A Sci-fi Adventure and Politics RP Brainstrom

Okay, let's give it a look.

Name is good. I'd drop the part about being referred to as Aliens though, since other species have already referred to other species as aliens. It's basically a collective way to refer to anyone not of your species.

Doesn't the method of deposing a council member mean any strapping young hothead can just pick a fight with the oldest and weakest guy on the council and take his job regardless of qualifications? And what does it mean that they decide issues from the smallest to the most important? Do they make ruling for everything in the nation? It takes at least a day to get from one star system to another, wouldn't that make their control rather unwieldy?

The animal weapons would probably get by due to their sheer WT Fness, but the GN does have a prohibition on biological warfare. Jomari would have to destroy their germ weapons in order to become a member. Maybe an acid gun or something would get a pass though. I imagine Jomar weapons would be more kinetic rather that energy based. You could even use this as a plot point; the Jomari could be interested in buying weapons or weapon designs from other nations that would bring them up to standard.

Infrastructure you got nothing on. That's depressing, there is so much you can do here. If they don't use machines, what do they use? It sounds like they would be heavily invested in biotechnology, which is cool because so is my nation. So how do they use it? Do they plant giant trees and use those as buildings◊? Do they grow coral as harder, stronger material for vehicles?◊ If they have so many animals for everything, they probably have to maintain a lot of space for food cultivation. Or do they build their farms going up?◊ Are they the best scientific farmers in the galaxy? Have they created the giant pumpkin for mass production?

Speaking of production, how do they mass produce anything without factory machinery? Or do they have it? Just what is their max level of mechanical technology? How do they power their stuff? Do they take electricity from plants?

Culture, man there are so many ways you could go with this I don't know where to begin.

I'm interested, do you mind if I join in? Here's what I was thinking as my space race. I'll make an ambassador character in a little bit, if the race is accepted.

