birth themselves to Eggs which cracked to open into what became the Wuonnow; the Fire Birds. So beloved by the Emperor were the Wuonnow that they were given a form of ever lasting life.

– An Excerpt from “The Creation of the Biarbu” found in Yu

Mythology states that The Children of the Phongkwhan gave birth themselves to Eggs which cracked to open into what became the Wuonnow and the Zheannow; the Fire Birds and the True Birds. So beloved by the Emperor were the Wuonnow that they were given a form of ever lasting life. So wise were the Zheannow, that they hid themselves away.

– The Full Excerpt from “The Creation of the Biarbu” found in Ying Shing Zuban

Historians teach that Biarbu are descendants of Fire Birds, also known as Wuonnow. These Fire Birds were majestic, winged creatures whom, legends say, could control flames with their minds, and even in death, they would be fully reborn.

Biarbu are similar. Large bird-like creature, with wing-spans taller than most humans, the average Biarbu has a dusk-like, almost cosmic coloration, whose wings shimmer like stars when they fly. It is not uncommon for those whom live outside of Shiwa Yun to compare a Biarbu to the Pheonix of legends long forgotten. Not just for their strong wings or crane-like necks, but also for their long trailing tail feathers. At times, even majestic crests adorn their heads, those this varies from Biarbu to Biarbu; much like human hair.

Spoiler: Biarbu Inspirational Image

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Biarbu, unlike their supposed ancestors, cannot control fire. Also unlike the Wuonnow, thanks to the wonders of Algorithmic Imagination, the Biarbu have most of their bodies made up of advanced nanoclusters, that act like a humans cells do; with one major exception. When a Biarbu dies, its body is reborn.* The ‘person’ that the Biarbu was fades away, and some might see this as death, but to the Biarbu Society, this is birth. Birth of a new being.

* Biarbu version of rebirth, as discussed previously with Head GM Minescratcher:

• Death causes the Biarbu to be reborn
• It takes several in-game years to regrow to an 'adult' size
• Flashes of memories are retained after death, but the reborn bird is roughly 85% a new person after it grows up again [It is, effectively, a new person]
• Mechanically, a Biarbu is it's own heir
• To retain full memories, it's one Miracle per Biarbu [No True Immortals without GM Approval!]

Young Biarbu are much smaller than fully grown adults, and retain flashes of memories from their former life, but these are snippets of guidance compared to the years of memories they will make as they grow older. Instincts, for things like flying, or showing proper face to an official.

Face, being an important, if hard to understand, part of Biarbu society. It’s an amalgamation of ideals that combines prestige, dignity, honor, respect, and status, all into one sociodynamic valuation. It is difficult for those outside of Shiwa Yun to fully comprehend without years of experience; most who deal favorably with the Biarbu are quick to point out that if you treat their representative as someone two or three steps above you in a business hierarchy, you will still make mistakes, but not unforgivable ones.

Back again, ‘Game Master’? Very well. This one will once more endeavor to educate you, if it is the Randomness of Fate. What do you desire to know?

Ah. Yes. An insightful question. Yet… A troubling topic for many new to the intricacies of the Hidden Capital: The difference between Wuonnow and Zheannow. As we should not waste time, this one shall endeavor to be brief. What those of Yu teach regarding the histories of Wuonnow being Fire Birds is, as far as this humble one knows, fully truthful. Yet there is also the Unmentioned Egg. The Other Grandchild of the Phongkwhan. The True Bird. Sometimes referred to as the Cosmic Bird. This one does not know if the original Zheannow existed, or if some part of the rebirth process of an Wuonnow caused a divergence; what humans might refer to as evolution. This one can only say that for those of the Biarbu whom are allowed to grasp the Truth, they will find tales of the Zheannow working alongside the Weonnow, being the one to break the winds and guide the flight.

It was because of the prior Zheannow that the Biarbu survived through the War of Eternal Bombardments, though the exact methods of our ancestors are unclear. What is known is that the Biarbu were once loyal servants of the Emperor, and these days… we are not receiving the same favor from the Imperial Court that the Nest of Truth’s texts suggest we once did. Perhaps this was a punishment? Perhaps the actions of navigating the War of Eternal Bombardments were what caused a small rift that has only widened in the intervening years? It is unclear. What is known is that Zheannow persist so that Weonnow exist.

