Sci-Fi World Building

The Story Guide · March 15, 2011

As it said by those that come after, from the Nothing came the Darkness, from the Darkness, Light. And so it was, unnumbered and flickering, the stars were born into the Void and all life was set in motion.

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The Story Guide · March 15, 2011

Aeon Primus

Like calls unto like, and so some of the stars fell into one one another to push the Darkness farther away.

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Stargaizer · March 16, 2011

In one corner of the cosmos a fast burning star collapsed and, though it died, it did live on. The shock from it's death pushed the homogeny away, except for where the pull of its' new life kept its' brethren close.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

Kakita Zoyu · March 16, 2011

As though the Cosmos was an apple, it was perforated by an Ephemeral Worm of infinite length, weaving a continuous path contiguous to Regular Space. And where the Ephemeral Worm poked out its head to look upon Regular Space, it left behind a hole wreathed in prismatic star-stuff.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

Karren Gaunt · March 16, 2011

And Lo, the first stars, as they grew old, felt the heat of their fires wane as they consumed the primordial gas from which they were formed, the crush of their own mass drawing them inward. So they turned to burning the refuse of their old fires to create new blazes against remorseless gravity until that ran low and their glow sickened. And then the refuse of the refuse was burned in a cycle that gave birth to all the building blocks of the life that was to inherit creation in aeons to come.

Click to reveal..

Courier · March 18, 2011

As the apple drifted through endless space, it ran into another apple. In a voracious act of cannibalism the larger devoured the smaller.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

Dawn OOC · March 19, 2011

The stars spread out from the core, settling into dances with gravity, sometimes beautiful, sometimes violent. The minerals and materials here began to pull into planets both gaseous and solid.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

The Story Guide · March 21, 2011

Entropy reached out into the cosmos and pulled and pushed along what was created, moving and shaping with mindless ease. The center dimmed and other stars, clustered still together, made strange journeys through the Void; where Darkness held the stars fast, a perfection of form was made.

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The Story Guide · March 21, 2011

Aeon Secundus

The Ephemeral Worm swallowed up the younger elements that wandered past the holes it had left in normal space; these elements collected in the strange in-between places, converging on one another to create strange objects to dwell there.

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Karren Gaunt · March 21, 2011

And in the new rocky bodies dotting Creation, rare pockets and veins of a strange ore began to form, space and time playing strange tricks around the material, the speed limits of physics subtly softened in it's presense. Should it be refined, and put to use in clever ways, it might even bend those rules so that the speed of light might be circumnavigated.

Click to reveal..

Meanwhile, the magnetic fields of a certain star began to tangle into self-sustaining vortices, vortices that moved away from pending solar flares that would destroy them and into areas whose resonances reinforced them and caused them to split off smaller copies of themselves from time to time. In short, life of a sort claimed it's first fragile toehold on creation.

Click to reveal..

Stargaizer · March 21, 2011

As the universe aged, cracks began to form on the surface of the apple.

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Kakita Zoyu · March 22, 2011

Aeon Secundus

In the farthest reaches of the galaxy, a heart of deepest, darkest black pulled upon the three burning stars of identical countenance, settling them into new orbit around its periphery.

The Core spun, wreathing its expanse in a thick veil of brightening star stuff.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

Courier · March 24, 2011

Aeon Secundus

The second apple digested slowly and caused stomach pain conflicts. Stars passed close to stars. Solar systems passed through each other and stole each other's belts.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

Dawn OOC · March 26, 2011

Aeon Secundus

Things of mystery and wonder are needed - areas that surpass the understanding of science. To that end, gases begin to build and gather, cloaking stars and planets alike in a cloudy haze.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

The Story Guide · March 27, 2011

The Ephemeral Worm was displeased to be seeded with gross matter and spat it back into the galactic space. The matter, warped by its time in the between-space, carried with the means to travel as the Worm did - without worry of the rules of light and speed.

Life's first tentative grasp on the galaxy enjoyed its beginning. Success granted boldness, and the whorls and eddies took the leap to other stars. Each star changed them, giving them different hues and spins, and so personalities were born.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, stars and planets were not so fortunate: too many, too close, and there goes the entire neighborhood.

Click to reveal..

Karren Gaunt · March 29, 2011

And, as it happened from time to time and in the grip of chance, one of the mouths of the worm drifted into the grip of a star or blackhole and gravity's effect upon the skein of creation caused them to warp ever so slightly out of alignement with what is and into the realm of what was or what could be. The more extreme the distortion of the skein, the further out of true they warped, presenting both danger and possibility to those who might brave them in their entropic hells.

Click to reveal..

Stargaizer · March 29, 2011

As the universe aged, formed and reformed, some of the matter broke the laws of the universe and from unlife came life.

Elsewhere, on cold rocky bodies and in the gaseous layers other bodies crystals formed that channeled, stored, magnified and dispersed the elemental forces and laws of the universe.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

The Story Guide · April 2, 2011

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Dawn OOC · April 3, 2011

Aeon Tertius

Deep within the back of the galaxy, stars pulled away from each other, creating a strange void of light within the void.

Within this void, a single star was left. It claimed all of the matter left behind and pulled it into orbit, until the yellow star was swallowed up and surrounded. The matter baked under the sun, until it had formed a hollow shell around the star.

Click to reveal.. (Explain!)

The Story Guide · April 9, 2011

Aeon Quatrus

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Again, still too sick for poetic writing, but here's the breakdown on what happened this turn:

Envoy: The number of time-travelling wormholes is exceptionally small in the galaxy, in addition, the time interval is almost always random for each trip through the rift. Time travel is possible (and for those brave enough, usually incredibly profitable), but 99% of your would-be rifters get ripped apart on the trip. Of those left, most end up nowhen special....then of course, there are your PC's.

SG/Courier: I rolled twice for you guys...and ended up with a Double Wonder...so! The universe is full of various space life, some unique, other simply natural space-faring life. The staple "food" and, uh...other end, for many of these lifeforms are the crystals described. Crystals, therefore, are fairly common, even appearing on life-bearing worlds from meteor showers when groups of space-faring life have passed by. Crystals are found -everywhere- of usable sizes and quality, though the supply is not infinite and the truly large/high quality masses of crystals are almost always located in empty sectors of space where debris/atmosphere/whatever cannot break down or taint the pure crystal.

Khris: Nothing. *sigh* I'm rolling, and I roll a dud for me....oh well.

Dawn: Double. That area of space now generally creates dyson-sphere stars instead of normal solar systems, due to the thick space debris in the area (think a -very- large nebulae area with wide-spaced star births). There are some normal systems in the area, but they are the exception instead of the rule. Because of the nebulae and Dyson Sphere effects, that area of space looks something like swiss cheese and the Dyson spheres are easier to detect than they normally would be (almost like a negative of the rest of the galaxy).

Okay! On to Round 4!

