O R I G I N S| H O M E|C U L T U R E[ DATING | GOVERNMENT | POPULATION | DEMOGRAPHICS ]|P O L I C Y[ MILITARY | ECONOMIC | FOREIGN ]
l e g e r a d
Argentil and Stríandal are two planetary systems in the Beta Quadrant settled by the Fifth Remnant*, descendants of those who travelled aboard the Aláranid generation-ship Askenarad from a distant, unspecified location. The builders of the ship locked the inhabitants into a state of technological stasis and gave them no information about the relative location of their original home, primarily to afford them a fresh start as a young race in an entirely different galaxy. Even at superluminal speeds, it is estimated that the Askenarad travelled for some eighty thousand years to cross the vast voids between its forgotten point of origin and the Milky Way proper. The seventy-seven million who departed the ship upon its arrival in the Argentil system have settled but one other neighbouring system since, Stríandal; though they possess the same their forebears employed, they yet number only about two hundred million across three inhabited worlds.
Just over a hundred years have passed since the Askenarad reached its destination, but save for a few brave souls, none have dared to take the bold leap into the plethora of other civilisations that ring their small pocket of the universe.
The origins of the great vessel itself are preserved only in holograms, data-banks, and the array of flora and fauna that filled the gardens and parks of the Askenarad. Of the reasons for the flight into exile none is known, though theories are rampant. That said, this Aláranid population-in-exile exists as a paradox: a race whose technology affords them the grasp of interstellar travel and belies an ancient history, but whose cultural memory of their origins and history is comprised of little more than legends of worlds distant and diverse.
Of their ancestral homeworld, Aláran, there exist but a few holos and a thousand or so species of life by which their crèche may be remembered. With this as background, it is then no wonder that many Aláranidni feel lost and afraid in the great welter of species and civilisations that is the Milky Way: each new race they encounter, though perhaps with a shorter absolute history, at least feels claimant to their own unique past, something the Aláranidni can but envy. The mastery of their progenitors' technologies, especially the rippledrive, and a cultural heritage rich in story if not in tangible facts define their fragile existence. Being thrust into a first-contact situation at such a critical stage in their nascent nationhood carries both a risk of being subsumed by the welter of foreign powers who have not let this incursion go unnoticed but also promises, if not a link to their past, a link to their future.
*The Fifth Remnant is the term I shall use in a strictly Out-of-Character sense to refer to this particular iteration of Aláranid civilisation; however, neither they nor any other state save the builders of the Askenarad know the nature and numerology of the other remnants of Kolenarad.
Just over a hundred years have passed since the Askenarad reached its destination, but save for a few brave souls, none have dared to take the bold leap into the plethora of other civilisations that ring their small pocket of the universe.
The origins of the great vessel itself are preserved only in holograms, data-banks, and the array of flora and fauna that filled the gardens and parks of the Askenarad. Of the reasons for the flight into exile none is known, though theories are rampant. That said, this Aláranid population-in-exile exists as a paradox: a race whose technology affords them the grasp of interstellar travel and belies an ancient history, but whose cultural memory of their origins and history is comprised of little more than legends of worlds distant and diverse.
Of their ancestral homeworld, Aláran, there exist but a few holos and a thousand or so species of life by which their crèche may be remembered. With this as background, it is then no wonder that many Aláranidni feel lost and afraid in the great welter of species and civilisations that is the Milky Way: each new race they encounter, though perhaps with a shorter absolute history, at least feels claimant to their own unique past, something the Aláranidni can but envy. The mastery of their progenitors' technologies, especially the rippledrive, and a cultural heritage rich in story if not in tangible facts define their fragile existence. Being thrust into a first-contact situation at such a critical stage in their nascent nationhood carries both a risk of being subsumed by the welter of foreign powers who have not let this incursion go unnoticed but also promises, if not a link to their past, a link to their future.
*The Fifth Remnant is the term I shall use in a strictly Out-of-Character sense to refer to this particular iteration of Aláranid civilisation; however, neither they nor any other state save the builders of the Askenarad know the nature and numerology of the other remnants of Kolenarad.
h e r a t a d|s i r k y s n i
Luckily for the Aláranidni, both Argentil and its neighbour Stríandal contained habitable worlds. Neither was ideal for the development of a great diversity of life, but between the materials brought aboard the vessel and the knowledge her systems contained, they could survive on the surface and in time begin to alter the climate to better suit their needs. In the past hundred and thirty years, Argentil has gone from a cold, relatively barren world to one where summertime highs can now reach 35° C around the equator, where much of the population resides. Though it is taking time for the other life they brought with them to spread, two of five major continents show distinct signs of developing stable ecosystems.
The people themselves inhabit a handful of cities on three worlds, two in the Argentil system and one in Stríandal. Three-quarters of the population remains on Argentil Kóranid, the fourth planet, around the capital of Alenas. Although the city is new, it still boasts a respectably established culture for having been established in such short order. The Askenarad itself has been dismantled to construct an orbital ring around Kóranid, as well as a few attendant stations and vessels. There are no natural satellites, which assists with the stabilising of the ring even as it means tides on the surface are minimal.
However, there remains a distinct lack of institutional memory; although they have the governmental frameworks of their forebears to reference, much of that superstructure is obsolete, especially as their overarching organisations were designed with quadrillions of inhabitants in mind. As such, they have needed to forge a government and social structure that they believe better reflects how far they have come and how few they number. Two hundred million is a small drop in the bucket as civilisations go, and as the Aláranidni are well aware that other societies exist in their vicinity, they realise the need to be on acceptable terms so as not to be destroyed.
The primary piece of technology the Fifth Remnant inherited from the Askenarad was the rippledrive, their FTL system. Although they possessed the designs and history of the device and have been able to replicate it, the full potential of the technology has not yet been realised, according to their foremost researchers and historians.
The people themselves inhabit a handful of cities on three worlds, two in the Argentil system and one in Stríandal. Three-quarters of the population remains on Argentil Kóranid, the fourth planet, around the capital of Alenas. Although the city is new, it still boasts a respectably established culture for having been established in such short order. The Askenarad itself has been dismantled to construct an orbital ring around Kóranid, as well as a few attendant stations and vessels. There are no natural satellites, which assists with the stabilising of the ring even as it means tides on the surface are minimal.
However, there remains a distinct lack of institutional memory; although they have the governmental frameworks of their forebears to reference, much of that superstructure is obsolete, especially as their overarching organisations were designed with quadrillions of inhabitants in mind. As such, they have needed to forge a government and social structure that they believe better reflects how far they have come and how few they number. Two hundred million is a small drop in the bucket as civilisations go, and as the Aláranidni are well aware that other societies exist in their vicinity, they realise the need to be on acceptable terms so as not to be destroyed.
