Privacy

Liberty

Individuality

The Enciphered Mnemonic Republic, aka the Oubliette, is famous for chocolate, wine, cryptography and memory. The reasons this one world civilization is known for the last two is because of their history and technology that supports their civilization.

It all started with an ambitious terraforming project. One insanely wealthy (or just insane) individual bought multiple millions of stored humans to terraform a world and become Royalty. Needless to say, it was morally and ethically dubious with its reliance on the enslavement, and didn’t go according to plan. The stored rebelled, killed their owner and embodied themselves, becoming citizens in their nascent republic, setting up an e-democracy called The Voice. The Voice is the Oubliette's system (in many senses of the word) of democracy. It makes political decisions and has both legal power (e.g. ruling over punishment of offenders such as early or prolonged Quiets).

Each citizen starts with a fixed amount of Time stored in a personal Watch, which they use as currency. Like currency, they can earn (or lose) more, even becoming millienniaires - people able to theoretically live a thousand years embodied as a human with the amount of Time they have stored up. Everyone, visitor or citizen, tracks their available Time through the Watch. Once their Time has been depleted, their minds are transferred into robot bodies known as Quiet, which help to build, maintain and defend the Oubliette. Their bodies are preserved by the Resurrection Men. Given it’s importance, Time is secured by the best encryption the Mnemonic Republic can devise.

The concept of the Quiet as a price for eternal existence has been questioned occasionally. Although theoretically AI could be used, the Voice (so far) has held on to the system, probably because of its important educational aspect for the citizens. As one observer noted, "Perhaps, they've got it right. A little immortality but a little death now and then makes you appreciate life a little more."

The citizens of the Oubliette are very private, employing a technology known as gevulot to shield themselves from each other. Gevulot is privacy as it is practised in the Oubliette. It involves complex cryptography and the exchange of public and private keys, to ensure that individuals only shared what information or sensory data that they wished to the exomemory. Gevulot is disabled in Agoras and everything that happens there is public. In Agoras, you have to show yourself to the world. What happens there is remembered by everyone and accessible to everyone. They are places of public discussion and democracy where you can try to influence the Voice.

Exomemory is the collective memory for inhabitants and visitors to Oubliette. It is a combination of statistical recording, public ID, public archive, library of facts, storage for memories too large for baseline neuroforms, private and public communication, a means of ‘forgetting’ by encrypting agreed memories and data away from access - even by the participants and essential part of the Voice. Accessing Exomemory involves 'blinking,’ after which the person remembers the knowledge or event.

Because of this, memory and cryptography are two the four things Oubliette is known for (the other two are wine and chocolate - and are a different story).

The Enciphered Mnemonic Republic is governed by the Voice, but ruled by a triumvirate of Cryptarchs. The Cryptarchs are the best cryptographers and analysts that the Republic can produce and as a result have root access to all the encryption systems - Time and the Exomemory. This means that they can change or delete external memories, the conditions of contracts, the Watches of citizens - everything. With all that this entails, and why the Cryptarchs watch each other closely.

The Cryptarchs are chosen by their predecessors from the most promising cryptographers, mathematicians and spies of the Oubliette. And sometimes by the Voice when the chain of of succession is broken.

It is said they time with a light hand, but since they have the ackles for the entire system and everyone’s memory outside of their own heads, who can tell?

Citizens of the Republic tend to clump together in large cities. Their technology could allow them to live independently of each other, but they like being near each other. And it affords them an avenue for creativity, which leads to Oubliette’s architecture being, in a word, eccentric. Downright whimsical. Their cities are mobile - either on rails, legs, vacuum lifting cells or antigravity. And they move so what they see changes. Each city’s path varies - some vote on a schedule, others are driven by a semi-random number generation, while others are on a path agreed on years ago. A large part of what the Quiet do is mediating and mitigating the impacts of the cities and their movements.

What’s more, the cities tend to be modular and configurable, with only a few permanent thoroughfares and structures - a neighborhood has a beautiful view of the exterior can find itself shuffled to the interior. As a result they try very hard to make their neighborhoods and buildings memorable.

Despite all this some of the inhabitants use long duration aircraft to get around the changes, docking around the edges of the cities, moving about, or mooring on collections of masts. And these become neighborhoods too.

While the common view of Oubliette is of the Noble citizens, there are many more Quiet. Like their Noble counterparts, they’re embodied, but in much less human bodies. Some are tiny, others are huge bearers of their cities (called atlases) and their spacecraft are composites of Quiet. Truthfully, they are the heart of their civilization. And while they labor, they all know that they will experience the pleasures of humanity again at some point. There are also those that prefer the life of the Quiet, earning multiple times what they need to embody as a Noble, but staying there for a need that cannot be met as a Noble. Typically, this is found among the spacecraft Quiet.