Everyone now gets two turns: one Galactic turn and one Empire turn. Galactic turns can be used to create solar systems to explore (you can give me one or two "musts" for the system and then I'll generate the rest of it), make minor changes to the galaxy (nothing as big as most of the last three turns), or situate certain things/beings/whatnot in the galaxy (say you want a specific space lifeform to have a hunting ground in an area of the galaxy, that sort of thing). Galactic turns may also be used to create -minor- Empires or species; although Entropy and further gameplay might change the fate of such groups, their initial creation is as -minor- players in the galactic space.

Empire turns! The first three Empire turns are meant to focus on the creation and rise of a player's primary race. Other races may be added to the Empire later, but this one is core race. So, I'd suggest round 4 be for their natural evolution to sentience, round 5 for their social rise on their planet, and round 6 be about the how/why/what's that got their butts into space.

Questions? Concerns? Suggestions? Please post them up in the OOC thread!

Karren Gaunt · April 10, 2011

In the fullness of time a star was fertilized into being by the death of three of it's older siblings, the cloud of dust surrounding it rich in the heavier metals, including the star metal that might someday bend the laws of space-time itself. The worlds, including one dancing between where water boiled and water froze, that formed around it were heavy and pregnant with all kinds of ore, a gift to those who might exploit it.

Click to reveal..

And on the world blessed with liquid water, life arose in it's fashion, enriched by a windfall of stellar proteins and amino acids, lightning sparking the soup into self-replicating patterns of carbon and hydrogen. Life took it's chance, and surged back and forth through the ages of extinction and bloom, eventually evolving a paradign of animal life among thick, oxygen birthing forests emphasizing the arthropodal on a grand scale and range, the endoskeletal model evolving as a mere suplement to the exoskeletal when needed among the larger forms.

Among this dance of predation and parasitism, symbiosis and competition, evolved an arachniridian hunter roughly a meter and half long that lived by it's wits more than it's strength or envenomed fangs, spinning webs along extant trails to slow it's larger prey down long enough for them to descend and suck their victims dry in family packs of three to four adults and twice that many adolescents. They ascended to self-awareness under the twin pressures of a drying climate and a new super predator much akin to a two-meter long parasitoid wasp, only the cleverest, patient, and most willing to cooperate surviving to reproduce. The family became all important even as a clicking-language began to overshadow the instinctive hunting and breeding gestures of their ancestry.

Click to reveal..

Stargaizer · April 12, 2011

In the void of space, large whale-like creatures formed into pods of 20 or more for protection, companionship, and to help them speed through the stars faster in search of their specialized diet of pink psi crystals. After forming pods, they formed migration trails and feeding locations, and they picked the center of the universe to both mate and to give birth after their long feeding voyages.

The system where they migrated to and from has several planets, 2 of which could support life. These planets kept the system clean, scooping up the left over crystals, some falling to the surface while others collected into beautiful rings that encircled the planet.

On the surface of these planets, the 4th one in particular, life developed. Under the influence of the crystals, one form of life developed sentience, self-awareness and will. This form of life was humanoid in appearance, bi-pedal, with opposable thumbs on the hands, with two sexes. Because of the overwhelming influence of the psi crystals on their planet, the Gra'nat develop latent psychic, telepathic and telekenetic abilities which help them quickly become the dominant species on the planet.

The Gra'nat are semi-tribal based on geography. Through their telepathic communication and bonds they are able to share thoughts, experiences and knowledge which helps in preserving the knowledge gained from one generation into the next. This ability drives them to be highly intellectual and scientific from very early on in their development.

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Dawn OOC · April 15, 2011

Aeon Quatrus

Empire Round: Deep inside the largest of the natural spheres, life burbled in the mud. Single-celled organisms crawled and reproduced as the sphere settled into its forms. The horizon curled away from them, stretching up and away and out of sight. The earth occasionally shifted, resettling from the pressures of the sun pulling on them or the pressure of the plates of rock pushing at one another. Sometimes these earthquakes would open to the space beyond, allowing a second of air to escape from the sphere. As time passed, these breaches happened less and less often as the materials settled and strengthened.

Now there were mountains and three great oceans, thick with minerals and chemicals. Thanks to this soup, the single-celled life found a way to combine and cooperate, becoming more complex and better adapted to eat and reproduce. Their reproduction especially allowed them to flourish; the sexual gender and the carrier gender allowed the sexual to focus on finding food while the carrier remained dedicated to raising the offspring.

First, a race of amphibians rose and were struck down with disease; fliers rose and failed to dominate over the insects that rose in the vacuum. The insects were laid low in turn by the rising mammals. These warm-blooded creatures gained eminence and split into many species. One species was highly adaptive, rapidly spreading around the banks of the largest ocean. These canines dug up shelled creatures and caught what fish they could. The dogs began to rest more on their back legs and their paws began to lengthen and widen. They slowly, over the generations, began to stand on their back legs more and more, and developed the two opposing digits to allow them to grip basic tools.

One of the branches of these bipedal canines developed larger and more powerful brains. This group began to prey on larger creatures, forming tribes and working together. They ranged away from the ocean, finding a massive plain. Large animals were common here and the cooperative hunting was good. Here the group settled and grew, until their pups moved on, further into the plains. Many pups later, they found another ocean. Here were other canids, ones not as advanced and with only a single thumb. These two-thumbed pups were better at fishing and were starting to practice animal husbandry and horticulture. The first animal domesticated was a large herbivore primate that was used for food, milk and as a riding animal. Other primate species were tamed, including a fearsome pack-based carnivore that became a hunting companion.

Slowly, the one-thumbs were forced out, losing the competition for food. There was some interbreeding, enough that pups are occasionally born with a ‘half-thumb’, deforming the second thumb into a digit that can oppose or not, as the pup wanted. It was here on the banks of the second ocean that the first great people would arise.

Click to reveal..

Galactic Turn: On a not-so far planet from the void that was full of the natural Dyson spheres, a race of lizards were starting to walk upright. Their world was teeming with life, full of jungles. The planet was covered in thick vegetation of all kinds: even the tundra supported vines that grew thick and rapidly during the short summers, leaving behind a ghost forest to be covered in snow when the seasons changed.

Despite the life, or because of the overwhelming thickness of it, the world was a hard one. Too many creatures were crowded together, life springing up as rapidly as it fell. The lizards were always fighting to survive and adapt, even as they began to walk on four legs instead of six.

The lizards developed language quickly, speaking in a rasping tongue. Their first word was three letters long and meant to "to kill by drowning in tree sap". The second word was Kre'em, which meant "the true people".

Click to reveal..

The Story Guide · April 16, 2011

Aeon Quatrus

Empire Turn

The Children of Ylanza* were born in the dark. Orbiting a hot yellow-white star diminished in a size and brightness from, Ylanza is one of three life-bearing planets of the solar system. Ylanza is the oldest and smallest of the planets and it was there that life first formed, breathed, and grew from simplicity to sentience. The Children of Ylanza grew and learned under the sparse stars of the Ylanzan night, avoiding the harsh glare of the sun. Descended from cave-dwelling predators, the Children are lanky nocturnal humanoids with sharply pointed ears and no body hair save a small circle of hair directly over the crown of the head.