The primary piece of technology the Fifth Remnant inherited from the Askenarad was the rippledrive, their FTL system. Although they possessed the designs and history of the device and have been able to replicate it, the full potential of the technology has not yet been realised, according to their foremost researchers and historians.
n i m a r a d
t i m e|d a t i n g
The Fifth Remnant retains the calendar used by both their forebears and the Askenarad, though in a slightly modified form. Were they have adopted the system in its totality, it would have been a bit of an anachronism; the classic calendar consisted of ten months, each with fifty days of thirty-six hours each. Although the rotational period of both planets in the Argentil system was within the range necessary to adjust them to thirty-six hours, and Stríandal had a convenient eighteen-hour day, maintaining the ten-month aspect was unrealistic. Kóranid has an orbital of three hundred standard days by this token, Íkanid two hundred, and Stríandal four hundred, thus the calendar was altered to contain only six months* based on the period of Kóranid. Though this was non-controversial initially, residents of the other two worlds are somewhat dis-satisfied and would prefer further alteration to make the calendar more amenable to the facts of their worlds’ orbits.
Insofar as the counting of calendar years is concerned, the internal records of the Askenarad show that the date of departure from their home galaxy was 7 Heparnir 17230, AST by the old calendar. Arrival was listed as 42 Déskinir 87315, indicating a travel time of 70,085 years, 3 months, and 35 days. Curiously, however, the historical records the Aláranidni were given list the last recorded date in history as 50 Déskinir 13500, some three and a half millennia before. This disparity is the subject of continued academic discussion, as knowing why such a large span of history was simply erased would contribute greatly to their understanding of their forebears’ culture and actions. Also as a result of this ambiguity in dating, a new calendric cycle was initiated based on the date of first touchdown on the surface of Argentil Kóranid, 50 Déskinir 87315, Aláran Standard Time. The next day then became 1 Ákenir 0, Argentil Standard Time, and this has formed the basis of subsequent dating and history.
*By virtue of the reduction from ten months to six, the names in use are as follows: Ákenir, Diénir, Íkanir, Korálenir, Áqinir, and Ákysir.
Insofar as the counting of calendar years is concerned, the internal records of the Askenarad show that the date of departure from their home galaxy was 7 Heparnir 17230, AST by the old calendar. Arrival was listed as 42 Déskinir 87315, indicating a travel time of 70,085 years, 3 months, and 35 days. Curiously, however, the historical records the Aláranidni were given list the last recorded date in history as 50 Déskinir 13500, some three and a half millennia before. This disparity is the subject of continued academic discussion, as knowing why such a large span of history was simply erased would contribute greatly to their understanding of their forebears’ culture and actions. Also as a result of this ambiguity in dating, a new calendric cycle was initiated based on the date of first touchdown on the surface of Argentil Kóranid, 50 Déskinir 87315, Aláran Standard Time. The next day then became 1 Ákenir 0, Argentil Standard Time, and this has formed the basis of subsequent dating and history.
*By virtue of the reduction from ten months to six, the names in use are as follows: Ákenir, Diénir, Íkanir, Korálenir, Áqinir, and Ákysir.
n i m a r a d
g o v e r n m e n t
Although the three worlds nominally have their own independent governments, in reality the effective source of power for the civilisation is Argentil Kóranid. Stríandal is the least populated of the worlds, as it was the least hospitable and initial terraforming procedures took longer. Argentil Íkanid proved slightly easier to handle, but the simple fact that it is so close to Kóranid means that economically and otherwise it is overshadowed. Thus, the Argentilid National Assembly or Kulanár* contains representatives from each of the off-world cities and districts as well as those located on its own surface, and is as such the de facto overall government for the Aláranidni.
Structurally, the Assembly is a unicameral legislature responsible for the legal and economic oversight of the two Aláranid systems. There is no formal, written constitution; much of the legal framework was lifted from the documents of the Kolenarad Aláranid their forebears had input into the Askenarad. This was modified and built upon two years after arrival during the Sirkysnind Conference (lit. “surfacing”, planetfall/arrival), a concordat of the top legal scholars and administrators from the journey; the resultant product was called the Misaladi (“orders”). Interestingly, there is no government codified in the Misaladi; the document is merely a set of laws regarding personal conduct, basic economic agreements, and limitations on “state authority”. In that sense, it provided an archetypal social contract upon which successive national or planetary governments could build.
By way of more or less organic evolution of stopgap measures, many of these participants in the Conference rose to positions of authority as the government that would become the Kulanár coalesced. This was facilitated by the sense of collective purpose that the Aláranidni possessed in those early years, as dissent without careful explanation of reasons was generally regarded as utterly self-destructive given the fragility of the species. The Assembly proper consists of a number of representatives elected based on population, specifically with a stipulation of one Assemblyman per 50,000 citizens.
Cities are not geographically divided into districts, as this is cumbersome to deal with given the rapidly growing population. Instead, each one elects its representatives as a whole; voters select their preferred mikánerad (effectively a political party, but based primarily on economic priorities and objectives) and seats are allocated via proportional representation. Although this reduces personal affiliation with Kulanár assemblymen, it is widely accepted that those civilians wishing to make speeches before the Assembly may do so via a vetting process that typically takes two weeks, and indeed this is a primary method of increasing accountability in the government.
However, this method still retains its issues. Because the Misaladi was created as a framework for eventual growth, it did not contain fixed specifics regarding the style of planetary governments. Though this ensured its continued relevance and satisfied the need for stability during the uncertain early years, sceptics have cited it as promoting instability and inequality, as the planetary governments of Stríandal and Argentil Íkanid have no real authority on pressing civilisation-wide legislation. Furthermore, emulating a restriction of a similar sort from the records of the Kolenarad, a ban was placed on former military personnel of officer rank serving in the Assembly. Though this has not yet posed issues due to the negligible size of Aláranid armed forces, it has become a point for debate in more recent years.
Another question that has come to the forefront of controversies surrounding the role of the Kulanár is the split between political and economic functions. Traditionally, assemblymen have hailed from academic or professional backgrounds, once more harkening back to the structures of the old Kolenarad, but as the power of the position and its utility in gaining status within society has become apparent, more and more have approached office in the Assembly with strictly political motivations and methods.
Layered on top of this are the delicate social divisions and cleavages that will be discussed at length later: the question of insularity, the desire of the younger generations for more aggressive policies of expansion and population augmentation, and the more directly pressing question of constructing a coherent foreign policy. Though to date discussion has remained civil and no unrest has occurred regarding the issues, tension has mounted, and as an increasing number of Aláranidni return from trips to other stellar states within their region of the galaxy, new perspectives on the place of the Aláranidni within the broader array of sentient civilisations have emerged. As of yet, the cultural value placed on unity and moving forwards together has prevailed; however, internationalisation of the younger demographics has been seen as a sign that the unity of the species is disintegrating, and is a primary concern facing the leaders of the community and the Kulanár.
*The title is a contraction of the phrase Kuverlad Anelykid Argentilid.
Structurally, the Assembly is a unicameral legislature responsible for the legal and economic oversight of the two Aláranid systems. There is no formal, written constitution; much of the legal framework was lifted from the documents of the Kolenarad Aláranid their forebears had input into the Askenarad. This was modified and built upon two years after arrival during the Sirkysnind Conference (lit. “surfacing”, planetfall/arrival), a concordat of the top legal scholars and administrators from the journey; the resultant product was called the Misaladi (“orders”). Interestingly, there is no government codified in the Misaladi; the document is merely a set of laws regarding personal conduct, basic economic agreements, and limitations on “state authority”. In that sense, it provided an archetypal social contract upon which successive national or planetary governments could build.
