The Prelation (FT Factbook)

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Prelation in Brief

The Prelation is the Arconisse civilization, borne of a single world and maintaining one settled planet, though in possession of many artificial habitats. It is ruled by the Directory and the Combine, the military forces which are owned and operated by the Directory's leading members.

Arconis is a large, terrestrial planet with a nitrogen-rich atmosphere and relatively high gravity. It is located in the Lucera binary star system, orbiting Alpha Lucera as its primary. The second star is known as Beta Lucera. It has two natural satellites, Austrum and Sumesium.

Arconis is a relatively pristine world for its level of technological advancement and given the large Arconisse population. The majority of Arconisse sentients live offworld, most either in the equatorial ring with surrounds the planet or on one of the natural satellites. There are also a number who live on space vehicles.

Table of Contents

• The Arconisse Character
• The Directory
• The Combine
  Size
  Role of Automatons
  Rank Structure
• Technology
  Common Military Applications of Technology
• Ships
  Rand
  Ru
  Sco
  Sinth
  Teq
  Vod
• Notable Figures
• Notable Locations

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The Arconisse Character

Arconis is a large planet of many cultures from what were once sovereign states thousands of years ago. These states have coalesced into first a planetary coalition, which then became the Prelation of Arconis. The many ethnic and cultural groups of Arconis have over the course of the millennia become mostly homogeneous.

The Arconisse have a very casual approach to interstellar politics, caring about no particular governmental body in the universe except those which have either greatly benefited them or have forced interaction upon them. They are by nature subtly xenophobic, not outwardly hating "aliens" but generally despising them for a myriad of traits of which Arconisse think poorly. Principal amongst these is alien approaches to economics. They loathe such things as artificial scarcity, fiat currencies, "precious" metals, and other economic concepts which are generally seen across the universe. It would not be incorrect to say that Arconis is effectively post-scarcity; yes, there are limits, but everyone gets what they need for what may as well be free.

Production of inorganic resources happens outside of the Lucera system. Prelation miners and harvesters, known locally as foragers, target cosmic bodies (whether they be asteroids, clouds, comets, moons, or even planets) and take all useful materials from them in a process similar to strip mining. This is done with all forms of matter, and whatever cannot be used immediately is stored for potential future use. Currently, the Prelation does not possess the capability to forage stars.

In general, the Prelation does not recognize territorial boundaries in deep space, and will forage in any system that does not contain a large local population of space-faring peoples. In some cases, even a population center will not stop them, depending on relations with the state in question. Any cosmic body of use in deep space is seen as up for grabs unless inhabited.

Trade is seen primarily as a novelty, and as such the Prelation makes no attempts to make the process any easier. It is often difficult to convert between alien units of value and the Prelation economy, and no attempts to standardize have been made. Indeed, standardization is seen as a threat to the system, as pegging the value of energy production to structures which include concepts the Prelation loathes could potentially (and likely will) disrupt the system. Whenever necessary, the Directory will obtain foreign currencies in large sums for use by agents.

Scientific advancement is greatly prized by the majority of Arconisse, and this is what drives them to interact at all with outsiders. The Prelation has attained a high level of civilizational advancement, though it uses most of its abilities to limit their general involvement in the galaxy (particularly in order to limit others' involvement in its culture). Arconisse medicine is highly advanced, and they are not susceptible to any known pathogens; they are also effectively immortal, though most do not live (or at least, do not remain unsublimed) to see their millennial. The aging process can be stopped at any point, the vast majority (near 100%) choosing a young adult-to-middle age.

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The Directory

The Prelation is guided by a Directory. Directors on the board are the joint rulers of the Prelation, and are a committee of ten which generally govern through a variety of subcommittees and agencies.

The Directory is something of a despotic organization, as it controls the Prelation with a strong grip and allows absolutely no official interstellar interaction between aliens and Arconisse other than what they wish. The directors control all military power by maintaining controlling interest in the Combine. They are also the only body through which any policy, foreign or domestic, can be made and enforced. Any subcommittees must have their decisions validated by the Directory, though most see validation as a formality which is granted basically by default.