The Children at first lived as shortly as the lesser forms of life they shared their homeworld with. They spread quickly from the caves in small bands, adapting to each new surface area but keeping to the darkness of night that mimicked the comfort of the ancestral caves. Each new environment marked the Children over time, pushing them farther from each other both socially and genetically. Time and growth also pushed the Children from peaceful and distant coexistent to widespread tribal warfare.

The first peace was made from plague. No tribe was spared and no individual could avoid exposure; the Children were nearly wiped from Ylanza's surface. Those that survived, though, found their lifespans greatly increased and the tendencies of their particular tribe greatly increased: those that had survived by cleverness found their minds sharper, those that survived by instinct became more bestial, those that survived by conquest and strength became apex warriors, and so on. Time passed and the tribes slowly recovered their numbers; war resumed not from a scarcity of resources but from slave raids and breeding stock.

The first peace was wrought by the Singers of Ylanza. The Singers tribe had settled next to the lake of the Songs, a nearly perfectly round lake with water tinted bright pink from the crystals that lined the bottom of the lake. The Children of the Ylanza say that the Singers were the only tribe to never spill the blood of brother or cousin, and so they could hear the purity of the Songs of Ylanza. The gifts of the Songs were many, the greatest of which was the Song of Immortality. This Song allows the Singers to take the mind of the greatest of the Children and preserve it across the Song of Unity that is the first Song all Singers learn. In this way, the Children of Ylanza never lose the greatest of their members.

The second peace, the Peace of the Songs, was the beginning of the rise of Ylanza.

*Pronounced E-lan-ja.

Secondary Empire Turn

Elsewhere in the galaxy, a small star was shelled with matter; a younger sibling to the largest sphere that had already birthed life within itself. Life came not from the evolution of the shell, but from the star itself. Energy-as-life, the first life of the galaxy, found itself trapped within.

For the first time, such energy traversed the emptiness of space not to seek another star but to explore the enclosure it had been trapped in. It - they - found the other forms of life existing there fascinating. Over time, they discovered how to share themselves with the slow-life, as they considered solid forms of life; first for only brief periods of time, and then for the entire life-cycle of a slow-life organism.

Click to reveal..

Courier · April 18, 2011

Aeon Quatrus

Empire Turn

In space life lived, grew when it encountered crystals, and evolved to feed on the constant sunlight. Some fell to a planet with a high crystal concentration.

For a long time it simply grew, eventually covering/consuming the world. Thus was born the One.

Everyone thing was The One. Every inch of land.

The One was… stupid. It was everything, and there was no need for thought.

How the idea of competition took hold is unknown. This was before thought. Before The Memory. Before it Knew. Perhaps an island became separate from The One. Perhaps small pieces of itself found they could reproduce faster, more efficiently than the rest. It doesn’t matter.

The Many Arose.

They could plug back into The One for its Power and Life, but could also strive for itself.

Separateness. Alien. Successful.

Eventually everything was The One and everything was The Many. The One could separate parts of itself into The Many which would eventually come back into The One. The One found itself in constant competition with itself.

And Advantages were still Advantages. The Smart were able to gather more resources and change the One in their own image. The thinking got faster and better. Others of The Many found how to deliberately separate and gather resources. The One grew to reproduce faster, even matching the speed of biological creatures.

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Kakita Zoyu · April 20, 2011

Aeon Quatrus

On the far edge of the galaxy, in a densely packed trinary star system, centered on a black hole, on the seventh planet, through a random confluence of events, an organic cell formed... then divided. From such humble beginnings did life strive, survive, and thrive.

From sea, to land, to sky, life evolved. From the order of Primates, whether through luck, an intrinsic quality, or something else altogether, arose the sentient Terrans. From common origins, the Terrans spread across the face of Terra, developing into distinct tribes, qualities diverging based on climate and diet and other factors.

And as they began to master their world, so did they began to master themselves. Tribes clashed, each seeking their own means of superiority. Some chose defensible land, others sought to develop better tools and weapons, still others breed animals to increase their productivity and to ride into battle. Some tried diplomacy and trade, for the betterment of all. Some sought to subjugate their neighbors, to make their victims strengths their own.

And in one land, a tribe began breeding themselves as others bred horses, allowing only the strongest, fastest, and most clever to survive, adding a rigorous, almost brutal training regimen to their self imposed eugenic program. And from dominating themselves, so began to fester a need to dominate others. Fierce and imperious, Vlodoskean Empire began to make its will known.

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SalmonMax · April 20, 2011

Exploding stars ejected vast clouds of gas and heavier elements outward. In time these clouds began to foster within them the births of new stars and planets. The powerful radiation of these vibrant young stars lit the gas clouds with astonishing colors throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. The show was spectacular, but also obfuscatory, for light was diffused and diffracted in these nebula, and there was simply no way to tell what exactly was within them.

The stellar matter is rich and thick, and most stars that grow there are binary or trinary systems laden with 'hot jupiters' and other supergiant gaseous worlds. And yet, there are heavier elements in the mix as well.

In one star system, a planet begins to form from iron and nickel and other even heavier elements. The dense materials sink to the core and heat to liquid state. The churning and rotation of this core creates a powerful magnetic field around the planet...shielding it from the worst of the radiation of the wild blue sun that shines in the distance. Water forms...sometimes naturally from the confluence of pockets of oxygen gas from the nebula combining with hydrogen as they fall to the planet's surface. Quite a lot of it comes from the comets that are all but ubiquitous in the stellar nursury. Enough, in fact, that when the planets have finally carved out their place inside the 'oort' cloud, this particular one is all but covered in water. Warm water laden with carbon compounds. Free of the bombardment of stellar radiation...these compounds were free to continue to develop.

The turnings of aeons pass, and see the rise of eyes and minds that exist beneath the waves of the world, which is called Unlay (shade of orange) by those minds. The Nelwynn, as they call themselves, arose from clever social omnivores who banded together for mutual protection, and traveled in small communities to avoid overhunting in one area. Consisting of oblong, finned bodies approximately a meter to a meter and a half in length and about half that in width, the Nelwynn hunt using sensitive and dextrous tentacles that project from their heads. In time they learned to use these to manipulate their environment in ever more complex ways....

The key that marked their transition from pre-sapience to civilization however was when they first learned to domesticate other living creatures to help with the ordinary tasks of day to day survival. This enabled communities to stop roving constantly and develop consistant food supplies. Time once used for hiding, fleeing and hunting could now be used to sate their boundless curiosity.

A New Race Has Evolved!

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Nelwynn are aquatic creatures native to a water world orbiting a young star in a planetary nebula at the edge of the second spiral arm. The nebula makes the planet difficult to detect...it also blocks sight of all but the brightest of stars from the planet. Unlay is just over 50% more massive than Earth, though is only about 30% larger...much of the mass differential is due to the denser planetary structure. Warm on the surface and subjected to high levels of UV, the planet also suffers periodic exposure to radiation that overwhelms its magnetic field during solar flares, storms and other events. This radiation does not penetrate the ocean.