• Name: The Ashkathi Union
• Trivia/Biology: Larine is almost entirely covered in water, and so the Ashkathi are streamlined and smooth-skinned, much like dolphins. However, unlike dolphins, Ashkathi do breathe underwater, which means that Ashkathi traveling on land require waterbelts to allow them to breathe when out of water. They have four limbs much like humans do, but their limbs are lanky and have long fingers and toes, much like that of a frog's. They are also webbed to allow them to swim. They have long, salamander-like tails to let them keep balance when they do leave the water. When their mouths are closed, the mouths are almost invisible, but they can open their toothless mouths almost as wide open as a human's head. Their eyes are yellow and reflect light, allowing them to see in the dark.
• Ancient History: The Ashkathi are the descendents of a religious movement from the planet Larine (LAIR-ee-nay). 5,000 Earth years before the present, the denizens of Larine were a belligerent, almost cultureless people, but one individual named Ashkai managed to quell the fighting and turn their attention to the destruction they were causing to the environment. The followers of Ashkai began to call themselves Ashkathi, or "The Disciples of Ashkai". Over time, the Ashkathi managed to overturn every other religion on the planet. They were content to remain on Larine, believing that Larine was at the center of the universe, until the Day of Ascension (on the Gregorian calendar; June 10th, 2667). On this day, a strange metallic object fell from the sky, landing in a largely populated area. The object was an exploratory probe from another galactic power, and it was now that the Ashkathi discovered they were not alone in the universe. They quickly began to pool their resources and prepare for the vast journey to the Darkness Beyond in order to meet their visitor. In the Tenth Year of the Fourth Borellian Alignment (Approximately 3070 CE), they managed to get their first space station orbiting Larine: Point Grace. It was now that they came into contact with another alien power, which the Ashkathi believed were the ones who sent the probe on the Day of Ascension. However, they were scolded for their belief, and told to make their own destiny.
• Recent History: In the years that followed the Day of Ascension, the Ashkathi have mostly remained undisturbed by the other races. In 3228, the Ashkathi colonized their first new planet, which they named Salorin, or "Frontier" in the Ashkathi language. By 3241, they had colonized five more systems, and in 3250 they established the Ashkathi Union to better govern the different worlds. However, the most major event that happened after that was a conflict known by the Ashkathi as the "Point Grace Incursion", which happened in 3432. Their homeworld's satellite base fell under attack by an enemy power, and since the peaceful Ashkathi had no true military at the time, the satellite nearly fell entirely. Then, however, the Minister of the Beyond at the time, Toth, decided to found the Brothers of Larine, and the attackers retreated. Their history has mostly been spotless after this incident, but the Ashkathi remained on their toes, in case another power attacks them. However, their fear of other races died down a bit by 3554, when the Ashkathi Union was asked to join the Galactic Nations. Honored by the outsiders, the Ashkathi accepted.
• Government: The planet Larine is a religious parliamentary democracy, governed by the Ashkathi High Council, a group of scholars and priests voted into power by the populace. The High Council is itself governed by the Board of Inquiry, whose job it is to check the power of the High Council. If the High Council becomes corrupt, the Board of Inquiry has the sworn duty to remove the corrupt councilmen from power. Every province of Larine gets one delegate in the High Council, and each province has equal say as to what goes on within the inner workings of the Ashkathi. Between planets, the Ashkathi Union has formed, led by the High Minister of the Beyond. The High Minister is also voted into power, and answers directly to the High Council.
• Military: The Ashkathi are not a violent race by principle, but they do have various organizations built in case of attack by others. The most well-known Ashkathi military organization is the Brothers of Larine. These holy defenders were organized by High Minister Toth during the Point Grace Incursion, an invasion of the main space station by outsiders. The Brothers carry heatstaves, an Ashkathi-designed weapon which resembles an ornate metal staff. When activated, the ends heatstaves grow intensely hot, allowing them to burn flesh on contact and even fire streams of molten metal from the tips. They more often prefer to use non-lethal methods to deal with intruders, such as stun guns and net-throwers. All in all, Ashkathi view war as an absolute last resort.
• Infrastructure: The planets of the Ashkathi Union mostly keep to themselves, and thus have differing infrastructure depending on where they are. However, most Ashkathi colony worlds (and Larine itself) are able to be told apart from other worlds by the presence of slip-tubes connecting bodies of water. These resemble huge clear plastic tubes filled with water, that allow the Ashkathi to travel between bodies of water where the main cities are. They mostly take the role of roads and transport vehicles, as they send water rushing through the tubes at high speeds. Another important bit of Ashkathi technology is the invention of the waterbelt. Before the waterbelt, the Ashkathi were limited to only leaving the water for a few minutes at a time. Now, with life-giving water running through the gills at their hips constantly, the Ashkathi are free to leave the water for up to a few months at a time if they must. To communicate across long distances, Ashkathi used to use a musical form of their own already melodic language that echoes across the depths like whalesong. Now with the advent of tele-communicators this is no longer necessary, but the Ashkathi language is described as incredibly beautiful and musical.
  • Law Enforcement: Ashkathi are not culturally a malignant people, so they have little need for enforcement within their own borders. For visitors to Larine or any of the Ashkathi colony worlds, there are troopers known as Protectors of the Homeland, or Protectors for short. These Protectors exist so that Ashkathi are not threatened by visitors. The Protectors can also function as police if need be, but this is rare, as crime committed by Ashkathi within their own borders is uncommon.
• Religion: The Ashkathi are an artistic and incredibly spiritual people, believing in the interconnectedness of all living beings in the Songstream. In essence, smaller creatures are eaten by larger creatures, which themselves die and bring sustenance to the smaller creatures. Plant life is also similarly sacred. For this reason, their technology is designed specifically to not be harmful to the environment. The Ashkathi believes themselves to be on equal footing with every other sentient race in the Beyond, and every sentient race equal to each other. It is for this reason that the phrase "We are all one within the Stream" is as prolific as it is within the Ashkathi Union's borders, to the extent that is a common farewell.
• Customs: When visiting another, it is customary for an Ashkathi to show their approval of food or other commodities with kalluu, a sort of whale-song duet between the host and guest. When dealing with outsiders, Ashkathi instead substitute this with gratuitous thanks and praise, making the Ashkathi seem humbler than they truly are. If you are given a gift by an Ashkathi, you are expected to respond like this, or be seen as selfish. Respect is a primary concern to the Ashkathi.
• Territory: The Ashkathi Union is comprised of around 12 systems colonized by the Ashkathi in the surrounding areas of their star cluster. They will only colonize a planet that has a surface area of over 80% water, meaning that Ashkathi will often live on planets that other races find uninhabitable without help. The Ashkathi Union's territory is a remote cluster on the frontier edge of Galactic Nations space. Music and art are some of the primary exports of Larine and the other Ashkathi systems, while they mostly import things like metal and peaceful technology.

