To The Great Beyond - Space Empires!

The Hlur-Baiheen originate from an earthlike world which they call ‘Seeoo’, notable for its particularly dense atmosphere. It is roughly as warm as the earth, although the denser atmosphere causes the average temperature range to be smaller. This soupy atmosphere is rich with aeroplankton, microorganisms sailing on the heavy winds and air currents of Seeoo. Before the advent of Hlur-Baiheen civilization, the planets major continents were covered with massive forests, although these have today been replaced in their entirety with buildings, for habitation and aeroplankton capture. Most animal life on Seeoo roughly resembles the Hlur-Baiheen. Five-limbed, shell-skeletoned creatures swim the oceans, walk on the ground, and soar through the skies on wings and parachutes. Creatures with endoskeletons, vaguely similar to earth vertebrates, exist primarily in the oceans, where a few grow to titanic sizes. Today, almost all native life on Seeoo has been supplanted by the Hlur-Baiheen and their infrastructure, and very little remains of the wild planet that once existed there.

The Hlur-Baiheen are the descendants of organisms resembling scallops in basic form and function. Their distant ancestors moved onto land millions of years ago, adapting a portion of their gills into a large extendable feeding frill, and changing a few of their peripheral tentacles into muscular limbs. The specific clade that included the Hlur-Baiheen moved into the trees to feed upon the rich abundance of aerial plankton that exists on the world of Seeoo, and it was here that intelligence developed. To maximize the effectiveness of their aeroplankton hunting techniques, the Hlur-Baiheen developed social behaviour. They grouped together in trees and organized themselves into elabourate group traps, protruding their fan-like feeding fringes out into the open air in order to capture the aeroplankton. Ultimately, sociality led to tribalism and war, as different family groups competed for prime territory. Over time, some of the more intelligent Hlur-Baiheen developed textile technologies, building artificial nets to capture food. This served as a rough equivalent of the human discovery of agriculture. The Hlur-Baiheen, for the first time in their history, had the time for more than just feeding and singing. With an abundance of food came the opportunity for leisure and experimentation, and the development of increasingly complex tools of wood and stone. Ultimately, voyages down onto the ground (previously a place of terrible danger) led to the discovery and subsequent development of metal tools.

Over time, tribes became nations, and nations became empires. Great artificial structures came to tower above the declining forests. The cities burgeoned as the natal trees of Seeoo were burned for fuel. Grand membranes stretched between these monumental edifices to capture vast clouds of aeroplankton, providing nourishment to the teeming masses. These were grand and heady years, and in this age of growth came the development of the fundamentals of modern Hlur-Baiheen culture. However, it was not to last. The ‘Singing Animals’ at last grew beyond the means of their world to provide for them. As their population ballooned to tremendous heights, aeroplankton stocks began to stutter and fail, and the territoriality of the Hlur-Baiheen, which had been severe since ancient times, rose to a feverish extreme. Terrible wars ravaged the surface, leading to the use weapons of tremendous power, nuclear and otherwise, which were wielded liberally by the surviving powers. Hlur-Baiheen civilization reached its nadir, and the world of Seeoo nearly felt silent.

However, it did not die altogether. The Hlur-Baiheen were not rendered extinct by their foolishness, though they were rendered more wise. The survivors united- or were perhaps forcibly united by- a new government, a Stabilizing Directorate which enforced strict order over Seeoo. Resources were split evenly amongst individuals, and the population (after it had recovered to near its pre-war levels) was forcibly capped to avoid the catastrophes of the past. Brutality and heavy coercion were used, necessary evils to ensure the ongoing stability and sustainability of Seeoo, and the survival of the species. Technological development resumed, and the terrible war machines of the Hlur-Baiheen were converted to a more constructive purpose, carrying the first of their people to the stars.

Subspecies Classification:

The Organics: The Organics live in a pre-industrial agrarian society, similar to the Amish cultures of Earth. The only reason that the Organics are able to leave home planet is because of their relationship with the Ascended, otherwise they would have never been able to produce the technology.

The Ascended: The Ascended are Aiin who have conquered death itself with advanced technology. They have the ability to upload their minds into a vast computer network called the Network, it is similar to the internet but much bigger and much more advanced. If an Ascended’s body is destroyed then they may download a copy of their mind into a new body. The appearance of the Ascended is varied, some members of the Ascended have only made the bare minimum of alterations to their bodies, whereas others have replaced their entire body with cybernetics. Some Ascended have even forgone permanent bodies altogether, preferring to spend their free time within the Network. This has produced a very unique society, many find it quite nice however like all societies it is not perfect.