An adult Nelwynn is 3 local years old (about 40 Earth solar years) and looks a little like a cross between a squid and a ray. Their bodies are flatter than a squid's, with a central somewhat flattened 'tube' that houses their internal organs extending from their heads and tapering to a point at the far end of the body. A 'skirt' extends from the sides of the tube, roughly following its contours. This acts as a propulsion when they flex their bodies, and by changing the shape and angle of different parts of it, allows them to manuever with precision as well. The head is about the shape of a football, turned long side forward, with four eyes...one on either 'corner' that is adapted for a wide field of view, and two located on the centerline facing forward that are designed for stereoscopic vision forward. The two forward-looking eyes are much more acute, with the two bulbous wide-range eyes mostly seeing changes in light level, and movement. Their mouthparts are below the two forward-looking eyes, opening downward. The head also features two rows of five tentacles each, one growing along the top, the other along the bottom. Each tentacle is approximately a meter long, with a muscular base and a very delicate tip with great tactile sensitivity. During swimming these tentacles are allowed to sweep backwards along the top and bottom of the body. They extend forward to hunt, or to manipulate. Nelwynn hunt by seeking shellfish on rock surfaces, sometimes using rocks or other makeshift tools to pry or crack them off, or by probing into holes and cracks for hiding fish or other denizens. This works something like Earth fishing, where the slim tip of the tentacles acts as a lure...dragging the would-be attacker out. The tentacles regrow quickly if severed, though this is the only part of the Nelwynn body that has this trait.

Nelwynn communicate via vocalizations and color changes via the chromatophores in their skin. Colors and patterns often provide emotional context for vocalizations, which do not generally vary in inflection or pitch. Most words can be understood without color content, but would seem very flat and dry...and in some cases there are words and contexts that would be offensive or without specific meaning if stripped of color.

When threatened, a Nelwynn's first instinct is to hide. They accomplish this by either burying their bodies under a thin layer of sand at the sea floor...or by pressing up against rock faces or other surfaces and using chromatophores to change their color to blend in. If a Nelwynn in a community is attacked, others in the community will come to its aid however. This normally occurs as a coordinated attack, with several community members grasping the offending body in their tentacles to hold it still, and other members hitting it with rocks and other heavy objects. Ramming is seldom done as it can damage the Nelwynn eyes.

At this stage the Nelwynn have learned how to domesticate other species, and how to cultivate and raise the creatures they prey on. This 'agricultural revolution' has increased the security and food production capacity of the communities sufficiently that they no longer have to rove constantly. Freed from the constant struggle to merely survive, the nelwynn now begin the long journey of discovery that leads to land, to the stars, and beyond...

The Story Guide · May 5, 2011

Entropy

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No flavor text again, I'm just still a touch fried from things. Flavor text may not stick around for Entropy rolls in general just from the different nature between a sci-fi game and SOI. Anywhoo, to the rolls:

Galactic Turns:

Envoy, your space wales are spreading out and now while extremely rare may be found in any area of the galaxy. They're more common in their home territory mostly because of the high concentration of pink crystals there.

Empire Turns:

Courier, Dawn, you two got by without incident this age.

SG - The landscape on you planet has changed! The Gran'nat, coming to an early understanding of geological sciences have built their first roads and communities along geomagnetic lines and nexuses. These roads and nexus points have also been lined with psi crystals, creating an enhanced network to power the Gran'nat's racial psychic abilities. As these networks have expanded, it has meant the displacement and sometimes extinction of wildlife along those areas. Also occasionally an animal or plant from a population that lives along the roads or near the nexus points produces an individual with heightened intelligence, though the swing between benevolent companion or enhanced aggressive opponent is also a coin-toss for the local Gran'nat population.

Envoy: Rolled roll twice: got a landscape change and lost a space effect. The arid times finally past, and rain, endless rains, seemed to follow. Their once greatest foe could not fly in the rains and eventually fell to extinction, along with many other predators and prey. Valleys and basins filled with water and the world, for a time at least, was a blue jewel in the darkness. The Sli'clik learned something new in this time: their legs, so well suited for quick movement and turning on land also made them able to "skate" across the surface of the new lakes and oceans of their world. Their webs were less useful in the water, though some of the more clever learned to fashion primitive nets and catch the water-born animals that wandered too close to the surface. Such hunting was both safer, as fewer predators would hunt the Sli'clik on the watner, and more dangerous as catches were less certain and if the Sli'clik lost their footing they would have to be rescued by others before they sank too far and drowned.

Unbeknownst to the Sli'clik, their star was different from other stars: it lacked the node for travel that nearly all other stars had, setting the Sli'clik just a little more alone on their homeworld.

Max - Lost a space effect. They nebulae around Unlay has pulled back for a time, allowing the Nelwynn thier first glimpses of a starry night. Those that travel to the surface, at least.

Mala - Quadruple the population. The first Peace of the Singers allowed the tribes to begin learning how to work together and trade for need and luxury. Tribes grew quickly and the first peace was stretched as demands for food land grew with each new birth.

Asa - Quadruple population. Eugenics is a test of time, but the Vlodoskean learned quickly that they could breed for births as much as they could for strength and intelligence. Multiple birth children, usually culled out for their weakness at birth, were allowed to live and tested as others were as they grew. The best of these that were women became the most prized breeders, and so the Vlodoskean spread like wildfire until single births were an uncommon disappointment and most children were born at least twins or triplets, if not the more common quadruplets or quintuplets.

Secondary Empire Turns:

Dawn - You have an extra turn in the next round for your Empire.

Malachite - Nothing.

If I missed anyone/anything, lemme know and I'll get it done ASAP. Feel free to start Age Quintus, and remember that for this Round we're looking up to modern times. No permanent space colonies or anything at this point, but you can have the first steps into extra-planetary exploration if'n ya want.

Courier · May 9, 2011

Aeon Quintus

Empire Turn

The One continued to grow. Expand. Became more aware.

It recognized the difference between itself and everything else, that it wasn't the sum of reality. There was a word for this... sentience.

Then Disaster Struck.

An Extinction Level Asteroid slammed into The One's Planet. 0.5% of itself died from the impact. Dirt was thrown into the air and blocked the sun for years. More than 95% of itself was forced into dormancy for varying periods of time.

The One's attention was turned away from its planet and to the larger universe.

An impact three orders of magnitude larger would have shattered the planet and probably killed The One. This is unacceptable. Basic survival mandates that we/I/us expand past the boundaries of this planet.

During the Disaster part of itself was thrown into orbit. It wasn't hard to repeat that experiment/experience. A piece of itself was thrown to the moon and The One had its first orbital colony.

Click to reveal..

Stargaizer · May 12, 2011

Aeon Quintus

The whales that roamed the depths of space but always came back to Sa'riss changed as did the universe around them. While they still needed the pink crystals to survive, they learned that the green crystals allowed them to travel the stars faster, and thus allow them a further reach. So, through the centuries, their bodies slowly adapted to use the green crystals more efficiently, meaning that smaller pods could cover the same area or larger pods could literally go anywhere in the galaxy. And thus, the Sa'riss system started to become more plentiful in green crystals even as the influx of pink crystals dropped an equal amount.