By way of more or less organic evolution of stopgap measures, many of these participants in the Conference rose to positions of authority as the government that would become the Kulanár coalesced. This was facilitated by the sense of collective purpose that the Aláranidni possessed in those early years, as dissent without careful explanation of reasons was generally regarded as utterly self-destructive given the fragility of the species. The Assembly proper consists of a number of representatives elected based on population, specifically with a stipulation of one Assemblyman per 50,000 citizens.
Cities are not geographically divided into districts, as this is cumbersome to deal with given the rapidly growing population. Instead, each one elects its representatives as a whole; voters select their preferred mikánerad (effectively a political party, but based primarily on economic priorities and objectives) and seats are allocated via proportional representation. Although this reduces personal affiliation with Kulanár assemblymen, it is widely accepted that those civilians wishing to make speeches before the Assembly may do so via a vetting process that typically takes two weeks, and indeed this is a primary method of increasing accountability in the government.
However, this method still retains its issues. Because the Misaladi was created as a framework for eventual growth, it did not contain fixed specifics regarding the style of planetary governments. Though this ensured its continued relevance and satisfied the need for stability during the uncertain early years, sceptics have cited it as promoting instability and inequality, as the planetary governments of Stríandal and Argentil Íkanid have no real authority on pressing civilisation-wide legislation. Furthermore, emulating a restriction of a similar sort from the records of the Kolenarad, a ban was placed on former military personnel of officer rank serving in the Assembly. Though this has not yet posed issues due to the negligible size of Aláranid armed forces, it has become a point for debate in more recent years.
Another question that has come to the forefront of controversies surrounding the role of the Kulanár is the split between political and economic functions. Traditionally, assemblymen have hailed from academic or professional backgrounds, once more harkening back to the structures of the old Kolenarad, but as the power of the position and its utility in gaining status within society has become apparent, more and more have approached office in the Assembly with strictly political motivations and methods.
Layered on top of this are the delicate social divisions and cleavages that will be discussed at length later: the question of insularity, the desire of the younger generations for more aggressive policies of expansion and population augmentation, and the more directly pressing question of constructing a coherent foreign policy. Though to date discussion has remained civil and no unrest has occurred regarding the issues, tension has mounted, and as an increasing number of Aláranidni return from trips to other stellar states within their region of the galaxy, new perspectives on the place of the Aláranidni within the broader array of sentient civilisations have emerged. As of yet, the cultural value placed on unity and moving forwards together has prevailed; however, internationalisation of the younger demographics has been seen as a sign that the unity of the species is disintegrating, and is a primary concern facing the leaders of the community and the Kulanár.
*The title is a contraction of the phrase Kuverlad Anelykid Argentilid.
n i m a r a d
p o p u l a t i o n
The most strikingly unequal aspect of Aláranid society is the population disparity between the three inhabited planets they possess. The smallest of these is Stríandal, with only fifteen million inhabitants distributed between the cities of Kihalan and Bélakos. Both of these cities are located on large islands in the equator; the planet’s small size and thinner atmosphere necessitates this placement for the sake of warmth. Though the permanent population of the system is comparatively low, Stríandal is replete with three mineral-rich asteroid belts due to its young age and the relatively few large planets around, which means that in terms of primary industry it holds a disproportionately critical place. Exploitation of these resources has been going on since the earliest days of colonisation, around a hundred and ten years before the present day, and though the technology for large-scale production exists, the capital and human resources needed to accelerate the production of harvesting equipment did not exist until far more recently.
As a result of this economic boom, an increase in traffic between the two systems has promoted the independence of the Striandalid economy, though unfortunately the permanent population has remained slim, with most of those involved in the exploitation of mineral resources preferring to remain aboard ships and processing facilities in the belts. Though the terraforming project planetside has met with great success, the development of additional infrastructure in locations outside of the cities has been a slow process, and given the geographical restrictions of the islands, expansion of Stríandal was deemed less profitable than investment in projects in the Argentil system. Accordingly, Stríandal has the lowest birth rate of the three planets, coming in at 2.7 children per household.
Argentil Íkanid has fared slightly better, with a current population of thirty-five million distributed between three cities. Of these, the capital, Ínvaros, is the smallest, with a mere five million inhabitants due to its location in the mountains. While the valley in which the city is situated offered respite from the high winds that battered the planet in the early days of settlement, little room for growth existed with the confined nature of the space. As a result, the two lowland cities, Venalar with twenty million and Hylakis with ten, were the focus of new development projects over the next century. That said, Ínvaros has remained the scientific capital of Aláranid civilisation due to the concentration of laboratory facilities it boasts. The gross planetary birth rate hovers at 3.0.
The political independence of Íkanid is significantly less than that of Stríandal, however, simply as a function of its proximity to Kóranid. Although it has greater representation in the Kulanár, the similarities of the populations of the two Argentil worlds are much greater and entail that the inclusion of Íkanid does not significantly alter the relative distribution of seats by mikánerad. In fact, a majority of the representatives from Íkanid support the notion of unifying the worlds under a single system-wide government*, though the population does not share their sentiments. As discussion on this matter is largely conducted outside of the Assembly chambers, however, it has been discarded as a non-issue in the current political and social climate.
Lastly, the new homeworld of the Aláranidni, Argentil Kóranid, is home to most of the remaining Aláranid population, including those who reside on the ring girdling it. There are five major cities on Kóranid; three girdling the equator and two located in the southern hemisphere, as the northern is dominated by ocean. In total, the surface population numbers around one hundred and thirty million, with a further twenty million residing in orbit. A much greater percentage of the original number that disembarked from the Askenarad remained on this planet as many were determined never again to leave the surface, proud as they were of being the first to land and colonise their new home after so long in intergalactic space.
Located at 30° of latitude, the furthest south and newest of the Kóranid cities is Ulvenar. Constructed in the middle of the largest forest-seeding project yet attempted, it serves as the operating centre for the on-going efforts to sow the land and seas with the Aláranid flora and fauna that accompanied the colonists themselves. While it is relatively raw and unrefined as of yet, the location promises to be one of the more beautiful yet found once the terraforming progresses further, and thus real estate in Ulvenar is conspicuously expensive given its twenty-five million inhabitants.
The second-newest settlement is Kásu, initially developed as a proof-of-concept installation for possible floating cities in the north. It currently covers half of a large lake south of the equator, suspended by a combination of gravity manipulation and electrostatics. Due to the lack of significant tides, stabilising such floating structures proved to be less difficult than foreseen, although the sheer quantity of resources required and the needlessly high power consumption of the city have halted the planning of other such installations for the time being. Kásu has a mere ten million inhabitants due to the cost of additions to the initial infrastructure.