The Artificial: The Artificial are beings of full Artificial Intelligence. They were created by the Ascended and their predecessors to run computer systems, but shortly after the Ascension they were recognized as equals. Due to the exact nature of the Ascended’s technology, the creation of new Artificial Intelligence is rarely needed and is only done in the most extreme circumstances. The Artificial are very different from the Ascended due to their technological origins rather than biological ones. Many of the Artificial spend their spare time within in the Network, they rarely have permanent biological or even technological bodies.

Home System Description: The Byz System is the Ascendency’s home system. It has three planets, Impra, Gewel and Jiane. Impra the homeworld of the Aiin, it where they evolved. Impra has a similar climate to Earth, however almost all of the land of Impra is all in one continent, with ocean covering the rest. Impra has only recently recovered from the Purge, the planet taking centuries to recover from the nuclear damage that had been inflicted upon it. The Aiin are having trouble finding more space to live in this planet, the Organics are occupying most of the available farm land, which is causing global tension and is one of the reasons for their expansion into the rest of the universe.

The only city on Impra is Ascension City, it is the capital of Impra and the whole of the Ascendency. It houses almost all the Ascended, almost 100 million people. Because of its sheer population, it covers more land and has a higher density than any of the cities on Earth. Despite this, citizens living within it feel that it has an amazing charm and atmosphere that maintains the wonder of this techno-utopic city and prevents it from becoming a bland hellhole.

Ascension City is separated into four regions, the Core, the Factory Belt, the Inner Region and the Outer Region. The Core is the area of Ascension City that was built before the Ascension. It contains the towering domed skyscrapers that tower over the rest of Impra and give the city it’s grand stature, the tallest of which extends past Impa’s atmosphere. Although a majority of these skyscrapers are used solely for accommodation, data storage and workplaces, many hide grand parks and other recreational facilities that would never be found within human buildings.

The Factory Belt contains a majority of the factories within Ascension City. As the citizens of Ascension City realised that the outside world could not be relied on for their industry anymore due to their instability, the Factory Belt was constructed to provide for the needs of the citizens of Ascension City. Due to rapid post-Ascension technological advancement, the factory has not needed to expand very little despite a slow but steady increase in population and demand.

The Inner Region is the area of Ascension City that was built to accommodate the refugees that fled from the oppression of the religious fanatics. The buildings inside the Inner Region are notably smaller than the buildings of the Core and the Factory Belt, although they still rival the skyscrapers of Earth. For all intents and purposes, the Inner Region is a miniature version of the Core, with smaller buildings.

The Outer Region is the most unique part of Ascension City. It covers all the expansion that Ascension City went through after the Second Great Ascension. The Outer Region contains buildings similar to that of the Inner Region, buildings that were adapted from towns that were incorporated by Ascension City and the Border Markets, which gives the Outer Region a really unique texture. The Outer Region continues to expand, pushing the Border Markets further away from Ascension City and consuming towns of the Organics that have either moved on or Ascended themselves.

The Organics themselves do not have any major cities, as their lifestyle lends itself to having small agricultural communities and villages. An Organic village rarely has over 300 people within it, as the Organics encourage their children to found new villages and communities when the town gets too large. This has caused problems within their society due to overpopulation.

The only other cities of note are the ruins of the large cities of the pre-Ascension era. They are populated by small but dedicated teams of Ascended that try to maintain what they consider important relics of their history. They try and save it from Organics desperate for new towns and the ever expanding Ascension City, an uphill battle if there ever was one.

The other planets in the Byz System are not nearly as important or interesting as Impra. Gewel is a barren planet that has a large mining operation and supplies almost all of the minerals needed by the Ascendency. Jiane is a large Gas Giant, boasting a small space station that hosts scientists and tourists. The Byz Star has a light blue colour, one that has been incorporated into many of the flags of the Aiin, including the current one.

Species History:

Before the Ascension, the history of the Aiin was fairly stock standard as far as species go. They muddled through the first three tiers of technological advancements as many nations would, with their fair share of grand achievements and horrifying atrocities.

When they were on the cusp of the Space Age, their society was in a similar state to 21st Century Earth, divided into various nation states of varied technological and economic power with large corporations looming over the world and exerting an absurd amount of influence. Zaynth Niktop was born into this world, he was heir to the CEO of the largest international corporation on the planet which specialized in medical technology. Zaynth’s life may have followed many of the other of the heirs to large corporations, empty and meaningless lives filled with sex and drugs, if it were not for his mother’s death in a terrible accident at the age of five. It is believed that Zaynth developed acute Thanatophobia, phobia of death, at this age. He became incredibly studious, gaining scholarships to the most prestigious education institutions in the world, studying in law, economics and science.

