Ariel - the background

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Re: Ariel - the background

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ARIEL - The Misali exodus

The Misali are one of the more interesting races. Originally they were biped amphibians with two arms, two legs, 3 fingers and a thumb, and 3 toes. They had very slender, almost skeletal bodies, and pale blue skin. They descend from a species similar to large water Newts on their homeworld of Misal. They are not like that now.
About 300 years ago, almost at the same time the Terran's discovered Slipstream flight, a major cataclysm happened. An artificial one. Misal was situated about 7 light years from the borders of a region of space named the Coridian Twilight. The Twilight is formed by lawless pirates, mad scientists, rogue defectors and general small tyrants. They attacked. The joint species Triumvirate fleet managed to stop the Twilight fleet from breaching too far...But Misal was lost.

The Twilight fleet attacked Misal first, bombarding the planet from orbit. A hundred ships, all firing weapons at the surface. The Misali on the side facing the fleet were utterly obliterated. Meanwhile, on the other side a massive fleet of ships took off carrying as many Misali as could be squeezed in. It wasnt all. Some defiant Misali remained on the homeworld, and fought the Twilight fleet. They put up a valiant struggle and managed to damage the Twilight Dreadnough Retribution, making the Triumvirate fleet's job alot easier. Many Misali ships were lost or severely damaged in the Exodus, claimed by the lawless raiders. But a large proportion survived, escaping through the Slipstream node nearby to the Bastion.

But an undiscovered menace was lurking within the Misal populations. As Misal itself was purged, as much of the planets air was vented into the Misali fleet. But large swathes of previously undiscovered radation from the bombardment was taken into the ships as well. It is now known as Keppra radiation, named for the Misali scientist that discovered it. Over a couple of years, the new Misali being born were showing strange defects in their autonomic, respiratory and circulatory systems. Each case was unique, each defect slightly different from the last. At first the defects could be corrected by small genetic alterations or small operations, But over time, the operations increased in severity. Until operations and genetic modification were not working. The defects were getting more and more severe, and the treatments were ineffective. Thousands of Misali were dying of the mutations the Keppra radiation was causing. Dr. Meylas Keppra was the savior. A leading researcher in biology and Nanotechnology, he created the art of replacing internal organs and systems with cybernetic systems as they failed. At the time, only 30% of the newborn body needed implants, but soon the situation decayed even further. Dr. Keppra is long dead now, but the legacy of his work is the currant Misali race. On birth, a thorough analysis is performed of the body tissue, the internal organs and all vital functions. In turn, intensive cybernetic implantation and modification is performed to replace the dying or ineffective organs. On average, 70% of the body is replaced with cybernetics, not due to stylization, but necessity.

This has bcreated an interesting situation. Many Misali of older generations noticed that the new born children and adolescents were far more capable physically and mentally than their predecessors. Each generation can move, think and react faster than the last. The Misali were actually better off from the modification. many Scientists had searched for a cure to the "Keppran Blight", but as this new evidence became available, they stopped. the Misali are content to leave themselves as they are, in their cybernetics. Now, very few Misali have similar lifesigns and even fewer have visible skin. The lifesign issue is solved by a special transponder that is implanted in the body that projects the standard Misali lifesigns. It is configured to act as a diagnostic, analysing the body's condition and adjusting the lifesigns accordingly.

Nowadays, the Misali still maintain their fleet. Many of the ships are still around from the original exodus. They have never considered settling down. They are waiting for the atmosphere to of Misal to loose its radiation levels so they can return. Unfortunately, the world is predicted to have been completely decimated.
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Re: Ariel - the background

Post by Tsukiyumi »

A very believeable reason why a species would start using extensive cybernetic modifications. I like it. :)

A question, though - if the genetic damage continues worsening, they would eventually be unable to reproduce naturally, right? What then, cloning?
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Re: Ariel - the background

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So far, The genetic degradation seems to have slowed almost to a halt. The cybernetics, once implanted, seem to regenerate damage done, post implantation. But it is entirely viable that it worsens again. In that case, Cloning will need to be developed (it hasn't been perfected) in order to preserve the species.
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Re: Ariel - the background

Post by Tsukiyumi »

Sounds like you've thought it through pretty well. :)
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Re: Ariel - the background

Post by shran »

WOuld the genome also 'notice' over time that organs are being replaced, thus degenerating the body eve further/ that would be the fenomenon called dysgenetica. might be interesting to incorporate it in here.