Erolanim is the fastest-growing Aláranid city, largely because with the gradual tempering of the climate, its waterfront has become highly regarded as a spaceport as it was determined that the best place to construct an orbital elevator was just offshore at this point. The third of the equatorial cities to be constructed, it has become the economic hub for the Aláranid systems, which has contributed to its ballooning population, already at forty million. Interestingly, this was also the first location considered for building a permanent settlement post-arrival, but was deemed too prone to seismic activity. These fears were later allayed when geologic analysis determined the nearby fault-line had been inactive for at least three million years. Nevertheless, the building code in Erolanim is more stringent than elsewhere; this has proved to be a blessing in disguise as it has led to increased investment in materials engineering and development.
Naturally, the largest and most important of the developed regions of Kóranid is Alenas-Altámarin, the sprawling confluence of the first two cities constructed primarily of materials from the cannibalisation of the Askenarad. By far the most laterally expansive of any of the cities, the inclusion of large swathes of green space in the design as a habitat to test initial terraformation initiatives has rendered it beautiful and more open than a typical urban environment. It also makes it, rather ironically, home to the largest concentration of native Aláranid wildlife anywhere on the three planets colonised so far. With a combined population of fifty-five million, the two combined retain a slight majority in the Kulanár, though this has become less important as the number of mikaneradi has increased along with the number of available seats in the Assembly. Home to most of those who lived aboard the Askenarad, it also retains most of the higher-education and research institutions, which drives down the median age somewhat. That said, the representation clearly reflects the divide between the relative perspectives of young and old. Political forecasters and demographers have taken an increased interest in the functions of the city as a microcosm of the overall civilisation, hoping to craft changes to the Misaladi or the structure of the Kulanár based on the data gathered from observation of Alenas-Altámarin.
The architectural style of Alenas in particular is increasingly diverse; as the city has the earliest buildings constructed more or less from blueprints taken from the archives of the Askenarad, the reconstructed edifices offer a bit of living history for the Aláranidni, a representation of the home they have never known. Naturally, recent developments have shown increasing creativity on the part of the younger generations and their architects and designers. This has been cited as one of the more visible examples of the creative flourishing that has occurred post-settlement, as individuals were able to specialise in fields with few or no existing experts, instead deriving their knowledge from careful study of records and history. Alenas also houses both the physical databanks of the Askenarad and the mainframe for the colony-ship’s prime artificial intelligence, Lanadir (lit. “Watcher”). Though Lanadir has been mostly dormant since the deconstruction of its vessel, there is increased talk of utilising it to aid in economic management or the charting of nearby areas of the galaxy. The difficulty here has been in ascertaining exactly how advanced Lanadir is and what its functions were aboard the vessel besides maintaining hull integrity and life-support. The Kulanár continues to debate on the topic of setting a date for the revival of the system.
*This was common in the days of the Kolenarad Aláranid, but as this iteration of Aláranid civilisation has not yet spread beyond two systems, implementing such a paradigm would be largely pointless and would only increase the disparity between them, something both parties wish to avoid in the name of unity.
As a result of this economic boom, an increase in traffic between the two systems has promoted the independence of the Striandalid economy, though unfortunately the permanent population has remained slim, with most of those involved in the exploitation of mineral resources preferring to remain aboard ships and processing facilities in the belts. Though the terraforming project planetside has met with great success, the development of additional infrastructure in locations outside of the cities has been a slow process, and given the geographical restrictions of the islands, expansion of Stríandal was deemed less profitable than investment in projects in the Argentil system. Accordingly, Stríandal has the lowest birth rate of the three planets, coming in at 2.7 children per household.
Argentil Íkanid has fared slightly better, with a current population of thirty-five million distributed between three cities. Of these, the capital, Ínvaros, is the smallest, with a mere five million inhabitants due to its location in the mountains. While the valley in which the city is situated offered respite from the high winds that battered the planet in the early days of settlement, little room for growth existed with the confined nature of the space. As a result, the two lowland cities, Venalar with twenty million and Hylakis with ten, were the focus of new development projects over the next century. That said, Ínvaros has remained the scientific capital of Aláranid civilisation due to the concentration of laboratory facilities it boasts. The gross planetary birth rate hovers at 3.0.
The political independence of Íkanid is significantly less than that of Stríandal, however, simply as a function of its proximity to Kóranid. Although it has greater representation in the Kulanár, the similarities of the populations of the two Argentil worlds are much greater and entail that the inclusion of Íkanid does not significantly alter the relative distribution of seats by mikánerad. In fact, a majority of the representatives from Íkanid support the notion of unifying the worlds under a single system-wide government*, though the population does not share their sentiments. As discussion on this matter is largely conducted outside of the Assembly chambers, however, it has been discarded as a non-issue in the current political and social climate.
Lastly, the new homeworld of the Aláranidni, Argentil Kóranid, is home to most of the remaining Aláranid population, including those who reside on the ring girdling it. There are five major cities on Kóranid; three girdling the equator and two located in the southern hemisphere, as the northern is dominated by ocean. In total, the surface population numbers around one hundred and thirty million, with a further twenty million residing in orbit. A much greater percentage of the original number that disembarked from the Askenarad remained on this planet as many were determined never again to leave the surface, proud as they were of being the first to land and colonise their new home after so long in intergalactic space.
Located at 30° of latitude, the furthest south and newest of the Kóranid cities is Ulvenar. Constructed in the middle of the largest forest-seeding project yet attempted, it serves as the operating centre for the on-going efforts to sow the land and seas with the Aláranid flora and fauna that accompanied the colonists themselves. While it is relatively raw and unrefined as of yet, the location promises to be one of the more beautiful yet found once the terraforming progresses further, and thus real estate in Ulvenar is conspicuously expensive given its twenty-five million inhabitants.
The second-newest settlement is Kásu, initially developed as a proof-of-concept installation for possible floating cities in the north. It currently covers half of a large lake south of the equator, suspended by a combination of gravity manipulation and electrostatics. Due to the lack of significant tides, stabilising such floating structures proved to be less difficult than foreseen, although the sheer quantity of resources required and the needlessly high power consumption of the city have halted the planning of other such installations for the time being. Kásu has a mere ten million inhabitants due to the cost of additions to the initial infrastructure.
Erolanim is the fastest-growing Aláranid city, largely because with the gradual tempering of the climate, its waterfront has become highly regarded as a spaceport as it was determined that the best place to construct an orbital elevator was just offshore at this point. The third of the equatorial cities to be constructed, it has become the economic hub for the Aláranid systems, which has contributed to its ballooning population, already at forty million. Interestingly, this was also the first location considered for building a permanent settlement post-arrival, but was deemed too prone to seismic activity. These fears were later allayed when geologic analysis determined the nearby fault-line had been inactive for at least three million years. Nevertheless, the building code in Erolanim is more stringent than elsewhere; this has proved to be a blessing in disguise as it has led to increased investment in materials engineering and development.