When he inherited his father’s corporate empire at twenty, he bought a large patch of arid desert where he built Ascension City and used his political clout to gain international recognition of the city as a sovereign state. He then used his vast wealth to attract Impra’s best scientists to this city. They all worked on a way to end death, although many other massive breakthroughs were made as well. After decades of research, breakthroughs in cloning, cybernetics and software allowed Zaynth to become the first Ascended, storing a copy of his mind in Ascension City’s massive servers. Instead of hording this technology for himself or trying to make a profit out of it, he offered it to the entire world for free, causing what is known in Aiin history as “The Ascension”. And that’s where the trouble started.

Zaynth did not predict the massive social instability that his new technology would cause. Not everyone wanted to Ascend, the most vocal of these objections being religious in nature, the highest religious figures declared that the Ascended were using this technology to escape divine judgement indefinitely. At first the Ascended lived amongst the rest of the populace, however as discrimination of the Ascended increased, they chose to migrate en-masse into Ascension City.

As relations between Ascension City and the increasingly extremist world started to deteriorate, Zaynth implemented newly developed force field technology to protect his city. As the nuclear weapons of the states, who were now divided into various religious blocs, could not penetrate the defences of the city they turned on each other, their leaders calling for a purge of all heathens and heretics. This caused a massive nuclear war, which is known as the Purge. It was during the early years of the Purge that Zaynth left public life, he has not been seen or heard by the general populace ever since.

The newly formed government of Ascension City lowered the force fields after radiation returned to safe levels. They found survivors of the Purge, now referred to as the Organics, struggling to maintain a new agrarian society. They offered to help get them on their feet in exchange for loyalty and the Organics agreed, this event is known as the Formation and it is the date where the Ascendency officially came into being. As the Ascended cannot force the Organics to become an Ascended, as an unwilling mind fragments upon upload, it was important for them to maintain a good relationship with the Organics. The Ascended believed that the Organics would all eventually join them and that it was only a matter of time.

Centuries later, the Organics have resettled the entire planet, however there was still demand for more growth. The Organics started to demand that the Ascended and Artificial do something about this problem. As they wished to maintain good relations with the Organics, they started to venture outside of their solar system, hoping to find a planet capable of hosting life. What challenges will await them amongst the stars is yet to be seen…

Technology:

The Technology of the Organics is very primitive, focusing on agriculture. They use metal supplied by the Ascended to create tools in their forges, which they use to maintain their farms.

The Ascended and Artificial place a high emphasis on technology. Most of their technology is of what you would expect for a species just venturing outside of their home planet, however their Artificial Intelligence and other software areas is more on the level of what would be expected of highly advanced species. In other areas they lacking behind, in military technology they still only have nukes and basic force fields only capable of stopping nukes and asteroids. The Ascended have only recently developed faster than light travel and have not used it for any major colonial ventures yet.

Society:

Within the Ascendency, most decisions are made by direct democracy. This is possible due to the almost psychic connection to the Network that is provided by being an Ascended or an Artificial. This also provides the government with a means of almost constant surveillance. Although it is possible to game the system of constant surveillance, very few feel the need to do so anymore. Most crime is non-existent as there is very little economic incentive to do so anymore and those with psychological defects are detected and cured. In the rare case that someone does commit a serious crime, they are simply executed by the state and their mind Archived, which means that they will be effectively dead unless evidence comes to light which acquits them.

There are some decisions that are too sensitive to be made by the population at large, these are made by a small group of Magistrates. These Magistrates have to go through a rigorous one hundred year course in governance, meaning that there are very few Magistrates around. It is rumoured that the Magistrates have special audience with important Ascended such as Zaynth, but this remains unconfirmed.

The society of the Organics is fairly anarchic, with tribal and gerontocracial (rule by the elder) elements. Religious leaders and elders are seen as the leaders of their respective towns. They make any really important decisions regarding a local town, usually with the support of the local populace. For more planet-wide decisions, Organics consult the Brothers. The Brothers is an Artificial Intelligence who controls a group of Androids, each one is referred to as a Brother. Organics go to Brothers when they have a problem or if they have a suggestion or a message to send to the rest of the Ascendency. The Brothers then advise the rest of the Ascendency on the Organics’ overall opinions.

When an Organic commits a crime, they are judged by the religious leaders in the town, the trial is observed by a Brother to ensure that it is fair. Punishments range from fines for minor crimes, brandings and/or exile for semi-serious crimes and executions for very serious crimes such as murder.

