Miraaki wrote:The United Alliance's Polity Application
Polity Name: The United Alliance
Description:
The United Alliance (UA) is a democratic republic, with a bicameral legislature, a lower chamber with proportional representation, and an upper chamber with 1 senator per fully inhabited world. The executive branch is run by a President, who serves a single 5-year term, with no consecutive terms.
The United Alliance was born on the planet of Echidna, a rather standard continental world that was used as a giant, planet-sized petri dish by an unknown entity millennia ago. Their test subjects, once standard humans, were given crude and extremely unstable genetic modifications that resulted in the creation of the Akasha, a genetic offshoot of humanity with wild and unstable mutations. Most members of the species are born with some form of obvious external mutation, such as animal traits or non-standard limbs. The Akasha's cells are extremely susceptible to mutation and rapidly divide, causing high rates of cancer and autoimmune disorders, which are treated through the application of various miracles of modern medicine, often supplied via a subdermal implant able to synthesize the compounds from the various nutrients ingested by the Akasha. Still, the average lifespan of an Akasha is only around 80, and the rapid mutations leave most gene therapy techniques from around the galaxy ineffective. The scientists of the UA are in a constant war with their own DNA, desperately trying to keep up with the mutations and make sure their species doesn't degrade entirely. It's a miracle some members of the species are even able to reproduce with each other, even if it sometimes requires specialized and personalized gene therapy.
The Akasha were created as a test, to see what would happen when humanity was left to mutate rapidly and evolve in various random and chaotic ways. After their creators were satisfied, they left the planet, completely unconcerned about what would happen to the created. The nascent species, still possessing some knowledge of the modern sciences, were able to repurpose what equipment was left behind to build a small civilization, but the planet's aggressive and often supernatural wildlife, along with natural attrition due to the lack of medicine, caused society to quickly regress technologically. The Akasha society stabilized around an 19th-century technological level, and began to spread across the planet, building a new, stable civilization. Everything changed with the discovery of the Akashic Records, a vast store of knowledge left behind by an unknown civilization. While the nascent civilization was only able to scratch the barest surface, the technological knowledge contained within was used to rapidly modernize the developing nation-state on the planet, but there was more inside the records.
For centuries, the Akasha intellectuals were puzzled by the various supernatural phenomena of the planet. Some animals and plants defied basic laws of physics and thermodynamics, seemingly capable of various impossible feats. The Akasha found answers inside the Records. They discovered Magic, and all the wondrous things it was capable of. Using a combination of magic and technology, the Akasha, within only 2 generations, managed to achieve spaceflight. They named themselves the Akasha after the Records that gave the new species their power and began to explore the stars.
Now, a few hundred years later, the Akasha are at the head of the United Alliance, a state that controls over 400 inhabited planets and thousands of systems. They are strong believers in liberty, equality, and progress, and wish to expand and explore the galaxy, spreading their humanitarian mission to all those who wish. Any world is free to join the United Alliance, and they are all treated as equals by the government, with full rights to magic, technology, representation, and travel. While the UA is dominated by the Akasha, with the vast majority of the worlds, government, and military made up of them, other species are in the Alliance, and have full equal rights.
Territory: mentioned it on discord
Megastructures:
The Akashic Records: a vast store of information contained inside a moon-sized quantum-magical computer core contained within the crust of Echidna. The knowledge contained within is vast and seemingly endless. UA scientists have theorized it is somehow connected to the Other Side, and is theoretically capable of holding all knowledge ever known, past, present, and future. Accessing the records, however, is extremely difficult and dangerous, requiring complex techno-magical rituals to scrape even surface-level knowledge from it. A variety of things can go wrong, and as such, delving into the records is not a very reliable or even practical way of advancing the United Alliance's technology. Only about .0001% of the Records is believed to be fully explored, and that was at great cost.