On the surface of Sa'riss, the Gra'nat continued to develop both themselves and their society. The fact that they could pass on the bulk of their memories and experiences helped keep them from dissolving into warring states. It also increased the speed of their development. What it did cause, while not a rift, was a division as each individual found the area that they were most suited for and experienced in and they focused their time and energy into that one area. While these weren't hard and fast classes, as time passed and the accumulated knowledge within individuals became so specific, they might as well have been.

Some Gra'nat focused on taming and developing the plants and animals around them, including the above average intelligence ones, and thus the Farmer class was born.

Others focused on honing their psychic abilities and how to augment them with crystal use, and thus the Psionic class was born.

Still others focused on the advancement of technology and so gave birth to the Scientist class.

Other classes included the Miner, the Merchant, and the Bureaucrat.

Each class, with the exception of the Miner, had two sub divisions, the Warrior and the Enlightened. The Warrior division focused on military and defensive uses of their class (war animals/biological warfare for farmers, psionic martial arts/offensive & defensive psionic abilities for the psionics, weapons/fortifications for the scientists, the productions of the weapons and fortifications for the merchants and strategy as well as command function for the bureaucrats), while the enlightened division focused on peaceful expansion, enhancement and more efficient uses of their class.

The most significant advancement that was made in this Aeon was the Enlightened Scientists' discovery of how to transfer a consciousness into a very specific size and shape of Psi Crystal. Work continued on systems that would allow that consciousness access to and manipulation of the outside world.

Click to reveal..

The Story Guide · May 27, 2011

Aeon Quintus

Empire Turn

In time, the tribes of Ylanza grew large and arrogant again, each tribe feeling that they were due more lands or resources, or had more than one worthy soul to be kept by the Singers in a generation. Despite the prestige of the Singers and their call of peace, war once again ravaged across the world. New weapons of forged metals and clever engineering brought destruction to the nations that had formed out of the Peace of Songs, and the Singers knew that they had failed.

Peace by request, by gift, had failed; and so the Singers themselves went to war.

They allied with a warrior nation, one known for breeding for both strength of body and of mind; to this nation they promised the highest position in the new order of the Children that the Singers would form. They also promised half their numbers as Singers of War, a sacrifice of those Singers' purity but a mighty psionic force for the nation's army. The War of Songs lasted for three generations; the Singers were relentless and allowed no tribe or nation of Ylanza to stand neutral in the conflict or maintain their independence. In the end, all of the Children were united under the warrior nation and Singers; each race within the Children was given a caste and a rank. Everyone would know their place, no wars would be fought for land or nation or resources. Ylanza was united.

As they had promised, the warriors ranked highest in the new order save for the Singers themselves. The Singers split themselves into many lines that would watch and care for each caste, and preserve not just one mind from each a generation, but simply the greatest minds of all the Children of Ylanza, that they might ever guide their descendants. Thus was born the Harmony, and Ylanza prospered so greatly that the Children looked towards the stars for new homes and new Songs.

Secondary Empire Turn

Time passed in the vastness of the sphere as the Lights played amongst the slow-life; they explored and felt emotions, experienced pain and joy, bore slow-life children and felt the strange fade to death. With each new bonded generation, the slow-lifers became more intelligent, longer lived, simply better than their cousins that had no bonded ancestors; the Lights discovered, too, that the children of the bonded slow-lifers were easier to bond with.

Then came the first True Bond. A creature that might have been called a cross between a horse and a wolf on another world became aware before a Light bonded to it. When a Light did become curious of the creature and settled into it, it found another Self, like a Light somehow born within a slow-lifer. It also discovered, much to both their confusion and no small bit of fear, that it could not leave. It and the slow-lifer were bonded for life, and when the slow-lifer finally did succumb to the failure of flesh, the Light found itself changed by the bond. More than just memories, the Light carried the some essence of the slow-lifer with it. It mourned the loss of its companion; for a time, the Lights removed themselves from the sphere and contemplated the meaning of the True Bond in the heat and safety of their starhome.

When the Lights finally returned, they found that many of the descendants of the slow-lifers they had bonded with before had gained the same essence as the first True Bond. Tentatively, each of the Lights reached out to the creatures they had bonded with before and began to experience True Bonds. The slow-lifers that were chosen by the Lights for Bonding became heroes and leaders of their people, the Lights themselves were revered as Ankahara - Great Souls. To be chosen for a Bond by the Lights was to become Teherathka - Of the Unbroken Line.

Click to reveal..

SalmonMax · May 31, 2011

Aeon Quintus

Empire Turn

Domestication and agriculture have provided the clever Nelwynn with all the tools they need to dominate the seas all the way down to where the sunlight no longer pierces. There the food will not grow, the fish cannot swim, and terrible monsters lurk...every so often venturing to the shallower warmwaters to grab the unwary. So the Nelwynn cluster around the broad expanses of 'shelves' that surround the many archipelagos and individual islands of Unlay; giving the abyssal trenches and dropoffs to the deeps a wide berth.

By watching their 'pets' they gain inspiration. Lacking bony claws and fangs, they fabricate imitations from bone and coral, and affix them to long ribs or jawbones. These weapons can be wielded expertly by their tentacles. These tools and their cooperation with other, fiercer creatures, means that the Nelwynn subordinate their natural predators completely; banishing them from their habitats. Their life expectancy skyrockets in the absence of predation. The new aged Nelwynn become teachers to the children, passing on more knowledge than has ever been available to communities before. This in turn means children start out knowing more, and build from a higher base. Innovation flourishes as the Nelwynn habitats develop unique cultures and arts, and trade between them stimulates their production.

By means of a device termed a 'gill pump,' the Nelwynn make their first tentative steps out of their ocean homes. Because their bodies are not suited to moving around outside water, they domesticate a species of large, flat-backed crabs that are strong enough to carry them around on land. Though they cannot stay out of the water for long, the things they see are enticing. New plants. New animals. Weather. Lightning. Fire! Within a generation, they have harnessed an aerial spore that floats with hydrogen-filled gasbags over the oceans to germinate in far off lands. The Nelwynn gather a number of them under a lightweight webbing, and can be hauled out on flying excursions...using still other creatures with wide fins to catch the air like sails, and popping the gas bags when ready to descend back into the sea. It is these first aeronauts, the most reckless dreamers of their kind, that come to realize how incomprehensibly vast the world truly is...for though the twinkling skylights have been visible for many generations now, it was always assumed they were something in the air. Something that could be touched. Now they know that those lights are far, far above the place where the air turns cold and thin...but their hunger to find those lights, one day, continues undimmed.

And the strange, squid-like people aren't satisfied merely with using the creatures as they are. They have begun to notice that each generation of their pet species is a little different than the last. Their brightest minds confer across habitats to determine if these changes can be shaped. The potential is nothing less than the ability to create living tools suited to any need...given time.

Click to reveal..

Dawn OOC · June 9, 2011

Aeon Quintus

Empire Round: Up when I can get it written.

Click to reveal..

Galactic Turn: Up later, perhaps.

Click to reveal..

Kakita Zoyu · June 10, 2011

Aeon Quintus

Empire Turn

Their numbers ever growing, expansion was inevitable, and the Vlodosk washed over Terra like a ruthless tide. Their neighbors grew nervous, clashing with these natural-born warriors, trained since birth, and ceded them land. Others, fearing and marveling at their efficacy, invited the Vlodosk with promises of land and resources to assail their enemies and the Vlodosk were all too willing to agree.