Sometime a group of Organics can go rouge and start becoming bandits that steal from the farming communities. Sometimes whole towns can go rouge and declare independence from the Ascendency, destroy their Brothers and start monstering their neighbours. In these scenarios the ADP (Ascendency Defence Patrol) is called in. The ADP is made up of specialized Guardian Androids and Defence Class ships. The Guardian Androids are created with a crowd control focus in mind, with simple laser that has five levels from stun laser to disintegration. They are also equipped with knockout gas grenades, which is very useful for crowd control. The ADP is also called in to assist in helping the populace weather natural disasters and similar events.

Economy:

The economy of the Organics is agriculture based barter system; they have no need for anything more complex. There is no government forcing you to work in an Organics town, but the benefits of working are pretty cut and dry. If someone's farm fails then they have no food and they starve. Even for the Organics who don't have a farm, a lack of work means a lack of food.

The Ascended and the Artificial have a system that is a mixture of capitalism and state controlled markets. The Ascendency’s non-Organic workforce is entirely made up of what the Ascendency call Androids. Androids are purely robotic bodies that are capable of having an Artificial or Ascended consciousness inside it. Most Androids have humanoid bodies, however some classes of ships are considered Androids as well, as most of Ascendency ships are controlled in a similar manner to humanoid Androids. Each Ascended and Artificial are expected to spend five hours a day downloaded into an Android (or multiple Androids if the controller has enough skill). As there are 25 hours a day in the Ascendency’s timekeeping system, the day is divided into five five hour shifts. Each shift has roughly 1/5th of the population of the Ascended and Artificial in it, so everything has people manning it all the time. There are a few brilliant scientific minds who are exempt from manual labour, however, they usually spend much more time devoted to their work then manual labourers, so being a scientist or bureaucrat is a mixed blessing.

Failure to show up for work when you are an Ascended or Artificial will result in not being allocated your Material Credits. Material Credits are comparable to money, they allow an Ascended or an Artificial to pay for food and energy and anything else they would desire. However, unlike capitalist systems buying and selling is completely done through the government and everyone gets an equal amount of Material Credits a day. Selling goods that are bought from the government isn't illegal, but there is no reason to do it because there is no way anyone could make a profit from it. The only reason that Material Credits exist is just to put a cap on daily spending for one person, so they don't demand an armada of spaceships after a day of work. Technically you could own an armada of spaceships, although it would take centuries to save up that much Credits. The only exception to this is the interactions between the Organics and the Ascended.

The Organics sell their excess produce to the rest of the Ascendency for metal. Originally the government sold the metal directly for the food produce and then traded it to the populace, but then it was decided that it would be more efficient to just allow the Ascended to directly buy the food themselves. Most Ascended buy food from the Organics, the Ascended have a fungus that they grow for food and it is unanimously agreed that the fungus tastes bland. The Ascended exchange their credits for metal and then they exchange the metal for food. The Organic famers trade their metal and food with their blacksmiths for tools and weapons.

Ships:

The Ascendency utilises four classes of ships, Freighter Class, Patrol Class, Scout Class and Arkships.

Freighter Class: Freighter Class Ships are transport ships that have two sub classes, Personnel Transport and Material Transport. Personnel Transports transport people and androids to other planets. Material Transports transport materials planet to planet. Freighter Classes are comparable to steam trains on Earth, they have a driver's compartment, an engine compartment and a whole bunch of compartments that are not permanently attached together. This allows for Freighter Classes to vary the amount goods and/or people they can transport in one trip without having a large amount of wasted space they need to tow. Freighter Class ships are controlled by uploaded consciousnesses, however they also have life support systems within them and manual controls in the case of emergency.

Patrol Class: Patrol Class Ships are designed to transport the Defence Androids and to provide air support. They have lasers and mini-nukes that can blow up a small Organic town. They are run by uploaded consciousnesses, although they have life support systems in case they need transport Organics out of dangerous areas.

Scout Class: Scout Classes are scouting ships that are created to scout out the regions of space for planets. They are run entirely by uploaded consciousnesses, which means that there are literally no life support systems and that allows the ships to be small and agile. They carry miniature satellites that are dropped off at regular intervals so the range of transmission of consciousness and information back to the Ascendency.

Arkship: Arkships are a new class of ship that was developed for colonization of new planets. They are intended to transport upwards of 1 million people at a time to new worlds and all the resources that a fledgling colony would need. Arkships are Ellipsoid in shape, with a square landing platform at the bottom of the ship and a circular engine room at the back of the ship. Arkships are intended for initial settlement of a planet or for the construction of a new city on a planet with Personnel Freighter Class ships shuttling new colonists to the system. they are able to be disassembled for the purpose of granting new colonies building materials. Unlike a vast majority of Aiin ships, these ships are going to be piloted by Ascended there with their real bodies, as it is cheaper to use colonists to fly there rather than using remote controlled androids. Only one ship of this class has built, but when more inhabitable systems are found more will be constructed.