Naturally, the largest and most important of the developed regions of Kóranid is Alenas-Altámarin, the sprawling confluence of the first two cities constructed primarily of materials from the cannibalisation of the Askenarad. By far the most laterally expansive of any of the cities, the inclusion of large swathes of green space in the design as a habitat to test initial terraformation initiatives has rendered it beautiful and more open than a typical urban environment. It also makes it, rather ironically, home to the largest concentration of native Aláranid wildlife anywhere on the three planets colonised so far. With a combined population of fifty-five million, the two combined retain a slight majority in the Kulanár, though this has become less important as the number of mikaneradi has increased along with the number of available seats in the Assembly. Home to most of those who lived aboard the Askenarad, it also retains most of the higher-education and research institutions, which drives down the median age somewhat. That said, the representation clearly reflects the divide between the relative perspectives of young and old. Political forecasters and demographers have taken an increased interest in the functions of the city as a microcosm of the overall civilisation, hoping to craft changes to the Misaladi or the structure of the Kulanár based on the data gathered from observation of Alenas-Altámarin.
The architectural style of Alenas in particular is increasingly diverse; as the city has the earliest buildings constructed more or less from blueprints taken from the archives of the Askenarad, the reconstructed edifices offer a bit of living history for the Aláranidni, a representation of the home they have never known. Naturally, recent developments have shown increasing creativity on the part of the younger generations and their architects and designers. This has been cited as one of the more visible examples of the creative flourishing that has occurred post-settlement, as individuals were able to specialise in fields with few or no existing experts, instead deriving their knowledge from careful study of records and history. Alenas also houses both the physical databanks of the Askenarad and the mainframe for the colony-ship’s prime artificial intelligence, Lanadir (lit. “Watcher”). Though Lanadir has been mostly dormant since the deconstruction of its vessel, there is increased talk of utilising it to aid in economic management or the charting of nearby areas of the galaxy. The difficulty here has been in ascertaining exactly how advanced Lanadir is and what its functions were aboard the vessel besides maintaining hull integrity and life-support. The Kulanár continues to debate on the topic of setting a date for the revival of the system.
*This was common in the days of the Kolenarad Aláranid, but as this iteration of Aláranid civilisation has not yet spread beyond two systems, implementing such a paradigm would be largely pointless and would only increase the disparity between them, something both parties wish to avoid in the name of unity.
n i m a r a d
d e m o g r a p h i c s
As previously outlined, a critical underpinning of the progress the Aláranidni have made so far has been their disposition towards acting in a unitary fashion. This cohesiveness, while it remains functional in a broader sense, increasingly applies only to questions of loyalty and a desire to aid the civilisation as a whole as opposed to political and economic choices within that framework. Particularly over the last thirty years, cleavages have begun to develop as divisions that did not exist or were meaningless aboard the Askenarad manifest themselves within the leadership and population at large.
The most visible cleavage is simply a matter of age. Immediately post-arrival, a blanket ban on having children was put in place for around a decade, as the immediate goal of the leadership was to provide habitation and employment for every member of the community, as well as successfully transfer food production and terraforming equipment to the surface of Kóranid. Although the resultant interruption was generationally insignificant given the average lifespan of two and a half hundred years, in the collective mentality this represents a clear split between “born in transit” and “born on Argentil”. Having grown up under the auspices of the Misaladi, having been raised with a sky overhead, this generation has a very different conception of the world from those who began their lives before arrival.
Aside from the sociological implications, however, this has created a difference in the way these groups perceive their place in the larger framework of the galaxy. For the most part, the older generation retains the mentality of fragility that being a “refugee species” imparted to them. Although significant progress towards expansion and stability has ben made, most of the older generation is still very cautious about the conservation of resources and maintenance of close ties between planets and even cities. On the other hand, those born after the establishment of Alenas have been far more keen on augmenting their population and expanding economically as quickly as possible. They have been the driving force behind further mineral exploitation in the Stríandal system and the establishment of cities farther from the warm equatorial regions in anticipation of continuing terraforming efforts.
Not as directly attached to the age difference is the second major split, this time over the question of international policy. As, with the establishment of the Aláranidni on Argentil, there are now other civilisations nearby and they no longer exist in isolation aboard the Askenarad, many among them believe they must go out, either as more official emissaries or merely students of foreign culture, and travel as much of the galaxy as they can to understand what their place in it may be.
The second post-planetfall generation is the primary driving force behind this movement. Currently around ninety years old, they are young enough to have a certain dynamism about them that advocates going out and seeking contact and the formation of relationships internationally. Simultaneously, however, they have seen the growth of Aláranid civilisation effectively from nothing, and this gives them a sense of just how tenuous their hold is on economic and political aspects of the front they present internationally. Despite this concession to reality, as it were, their aims and ideals have come into conflict a bit with the first generation and the older Askenarad-born members of society who would rather remain more insular and focus on building a distinct identity as Aláranidni before reaching out father internationally.
Despite the cultural shift towards internationalism and the desire to send individual representatives out to observe and understand other civilisations, political leadership is still dominated by those “born in transit” or shortly thereafter. Consequently, more insular, isolationist perspectives dominate official legislation and management of systems. The one exception to this is the establishment of an enclave in the Liu Xiu system, which will be touched on shortly. Furthermore, there is little brawn to back up the Kulanár’s reclusive policy; although the Collective Fleet or Ilmarenad Kolenarid exists, a total of eight commissioned warships with a further five under construction is as much a symbolic gesture as it is an actual military.
The most visible cleavage is simply a matter of age. Immediately post-arrival, a blanket ban on having children was put in place for around a decade, as the immediate goal of the leadership was to provide habitation and employment for every member of the community, as well as successfully transfer food production and terraforming equipment to the surface of Kóranid. Although the resultant interruption was generationally insignificant given the average lifespan of two and a half hundred years, in the collective mentality this represents a clear split between “born in transit” and “born on Argentil”. Having grown up under the auspices of the Misaladi, having been raised with a sky overhead, this generation has a very different conception of the world from those who began their lives before arrival.
Aside from the sociological implications, however, this has created a difference in the way these groups perceive their place in the larger framework of the galaxy. For the most part, the older generation retains the mentality of fragility that being a “refugee species” imparted to them. Although significant progress towards expansion and stability has ben made, most of the older generation is still very cautious about the conservation of resources and maintenance of close ties between planets and even cities. On the other hand, those born after the establishment of Alenas have been far more keen on augmenting their population and expanding economically as quickly as possible. They have been the driving force behind further mineral exploitation in the Stríandal system and the establishment of cities farther from the warm equatorial regions in anticipation of continuing terraforming efforts.
Not as directly attached to the age difference is the second major split, this time over the question of international policy. As, with the establishment of the Aláranidni on Argentil, there are now other civilisations nearby and they no longer exist in isolation aboard the Askenarad, many among them believe they must go out, either as more official emissaries or merely students of foreign culture, and travel as much of the galaxy as they can to understand what their place in it may be.
The second post-planetfall generation is the primary driving force behind this movement. Currently around ninety years old, they are young enough to have a certain dynamism about them that advocates going out and seeking contact and the formation of relationships internationally. Simultaneously, however, they have seen the growth of Aláranid civilisation effectively from nothing, and this gives them a sense of just how tenuous their hold is on economic and political aspects of the front they present internationally. Despite this concession to reality, as it were, their aims and ideals have come into conflict a bit with the first generation and the older Askenarad-born members of society who would rather remain more insular and focus on building a distinct identity as Aláranidni before reaching out father internationally.