They invariably took more than what was offered, and never surrendered any land once occupied. The defeated and their purported employers alike found themselves ground beneath the heel of the Vlodoskean Empire, rendered into submissive serfs. Rebellions and those that proved intractable to their new lives were crushed with brutal finality as an abject lesson to others.

However, the Vlodoskean Empire did not go unopposed. A Confederation of nations who espoused the virtues of freedom and individuality formed in response to their aggression. Creative, willing to listen to any idea, and believing they fought for their very lives, the Terran Confederation developed better technology than the Vlodoskean Empire.

But the Vlodosk developed a better race, physically superior, more extensively trained, with a will and focus the Confederation - with its varying viewpoints - lacked. They bred to a purpose, unlike the rampant and directionless breeding of the Confederation.

Clever and cunning, they may have lacked the Confederates genius for invention, but they were skilled at reverse engineering it, and they exceeded them greatly in genetics and life sciences. And unlike the Confederation, the Vlodosk had no qualms about using slave labour. Indeed, despite their lack of freedom, serfs were fed and housed, well cared for and not needlessly - though always harshly - punished. And over generations, the Vlodoskean serfs were bred and domesticated for their roles. Much like pets.

The Confederation burned with consternation that some chose this life willingly over freedom. Others in the Confederation,, silently compared their dirty, over-populated cities to the elegantly sprawling, pristine and ordered cities of the Vlodosk, and were left wondering.

But not for long. With the Vlodosk controlling 80% of the planet and beginning excursions outside the atmosphere, the Confederation knew that defeat was inevitable, it was only a matter of time. Using their lead in space technology, they built an experimental generation ship, took their best and brightest - those left behind vehemently comparing them to the Vlodosk themselves - and fled the solar system through a nebula and into Wormspace. The other habitable planets in the system were tempting, but they would not have had enough time to rebuild to resist the Vlodosk.

And so, the Vlodoskean Empire came to indisputably rule Terra. But now, the stars beckoned...

Click to reveal..

The Story Guide · June 13, 2011

Entropy

Click to reveal..

Galatic Turns:

Courier: A rogue asteroid large enough to be a planet had it been in orbit stormed through The One's system. Planets were ripped from their orbits, along with moons and other materials in the system. Eventually a large enough collision created a cascade effect in the system that destroyed all but half a dozen of the interior planets in the system. The outer half or more of the system is now an immense asteroid field made of rock, ice, and crystals. The field is not quite a full globe, but does extend well above and below the galactic plane.

Stargaizer: The whales have inadvertently created slipstreams in the galaxy that allow for travel based on the manipulation of inertia in areas littered with the green crystals. Green crystals that have been passed by the whales are in stable forms that interact with each other to create these stable slipstream lanes. Travel is slower than light, but the sections of slipstreams can be moved and possible be used for intra-system travel.

Empire Turns:

Courier: The orbit and rotation of The One's planet has changed. The planet's orbit is closer to the sun, providing more heat/energy during the day for activity, but the rotation has drastically slowed, causing different parts of the one to be active or dormant for much longer periods.

Stargaizer: The Gra'nat learn how to impart a consciousness from a crystal back to a physical body, although to do so destroys one or both of the consciousnesses. The younger the body, the more likely the host mind is to die. Once restored to a body, the preserved consciousness has the body's aptitude with psionics again. Class differences become breed differences for the race as a whole; interbreeding is still possible but viable offspring from different caste parents is become more rare.

Malachite: The wars decimated the population of the Children, and in the generations of killing not enough attention was given to the world itself. Plague also struck during the War of Songs and several nations were lost in their entirety. The Song itself broke for a time and even the Singers do not know which souls were lost forever to the Children because of their strife.

Max: As the Nelwynn explored the land, they learned that they were not the only ones of their world with cleverness and an aptitude for adapting the world around them. Strange creatures on the land (which I will let you describe if you wish) resented the Nelwynn intrusion with deadly force. They did not fight with other creatures, but pieces of rock and stick and hard earth and other strange devices, driving the Nelwynn back to the oceans for a time.

Dawn: Those living near the axis of the world were not left unchanged by the low gravity there. Their bones became lighter and longer, their muscles leaner, and their reflexes much quicker. After a number generations, this subspecies was perfectly adapted to low-to-no gravity living, with no disorientation issues and prehensile feet and hands. However, the higher the gravity becomes, the more difficult it is for the subspecies to handle; they cannot live comfortably of the ground in the middle have of the sphere.

Asa: You get an extra turn again....also: When the Confederation left, they did so with bitterness and one last action of hate. Each Vlodosk city was simultaneously attacked less than three hours after the generational ship slipped into Wormspace. Ever ones to prick the pride of their enemies, the explosives were set near serf settlements and more specifically at Brood-bearer centers. For some time those built for greater callings were forced to work as the lesser bred until new serfs and brood-bearers could be birthed and matured.

Secondary Empire Turns:

Malachite: As True Bonds continue, the Lights find themselves less themselves while bonded. By the end of the Aeon, a bond becomes a singular mind influenced by both slow-lifer and Light. Some Lights have pulled away from the slow-lifers because of this, fearing to lose themselves completely, and secret cults exist among the slow-lifers that claim the Lights are demons that possess loved ones and devour their true soul.

Dawn: A large meteor shower with numerous impacts into the southern polar ice cap causes the sea level of the world to rise. The homelands of the Kre'em were flooded, tectonic plates groaned and shifted as the weight of the water rushed over them. Nature was not so kind as to split them as they had split themselves; warrior and peace-walker alike found themselves scattered and stranded all over the world. The jungles became swamps, the tundras new plains, and mountains became island chains.

Stargaizer · June 14, 2011

Aeon Sextus

Some of the whales, having grown old with this galaxy, having seen it grow and take shape (and grown and taken shape with it), having seen phenomena come and go, decided that exploration was the better part of valor. The vast majority of space whales agreed, and thus formed the largest single pod in the history of the galaxy. They used the newly formed slip streams and their own inborn affinity for the green crystals, and set out for a neighboring galaxy. Those that stayed scattered to the 6 winds, making the sight of one a rare treat indeed.

On the surface of Sa'riss, the Gra'nat continued to prosper, advance, and flourish. The enlightened scientists developed psimechanical suits that allowed The Ensconced to interact with the outside world. The scientists and psionics jointly discovered a cut of crystal that could collect ambient psychic energy, store it, and release it on command. The Warrior sects of the scientist and psionic classes discovered how to integrate these in a psimechanical way so as to augment a user's innate psi abilities.

The miner class, oddly enough, discovered green crystal antigravity as well as gravity manipulation. They used it to haul ore as well as in the mining process and even mine construction.

The merchant class used the miner's discovery of the green crystals and their integration into vehicles to make large trading craft. These crafts evolved into various forms from cargo to passenger to military to personal. Some of them were small and sleek and designed to travel great distances in short periods of time. In the search for speed, the merchants were actually the first to break the speed of sound as well as the outer layer of the atmosphere.

