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Thread: Galactic Empires Background Document

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    Default Galactic Empires Background Document

    Universal Timeline:

    Antiquity

    Little is known, currently, about the races that proceeded the current major players. During this time period, all the current major powers are isolated from each other by lacking technology capable of traversing the interstellar medium. Each race proceeds at its own pace. Remnant civilisations from this period are occasionally encountered, deeply isolationist and unwilling to be involved in the petty squabbles of the younger powers, these races generally want to be left alone in a small cluster of stars. While their tech is more advanced than the current 'standard', it has often developed in strange and alien ways because of millennia of isolation.

    Kel'Cyre Alone

    The Kel'cyre develop a functional wormhole drive and use it to leave their home system, quicky colonising the core of their current empire. Driven by a need to explore, rather than dominate, they quickly map many stars and planets. They develop a no-contact policy with less advanced races than themselves, and enter into trade deals with a few of the oldest pocket empires. this period lasts nearly a thousand years

    Charabidian Wars

    The Charabidians defeat the Hives of Ash and meet the Kel'cyre for the first time. Wars are fought to annex several minor races who do not have interstellar travel, but these limited and fragmentary conflicts do not imperil either race. This conflict officially ends (when mapped onto the Terran Common Calender) on Aug 6, 1945, which marks the first time humans use atomics in a biosphere they are currently inhabiting.

    Humanity Ascendent
    Humanity develops a working wormhole drive in the waning years of the 2300s, and quickly expands from an overcrowded Sol System into the wider galaxy. This breakneck explosion of territory and influence brings them into contact with the Charabidians and Kel'Cyre.

    Shatterzone Wars
    Starting in 2431, and running until 2444, the shatterzone wars create a massive front of skirmishes, raids and open battles between colonial forces of the TFF and the forces of 4 clans ordinary. The war ends with the signing of a peace treaty on Delaq. A year later, a break away human faction, centred on the military base on Lyre, becomes the Lyran Alliance.

    Sentinax emerge

    In 2468, the Sentinax slam into Charabidian, Lyran and Terran space. A massive war breaks out to contain the Sentinax and then exterminate them. Before the allies, fighting under the banner of the Concert, gain serious traction, the Kel'cyre, using an ancient alien computer known as the Codec, decipher the Sentinax language and open a dialogue with them. Kel'cyre diplomats are able to negotiate a tenuous truce.

    An end to War.

    Terran and Kel'cyre ambassadors found the Concert in response to the appearance of the Sentinax, and convince their nations to sign up to it. The Sentinax join a few years after the war, having paid war reparations. and sensing that they could soon be surrounded, the Lyrans sign on at the end of of 2471. It prevents a major war for over a hundred years, but many small skirmishes occur.

    The Concert War

    An advanced ancient ship crashes into Kel'crye, triggering the increasingly xenophobic Lyrans to launch a surprise attack against the other major powers. The war lasts for the second half of 2599, concluding in late November. It marks the bloodiest war fought by the major powers, and the ascension of the Dragonoids to the Concert as a 'junior' partner.

    The Journey beyond the Rim

    A joint concert task force leaves the galaxy on the ten year anniversary of the Concert War, heading for one of the orbiting Dwarf Galaxies. Its journey, even using a wormhole, will take over a year.

    Kel'cyre

    Spoiler: Abstract 


    Spoiler: The Kel'Cyre In Detail  


    Charabidian Enclaves

    Spoiler: Abstract 


    Spoiler: The Charabidian Enclaves In Detail  


    Terran Federation

    Spoiler: Abstract 


    Spoiler: The Terran Federation in Detail 


    Lyran Alliance

    Spoiler: Abstract 


    Spoiler: Detail 


    Sentinax

    Spoiler: Abstract 


    Last edited by dakkagor; 10-24-2018 at 10:03 AM.