Despite the cultural shift towards internationalism and the desire to send individual representatives out to observe and understand other civilisations, political leadership is still dominated by those “born in transit” or shortly thereafter. Consequently, more insular, isolationist perspectives dominate official legislation and management of systems. The one exception to this is the establishment of an enclave in the Liu Xiu system, which will be touched on shortly. Furthermore, there is little brawn to back up the Kulanár’s reclusive policy; although the Collective Fleet or Ilmarenad Kolenarid exists, a total of eight commissioned warships with a further five under construction is as much a symbolic gesture as it is an actual military.
p e s i t r a l a d
m i l i t a r y
As mentioned above, the Aláranid systems share a common military force, the Ilmarenad Kolenarid, which is tasked with the defence of the systems as a whole. Their influence stops at the exosphere, however: the military is prohibited from operating on the ground, so although administrative and support staff have offices planetside, all training and outfitting of weapons systems must be done in orbit. This policy came about as a result of the Kulanár’s reluctance to approve the creation of a military. Popular pressure, especially from the inhabitants of Stríandal, eventually caused the government to cave in, authorising the building of the first warship based on designs from the old Kolenarad. A modified and downscaled version of the Azuryl-Kóranid-class dreadnaughts of Kor’ead, the Utakad Ventravernilid* was an ambitious step. Although this was by no means public knowledge, the cost of the materials required was such that the Kulanár cancelled the other two vessels in the class to avoid bankrupting the nascent Ilmarenad Kolenarid upon inception. The Utakad was finished for the sake of being a symbol and also for use as a weapons-testing platform and flagship, but no plans exist to construct anything larger than a cruiser (~.5 - .6km) at this point in time.
As part of the rhetoric used to legitimise diverting funds to the construction of warships, supportive factions within the Kulanár had stated that the vessels could be of use in pre-empting the emergence of piracy in the Stríandal asteroid belts as well as accompanying government trade vessels to disputed areas. Due to the difference in the types of ships needed to maintain parity with neighbouring states and those required for routine patrol work within the system, a compromise was reached that allowed the Ilmarenad to commission a total of seven Lapinet-class frigates of 0.3km each. The last of these entered service on 1 Íkanir 118, and though it took another three years to fully crew the vessels, they were completed slightly under-budget (to the surprise of the government) partially as a consequence of the reduced supplies needed to provision for a skeleton crew. These have continued to operate and have replaced the Utakad in routine patrolling due to the lower costs of weaponry and subsequent tests.
An additional five warships have been scheduled for construction over the next fifteen years; the name of the lead vessel will be Alenas after the capital. Initial reports put the size at 0.5km, speculating that the goal of the Ilmarenad is to fill the gap between the existing classes of warships and begin operating them as a true fleet in anticipation of further expansion.
Within the Ilmarenad, the population of Stríandal is represented at an extremely disproportionate level; fifty per cent of the officers** come from the planet with seven and a half per cent of the population. This is a natural extension of the fact that the Ilmarenad operates mostly within that system as well as the fact that the population is younger overall and more open than that of Argentil to extensive international interaction. Unfortunately, this has made the Kulanár slightly less liable to back the military, as the majority of assemblymen feel this increases the liability of Stríandal to be un-cooperative. Much of the debate over the continuing role of the Ilmarenad revolves around the approach of the government to international trade and interaction.
*The name can be literally translated as “Winged Song”, but the meaning is really closer to “song-of-bird-in-flight”.
**This statistic can be slightly misleading; due to the prevalence of autonomous systems on the vessels, the officer corps is technically around sixty per cent of the shipboard personnel. Planetside, only the top administrators are active service personnel, with civilians performing analysis and support-staff functions.
As part of the rhetoric used to legitimise diverting funds to the construction of warships, supportive factions within the Kulanár had stated that the vessels could be of use in pre-empting the emergence of piracy in the Stríandal asteroid belts as well as accompanying government trade vessels to disputed areas. Due to the difference in the types of ships needed to maintain parity with neighbouring states and those required for routine patrol work within the system, a compromise was reached that allowed the Ilmarenad to commission a total of seven Lapinet-class frigates of 0.3km each. The last of these entered service on 1 Íkanir 118, and though it took another three years to fully crew the vessels, they were completed slightly under-budget (to the surprise of the government) partially as a consequence of the reduced supplies needed to provision for a skeleton crew. These have continued to operate and have replaced the Utakad in routine patrolling due to the lower costs of weaponry and subsequent tests.
An additional five warships have been scheduled for construction over the next fifteen years; the name of the lead vessel will be Alenas after the capital. Initial reports put the size at 0.5km, speculating that the goal of the Ilmarenad is to fill the gap between the existing classes of warships and begin operating them as a true fleet in anticipation of further expansion.
Within the Ilmarenad, the population of Stríandal is represented at an extremely disproportionate level; fifty per cent of the officers** come from the planet with seven and a half per cent of the population. This is a natural extension of the fact that the Ilmarenad operates mostly within that system as well as the fact that the population is younger overall and more open than that of Argentil to extensive international interaction. Unfortunately, this has made the Kulanár slightly less liable to back the military, as the majority of assemblymen feel this increases the liability of Stríandal to be un-cooperative. Much of the debate over the continuing role of the Ilmarenad revolves around the approach of the government to international trade and interaction.
*The name can be literally translated as “Winged Song”, but the meaning is really closer to “song-of-bird-in-flight”.
**This statistic can be slightly misleading; due to the prevalence of autonomous systems on the vessels, the officer corps is technically around sixty per cent of the shipboard personnel. Planetside, only the top administrators are active service personnel, with civilians performing analysis and support-staff functions.
p e s i t r a l a d
e c o n o m i c
Although the current economic policy of Kulanár and the Aláranidni as a whole owes much to the structures of the Kolenarad, as per the Misaladi it has taken on a new form that reflects both the current state of the two systems and the direction the leading mikaneradi wish to take with foreign trade agreements and the expansion of their markets. Although private enterprise is encouraged for the sake of innovation and adaptability, a large amount of capital, both human and monetary, is invested in the re-development of technologies from the records of the Askenarad. First among these, naturally, were the vessel schematics from the Kolenarad, as well as the rippledrive and its capacity for superluminal travel. For the sake of stability, rights to development in these areas were ceded to the state at the Sirkysnind Conference.
However, with the settling of the two other worlds that followed, this had to be amended: an immediate tension point was the idea that Kóranid and Kóranid alone would have jurisdiction over space travel. To solve this issue, a state-owned corporation called Elsierad was created and the rights to rippledrive research and development were ceded accordingly. While Kóranid would remain majority-shareholder status, both Íkanid and Stríandal had a say in the governance of the company, offering a level of transparency in operations that, to date, has been at least satisfactory to all parties concerned.
Elsierad has grown substantially in its importance since its inception; with the beginning of diplomatic relations with other states and the subsequent effort to establish economic ties with immediate neighbours. Currently, all disereladi teligazidi or exosystemic economic relations are conducted with Elsierad as proxy; it is, in effect, the single nationalised trading company. Despite allegations that this is corrupt and repressive, the Kulanár maintains that this restriction is a temporary measure intended to facilitate the establishment of coherent trade agreements before the market is opened to truly free enterprise. To this end, an agreement was made to end the monopoly of Elsierad by the year 133, though this was pushed back to 135 in the last several sessions of the Kulanár, prompting additional dissent within the business community and even prompting a slight shock in financial indices.