Bur how was the coridian twilight able to act as one entity, instead of the rubbish it is shown to be/ Was there a leader that unified the various factions, like Attila the Hun, or Genghis khan, or did one of the several 'feudal' lords attack the Misali territory?
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Re: Ariel - the background

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The Coridian twilight at one time managed to form together a rather strained coalition under a man named Diethelm Haarfelschein, a rather brilliant public speaker and tactician hailing from Dortmund in Germany. He managed to bring the various Coridian forces together under one banner. Unfortunately, he payed the price when the bridge of the Retribution was blasted apart by the main guns of a Danarian dreadnought.

It is possible the genome detected it, but it would need to evolve considerably to do as you have said.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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ARIEL - The Coridian Twilight

The Coridian twilight is not in fact an organized government. Not even is it a loose alliance of systems. The twilight is a region of space beyond the territory of the Triumvirate. The Twilight is almost completely lawless and anarchical, meaning that tiny upstart nations vie with each other for space and power, pirates run rampant and anyone who wants to escape the forces of the Triumvirate should come here. The only reason the triumvirate hasn't eliminated the Twilight is because if they attacked, the sheer size and number of the Coridian Twilights forces would eventually beat the Triumvirate off.

Once in the past, the Coridian twilight did manage to formulate a loose bannered force. Diethelm Haarfelschein, a leading political activist in the Twilight, and a surprisingly proficient tactician managed to collect the various alliances and forces together. The fleet he collected was vast, lead by his flagship, Retribution, An immense, modified Kazayama Starship construction battleship of the BB-6 type. Eventually the Coridian forces were defeated, not before they eliminated Misal and two other colony worlds, the Corporate research facility at Mitola Vega, and the agricultural colony at Kum'yum'dur. Never has the Twilight collected into a grouped alliance since then.

Travel into the Twilight is highly unadvised due to the lack of law enforcement and the rogue nature of many of the states there.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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Reliant121 wrote:ARIEL - The Caalma magistrate
I haven't gotten to the magistrate, but everything else I've read so far and just wanted to make some points. Assuming from the name Terra Nova plus the fact they are called Terrans I'm assuming this is vastly far into the future. Because of that naming ships after WWII names may not be the best idea. If this is say 100,000 years into the future how much sense does it make to name ships in an important (discovery of the atomic bombs) But not that important (humans first interstellar war?) war.

So maybe Olmpus Mons or the Centauri would make more sense. Think larger than the 20th century. That would be worse than us naming a battle ship off the general of the Tlaxcian army who helped Cortez flee across the bridges from the Aztecs. Who cares about that guy. Just like who really cares in the far flung future about WWII ships. Missouri? Would any of them even know what it was?

Also a Triumphit is 3 people. And they never work far as government goes. One is always marginalized, and the other two go to war. Now, you could rename it and that'd work but rulers of three always seem to end poorly.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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So far its great. Just read the rest. My only complaints were listed above. I'd be interested in seeing more.

You mentioned the size of the Galaxy but not really the scope of the Empires inside. Does this story show a galactic spanning Empire or just smaller ones?
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Re: Ariel - the background

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Monroe wrote:
Reliant121 wrote:ARIEL - The Caalma magistrate
I haven't gotten to the magistrate, but everything else I've read so far and just wanted to make some points. Assuming from the name Terra Nova plus the fact they are called Terrans I'm assuming this is vastly far into the future. Because of that naming ships after WWII names may not be the best idea. If this is say 100,000 years into the future how much sense does it make to name ships in an important (discovery of the atomic bombs) But not that important (humans first interstellar war?) war.

So maybe Olmpus Mons or the Centauri would make more sense. Think larger than the 20th century. That would be worse than us naming a battle ship off the general of the Tlaxcian army who helped Cortez flee across the bridges from the Aztecs. Who cares about that guy. Just like who really cares in the far flung future about WWII ships. Missouri? Would any of them even know what it was?

Also a Triumphit is 3 people. And they never work far as government goes. One is always marginalized, and the other two go to war. Now, you could rename it and that'd work but rulers of three always seem to end poorly.

Good points. I'm Keeping Terrans as a name, because 1)humanity is boring, 2) theres not much else to call them really. But the fleet could certainly be renamed.

The Triumvirate was just a name to be honest. I was thinking of something i could call it and that popped up. I'll try and think of something new at some point.