These days, what makes a Zheannow as opposed to a Weonnow is knowing that truth. Not just being told it, but have the evidence that proves the Unmentioned Egg birthed another ancestor. Be that during the time of legend, or a divergence, it matters not at all to this one. What matters is the duty that this one has accepted; an exchange for Truth. Power, but hidden away. Superiority, yes, but only so long as the Societies last.

The Truth this one has come to accept is this: Zheannow are grander than Weonnow, yes, but we are still Biarbu. You are welcome to disagree. Seek your own Truth!

Spoiler: Resource

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Electronic Edibles {Fuel and Power / Food}
The armada of Chaoshu that make up the cities of Shiwa Yun stay where they are, not because of some predefined borders, or bequeathed Imperial rights. No. The Nests float in this part of Badal because of the unique, exotic, atmospheric clouds only found within the region.

Electronic Edibles – sometimes called Shoku Baotsi – are a gaseous substance that permeates the region. It can be bottled and distributed to those of Shiwa Yun as a form of food, supercharging the nanoclusters that make up the biology of Biarbu. Distilled versions can even be used as a supplement for more traditional humanoid biology. It is theorized that with enough research, Electronic Edibles could be super charged into a ship fuel, though the technology to do so does not currently exist.

This one has theories only about Shoku Baotsi. The Truth of it remains shrouded by Badal. Perhaps it is a Random Twist of Fate? This one rather likes to think so. Perhaps the Emperor knows? Still, as far as theories go, the prevailing one is that the natural gases of the planet have mixed together with some kind of electrolyte producing plant or natural vent upon the surface and created what the Wuonnow call Electronic Edibles. It is a gas. It is a food. It empowers us, and our unique nanoclusters. We can sell it to others. The Biarbu thrive. That is all that matters; for now.

Required Resource: Precious Minerals
Biarbu are not greedy creatures, but they do enjoy the finer things in life. And what finery that cannot be made in Shiwa Yun, can be bought with precious minerals! Gold, Jade, Rubies; everything has a price! Yes, even information. This one will be reimbursed, yes. No, that was not a question.

Spoiler: Faith

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Biarbu have a fascination with Fate. Not necessarily a religious belief in predetermination, but instead, a curiosity for the changes in Fate. How two Fates can intertwine. How one Fate can begin when another ends. There are some teachings in Yu about other Philosophies and Religions, but there are far more classes and Fate. But it’s not a religion.

Who told you such lies, ‘Game Master’? Fate, or rather ‘Fascination’, is absolutely a religious experience for the Biarbu. The Random Will of the Cosmos doesn’t have to be something we understand, only something we believe; it requires neither our acknowledgement nor participation. In fact, the lack of either can, at times, only further Fate. In the simplest of terms, Fascination is like watching the universe itself unfold in the exact moment that someone rolls the dice. You watch the dice fall, and with every bounce, a new star is born. When they finally settle? The universe has changed. A new course is set. For good, or for ill. And that? That is Fascinating.

Notable Locations:

• Yu – The southern most Major Tienshen Chaoshu, the Plume Nest is a place of learning. It invites all who want to broaden their knowledge to visit but boasts no allegiance to any one philosophy. So long as you aren’t important, talking to someone else important.
• Gungsheen Temple – Located within the Capital of Shiwa Yun, along one of the edges of the Nest – and therefore considered important – is a Temple dedicated to Myth and Legend. Which is just another way of saying it studies Fates past.
• The Spire of Ying Shing Zuban – The Emperor themselves could stand before me and demand to know what is inside the Zianta of Ying Shing Zuban, and this one would deny them. I will Defy Destiny Itself if I must, but whatever so-called ‘Game’ you play, ‘Game Master’, this one will say no more on this topic. Zheannow persist so that Wuonnow exist!

Faith: “Fascination” (Majority)

A belief system that lacks gods or deities, beyond the twisting Chances of the Universe as a whole. Sometimes referred to as ‘Fascination with Fate’ or ‘Unfurling Destiny’. Fascination ‘faithful’ see Fate as something they can watch, and perhaps, change. Sometimes to help. Sometimes just to see what happens.