With regards to purely internal economics, one of the major advantages to common governance under Kulanár is the lack of trade borders between planets and/or systems. Though such structures were never implemented, seeing as the structure of the Misaladi pre-dated the population growth of Íkanid and Stríandal and thereby ensured they would not set up true national governments, certain more radical mikaneradi have threatened such barriers to trade in the case of one of the other two planets declaring nominal independence. However, this has not prevented Stríandal from seeking to establish a fairly self-sufficient economy based around the proliferation of mining and resource-collection enterprise in the asteroid-rich system. In fact, this has been their main reason for continuing to tolerate Elsierad: although there is resentment over the inability of Striandalid companies to build their own vessels with rippledrives, construction of Elsierad’s vessels has been carried out by the same firms responsible for the ships of the Ilmarenad.
The controversy surrounding control of external trade came to a head with the Kulanár’s announcement (coincident with the decision to push back liberalisation) that Elsierad would be establishing a corporate enclave on the world of Pinnacle in the Liu Xiu system. Nierad Kel’yxirid, or “Arc-light Point”, is the largest and most expensive Aláranid installation ever constructed outside of the Kulanár-controlled systems, and this has been seen by sceptics as an indication that the government may not after all be willing to cede full control over the economy to the private sector. A description of the installation as of 40 Ákenir 131 can be found below:
“Located on a set of three isolated islands around 10° north of the equator, Nierad is a brand-new development overseen by the state-owned trading company, Elsierad, of Kóranid, the largest of the three Aláranid worlds. Administrated as an autonomous district under the direction of Elsierad, it is closed to those not affiliated with the company or the Aláranid government. Designed less as a spaceport or base of operations and more for political and diplomatic capital, Nierad’s architecture favours form over function, attempting to provide a positive first impression of Aláranid culture and artistry. To this end, above-ground structures are constructed of white stone and pale mirrored glass to increase the ambient light present on the largest of the islands, the only one open to regular citizens (families of employees as well as foreign visitors). A number of native species from Kóranid, chiefly small trees and birds, have been imported and have adapted well to the slightly different atmospheric composition. The layout of the installation is that of a circle tangent to the edges of the island, with the centre reserved as a park-like open space. The spires that surround it cause the space to be reminiscent of an atoll; this is further evoked by inclusion of rooftop gardens on the lower buildings. The tallest structures on the island reach about 400 metres above the surface of the island, which has a mean elevation of 80 metres and is lined on many sides with steep sea-cliffs.”
“The other two islands are reserved for the offices and operations of Elsierad; they are much smaller, with a combined area of only ten square kilometres. Consequently, they are virtually covered in facilities, the tallest of which reach 1200 metres. Despite this development, there are no commercial-use space-port facilities currently planned for the Nierad installation, likely to avoid the need to negotiate with the Liu Xiu customs department. Nierad possesses a complement of three spacecraft and one security craft. The latter, designed initially as a small close-support aircraft for ground operations, has been converted for maritime use, and can operate as a boat in the case that defence of the seaward approaches is necessary. Armaments are primary anti-personnel kinetics; although plasma weaponry is available, it has not been installed because of the effects of atmospheric dispersal and the expense. There are also two small-calibre railguns installed on the undercarriage for use against small vessels, though their effectiveness is questionable. As with the plasma weaponry, missiles for anti-air use are available but not installed.”
“Of the spacecraft, two are personal shuttles designed to ferry dignitaries and company officials to orbit. Both are unarmed and have a passenger capacity of forty; this can be converted to cargo space as necessary. Operational range permits them to go to other planets in the system if absolutely needed, though their lack of superluminal capabilities hinders this in terms of practical use. The last vessel at Nierad is a full-scale corporate transport, the Akáterin, 300m in length, that suffered failure of its rippledrive (superluminal engine) upon an attempt to leave the system and was brought to orbit around Pinnacle while awaiting the arrival of technicians from Kóranid. With the catastrophe that took place on Jiwao with the collapse of the Skylift, an emergency order was given to bring the vessel to the ground immediately; there was an admittedly irrational fear among the administrators of Nierad that if the vessel were to be destroyed, they could lose valuable proprietary technology. Unfortunately, though the Akáterin is capable of atmospheric re-entry, this has left it grounded in the lone large dock on the third island until the rippledrive components arrive.”
However, with the settling of the two other worlds that followed, this had to be amended: an immediate tension point was the idea that Kóranid and Kóranid alone would have jurisdiction over space travel. To solve this issue, a state-owned corporation called Elsierad was created and the rights to rippledrive research and development were ceded accordingly. While Kóranid would remain majority-shareholder status, both Íkanid and Stríandal had a say in the governance of the company, offering a level of transparency in operations that, to date, has been at least satisfactory to all parties concerned.
Elsierad has grown substantially in its importance since its inception; with the beginning of diplomatic relations with other states and the subsequent effort to establish economic ties with immediate neighbours. Currently, all disereladi teligazidi or exosystemic economic relations are conducted with Elsierad as proxy; it is, in effect, the single nationalised trading company. Despite allegations that this is corrupt and repressive, the Kulanár maintains that this restriction is a temporary measure intended to facilitate the establishment of coherent trade agreements before the market is opened to truly free enterprise. To this end, an agreement was made to end the monopoly of Elsierad by the year 133, though this was pushed back to 135 in the last several sessions of the Kulanár, prompting additional dissent within the business community and even prompting a slight shock in financial indices.
With regards to purely internal economics, one of the major advantages to common governance under Kulanár is the lack of trade borders between planets and/or systems. Though such structures were never implemented, seeing as the structure of the Misaladi pre-dated the population growth of Íkanid and Stríandal and thereby ensured they would not set up true national governments, certain more radical mikaneradi have threatened such barriers to trade in the case of one of the other two planets declaring nominal independence. However, this has not prevented Stríandal from seeking to establish a fairly self-sufficient economy based around the proliferation of mining and resource-collection enterprise in the asteroid-rich system. In fact, this has been their main reason for continuing to tolerate Elsierad: although there is resentment over the inability of Striandalid companies to build their own vessels with rippledrives, construction of Elsierad’s vessels has been carried out by the same firms responsible for the ships of the Ilmarenad.