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    General Universe Notes:

    The Galaxy of Galactic Empires is our Galaxy, which contains 100,000,000,000 stars, with an estimated 40 billion earth sized worlds, of which about 11 billion orbit an Sol-like star. Each of the major concert powers (the Sentinax, the Charabidians, the Lyrans, the Terrans and the Kel'Cyre) hold about 500 habitable worlds each, with double that in outposts, mining concerns, fleet bases and military testing sites in uninhabitable systems. That means the big, major league players hold only 7,500 worlds, which is an infinitesimally tiny amount of the observable universe. This is still enough worlds to allow for vast populations, huge military-industrial complexes and epic fleet battles, which is kind of the point, but small enough to allow individual people to shape history, which is also kind of the point.

    Between the inhabited worlds vast tracts of unexplored wilderness space exist, as well as the minor powers. The minor powers (such as a Dragonoids and the now defunct Ouroboros) will hold as few as one world, or as many as 50. There are hundreds of minor powers, each with their own fleets and interests, and they make a good space for new writers to make races. Some of these minor powers are protectorates or client states of the Major powers, but many go it alone.

    The final tier are non-ftl capable races. Concert law prevents races from interfering with these species unless they are in danger from something they cannot deal with themselves. The Kel'cyre have a habit of shooting down extinction level asteroids over primitive worlds, for example, and the Charabidians uplifted a slew of non-ftl races in the path of their war with the Sentinax. Many more simply exist, blissfully unaware of the wider galaxy, working on stone tools, plastics or fission reactors and wondering if there is any other life out there.

    However, with all that empty space, there is plenty of potential room for a major power to be lurking out there somewhere. While it is unlikely, vast tracts of the galaxy remain unexplored. Pocket empires are encountered occasionally, and the dense core of the galaxy could still be hiding secrets from the rest of the galaxy. . .

    General Technology Notes:

    The travel times, communication levels is meant to evoke a 1919 feel. Tourism is a thing, but its done by cruise liner, not passenger plane. Countries communicate with each other, especially across oceans, via telegraph cables laid under the ocean, rather than by radio or satellite. Big Gun Battleships, not WMD's, are the measure of a major power.

    Travel in GE is accomplished by wormhole travel. A ship, using vast amounts of power, tears open reality at point A, and is instantly transported a great distance to point B. The limitations with this form of transport are manifold, but beat the alternative. It cannot be accomplished too close to a gravity well, it requires enormous energy, and the machinery that accomplishes it is bulky, dangerous, expensive and requires exotic materials. Often all that separates a major power from a minor one is a ready supply of these materials in their home system, something the Kel'cyre, Charabidians and Terrans had.

    The other option is the slow route. Sleeper ships, seed ships and generation ships. The galaxy is littered with examples of this colonization attempt, often the colonists having outlived their parent civilization by millennia.

    FTL communication is handled either by post ships, (largely) automated space borne server farms that shuttle between inhabited systems, or micro-wormhole laser lines. Micro-wormholes, unlike the kind used for shifting ships, are only a few millimeters across and can be sustained using only a moderate outlay of power. They can also be designed around ambient gravitic conditions, allowing them to be planet bound, so these systems can be defended by planetary defense nets and layers of dirt and rock. Most of the major worlds of an empire will connect their local Internets (or net equivalents) to the empires wider network via these facilities, but bandwidth is at a serious premium, with most worlds simply mirroring popular content. Several governments (the Terran Federation and the Kel'cyre among them) generate significant revenue from maintaining these networks. The digital borders of the various powers are more complex, and under constant surveillance from the various governments from intrusion attempts. Most powers think nothing of quarantining a worlds net that has been infected by a particularly pernicious virus, but net based attacks will still presage a conflict between powers, as the net is used by military's to communicate, shunting civilian traffic to a lower priority during war. DoS attacks are the stock in trade for military information services, and a speciality of the Sentinax. Often the first many people know of an impending military conflict is a favourite newszine or entertainment site failing to meet its daily update schedule.

    Work is a contentious issue for each of the major powers. Vast levels of automation exist in all the major players, which makes many jobs obsolete. Many of the major powers would even consider such work immoral, as forcing a sentient mind to do something as mind numbingly dull and unsatisfying as sweeping a floor or cooking the same food every day is considered only a step or two away from slavery.