Spoiler: Regional Supports

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Merchants
The various Nests of Shiwa Yun almost all support the Merchants of the region in some way. Be they gatherers of Electronic Edibles, transporters of products, artists and creators of finery, or more… Merchants are very popular, and essential to Biarbu interactions with those outside the region. Merchants who do well are rewarded with becoming a Feather or perhaps even a Wing of their local Nest, which is a path towards perhaps becoming the Face of the Flock, if one is so bold. Even we Zheannow watch the Merchants. Carefully. Sometimes, another of our kind is rebirthed from among them. Not the most successful Merchants; no. The ones who are just successful enough to have influence. And then use that influence the right way.

Media Support
Entertainment is essential to the Flock, as Biarbu can only soar the skies of Badal for amusement for only so long. Receiving news updates and recreation streams comes entirely from the local Spire, and can prove for a worthwhile diversion to any Biarbu that can refocus the nanoclusters in their eyes to see the desired information. The most trusted stream is “Tekhum Now!” It provides the most up-to-date information, with little to no interruption. And it is carefully curated by Zheannow, of course.

The Government
Shiwa Yun is run by the Face of the Flock. That pompous, over-fed turkey wishes this were Truth.

The Face of the Flock is supported by the various Wings of the Flock; local Nest leaders, sometimes called City Lords. And the successful ones listen to their betters.

The Wings are supported by their own Feathers, who are specialists in various bureaucratic needs or subject matter experts in some shape or form. Sometimes, a Wing is a very wealthy merchant, and their Feathers do most of the political requirements to run the Nest.

Upon the rebirth of one of the important government officials – be they the Face of the Flock, the local Wing, or a Feather – they are replaced by someone below them. Should a Wing be reborn, one of their Feathers becomes the new City Lord; the renewed (former) Wing becomes the replacement Feather. In the case of the Face of the Flock going through rebirth, the most senior Wing temporarily takes the job while the reborn Face of the Flock grows up. This has resulted in the Face of the Flock changing entirely if the rebirthed Face of the Flock chooses to step down. Yes. Chooses. After they have been carefully given their options and shown their likely Fate if they make the wrong choice.

Ah? You tire of my commentary on this subject? Fair enough. Allow me, then, to explain Zheannow some more, and how they play into governance. We Zheannow have our own leadership. Eight Jiowchu exist; four for each of the Jian Ban. The Jian Ban are the leader’s two legs, providing support that the leader may stand. As those of Ying Shing Zuban say: “Where the light of the Empire hits upon the Biarbu, the Shadow of the Flock appears.” How does this one know of all this? You came to me, ‘Game Master’. This one thought you would know. You speak to that very leader. This one is the Shadow of the Flock, and while I have been respectful and shown you much face, I begin to tire of receiving little in return. Know that the Shadow of the Flock guides all Biarbu, and that this one can trace their rebirths back to nine centuries.

Ruler Information:
Shadow of the Flock Ben Ying

Spoiler: Inspirational Image

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[Minescratcher]

The Llort Society Protectorate

Capital: Region 88

No notes! Approved in Region 88. Just... don't make me learn any more about certain inspirations than I already have gathered by osmosis.

CASSIOPE
Region 87 - The Space-Kelp Cluster

Love it! Touching on a personal favorite concept of mine. I'd like a sentence under Resource about your resource and desired import, but I can put that info together from the rest of your writeup, so it's no obstacle to your being approved in Region 87.

Castaways of the Loop
The Great Western Waste, Veehra
Requested Region: 62

Fascinating and terrifying! Approved in Region 62. Just to be explicit, you won't have any more or more accurate information about Ophon than anyone else.

The Biarbu Society
Region 6?

Excellent! That green text could be a little more readable, but you're approved in Region 6.

I made some changes to the history with a golem civil rights rebellion and updated my religion section

It was not my intent for SID to have pre-war info and I made that clearer in the history section

Yep, I didn't think it was your intent, I just want to make it explicit. With the additions, you're approved in Region 68.

[zlefin]

I'm pondering whether to try joining the waitlist for this; and am wondering more about the gameplay:
How cutthroat is it? In particular how often do players war, and how often do players get fully wiped out by war?