SolFed Level 3 Detention Station A-1141-A-F "Big Red"
A colorful mess of beings from all across the Four Arms of the galaxy, all having fallen into the custody of the Solar Federation for one reason or another. But whatever the reason for their imprisonment, an opportunity approaches for a handful of them. For the Ithica, a ship owned by enterprising Kiric caravaneers, has come calling, looking for manpower on a most interesting venture. And for the prisoners who find themselves leased out, this might just be the chance to earn their freedom, if they can return alive.
Little do any of them know, some of the oldest secrets in the cosmos are about to be uncovered...
The Game:The format here is going to be mission-based, with time to roam around/investigate and choose direction between them. When making your character, keep the lore in mind but also remember that the galaxy is a big place, home to a beings of all shapes and sizes.
As I prioritize RP and story, when you make your character you should start with a concept, and we'll hash out the mechanics, GM to player. We can begin that with a "sketch" as detailed in the mechanics writeup, which is in the following google doc:
Mechanics to be found hereNote: you will need a reason for your character's imprisonment at the onset
The SettingFaster Than Light travel. Achieved via a method commonly known as the Threadweave, based on principles of quantum gravity and dark matter. Ships can follow the Threads strung through the beads of stellar gravity wells. Consequently, it's easy to find Threads up and down the arms of the galaxy, but very difficult to Thread across the sparser areas between arms. With few bridges, travel between arms often requires moving closer to the center of the galaxy and circling around. And so the regions of the Galaxy are defined by its four arms: Jaune, Verde, Violet, and Rouge.
There are large empires, covering hundreds and even thousands of star systems, but the galaxy is vast and swallows even them. The space between is filled with smaller nations, entities, freeholds, and simply huge expanses of unexplored space. Statistically speaking, more of the galaxy is lawless than isn't. And rumors of strange and mysterious things unknown to science abound...
MindweaveA relatively well-known though poorly understood phenomenon, the Iylum hypothesize it to be similar to Threadweave, though with consciousness rather than gravity: like a fabric made of a single filament strung between all conscious beings. Even those species with an intuitive connection to it have thus far been unable to create a complete scientific description of its workings. It is believed that any being with self awareness and sufficiently complex thought processes has the potential to manifest these gifts, but becoming attuned is a difficult process and likely requires as much pure luck as effort. Those who are so fortunate develop abilities that generally follow one of two paths: reading, sensing, and/or influencing other minds; and gathering and redirecting physical forces/energies through their mental processes and senses. Despite the baffling nature of Mindweave, attempts to study it have concluded so far that, at least, it falls within the laws of nature. It cannot create or destroy energy: at the fundamental level, it only redirects and rearranges. Mindweaving is often associated with a blue glow, as the transformation of energy can produce cherenkov radiation.
Though most people would say they've heard of this phenomenon, few would say they believe it exists.
The First
The stars of the four arms are awash with life, but so little is known about the Galaxy's center. For as long as anyone can remember, where the arms begin to meet marks the edge of death, for the middle is home of the First. So named by the Iylum, as even that storied people discovered them already waiting when first venturing to the stars, little is known of the inscrutable machine beings that dominate the center region. In all known history, no attempt to communicate nor to discover any of their motives has proved successful. But their hostility towards anyone who approaches their territory is all too certain, making travel between the arms a dicey venture at best. And at times, with no warning, the First are known to issue forth into the spaces of the peoples of the galaxy and strike with swift and ruthless force.
Earthlings
Ever a creative bunch, with their advances in artificial intelligence, biological engineering, robotics and cybernetics, and self-modification, humanity created a great big family for themselves as they spread across the stars, and altogether they are known as the Children of Earth. Over the past 900 years, the diverse society of the Earthlings has spread to a territory over 16000 lightyears long and 3000 wide, containing several thousand stars. The Solar Federation holds authority over most of Earthling space, but there are other powerful entities within. They have risen to be the second most prominent power in the Arm-Rouge, positioned lucratively on a spur between Arm-Rouge and Arms Jaune and Verde which allows for a rare Thread bridge. This has caused some tension with the Crimsons, based further down towards the inner ring.
As a Federated government, the SolFed largely allows its members and colonies administrate themselves, so long as they comply with certain agreed-upon humanitarian standards. With both the diversity of Earthlings and the number of alien species, it's certainly one of the most colorful territories in the galaxy.
Crimsons
A strange race of part organic, part mineral creatures. Their tissues build fiber-optic crystaline structures which carry their impulses and thought processes, and then atrophy into compact bio-luminescent masses when their mineralized forms are done growing. While they can garden themselves into a variety of shapes, some even being self-mobile forms more like other creatures, often times they simply grow to encrust and enmesh with their technology and structures. They think and speak in colors rather than sounds, and due to that and their superior starmaps (gained through highly advanced astronomy from a relatively central point of view), the common terminology for the galaxy's regions comes from them. They are accomplished threadweavers, mediators, and scientists.