The Great Rift: Located inside UA space, the Great Rift is not a megastructure per se, but rather a massive stellar phenomenon that the UA has control over. The Great Rift is a massive, multi-system wide tear in reality, where reality and the Other Side coexist. It is extremely dangerous to even approach the outer edges, as even skilled Warp Navigators can easily get lost and annihilated by the raging whirlwind of the stellar tides. The UA has built various scientific and research bases on the outskirts, to study the rift and the Other Side, and have gained a wide variety of insights onto how the Other Side functions.
Alliance Station: This moon-sized station is the Alliance's first foray into megaengineering, built as a massive testament to the unity and perseverance of the UA. It is the new seat of the Alliance government, and holds 2 billion inhabitants. The Alliance has drawn up plans to build more habitats, but they are still on the planning board.
Military: The Alliance Navy is the primary military arm of the UA, containing around 3 billion souls. While every planet inside the Alliance is allowed to build a limited planetary defense fleet, the main power lies in the central government's fleet. Containing over 20,000 ships of various classes, the Alliance Navy is a force to be reckoned with. The Alliance Marine Corps is around 300 million strong, containing both conventional soldiers along with around 500,000 battle mages. (I'll expand on this some in the future I'm bad with militaries)
Special Technologies and Magic:
Magic: the most obvious thing that sets the United Alliance apart from its contemporaries is the widespread use of true magic. Magic is capable of almost anything, and treats almost all physical laws as just suggestions. However, magic is limited by the users inner supply of mana. Every living being has mana inside of them, and it is consumed to cast spells. Using the mana, spellcasters can draw from the Current, a metaphysical field of energy that permeates reality, and is theorized to be connected to the Other Side. The Current defies study and explanation, seemingly actively avoiding any form of scientifically defining it. Spellcasters can either unleash raw Current, which is rather easy and costs a trivial amount of mana, but is very dangerous and often ends in serious injury or death as pure uncontrolled magical energy is unleashed, or cast proper spell matrices. A Spell Matrix is able to capture the raw Current and feed it through a filter of sorts, allowing it to manifest however the user wishes. Spell Matrix components can be written like code in a mages mind, allowing them to cast spells on the fly. However, this is rather mana intensive, with the more Current and more complex a spell costing more mana. A mage can also physically draw a Spell Matrix, which allows for far easier management of the Current than casting in the mind, but this requires prior preparation. As a spellcaster runs out of mana, they will become more and more tired and fatigued, until they eventually fall into unconsciousness. Some rare materials, however, are capable of artificially storing mana, that someone is able to draw on to supplement their internal stores.
Any person is theoretically capable of using magic, but few have the mental skill and fortitude to wield the raw Current well. The United Alliance government, while it doesn't force anyone to attend any institutions, have a monopoly on magical education, though it is willing to teach non-Alliance species as well, if only the basics.
The Other Side: Theorized to be where the Current originates from, the Other Side is an eldritch dimension that defies understanding. It is completely and utterly incomprehensible and unknowable, with almost all attempts to study it resulting in complete madness. This dimension, however, is how the Alliance travels the galaxy. Using the Tear Drive, a techno-magical construct developed from knowledge gleaned from the Akashic Records, ships can tear small, temporary rifts into the Other Side, allowing transit into the dimension. Inside the dimension, time and space work differently, and a skilled Warp Navigator can guide the ship to a safe exit at their destination. Warp Navigators are skilled mages who can feel how the raw Current flows, using it to guide them through the Other Side to their destination. Navigators have described the Other Side as a vast ocean, sailing their ships along a flow to their destination. They are all universally terrified of what lies under the ocean though. They only sail along the surface, with any attempts to go underneath ending in nightmarish horror. The navigators cannot describe why they are all afraid, but they all know, never to look underneath the surface.
Do you hereby promise that you have read and agree with the rules, or are willing to pretend like you have read and agree with the rules, and are willing to listen to and accept the judgments of Arktic and his deputies as the final word regarding combat, technology, and game fairness and fun?: Si
Approved! Welcome!
