Climb The Political Ladder - Or Fall Off.
Yet, no longer.
Three days ago the Embassy Races put forward a united petition, comprising of over two thirds of all species in the Assembly, calling for the Council to expand its position to include a fifth member and to elevate a new race to ‘Elder’ status. It was a unique stratagem, in that it did not propose any specific species as a candidate, but instead left that option to the Council -- allowing the proposal to garner sufficient support from representatives that might have otherwise declined to support it.
For two days, the Council deliberated on the matter in utter silence and secrecy, leading many to expect - or hope for - overt fractures and bickering behind closed doors. On the eve of the second day, the Council handed the Assembly its ruling: “Pick amongst yourself one you see fitting for the role of Councillor.”
Galactic News erupted at the proclamation, clamouring for the new opportunity presented to be taken by all races. Some had anticipated this course of action all along, of course, while others were dismayed that their patrons and sponsors had not been able to grant them the seat. Now, the gears of the Assembly are turning, and everywhere, representatives scurry to secure their species’ place among the stars.
How the RP will be done:
- Every two days (90 hours) the Council will schedule a vote on the matter of a new Councillor from the embassy races.
- OOCly, this will be represented by a week.
- Through plot and intrigue, and perhaps bribery, general polling and preferences, the pool of candidates will likely dwindle with every successive vote.
- The first few votes should and will be a free-for-all, with no sudden victory or leader. Your species are being given the chance to become some of the most powerful bureaucrats and diplomats in the galaxy -- they should be fighting brutally for this, and pulling out all the stops to undermine each other.
- Political intrigue, scandal and campaigning should be done and posted. Keep OOC discussions of what your representatives will do to a relative minimum -- i.e, don’t just say who your species will vote for and do all the bribery in the Discord. Do that in the IC.
- Few statesmen do things out of the goodness of their hearts. If your diplomats are voting for people ‘just cuz,’ you may need to re-evaluate character motivations.
- BIG THINGS that affect EVERYONE or a large group should be run past the OPs before you do them. If you want to assassinate a representative, please work that out with that player. If you want to detonate a bomb to kill many people or sneak hallucinogens into the air shafts, or other things like that, let the OPs know.
- We’re not going to forbid you from doing it, necessarily. We just want to have a plot response ready.
- ASSEMBLY BUREAUCRATS ARE RUN BY THE OPS -- this is to say, if your character wants to get information or something by bribing a member of the bureaucracy that runs Amity station, the OPs will control the response and let you know what your character finds out or receives.
Important Information
The Incumbent Council:
The Ambassadors:
Lady Sevali T'anas, the Carasi Ambassadress.
Amity:
Amity is divided into two - Amity Station, a large complex of orbital shipyards, offices, and other complexes, which hovers in near-geosynchronous orbit above the barren planet, and Amity Base, a collection of habitats and underground bases below. Both are massive installations, holding several million people -- but unlike most installations throughout known space, they are spacious and luxurious. For most, space is ironically a luxury in space -- and many are lucky to own a few square meters aboard ships or orbital complexes. In Amity, special care was taken to make the installation grand, even luxurious, with large communal areas and ample space set aside for many functions.
This was not to say that life on Amity Station was perfect. Many hundreds of thousands of Assembly bureaucrats lived, worked, and died on the station, as it served as the primary hub of the Assembly Fleet and most pan-galactic organizations. The Fleetmaster of the Interstellar Assembly had his offices here, and many Assembly officer training academies were here as well -- and the dockyards and shipyards of the Fleet were here too. With so many people working in one area came their families, and all the services needed to supply them with a normal life -- schools, playgrounds, hospitals, libraries, restaurants, pubs, brothels, and so much more. Amity Station is truly a city unto itself.
Of notable importance on Amity are the large-scale hydroponic and farm domes used to supply both the Station and base below with a semblance of a semi-sufficient food supply. It is not, as the population has swelled to the point of requiring regular and daily imports of all sorts of foodstuffs from across the galaxy, but it is something, and more importantly, it provides most people with their only glimpse of nature in a larger form than a potted plant. Many sections of Amity Station are currently undergoing renovation due to the large-scale migration of bureaucrats and diplomats down to Amity Base a few years prior, leading many disreputable organizations to spring up in their absence.
On the surface, things are... different. Few colonize barren planets, and few do so in such a way that the Assembly has. Six mega-domes dot the surface, each surrounded by dozens of smaller domes. A glistening network of maglev trains connect each large dome to the others, allowing citizens to travel between the domes while admiring the harsh surface of the planet that surrounds them. Few other structures have sprouted from the surface - a long cable that emerges from an elevated platform and stretches into space past Amity Station marks the space elevator, and a needle-thin spire that towers over a nearby megadome marks the Assembly University. Other than these, the surface remains pock-marked and unmarred by either nature or machine.
Four of the mega-domes belong to the Elder Council, and serve as the primary hub of each one's population in the area - although it is by no means exclusive. Several hundred thousand reside within each dome, and the architecture within each is wildly different. The Seven's dome, for example, allows no natural light to penetrate from the exterior, and in fact represents nothing less than a massive series of caverns and tunnels -- while the Xyn prefer more open spaces and lush greenery, going so far as to park solar collectors in orbit to concentrate more light on their dome for illumination, and food.
The fifth dome is reserved for the Forum of the Cosmos and the Elder Council's meeting chambers -- as well as all attendant equipment, security offices, and such things. The sixth dome, however, is different. Situated slightly away from the rest, light is perpetually dimmed within, casting everything inside in a hushed shade. Here lie all the museums and halls of memory of the Assembly, containing everything from xenoarchaeology exhibitions to cultural festivals to memorial services for particularly honorable members of the Assembly. It is a place of knowledge, reflection, and somber reflection on galactic history.
The Assembly has also set aside a number of areas for celebratory purposes, including fighting arenas and the 'Perpetual Stage' (so named for the nonstop performances that take place there at all hours).
The smaller domes around each megadome serve for the smaller embassy races as well as galactic bureaucracy and other necessary services.
Underneath the entirety of the aboveground complexes run a vast labyrinth of tunnels and further complexes, serving as housing, storage, and other such things. Here too lie the multiple staggered reactors that power the entire complex, and the heavily shielded core of the station's AI -- Thesh.