They administrate an empire of many species, which is located much closer to the center than the territory of the other mega-empires, near the base of Arm-Rouge. Consequently, they have the most experience fighting against the First, though they posess little more understanding of them than anyone else. Their fleets, with some help from the SolFed's, keep the spinal Threadways of Arm-Rouge relatively safe, though the more distal reaches of the arm can be fairly wild.
Iylum
The oldest known extant space-faring people, the nomadic Iylum have roamed much of the galaxy and laid many of the Longthreads that would become the spinal Threadways of the arms, built upon by other peoples. In modern times, their activities are mostly confined to the Arm-Violet, somewhere in which lies their homeworld. History shows that they go between periods of isolationism and freely interacting with other peoples. On that scale, their current status is... hard to tell. Physically, they resemble man-sized prawns with long tentacles around their heads, but they are most famous for something beyond the physical. Their psychic potential is so great that some among them are able to transfer their consciousness to clouds of ionized particles to survive the end of their physical bodies: in this state, they are able to symbiotically bond to other intelligent beings, which provides stability and prevents random dissipation. Such a bonding also heightens the psychic potential of the host, and can result in some of the most potent Mindweavers in known space.
Additionally, a bonded Iylum is able to imprint psychically upon an unborn Iylum seed, allowing them to further strengthen subsequent Iylum generations.
Rtalis
A purely aquatic race with lithe, serpentine/eel-like bodies and twelve pairs of short but dextrous limbs. They traditionally communicate with a combination of noises, body language, and the flashing patterns of their intricately-controlled bio-luminescent skin, but are adept at picking up the languages of other peoples (though almost always needing speech synthesizers to speak them). They are gregarious and insatiably curious, and their government sees the galaxy as the ultimate "frontier safety valve," as those who grow restless can be encouraged to go forth and explore rather than breed unrest at home. Consequently, the Rtalis have grown to occupy a rather large, though only loosely-federated empire within the Arm-Jaune. They are fond of personal vehicles and mechanized armor, as they often need water-filled containers when interacting with other species in their own environments.
Perhaps the most influential and respected faction in Rtalis society is the Imperial Academy (as it would be called in translation), the organization charged with organizing, facilitating, and recording their scientific pursuits, though they often encourage (or enforce) Rtalis interstellar law, particularly the requirement of government-subsidized travelers to report their findings and contact alien scientific bodies. Most individual researches or adventurers travel around in smaller vessels (or hitch rides from aliens), but if a larger Rtalis ship is seen, then chances are the Academy either runs it or funded it. When encountering alien scientific entities, the Academy (as a matter of course) offers what has come to be known as the "Rmalos deal" to incentivize cooperation and exchange of information: a 1-to-1 exchange of live specimens of their species, the Rtalis subjects often being low-ranking Academy volunteers (and "volunteers") or (occasionally) criminals.
Additionally, the Rtalis are known for creating the finest sonic weaponry in the Galaxy. Although not very useful in the vacuum of space, many can attest to their effectiveness in an atmosphere or sealed environment.
Vilghin-Mamat
Around 3/4ths up the Arm Verde, there is a vast territory controlled by a strong coallition between the synthetic Vilghin and the industrious Mamat.
The Vilghin are an AI species of sorts, who require organic sentients in order to "reproduce." They offer cybernetic augmentation, and in exchange plant a seed intelligence within the implants. This seed grows using the impulses of the augmented nervous system, and when mature will prompt its host to bring it within range of the Vilghin collective-cloud network, to which it will then copy itself (or remove itself entirely to). It is believed that they descended from a commercial asset of some kind which achieved self awareness, such as a targeted marketing program or an automated body-modding enterprise. They are known for sending "missionaries" to other empires to acquire more diverse clients, but due to the troubles of maintaining large ansible channels between such disparate locales, these hosts most often need to travel to within reach of Arm-Verde's spinal threadway to make their eventual deposit. It it rumored that, when the eyes of the Galaxy are not upon them, the Vilghin will assimilate and enslave the populations of more primitive worlds.
The Mamat are the first client species of the Vilghin, and it is very rare to find an unaugmented individual of this species. The Mamat are large and powerfully built humanoids of a silvery complexion, with six limbs and strong, prehensile tails. They have about ten pairs of flexile "fins" running down their backs, necks, and heads, the positioning and coloring of which are a good indicator of their emotional state. Due to their augments, Mamat are able to survive in space naked for relatively long amounts of time, though often prefer to wear suits for bearing additional armor elements and equipment. Capable engineers in their own right, the Mamat developed an advanced technological culture of their own before they discovered the Vilghin, with a heavy focus upon honor and valor. In modern times, they provide all the military needs of the Vilghin and their combined empire is vast.