edited 8th Jun '14 5:21:36 PM by AllHailThrall

Hi there, All Hail Thrall! Sorry it took me so long to get to you. Lets see what you got.

10,000 years of an uninterrupted system seems to be a stretch. I think even our oldest player nation is like 700 years old. Then we got to 2070 and it sort of stops there. What's been going on for the last 1000+ years?

Nitpick, but in law enforcement it says they aren't naturally warlike, but earlier it says before their religion took hold they were fighting wars all the time. So shouldn't it be more like, "culturally, they are not a warlike people"?

It says they live near the edge of the galaxy, problem here is that we're nowhere near the edge of the galaxy, and nowhere near getting their either. Might just want to say something like, on the frontier, or edge of civilization.

Hope this helps!

Whoops! I think I've fixed some of the glaring issues there. I think the reason the history section is so eventless is because I felt it was getting way too long as it is (I split it into two different sections during the fix for that reason), and plus, the Ashkathi are sort of... well, they're an entire planet of space hippies, to put it blunt. They've spent most of their history being "one with the Songstream" and not doing much of anything; it was the probe's landfall (seafall?) that prompted them to get off their rears and make something of themselves. In fact, some may argue that the probe means that they were uplifted too early, and aren't entirely culturally ready to be thrust into the galactic scene, as the Point Grace Incursion shows. When I said 10,000 years, as a "warlike people", I meant they were warlike when they were the Ashkathi equivalent of cavemen, and I tried to imply that if it wasn't for Ashkai they never would have risen from spears and rocks. Let's hope the edits fixed most of it.

edited 8th Jun '14 6:15:02 AM by AllHailThrall

Alright, better. Just two things that stand out now, and I think it's because you're unaware of the date in-game. We're in 3555 right now, which means according to your revise numbers, they were primitives around 2500, but first traveled to space 500 years (2070) earlier.

Secondly, that means 3743 hasn't happened yet. Here is a timeline of historical events that might help you figure out where you want to place your dates.

Yeah..... I didn't know there was a wiki, or a canon timeline. It just said "in the far off future" and I didn't know how far. x3 Hopefully I fixed the dates for real now. By the way, I like to imagine that the probe that sparked the Day of Ascension was either a Terran or Snalian probe, considering the timeline prior to the Dark Ages.

edited 8th Jun '14 10:22:48 AM by AllHailThrall

Okay, all good! Just whip up some characters and we'll throw you into the galaxy!

Okay, here are my characters!