    As such, most work is divided into five general categories, research, which includes teaching (sophonts only learn well from other sophonts, automated classrooms always descend into anarchy) maintenance (machines are really bad at looking after machines) resource extraction (which involves managing lots of machines) service (including healthcare and tourism) and finally entertainment (the search for an AI capable of telling a joke continues)

    Research, once you factor in teaching, is one of the largest forms of employment, but once teachers are removed, academics and research scientists only make up a small percentage of any given civilisations population. With such a vast galaxy to explore, and millions of worlds, a great deal of R&D is conducted outside the bounds of civilised space, on explorer ships. Explorer ships are some of the largest vessels produced by any power, small towns that support scientific communities in wilderness space for years at a time, and require a significant military escort. Explorer ships scout out valuable worlds, finding mineral nodes, new life and new civilisations. Planet bound research is almost always deep-end theoretical research involving simulation space work. More efficient FTL, better sources of power, new medicines and weapons, all of these and more flow from the labs of the major powers and are tested in safe environments constructed on stations and barren moons.

    Maintenance is the tending of machines. A typical office block might have hundreds of automated drones dedicated to maintaining the fabric of the building, keeping it clean, replacing components and running minor facilities repair. These drones would be managed by a small staff of a half dozen actual sophonts. Half programmer, half mechanic, the main part of this job is managing the behaviour of these simple machines, and repairing them when they go wrong.

    Drones are also used extensively in emergency services and disaster relief. Its possible to scoop people from a burning building using bipedal rescue drones, or pick people from the tops of buildings about to be washed away using hovering drones. These types of drones require direct, constant oversight by emergency services, who must be prepared to dive into physical danger if something goes wrong, as this technology is still not infallible.

    Resource Extraction is a truly vast industry, including farming and mining, as well as surveying and asteroid mining. Huge quantities of resources can be found in the dead zones of star systems, and many otherwise uninhabitable worlds have a mining company presence on them. This industry significantly overlaps with both Research and Maintenance, as scientists are a vital part of any surveyor team, and drones and robots can go places a person cannot.

    The biggest find for any resource extraction company is a burnt out star. Difficult to find in the depths of space, each cinder represents a vast haul of trans-uranic elements, rare earths, and other rare elements produced in the late stages of a stars slow death.

    Farming is significantly automated, with many of the vital proteins needed for sophont life being vat-grown rather than conventionally farmed. However, such processes are energy intensive, and not suitable for colony worlds. Such worlds are often instead seeded with genetically altered life that can then be processed for food cheaply in a more traditional, manpower intensive way.

    Service encompasses healthcare and tourism, as well as restaurants and the 'experience' industry. These are some of the places that an automated touch simply isn't the same as human interaction and service. This is a well compensated industry, as people skills are considered a valuable commodity.

    Tourism is not limited to single planets or even star systems. While it is expensive, cruises around famous star systems, space walks on famous wrecks and visits to beautiful but barren worlds are all possible. This includes the various 'adrenalin tourism' attractions such as solar yacht racing or expeditions to the galaxies most exotic and alien biospheres.

    Finally, Entertainment is split between the big entertainment corps and the trillions of independent bloggers, artists, musicians and comedians on the net. The ready availability of the net allows people to be elevated almost overnight to superstar status, but the steady money is generally on the inside of the industry.

    Two additional categories exist and are worth mentioning.

    Merchants are those involved in the transactions of money, goods, services and commodities, including banking and stock brokering. This is a highly complex but small industry with major clout, and it is possible to make and lose fortunes overnight.

    Civil Servants can encompass any of the above categories depending on how heavily state run or regulated a given economy is. In many civilisations, the bureaucracy, law enforcement and health care of a civilisation will ensure that the Government is the biggest direct employer in any given region. Most (though not all) governments keep a tight reign on the courts, the police and the military at a minimum and do not trust these services to the corporate sphere. Similarly, many maintain a universal healthcare and welfare system outside of the Private domain.

    Influences

    Mass effect is a major influence for Galactic Empires, as is the daily Webcomic Schlock Mercenary, as well as the Foundation series from Isaac Asimov.
    Last edited by dakkagor; 09-04-2017 at 03:43 PM.

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