Note: this list is not exhaustive, merely other established races and those created by players back in the Interest thread.
Jenelenjei
The Jenelenjei consist of an amorphous organic mass controlled be a central nucleus, able to mold themselves into all sorts of shapes. They once (around 3,000 years ago) expanded rapidly and aggressively, as due to their ability to adapt themselves and assimilate/digest an astounding variety of biological materials, they had less need to develop life support and terraforming techniques. They devastated entire biospheres to feed their growing empire, which, though vast, is utterly dwarfed in comparison to the superpowers of the modern galaxy. However, in the midst of their expansion, the First suddenly began massive excursions into their territory, decimating their empire. The fledgeling Crimson swooped in shortly after, swiftly finishing off remaining centers of organization and claiming the most of the former territory for themselves. Today, most of this species lives as subjects to the Crimson empire, though some survivors of the downfall escaped far away to found a new sovereign nation deep within Arm-Verde. However, this territory is comparatively tiny, consisting of only 231 star systems.
Individual Jenelenjei range in size and mass from similar to a medium-sized dog to around that of a small car. Their size is constrained by the ability of their nucleus to effectively send signals to their gelatinous biomass. While their base state is totally amorphous, they are able to form and harden more permanent structures, such as skeletons and pseudo-organs, and shape themselves with almost total freedom, often choosing to mimic the shapes of other life forms. These self-formed structures can be dissolved and remade as needed, as only the nucleus truly matters. Their forms often look glassy (like a jar-jellyfish), as opacity and color take a lot of skill and practice. Those with highly developed psionic potential can often be identified by their glowing nucleii, and strands of light snaking and crackling through their bodies. Their species practice a form of sexual reproduction, in which two or more individuals will undo their chemical barriers and merge their bodies into one, followed by their nuclei. The bonded nuclei will then intermix and fission into a handful of new, smaller nuclei who possess not only recombined genes but also recombined fragments of their parents' memories.
The modern Jenelenjei are considered to have more tempered and considerate morality than their empire-building forebears, though in their societies there are often strains of resentment towards larger entities, particularly the Crimsons. With some training, a Jenelenjei is able to rapidly destroy almost any biomass they can bring their own into contact with, but there exists an agent commonly known as "J-cide" which rapidly dissolves their bodies and leaves their nucleus totally helpless.
Kiric
As a species whose home territory lies close to the danger zone of the Core region, the Kiric are one of many groups that thrive on the lucrative yet risky business of caravaneering, facilitating transport between the Arms by threading around the edges of First territory. The Kiric are humanoid in shape, with two arms and two legs, with exoskeletons and a gangly, splindly build. Their strange sense organs give them a lack of identifiable facial features, though when dealing with common trade partner species they often try to make themselves more appealing: with Earthlings, they often wear a cybernetic frontal-mounted emoticon screen on their heads.
Martlons
A minor nomadic species found primarily in the mid length of Arm-Rouge, best known for their habit of salvaging other species ships and incorporating them into their own.
Although they're capable of building their own ships and equipment they far prefer to adapt what they can acquire from others. The typical Scavenger ship is a collection of hull segments and parts from numerous races that somehow match the performance of ships with a more traditional construction. This is made possible because Scavenger engineers are among the most versatile in the galaxy, able to make seemingly incompatible parts work together. There is joking speculation that this is a manifestation of the mindweave but few take it seriously.
Physically, Martlons are lightly furred bipeds about one meter tall, with four arms and a face earthlings have described as lemur like.
Spending their entire life in space their society is based around family with ships typically being crewed by a single extended family, and loose fleets based on clan relationships.
The Martlons generally get along well with other races. However they have an almost instinctual belief that if something has been lost or abandoned then anyone has the right to take what they find useful. This and their inability to take the concept of salvage rights seriously has lead to incidents with groups that have a more organized view of the matter.
While the Earthlings and other groups have done a lot with genetic engineering, they've been limited to genes sourced from their homeworlds or those that they've designed themselves. It's extremely rare to find organisms from different biospheres that have any compatibility in their genetic information, due to the variety of different biochemistries. Rtalis, for instance, use RNA instead of DNA. And even organisms who use DNA may not use it in the same way.
However, aliens might still be able to eat each other's food, as that has more to due with chemical compositions (though one species' soap might be another's klondike bar, etc), and alien organisms can potentially cause disease in other species, perhaps even in ways that they don't in their own biosphere. Though anything that works like our Earth viruses, which specifically target genes, would not be able to cross-contaminate.