• Name: Koruuna-met-Alassh-Alar, Ambassador to the Galactic Nations, Council Representative of Tehlana
  • Informal Name: Koruuna
• Age: 56 Earth years (equivalent to mid 30's in Ashkathi years)
• Sex: Female
• Appearance: 5' hunched. Grey skin, pale blue spots on the flanks and up the outer sides of the arms. Royal purple skintight outfit that reaches her lower thighs and has no sleeves. Waterbelt around her waist attached to a small water pump on her back. Long fingers, elongated face, pale blue catfish-like tendrils on the back of head.
• History: Koruuna was born to the Alassh clan on the planet of Tehlana, one of the first planets colonized by the Ashkathi. From a young age, she was extremely sociable, and eager to meet new people. This eagerness to get out into the world led her into the field of politics, and she applied for a council so she could make a difference. She first got a job as a council member in her local town, then moving to the provincial level. So many of the Ashkathi of Tehlana were behind Koruuna, that she was soon being chosen for the prestigious role as the representative of the whole planet on the High Council of Larine. She accepted and took a shuttle to Larine, but before she could take her position, she learned about the Point Grace Incursion. It was the Day of Remembrance, the day that signified the horrors of the Point Grace Incursion and the tragic deaths that occurred on that day. After finding out about it, she asked to be put in a position where she could speak with other cultures and keep them in good standing, so nothing as terrible as the Point Grace Incursion could ever happen again. The Council decided that, due to her strong morals and her skill at her work, she would be given the title as first real ambassador from Larine and the other Ashkathi worlds to the worlds Beyond, in the Galactic Nations.
• Credentials: Most Ashkathi have trouble speaking the languages of other races, but Koruuna is a competent speaker of several outsider languages, including English and Sirian. In her short time as Ambassador, she has brokered trade agreements with several other planets, including the Ashkathi colonies of Andarr and Soskella. She is the High Council representative from Tehlana, and is in line to become Vice Minister of the Beyond, chosen for her quick thinking and willingness to aid others, even outsiders.

• Name: Maros-met-Kaian-Taasa
  • Informal Name: Maros
• Age: 61 Earth years (late 30s in Ashkathi years)
• Sex: Male
• Appearance: 6' hunched, bluish skin, dark blue spots on the flanks and up the outer sides of the arms. Green skintight outfit with pouches on the flanks. Waterbelt around his waist attached to a small water pump on his back. Shortened face, wide eyes with tendrils over the eyes like bushy "eyebrows", prominent notch on the fin on his tail.
• History: Maros was born on Larine to a high-class family of scholars. Even from a young age, Maros had a good sense of direction and a love of the outdoors. He would always look up at the sky, and see Ashkathi ships leaving Larine, wondering where they were going and how he could get there. Filled with a deep sense of wanderlust, he used his scholarly upbringing to discover all that he could about other worlds and systems. When he graduated from the Ashkathi equivalent of college, he had grown so knowledgeable about geography on Larine alone that he had soon begun to direct trade routes on the planet. The High Council took notice of this and offered him a chance he could never refuse— the chance to be the navigator on a starship. How could he say no? He took the job, as chief navigator aboard the Ashkathi-manned freighter ship Naladaan. He worked there as a navigator for about 10 years before the crew was decommissioned to make way for newer ship advances. Disappointed and with nowhere to turn, he soon found a calling for crewmen on a visiting outsider ship, and within a few months, Maros got the job as navigator on that ship as well.
• Position: Navigator

Let me know if I screwed anything up, and I hope this works out.

edited 8th Jun '14 5:18:51 PM by AllHailThrall

First character is good. Second one is good except that we already have a doctor. Unless Faux doesn't mind there being two doctors.

I saw there were a lot of engineering and military officers, neither of which were fitting for an Ashkathi character, but there were very few doctors. Also, I didn't want to make a communications officer, partially cause I saw one already, and partially because then the second character would be basically a clone of the first. What other ship positions are open?

I can make Bobby take on the role of communications officer and leave the position of engineer empty, if you'd like to make a hilariously atypical engineer.

edited 8th Jun '14 3:06:40 PM by nman

Our communications officer just left actually, so you can take up on his offer, or be the comm officer yourself, if you want.