For the most part, however, the Directory has a hands-off approach to leadership. While it may rule absolutely, it doesn't outlaw anything without good reason, and its main interests lie in keeping the peace, maintaining the free-flow of energy, and protecting from negative outside influence. Personal freedoms are held in high regard.

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The Combine

The Prelation is protected by a private military company, or at least what was ostensibly a private military company in millennia past. It is now under full, direct control of the Directory and its Combine operations subcommittee.

Resources required by the Combine are given as payment for consistent service, or as a general part of the government budget depending how one looks at it. While technically still mercenaries, the actual soldier of fortune culture of the Combine has long since disappeared over the centuries of Directory ownership, at least as far as overall loyalty to the Prelation is concerned. Agents of the Combine can and sometimes (though rarely) do act for other galactic powers or even low-attainment civilizations, but this never crosses into anything which would put the Prelation in danger.

The Combine operates in all forms of terrestrial combat and in space. It is the only police and military of the Prelation. It also invests heavily in industry, notably shipbuilding, and generally runs escort services for foraging workforces which request protection. Future directors of the Prelation almost universally come from the Combine and are educated for their future positions of authority: as such it could be said that it is in fact the Combine that controls the Directory, rather than the other way around. If this were to be believed, the Prelation would be classified as a military junta or some other form of dictatorship.

Size

The Combine has approximately one billion sentient employees and countless more menial labor automatons. It operates the majority of Arconisse shipping tonnage, being responsible for as many as fifty thousand vessels of various types and classes, industrials inclusive.

Role of Automatons

The majority of the Combine's forces are automatons, in an effort to lessen the risk to biological Arconisse lives. Warship crews are almost exclusively automatons, though some include biological crewmen (notably thinkers). Additionally, most of those which have crews can also operate effectively without them. Most Arconisse automatons are considered minor artificial intelligences, and while they are fast and capable for what they do, they are far too specialized to branch out from their specific purposes and as such do not rate very high on intelligence scales; one could think of them as idiot savants.

There are some, both in and outside of military functions, which are rated quite high and have little and less specialization beyond what they choose for themselves. These are not actually thought of as automatons - which implies human or lesser mental faculties - but rather machine sentients (as opposed to biological sentients).

Rank Structure

Rank is a straightforward affair, and there are not very many grades to which Combine soldiers can aspire. The Arconisse once had much more varied and complex systems, but those have since been whittled down. Beyond the O-4 grade, ranks cease to be applied and those members of the Combine are defined by their roles and corporate-level positions. For example, an O-4 Darya who is promoted to an assistant directorship of a Combine department will be referred to as an assistant director of their department rather than darya, and will have preceding their name (when appropriate) "Ser" instead of "Darya." On the rare circumstances that such an officer must take to the field in a combat capacity, they revert to the rank of darya unless taking command of all forces available in which case they may refer to themselves as artesh, a rank that has no official place in the Combine's structure but is traditional and accepted.

O-4 Darya
O-3 Baizara
O-2 Hazara
O-1 Sotvan

E-4 Datha
E-3 Ostova
E-2 Sarjuk
E-1 Sarba

Just as "Ser" is the appropriate title of post-O-4 Combine members, it is also the appropriate form of address to commanders of a ship, except in those rare circumstances where a computer or thinker is also the commander, in which case the appropriate address would be "Navigator" or "Pilot" depending on whether or not (respectively) the ship in question can fold space.

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Technology

An abridged guide to some of the Prelation's technology.

ANTIMATTER - antimatter has been used for many purposes, primarily military. Its primary purpose is as a high explosive, and it has three primary military applications: normal antimatter for both warheads and reactive armor, and condensed antimatter for large-scale bombardment.

AUTOMATON - the Arconisse form of AI, the software component or "mind" of an automaton is generally extremely capable at the task it was birthed for but lacks the ability to do anything else. In this manner, they are quite similar to idiot savants. The hardware component varies in form and function. Automatons are heavily utilized throughout Arconisse society, particularly to handle dangerous situations. The majority of work done on warships, for example, is done by automatons to limit biological Arconisse deaths should a ship be destroyed. Smaller warships are completely automated. Some automaton minds are capable at multiple tasks, but these are few and far between. A more capable, more advanced version of automatons is the machine sentient, which has higher-than-human mental capabilities.