The Bureaucrat class took all the other advances of the Gra'nat society into account and made some changes to the society. They made proclamations that ranged from the number of psi batteries versus station to the proclamation that not every Gra'nat would become one of the Ensconced.

All in all, society progressed rapidly, and the exploration of the planet, the surrounding space, and the Gra'nat's psychic abilities and their new Ensconced forms.

Click to reveal..

SalmonMax · July 4, 2011

Aeon Sextus

Discovery of the sapients on the land upended centuries of Nelwynn thought and philosophy about themselves and other creatures. They had always assumed that intelligence was their gift alone. And for its gift to appear in creatures that walked on rocks and dirt? Far from the infinite resources of the sea? It seemed inconceivable. As the news and rumors of these creatures spread, the Nelwynn's curiosity was invoked. Clan after clan sent envoys to the surface, even those who'd had no interest in it before.

To the landwalkers, it seemed as if the invasion had begun.

They were a simple people, living in small clusters eking out the best lives they could under difficult circumstances and limited resources. Altrustic within their groups, but savagely protective of their territory and fellows...even against other clusters of their own species. When 'aliens' rose from the sea, slimy and tentacled and using great shelled crustations as mounts, they had only one ready response. War.

The Nelwynn were no strangers to conflict, as a species. From their very beginnings in dealing with predators to their adventure into sapience in dealing with different opinions, their basic strategy had always been more or less the same. Find a place to hide and wait the adversary out, turn the adversary to an ally, or get something bigger and stronger than you to fight it off. When the initial contact with the landwalkers went badly, with the Nelwynn fleeing as weapons of wood and stone were flung at them, different clans embraced different responses.

Some simply chose to leave the land to the walkers. Others were determined to understand them and make them useful. And finally, some decided that the walkers were keeping the Nelwynn from needed resources and needed to be cleared. The task would not be easy, they discovered quickly. The landwalkers were built a bit like the gorillas of Earth; not completely bipedal but capable of using their hands, and equipped with formidable strength and an aggressive temperament. Most of the species the Nelwynn had domesticated were not suitable for fighting on land. Fortunately, the landwalkers were incapable of penetrating beyond the shallows. The war was slow in its beginning.

The first major attack was launched, ironically, by air. The gasbag plants the Nelwynn harnessed to fly in were grown in quantity by one of the clans. They fitted nets of seaweed to the bags, with an easily released set of knots...then filled the nets with bladders from a creature that lived in the shallows. When attacked by a land-going predator, the bladders broke and released a noxious gas. The first attack consisted of hundreds of these bladders, dropped from gasbags that flew too high for the landwalker's spears to reach. The gas wasn't really a lethal weapon though, and while it drove people from their homes for a short while, it didn't inflict any true casualties. Even so, the tactic had been adopted. Dropping other things became more commonplace. Showers of heavy stones, of spikefish exoskeletons, of live toxic spine-fish...anything the Nelwynn could think of. They had the advantage after all. From their gasbags, they were untouchable.

Which lead to their great astonishment when the landwalkers adapted as well. The fifth wave of gasbags was attacked in return by salvos of smaller, lighter spears cast not by throwing, but with devices made from spring tree branches and elastic sinew and tendon. The wily land-dwellers rapidly learned that only one puncture was enough to cause a gasbag to start descending, and that once one touched down, the controlling Nelwynn was easy prey. The Nelwynn, in response, flew higher...but this negatively impacted their accuracy, and the higher winds there were harder to deal with. Then the landwalkers, having found some of the gasbags growing naturally, pulled a stunt even the Nelwynn had to acknowledge. They started breeding in captive large quantities of a bird which ate the gasbags. When attacked, they simply released the birds...which, being hungry, would all swarm around and over the gasbags; decimating them.

By that time though, the Nelwynn had some new tricks as well. More of the large crabs had been bred and trained to hunt for food out of the water. Using them as shock troops ahead of the mounted crabs, the Nelwynn used modified versions of the same 'bows' that the landwalkers had developed to fire toxic spines. The crabs' thick shells were hard to break, even with stone weapons...but the landwalkers turned to refined ores from the volcano, heated and melted and cooled, it became a strong substance that was harder than rock and could punch through a thick shell if it hit well and with strength.

The war went on, but the end was a foregone conclusion. The only reason the landwalkers had ever had a chance was because only a few Nelwynn clans were pursuing hostility. Those clans lobbied their neighbors though, holding up the innovations of the land-dwellers as proof that they would eventually become able to invade the seas. The spectre of those creatures stomping through cities, tramping over nurseries and egg-yards, stirred more clans to join.

In the end, a massive attack from all warring clans at once broke the landwalker lines. They fought to the last adult to protect the young and newborn. There, the faction that had tried diplomacy, and failed, stepped in. The young, they reasoned, could be guided. The whole of the species did not have to be wiped out. Clearly they had many gifts...things that the Nelwynn could use to become stronger.

With the end of the war certain things came to light. The Nelwynn had learned a great deal about how to encourage certain traits to appear in offspring during the war, as they frantically tried to keep pace with the landwalker's advances. It was the landwalker art of glass-beading though that gave the Nelwynn the tool they needed to reach the next step. They'd used natural lenses before to magnify images, but natural lenses could only be found in certain magnification levels. There were no creatures able to focus on microscopic creatures, and so the Nelwynn couldn't do it either. But when they saw that glass beads, made correctly, had the same effect and could be created to exact specifications... The next generation of landwalkers was raised to aid the Nelwynn with the so-called 'fire-science,' a branch of knowledge that could only exist on land. Metal and glass and dry chemicals. The Nelwynn learned how to include themselves into the landwalker's sense of 'family,' so they did not activate that fierce territoriality. Together they accomplished what neither could have alone.

And while the new lenses were mostly turned towards the new worlds of microfauna and the startling discovery that their own bodies were MADE of smaller creatures, a few Nelwynn rose in their gasbags and turned glass eyes upwards towards the points of light in the sky.

Click to reveal..

The Story Guide · July 4, 2011

Aeon Sextus

Empire Turn

The Harmony has ruled the Children for generations now, generations that were encouraged to propagate as quickly as possible to replenish the Children's numbers on Ylanza and to provide explorers to the new planets that their scientists had identified as capable of bearing life. A new caste was created to care for the numerous children created, the Caregivers, that would in time also be given the task of caring for anyone else in the society unable to care for themselves.

The ships built by the Children were not fast nor had the Children yet discovered any means by which to travel from one star to another by other than normal space. So the ships were built efficiently, powerfully, and to hold a microcosm of the entire Ylanza society for the years it would take to reach just the nearest system to them. Meanwhile at home, scientists continued their research and explorers continued their preparations for the next ship to be sent out.

Messages, carried on lasers, radio waves, and even pulsing x-rays, were sent in all directions from the Ylanza homeworld to see if they were alone in the vastness of space or if there were others that shared in the great Song of Life.

