Coordinates: X-Axis: N4 Y-Axis: M9
Colour: UN Blue (RGB: 75/146/219)
Government: Alliance of Primitive "Amish" Communities and a Hyper-Technological Direct Democracy
Positive Traits:
-Fast Technological Advancement
-Near-Immortality for the Ascended and Artificial
-Very Advanced AI and Computer Systems
Negative Traits:
-No Need for Advanced Military
-Held Back by Large Pre-Industrial Population (Organics)
-Most Ascended/Artificial are a Little Naive
System Name: Byz System (Capital Planet Impra, Capital City Ascendency City)
Species Name: Collectively the species of the ascendency are called the Aiin. However, they distinguish themselves into three sub-species
The Organics: The Organics are humanoid beings that look very similar to humans, the largest noticeable external difference is how their pupil and iris is a monochrome very light grey, to the untrained eye it appears that their eye is completely dominated by the sclera (the white part). The Organics live in a pre-industrial agrarian society, similar to the Amish cultures of Earth. The only reason that the Organics have left their 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, although some members of the Ascended describe their society as utopic they have some serious problems within their society which may effect their competitiveness within the new frontier.
The Artificial: The Artificial are beings of full Artificial Intelligence, they are probably the most advanced AI in the universe. 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.
Homeworld 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 is 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 Organics 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 fare 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 a 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 lowered the force fields after radiation returned to safe levels. They found survivors of the Purge, know referred to as the Organics, struggling to maintain a new agrarian society, so they offered to help get them on their feet in exchange for loyalty. 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. It was at this point that the Ascendency finally moved from being a Tier 4 society to a Tier 3 one. 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 at Tier 3 levels, however their Artificial Intelligence and other software areas is more on the level of what would be expected of a Tier 1 society. In other areas they less advanced, 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. The advancement of science is a major goal for the Ascendency, however due to the lack of population growth within the Ascended means new ideas are becoming harder to come by.
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 have any reason to break it, as there is no economic reason to do so anymore and those with psychological defects that could cause them to do such things can have their defects cured by advanced genetic engineering technology. 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 national 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 Ascendency is a hybrid of a state controlled economy and capitalism. 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 4A'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 the allocation of 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.
Factions:
Due to the nature of the Ascendency, there are two faction groups that the factions fall into. Only the factions in the Ascended/Artificial Group would have any chance of forming government, although the opinions of the Organics matter also.
Ascended/Artificial Factions
There are two major factions that influence the society of the Ascended and the Artificial. Although the members of the factions may disagree on minor issues, members agree on the most important issue facing Ascended society, which is how to deal with the Organics.
Accelerator Faction: The Accelerator Faction believes that the Organics need to be actively encouraged to join the Ascended if the two species are ever to unite as one. The Accelerator Faction is responsible for a vast majority of the propaganda efforts that are targeted at the Organics. A very small minority of Accelerators believe that the Organics may one day need to be coerced into Ascending, although these are not the kinds of people who you would invite over for tea. The Accelerators were the first to propose the introduction of space colonization to mitigate overpopulation concerns. Right now the Accelerator viewpoint is slightly more popular amongst the general public so they could be considered to be "in power". However, as the Ascended are a direct democracy and public opinion can change at the drop of a hat, one never knows when this will change.
Conservative Faction: The Conservative Faction believes that the Organics should be left alone and should not be encourage, or discouraged, to join the Ascended. Most Conservatives believe that the Organics will one day join the Ascended regardless of interference. Some don't believe that all Organics will join, although these are regarded by most of the population as hopeless pessimists. The Conservatives were initially reluctant about the idea of space colonization for Organics, but eventually they too realised that it was a very necessary move.
Organic Factions:
There are four factions that the Organics subscribe to. The first two are major and have many members, while the last two are minor and have hardly any. The main difference between the major and minor factions is that the major factions want to maintain the status-quo (for the most part) while the other two seek to disrupt it.
Pro-Colonization Faction: The Pro-Colonization Faction are Organics who wish to leave for the greener pastures of new planets. The recognize the necessity of space colonization and while using the Ascended technology might slightly contradict with their beliefs they know it is better to commit a relatively minor sin than risk the chaos that will come with overpopulation. They are one of two major factions and they have over double the amount of members of the other major faction.
Anti-Colonization Faction: The Anti-Colonization Faction rejects the idea of interstellar colonization and believe that they should stay on their home planet. Although not a major faction by any means, they have many more members than the other two minor factions combined. They are not actively rebelling against the Ascended, they are content to merely protest against the idea of space colonization and refuse to participate. Although they may be small compared to the other major faction, they have many more members than the two minor factions combined.
Integrationist Faction: The Intergrationist Faction believes that the Organics should all become Ascended. The Intergrationist Faction exists in a strange limbo because when an Organic embraces Intergrationist philosophies, the first thing they do is go and become an Ascended which disqualifies them from being a member of the faction.
Rebel Faction: The Rebel Faction represents those Organics who dislike the Ascended Authority and have actively rebelled against it. The first thing Rebel towns do is put their Brother's head on a pike. Towns rebelling usually causes a response by the Ascended Police Androids, so Rebel Faction members rarely stay out of jail for a long time.
Ships:
The Ascendency utilises four classes of ships, Patrol Class, Scout Class, Freighter Class and Arkships. The first two are military vessels and the last two are military.
Military Classes:
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.
[Stats: Transporter (40/2/2/2/2/2/2/0.5/0.5)]
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. The Scout Class is loaded with (what is considered) light weaponry (but heavier than the Patrol Class) in the incredibly unlikely scenario that contact is made with a hostile alien species.
[Warship (60/4/4/4/4/4/4/1/0.75)]
Civilian Ships
(Civilian Ships don't have stats because they don't have weapons, they are purely for RP)
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.
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.
Military:
Ascended Police Androids: The Ascended Police Androids are the closest thing that the Ascended have to a proper military force. They are designed to suppress rebellious towns, arrest the very rare Ascended criminal and help with disaster relief. Usually found in groups of 100, they are armed with laser that have setting from stun to disintegrate and are armed with a variety of concussion, gas (both lethal and non-lethal) and explosive grenades. Considering the worst that they have to face is a bunch of angry peasants armed with bows, this isn't the galaxy's most powerful military force by a long shot.
[Stats: Planetary Regiment (100/2/3)]
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Sorry about the mess that is my signup post, but I didn't know how to organize all the RP I did in the previous incarnation of my nation. People, don't copy what I did with the formatting it isn't a good idea.
Anyway, enjoy.