DISPLACEMENT - a form of teleportation, reasonably safe though not without possible error, which can move both living and unliving matter instantaneously. Mass is a limiting factor in displacement - as an example, the average biological Arconisse can only expect to be displaced at most one light-second. Due to this, displacement is not a valid method of transportation for spaceships.

EMPATH - biological Arconisse with trained, highly-disciplined minds and the ability to manipulate patterned energy

FIELDS - fields are used as the very basis of both defensive and propulsion technologies. While very important in the defense of military ships, they are most widely used as the means to move any ship (and in many cases, missile) from point A to point B. All Arconisse ships use fields to move through space, rather than conventional engines. They can also be used in offensive roles, most notably as slashing weapons.

PATTERNED ENERGY - a form of energy which empaths can use to manipulate others. This is most notably used to attack with a psychic wave, or defend oneself from attack (including projectile). Patterned energy creates one of the fields which are so widely used in Prelation technology. The primary difference here is that the field is generated biologically, rather than mechanically. This is seen as the limit of biological field generation.

SENTIENCE STORAGE - the capability to read and store the full sentience of any being, biological or machine. This allows for the resurrection of dead sentients, and for the creation of physical universe afterlives. Lesser extensions of this technology include the ability to transfer a sentience from one physical form to another and to create personality-clones of others.

SUSPENSORS - Hovering devices which use a repellent field to nullify gravity within certain limits prescribed by relative mass and energy consumption. Suspensors are used in chairs, tables, and structures that are too massive to be physically sound, among many other obvious uses.

THINKER - Arconisse who have undergone the procedure for clinical immortality, thinkers are often thought of as "brains in a jar," though the reality is more complex and useful than this. Thinkers have access to powerful banks of computers and have greatly enhanced mental capabilities, giving many the ability to handle navigating foldspace with training to this effect.

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Ships

RAND - The rand type of ship is most typically a medium warship, lighter armed than teqs and meant primarily for escort and support duties.

Elam-class -
Ennes-class -
Remy-class - The latest rand class, Remy ships are designed as logistical support craft, forgoing many of the systems of previous rand classes which were dedicated to damage output. Two of the main Remy features are the power transfer arrays and tracking links which are present by default.

RU - classes of the ru type are most typically noncombat oriented. Larger ru classes are designed as industrials, with hauling, reprocessing, and large-scale manufacturing capabilities. Smaller classes tend to be more oriented toward foraging, and are fairly large ships in their own rights. They almost always have reprocessing facilities attached as normal customization.

Art-class -
Bacar-class - a heavy industrial ru, the Bacar-class is the workhorse of mobile Prelation industry. It is a self-contained industrial city. Bacars, as business headquarters, typically have a large number of biological personnel onboard.
Morg-class - Morgs are quick forage ships, universally automated, and carried in the dozens and hundreds by Bacar-classes.

SCO - The sco is an older type which contains only two classes. They are focused on short-range fighting, designed to operate in conjunction with industrials, screening rus and defending them.

Ohnn-class - specializing in shielding large ships, Ohnns are meant to intercept attacks by whatever means necessary, including putting their hulls in the paths of oncoming weaponry. They are meant to take damage, and their ability to dish it out suffers as a result.
Uchana-class - armed with a vast quantity of military drones and nanomissiles, Uchanas sit around Bacar-class and control their missiles (which may be pre-deployed or launched from shipborne cells) to destroy or disable hostile objects.

SINTH - With the exception of the Remy-class rand, the sinth has been the typical type of ship used by the Combine's Remote Support Services. They are solid logistics ships, and typically rely solely on CAM bombardment for defense.

Asal-class -
Nemes-class -
Versi-class -

TEQ - each class of teq has been the workhorse of the combat service in its heyday, and all continue to serve the Prelation well. Teqs are the only ships with the hypergrid intrusion capability.

Cazad-class -
Cuer-class -
Don-class - The newest teq, Don-class ships are heavily armed and armored, making use of the most advanced technology available. The next incarnation of the class is planned to include some Prelation advancements planned but not yet actually attained.
Jimad-class -

VOD - Vods are primarily nonindustrial, civilian ship classes used mostly for entertainment and personal shipping and construction.