Secondary Empire Turn

Guided by the Teherathka, the peoples forged themselves into mighty empires and dynasties, spreading across the lands until no part was untouched, no place unclaimed. A golden age filled the globe as the Ankahara taught the Teherathka the secrets of light and heat, of thought and chemistry. Empires competed with one another, but in academics and matters of spiritual enlightenment, as opposed to the wars that usually shaped international politics of a world. For a time, true peace and abundant prosperity filled a space of over a hundred worlds.

Beneath the surface (literally), discontent found its hold. Those that distrusted the Ankahara hid away from the light and the glittering perfection of the Teherathka empires. They kept their families safe from being "ridden like an animal" by the Ankahara and they explored the caves and earth of the lands. After losing several explorers, these malcontents discovered a truth that would shake the very foundations of the Teherathka empires: the land did not go forever down. Something existed beyond.

Click to reveal..

Courier · July 7, 2011

Aeon Sextus

The rock which had so disturbed The One’s planet was a small part of a larger disruption. Orbits shifted, planets shattered. Most of The One mass which had been in space was destroyed.

The One renewed its spaceward expansion and gave it the highest priority. Parts of itself were launched into the remaining solid planets, moons, and the belts. All of itself had orders to expand and replicate. Exponential growth would be the rule.

Then parts of itself in the belt reported something unexpected. Pieces of itself had vanished and then returned. There was a gate to another solar system. The One launched parts of itself to investigate this other system, and devoted a substantial part of itself to think about the 'why' and 'how' of gate formation.

The Gate was an opportunity and a bottleneck.

There was another system there to be populated. But previously The One had explored and colonized its solar system by launching masses of itself from planets. Any course corrections would be made by ejecting parts of itself in route. This wouldn’t work now. The other side of the gate had planets, but not close by and not in line, and the belt itself prevented the building of a mass driver of planetary size. The One needed a way to maneuver in space. It researched solar sails, electromagnetic drives, rockets, and finally, ion thrusters.

Colonizing ships were sent to every solid planet and the moons of the gas giants in both Warp systems. Then to The One's intense surprise the Colony on Warp Gate #1: Planet 3 (WG1:P3) reported that it'd found a splinter colony of itself. The OLD memories were explored but this discovery remained an anomalous mystery.

Worse, the mutations on WG1:P3 that itself had undergone were strange, irrational, and substandard.

The local parts of itself had incorporated fluid into itself, which was fine although odd, but there'd been side effects. It couldn't communicate with itself. Any attempt to transport parts of itself off planet resulted in the immediate termination of the life sample. Some types of itself on WG1:P3 became hostile and The One found itself fighting with itself.

The conflict went on for decades. The One continued to colonize WG1’s solar system, and even a WG2 and WG3, but nothing it did solved the mystery of why itself on WG1:P3 was so intransigent and fragile.

Then The One recognized the truth. It wasn’t dealing with a splinter part of itself, it had found Non-self life. This was a shock, non-self-life wasn’t supposed to be possible. Even more impossibly, the species it was having so many problems with on WG1:P3 was showing signs of sentience. Tool use, even technology.

The One attempted contact for several years, but non-self life was amazingly fragile. Any exposure to hard vacuum, hard radiation, and a number of other conditions resulted in its termination. Most non-self-life couldn’t even tolerate being separated into pieces.

Eventually it obtained contact accidently. Parts of itself were captured and studied by the natives of WG1:P3. Communication took decades and was interesting if not enlightening. With a deeper understanding, The One still wasn’t sure if the creatures fully deserved to be called ‘sentient’. There were a large number of alien concepts which The One felt prevented them from true intelligence.

The creatures claimed that they were *all* *individually* sentient. Billions of them. Because of this communication and interaction took large amounts of their time and attention. They organized(?) their lives(?) around preventing death (?), sex(?), government(??), and dog (??).

The concept of even needing 'organization' was obviously a stunning waste of time with the concept of 'government' only existing to reduce it's inefficiencies. Sex had something to do with reproduction, but the aliens apparently spent vast amounts of their time and energy contemplating and worrying about this. If you were going to reproduce, then just do it. Bizarrely the concept of 'government' didn't appear to control the amount of time wasted in 'sex'.

They also claimed to be ‘at war’ with The One and further claimed to be winning. True, more than 90% of its contacts with the natives resulted in the destruction of that part of The One, and the natives were developing spaceflight, but The One’s mass in WG1 was increasing, not decreasing. War was a concept it could understand but by that metric The One was winning.

Death was an odd concept. Apparently the creatures existed, then they ceased to exist, on a regular basis. This quickly led to long talks about ‘dog’. ‘Dog’ cared for the creatures, ‘dog’ kept them like pets, ‘dog’ communicated with them like The One communicated with itself. In many ways ‘dog’ was like The One. Ageless, vast, unconcerned with many of their cares... but ‘dog’ was apparently far more powerful than The One.

This was a serious problem. The One made inquiries into how to be in ‘dog’s’ good graces (?) and was presented with a long list of demands. The One thought about it for a while... then it exterminated the natives of WG1:P3. Apparently ‘dog’ was going to be hostile no matter what The One did, so The One might as well eliminate any communications at the source.

Click to reveal..

Kakita Zoyu · July 27, 2011

Aeon Sextus

Empire Turn

The Confederation's attempt to humble the Vlodosk failed.

What the Confederation never understood was that the Vlodosk never saw their need to rule as an entitlement, a divine mandate. Everything they took, they earned, trained as warriors from birth and only allowing the superior specimens to breed. They did not quail at hard work, nor risks. Grubbing in the dirt would not break them, nor was it beneath them. The Vlodosk would do anything necessary in their quest to suborn their lessers to their will.

Thus, while they bred anew their serfs, the Vlodosk rebuilt their world with their own hands. As well, they spread to the four other planets in their solar system bearing life and enacted their will upon them, building new worlds. With the rough stresses of their early spacecraft, colonization fell solely to the Vlodosk, powerful enough to withstand them, until they could ship in serfs on slower, more gentle craft or breed new ones. In like manner, the Vlodosk were the first to mine and manufacture on the airless moons and asteroids, leaving their worlds veritable paradises, pristine and orderly, until lesser beings could be altered to fill the niche.

Though unrepentant in their lust for domination, none could deny the Vlodosk were supreme caretakers of all they called theirs. And from five planets in a trinary star-system, and lead by five Tyrant, rose the Vlodoskean Dominion.

Secondary Empire Turn

Decades passed, then a century and more since the Confederation fled and with their innate biokinetic gifts, many Vlodosk well remembered that time and their eyes tracked the stars, ever eager to chased down their enemy and grind them beneath their heel. The homeworld theirs, the Vlodosk pillaged all the Confederation left behind, increasing the technological acumen, in addition to driving large portions of serf labour towards space exploration.

In so doing, the Vlodosk learned of Wormspace hidden in the mists of prismatic nebulae and the star-nodes hidden within the three suns. From one solar system, the entire galaxy was now open to the Vlodoskean Dominion. One fleet was marshaled to follow the Confederation into Wormspace, while exploratory missions were sent through the star-nodes to see what was on the other side and to determine if they were threats or ripe for subjugation.

Click to reveal..

Sci-Fi World Building

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