Ashkathi, for the most part, aren't very strong in technological fields. Their particular brand of technology is very specially made to not be harmful to the environment, which may work well and good on their homeworld and their colonies, but all in all it sacrifices efficiency for eco-friendliness... so yeah, an Ashkathi engineer would most likely be seen as a bit backwards when it comes to "outsider" engineering.

I don't really want to make a communications officer since, again, the communications officer would be VERY similar to the ambassador above, and that'd be boring... I don't know what to do.

edited 8th Jun '14 3:11:14 PM by AllHailThrall

Hmm... How about Captain's assistant? Quartermaster?

Quartermaster.... so basically a navigator? Sure, I could make my Ashkathi a navigator/quartermaster, if that's okay.

Quartermaster is more like the guy in charge of supplies. Both navigator and Quartermaster are both NPC's though, which means their jobs are up for grabs if you want either of them.

Ah, all right. I'll choose the navigator. The Wikipedia article on "quartermaster" was extremely confusing. Let me just make that character...

EDIT: All right, it's done. How's it look?

By the way, I'm trying to be as vague about the Point Grace Incursion as I possibly can, partially because I don't want to demonize any of the player factions, but also as a possible plot hook later down the line. Assuming the RP gets that far. You can do whatever you wish with the Incursion, Parable. It doesn't matter to me.

Also, I added a few things to the race description about them joining the Galactic Nations, judging off of information from the timeline.

edited 8th Jun '14 5:20:08 PM by AllHailThrall

• Name: Kaledon Empire-in-Exile
• History: Where'd you start? Where are you now? What did you do in between then and now?
• Government: Empire led by the young Empress-in-Exile Valessa XIII Kaledon who were crowned at age three after her father was killed in a SSS Raid on his bunker.
• Military: The exact strength is unknown but it is known it controls at least a small fleet of Battleships and lesser vessels through space. It is lacking ground forces, mostly relying on loyalist remnants such as Black Phalanx or Ghost Special Forces. The only constant military unit they have that is known is the Guard of the Imperial Heart, the body guard of the Empress outfitted in the best gear money can buy.
• Infrastructure: Being a Government-in-Exile it does not control any planets but instead relies on funds acquired from a variety of front corporations and then using those funds to hire freelancers.
• Culture: The Empire stresses veneration of the Imperial blood almost to the degree of religious worship and a strict hierarchical system with the Royal family at the top, the nobility below them and at the bottom the common people.
• Territory: They do not have direct rule over any world.
• Trivia: Whatever else you think might be worth mentioning.

Yo Thrall, by the way, you have a Skype? Most of us do, which is why the discussion thread is pathetically empty. We just type and stuff, no voice, but a good portion of discussion about the game (at least if we manage to stay on-topic) goes on there.

Sadly, no I do not have a Skype, and I don't really plan on getting one either. I'm kind of old fashioned like that, I don't exactly trust it. x-x

edited 8th Jun '14 10:59:56 PM by AllHailThrall

I used to be like that. Then it became too inconvenient to not have it. Sucks you won't join us, but I guess we can relay important stuff to you in the Discussion. In the meantime, the ambassadors are at a party if you want your character to have always been there. The other guy will have to wait a bit while we wrap up this last part and can join in at the next part.

We have a map◊. You can choose anywhere you want your guys to be except in the areas between Knotar, United Stars, and Triple Alliance, and that big blank spot to the left of Jiptohr.

Sure. I'm thinking the Ashkathi Union's star systems are going to lie "northwest" of the rest of them, somewhere "between" the Sirian Union and the Verandi empire. Between where the words are if that makes any sense... And colorwise... hm, perhaps bluish-silvery?

edited 9th Jun '14 6:58:11 PM by AllHailThrall

I scribbled together a quick blob of paint on the map◊, are you talking about the place where I dumped blue, red, or green paint, or a combination thereof?

More the red, to be honest. :)

Yeah, I thought so. Okay. Will add you there.