Edere-class - the Edere is the most common habitat ship in the Prelation, and is older than most current citizens. They are universally not run by any machine sentiences
Mirno-class -
Lichnaya-class -
Solut-class - the newest and largest class of vod, the Solut class is a cityship with no rivals in the Prelation. To control its vast number of subsystems and keep everything running smoothly, it makes use of at least two machine sentiences. Soluts are known for their ability to create their own warfleets quickly, and to maintain some of the most attractive artificial environments.

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Notable Figures

ABEYT-MEZ - the machine sentient adviser and secretary to the Directory, as well as general society director of Arconis planet-side. Widely considered one of the best examples of Prelation citizenry.

ALVARE -

CARRASC - Bacar-class heavy industrial commander, pilot of the Dileone. Known for his extremely profitable business ventures, a well-trained and well-equipped workforce, and efficient use of morgs and other automated industrial vehicles. Good with a spreadsheet.

DURA - a Prelation director

JAQUE -

LAYV - a Prelation director

NAV-MEZ - one of the premier warship machine sentients. As a fielded warship, it has the rank of Darya, though is generally involved in all high-level strategic policy which is typically only attended by above-rank Combine members.

VALADE - a Prelation director

VAREL - a Prelation director

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Notable Locations

ARCONIS - The only naturally inhabitable planet in the Lucera system. Its primary is Alpha Lucera, and experiences only minor effects from Beta Lucera. It is a high gravity world with ocean covering approximately sixty percent of the surface. Its population is very low, and is not generally seen as a place to choose to live. It is the spiritual center of the Prelation, both physically and metaphysically. Industrial damage done to Arconis in the past by rockbound ancestors has by now been reversed, and the planet is quite pristine. It is located in the middle of the Ring.

AUSTRUM - The first settled moon of Arconis, Austrum has a high index of development and is more heavily populated. The Austrum Shell is a superstructure surrounding the moon, the product of the continual expansion of the moon's cities and buildings.

LUCERA CLOUD - The spherical cloud of comets which lies nearly a light-year from Alpha Lucera. Many of the objects of the cloud have been harvested, but the majority of it is still extent. Once long-distance harvesting became viable, the cloud was mostly left as a reserve store of potential resources. While some consistent foraging does occur, most resources are retrieved from abroad. [Oort Cloud]

LUCERA-EDGE BELT - The system-edge belt of the Lucera system, it extends from beyond the gravitational influence of the last planet and is approximately 2.5 light-hours wide. Most of the edge belt has been harvested is being kept as a reserve store of potential resources. Legally speaking, the edge belt exists outside of the borders of the Prelation, but the Combine does protect the general volume. [Kuiper Belt]

THE RING - The largest population center of Arconisse, the Ring exists in orbit around the planet Arconis, outside of the orbits of the Arconisse moons. The megastructure is not completed, though a rough frame defining the shape and extent of the Ring has been. Large sections of the Ring are in full service, and many of the sections are nearly self-sustaining.

SUMESIUM - The smaller of the Arconisse moons, Sumesium was also settled later and isn't quite as well developed as its sister. It has a population of approximately one third Austrum's. The Sumesium Shell was built more purposefully than the Austrum Shell, and is a much more solid construction.

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Notable Ships

Actually, they might not currently or ever be notable, this is mostly a ship-name bank.

Abiotic Factor
Acid Fallout
Adaptive Behavior
Allopatric Speciation
Anaerobe
Anthropogenic Climate Change
Bioinvader
Bioremediator
Carrying Capacity
Climax Community
Competitive Exclusive Principle
Desertification
Extinction Event
Genetic Bottleneck
Global Ecophagy
Greenhouse Gas
Group Selectionism
Heterotroph
Indicator Species
Invasive Species
Limiting Factor
Mutualism
Natural Selection
Nonrenewable Resource
Old-Growth
Open System
Overburden
Ozone Depletion
Positive Feedback Loop
r/K
R-Selected
Ruderal
Tipping Point
Trophic Cascade
Trophic Pyramid
Zoonosis