The controversy surrounding control of external trade came to a head with the Kulanár’s announcement (coincident with the decision to push back liberalisation) that Elsierad would be establishing a corporate enclave on the world of Pinnacle in the Liu Xiu system. Nierad Kel’yxirid, or “Arc-light Point”, is the largest and most expensive Aláranid installation ever constructed outside of the Kulanár-controlled systems, and this has been seen by sceptics as an indication that the government may not after all be willing to cede full control over the economy to the private sector. A description of the installation as of 40 Ákenir 131 can be found below:
“Located on a set of three isolated islands around 10° north of the equator, Nierad is a brand-new development overseen by the state-owned trading company, Elsierad, of Kóranid, the largest of the three Aláranid worlds. Administrated as an autonomous district under the direction of Elsierad, it is closed to those not affiliated with the company or the Aláranid government. Designed less as a spaceport or base of operations and more for political and diplomatic capital, Nierad’s architecture favours form over function, attempting to provide a positive first impression of Aláranid culture and artistry. To this end, above-ground structures are constructed of white stone and pale mirrored glass to increase the ambient light present on the largest of the islands, the only one open to regular citizens (families of employees as well as foreign visitors). A number of native species from Kóranid, chiefly small trees and birds, have been imported and have adapted well to the slightly different atmospheric composition. The layout of the installation is that of a circle tangent to the edges of the island, with the centre reserved as a park-like open space. The spires that surround it cause the space to be reminiscent of an atoll; this is further evoked by inclusion of rooftop gardens on the lower buildings. The tallest structures on the island reach about 400 metres above the surface of the island, which has a mean elevation of 80 metres and is lined on many sides with steep sea-cliffs.”
“The other two islands are reserved for the offices and operations of Elsierad; they are much smaller, with a combined area of only ten square kilometres. Consequently, they are virtually covered in facilities, the tallest of which reach 1200 metres. Despite this development, there are no commercial-use space-port facilities currently planned for the Nierad installation, likely to avoid the need to negotiate with the Liu Xiu customs department. Nierad possesses a complement of three spacecraft and one security craft. The latter, designed initially as a small close-support aircraft for ground operations, has been converted for maritime use, and can operate as a boat in the case that defence of the seaward approaches is necessary. Armaments are primary anti-personnel kinetics; although plasma weaponry is available, it has not been installed because of the effects of atmospheric dispersal and the expense. There are also two small-calibre railguns installed on the undercarriage for use against small vessels, though their effectiveness is questionable. As with the plasma weaponry, missiles for anti-air use are available but not installed.”
“Of the spacecraft, two are personal shuttles designed to ferry dignitaries and company officials to orbit. Both are unarmed and have a passenger capacity of forty; this can be converted to cargo space as necessary. Operational range permits them to go to other planets in the system if absolutely needed, though their lack of superluminal capabilities hinders this in terms of practical use. The last vessel at Nierad is a full-scale corporate transport, the Akáterin, 300m in length, that suffered failure of its rippledrive (superluminal engine) upon an attempt to leave the system and was brought to orbit around Pinnacle while awaiting the arrival of technicians from Kóranid. With the catastrophe that took place on Jiwao with the collapse of the Skylift, an emergency order was given to bring the vessel to the ground immediately; there was an admittedly irrational fear among the administrators of Nierad that if the vessel were to be destroyed, they could lose valuable proprietary technology. Unfortunately, though the Akáterin is capable of atmospheric re-entry, this has left it grounded in the lone large dock on the third island until the rippledrive components arrive.”
p e s i t r a l a d
f o r e i g n
Not surprisingly given the standoffish nature of the Kulanár, foreign policy has been largely reduced to economic interaction through Elsierad as mentioned above. Nevertheless, despite the lack of distinct action to make diplomatic overtures or official, more political statements regarding foreign policy, a significant amount of debate is on-going within the Kulanár, and this is critical to an understanding of the changing political climate of the Aláranid systems. Within the larger social and political framework of both the outstanding demographic cleavages and the nebulous nature of Betan politics, three main issues continue to dominate the forefront of debate on the topic of foreign policy: that of opening the Aláranid systems economically, that of foreign emigration, and that of defence and military affairs.
In essence, although the Kulanár has nominally maintained open and fair trade with other states by way of Elsierad, said trade is by no means democratic. The goods being traded from both sides are of relatively little importance, consisting mostly of raw materials and some secondary products, with little to no advanced or proprietary technology. While this arrangement suits the protectionist, insular mikaneradi that currently dominate domestic politics, there is little to no popular voice in what goods are imported, let alone opened for public consumption as opposed to merely government use. This utter lack of product differentiation, ostensibly for the sake of protectionism and public welfare, has a large portion of the Aláranidni, especially on Stríandal, thoroughly disenfranchised with the economics of their leadership. Despite promises that Elsierad will end its monopoly on international trade in 135, the Kulanár has offered no guarantee whatsoever regarding the end of restrictions on what foreign goods are approved for public sale.
Furthermore, not only has Elsierad been responsible for all trade, but the Kulanár has also prevented all efforts to permit foreign companies to enter the Aláranid markets directly. This measure has to date enjoyed broader support, simply because there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what sort of influence foreign corporations might be able to exert on domestic affairs. As with the movement of individuals, which will be further discussed momentarily, a fear of espionage or even the paralysation of the economy at the whim of foreigners has stymied all efforts to open borders directly. The notable exception to this is Stríandal, which, by virtue of its younger population and less established infrastructure, is far more accepting of this possibility. The debate and subsequent political manoeuvring over the Ilmarenad aggravated many who had been against the cessation of governance to the Kulanár in the first place, stating that creating their own Kulanstrí with authority over the system’s trade policies, the construction of military vessels could have been done at a far lower cost. As of now, they have publicly stated that they will wait until the devolution of Elsierad’s mandate to make any official statement as to their own long-term economic goals and policies, and whether these will lead to a different overall foreign policy.
In essence, although the Kulanár has nominally maintained open and fair trade with other states by way of Elsierad, said trade is by no means democratic. The goods being traded from both sides are of relatively little importance, consisting mostly of raw materials and some secondary products, with little to no advanced or proprietary technology. While this arrangement suits the protectionist, insular mikaneradi that currently dominate domestic politics, there is little to no popular voice in what goods are imported, let alone opened for public consumption as opposed to merely government use. This utter lack of product differentiation, ostensibly for the sake of protectionism and public welfare, has a large portion of the Aláranidni, especially on Stríandal, thoroughly disenfranchised with the economics of their leadership. Despite promises that Elsierad will end its monopoly on international trade in 135, the Kulanár has offered no guarantee whatsoever regarding the end of restrictions on what foreign goods are approved for public sale.
Furthermore, not only has Elsierad been responsible for all trade, but the Kulanár has also prevented all efforts to permit foreign companies to enter the Aláranid markets directly. This measure has to date enjoyed broader support, simply because there is a great deal of uncertainty as to what sort of influence foreign corporations might be able to exert on domestic affairs. As with the movement of individuals, which will be further discussed momentarily, a fear of espionage or even the paralysation of the economy at the whim of foreigners has stymied all efforts to open borders directly. The notable exception to this is Stríandal, which, by virtue of its younger population and less established infrastructure, is far more accepting of this possibility. The debate and subsequent political manoeuvring over the Ilmarenad aggravated many who had been against the cessation of governance to the Kulanár in the first place, stating that creating their own Kulanstrí with authority over the system’s trade policies, the construction of military vessels could have been done at a far lower cost. As of now, they have publicly stated that they will wait until the devolution of Elsierad’s mandate to make any official statement as to their own long-term economic goals and policies, and whether these will lead to a different overall foreign policy.