Both the Coridian twilight and the yet-to-be-renamed triumvirate own countless systems, a huge swathe of the galaxy. roughly a third is controlled by each, the third in between them is pretty either unkown or void.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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ARIEL - Atmospheric combat

Combat in space is all well and good, but combat in atmosphere is often crucial in large military campaigns. Planetary bombardment is effective at eliminating large scale installations, but precision is just about out the window. Firing a mass driver at a particular coordinate, and it may swerve up to half a kilometer off target, because of the complexities of targeting in-atmosphere targets. In that vein, three distinct types of atmospheric combat are encountered, much like today's military theaters.

Ground - Ground combat is the basic infantry vs. infantry, tank vs. tank, and all the mixes and combinations. It involves infantry platoons and squads, light, medium and heavy vehicles as well as buildings. Ground combat is little different in Ariel, to now.

Aerial - Aerial combat is the probably one of the principle forms of combat. Atmospherically, the sizes of craft typically range from small one man fighters, up to 20 man gunships. Although some interstellar ships are built to be capable of atmospheric flight, Notably the Al-Kazar class dreadnought, the only atmosphere capable dreadnought in existence. Generally it is fought between fighters and bombers. All cities normally have a standard police force of fighters and gunships, and some are eligible to receive a squadron of Military craft. Typically, a police force will consist of 100 standard police cruising fighters (operating like patrol cars today), 50 heavy combat fighters, 20 combat bombers and 10 gunships of various types.

Naval - You would imagine that naval combat is rather outdated by this point, either ground or aerial units can serve a lot better. But the advantages of Naval combat are as follows: The units used are the only ones capable of underwater combat, the engines, strains and such like are outside the design capabilities of other groups. Surface combatants offer effective long range bombardment, mobile carrier platforms and the ability to cross large reaches of territory cheaply and effectively. naval combat offers a distinct advantage in cost effective vessels. They are often capable of large sizes and weapons capabilities than other types as well.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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ARIEL - Terran alliance - formations, brief history, geography and government

The Terran alliance was first formed 300 years before the start of the story-line, when the first Slipstream Node was discovered in the System now known as New Terra. Before that, the world was divided among several different nations and powers, all operating on their own agenda. New Terra is almost like a parallel universe to our own planet, Geographically identical but society and nation namings are different. Essentially the nations are pretty much the same. But they are organised differently and have different Namings. For example, the United Kingdom's parallel is the Empire of Brittania. The Japanese counterpart is the Fuso Imperium. The USA's equivalent WAS Principalidia before the government collapsed, and the land was seized by either the Empire of Brittania, or the other major player, the Urasnikova Federation (Russia).

Once the alliance was founded, they couldn't all be separate nations. Instead, each country would serve as a member state, represented by a diplomat to the Senate of the alliance. They lost their Empire/federation/etc. titles and are merely known now by their place name. So they would no be the Alliance state of Brittania, the Alliance state of Fuso, The Alliance state of Urasnikova and so on. Other worlds each have their individual states, dependent on colony status and size. Some colony worlds have one single city, making only one state, normally named after the planet. Other larger colony words may have several states, each named after their capital city.

The capital city of the Alliance is called Nova Maria, a city sunk deep into the equivalent ocean of the atlantic: the Opal sea. Nova maria was created purely for the purpose of being the capital city, build away from the state borders of all others. It is built into a range of underwater mountains. Some of the city is in atmosphere domes and constructs protruding from the mountains, the rest is buried deep into them. A large space port floats on the surface, using water jets to maintain a orbit directly above the city. Shuttles travel between the two taking guests and visitors to and from their ships and the city.

The Diplomats from each state are permanently stationed at the city in the district called "Ascension". Every month they have a meeting in the Chambers of the alliance to discuss matters of the individual states, and for matters of inter-species relations. A representative from each of the alien nations observes, but does not become involved unless it involves their respective race.

Each state has its own police and military branch for atmosphere defence, which can manufacture, purchase and maintain forces at their pleasure.
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Re: Ariel - the background

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Can we assume that history on New Terra was mostly similar to that of Earth? If so, was there a point at which both went separate ways or did they always differ slightly?

How are other nations and states on New Terra organized, more or less the same? For example, France was mostly a major player on the world stage as well, do they even exist here?
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Re: Ariel - the background

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Some nations exist some dont. As i said, America or principalidia had a major Government collapse and is now merely territory of Brittania or Urasnikova. I haven't written up for all yet but I can do it via Q&A if you like. History has changed in places same in others.

France, or Normande, was a major player once but submitted large parts of its territory to Brittania, once a conquest based society. They have changed now. Slowly, parts of Normande are being returned, as Normande now is only slightly larger than Luxembourg on earth.
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Re: Ariel - the background

Post by Monroe »

Did these nations develop on their own or are they colonies of the countries they mirror?
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