Most of the societies in the core book can be found in Oubliette, with a large number of Artisans, Fictionaries, Heterolinguists and Traders. While there aren't many Technomages, the ones that do hail from Oubliette are noteworthy. From the fan material, there are Interstellar Association for Longevity Studies and the Technomagery

Common Name: Oubliette
Emblem: A gold abstract mask
Typical Allies: Association of Stored Humans due to their common origins and the Eternal Masquerade for their similar takes on living. They’re also very fond of the League of Independent Worlds and the Tao of History. Daoine na Realta Foraois alternate between allies and aggravating rivals over their shared values.
Typical Enemies: Association of Eternal Life with what they see as a view on life and living as antagonistic to their way of life. The Cognitive Union terrifies them as a successful slave state.
Benefit: Competitive Advantage in contests related to Cryptography and an extra twist to spend on Comprehension, Intrigue, Romance or Wonder.
Core Values: Privacy and Joi de Vivre
Privacy lets Oublietters avoid observation or be disturbed by others. They use the CV to resist surveillance and observation by others.
Joi de Vivre represents the enthusiasm with which Oublietters engage life. Whether its love, an argument, an idea or friendship, the average Oublietter will pursue it with enthusiasm. They use this CV to resist people who tell them to calm down or give up.
Other Common Core Values: Anonymity, Authenticity, Beauty Carpe Diem, Celebration, Chocolate!, Creativity, Duty, Elegance, Expression, Freedom, Friendship, Humanity, Identity, Individuality, Life, Pleasure, Sancity of Mind, Secrecy, Sensation, Time is Money, Tradition, Wine, Wine, (Wo)Men and Song!

Oubliette Societies

Oubliette has a few unique societies - The Tzadakim and Resurrectionists.
The Tzaddikim (from Hebrew Tzadik, “righteous one”) are anonymous crime-fighters and investigators in the Oubliette, sometimes described as vigilantes and sometimes as police. No matter what, they do display technology higher than that of the normal Oubliette citizen.
Core Value: Guardianship to guard Oubliette from internal and external threats.
Benefit: Increase the value of one of Cognitech, Metatech, Nanotech or Stringtech above the value of the citizens for Oubliette without decreasing Import.

The Resurrectionists re employed in the Oubliette to manage citizens who have 'run out of' time. They preserve the physical body of these citizens, and transfer their minds to machines that run and protect Oubliette during an enforced period of time known as 'The Quiet'. They operate from a vast underground network of facilities that lies beneath the surface of the Oubliette.
Core Value: Smooth Passage that those coming and going from Quiet should have as easy a passage as possible.
Benefit: Competitive Advantage for Medical.

At the edge of known space is a lifeless rock cut through with tunnels of wire and metal. The surface is cut through with heat sinks and hot enough to fry an egg despite its distance from the stars. Maintenance bots and defensive nanoswarms crawl through the depths. It's surrounded by defense satellites and interdiction fields, and anything that gets too close is asked to leave. Anything that refuses to listen is made to by other means. If this world's inhabitants wanted you to interrupt them, they'd come to you.

They're busy, you see, in the servers hidden deep beneath the surface. Every one of them is a digital mind of enormous complexity living in a dimension of their own design. That dimension is as much a part of them as your organs are for you. It is their vessel, their path and journey across the only frontier that ever existed: the self. They strive to transcend into the final state of their selves, their Optimal Persona where all potential is fulfilled. For this purpose they have come together as the Ideal Assembly.

Idealists are each unique in some way. One might have transformed themselves into a living song that communicates through lenses and synthesthia, or come to embody economic exchange as a simulated market whose rapid transactions form the basis of their mind. They might have honed themselves into an avatar of strategy and dwell amid an eternal battlefield that reaches out into the outside world to test itself. Each integrates their digital dimension into their identity in some exotic way, changes their form or mind into something optimized for their way of life, or some combination of both.

The Assembly's economy is an exotic variation on collectivism. They divide their world's preciously abundant processing power equally among themselves and share it only with those they care to. Each Idealist receives enough processing power to maintain themselves at cutting edge Cognitech, and to dwell in a private digital dimension of considerable complexity. When they wish to meet they will request permission to communicate, and invest a fraction of their resources into a temporary space they can share with others.

For all their individualism and strangeness these intellects are more social than outsiders might suppose. Idealists like to brainstorm new ideas in small groups, split away to take their own spin on them, and reconvene after time has passed so they can show off the results. Sometimes a transformation in coding leaves an Idealist unable to communicate with their peers, and so much of their collaborative effort as a society is in bridging the gap between wildly divergent operating standards.

Contact between the Ideal Assembly and outsiders is infrequent. They maintain a trade of software and information between themselves and other civilizations with high Cognitech, and the occasional inventor or philospher is invited to visit and share their ideas. They generally look down on cultures that reject intelligence enhancement technologies and abhor any sort of authoritarian behavior. When an Idealist wishes to visit another culture they make a copy of themselves and transmit it to their destination. Their original self freezes in place and reactivates only to merge with the copy once it returns.

Idealists can't stand the thought of someone taking anything from them or telling them what to do; only they can define how they should be. Their government is a form of direct democracy where only unopposed decisions are enforced. Consensus is only sought in matters concerning the entire Assembly such as approving immigration requests or performing changes to the root permissions of their operating system. The Assembly can spend subjective months going over simulations and fine-tuning their decision until everyone agrees to accept it.

The Assembly would have frozen into memetic stasis long ago if not for a unique aspect of their life cycle. Anyone who becomes too memetically similar to other minds is prompted to connect with them and form a group mind. This is a temporary affair meant to facilitate a more thorough cognitive alignment. The process ends with collective's component selves giving up their share of processing power and merge together into a single smaller mind. It can be refused, but minds that similar often find they have no reason to. This makes room for new Idealists and keeps the Assembly from becoming cluttered by too many virtual clones.

Common Name: Idealists
Naming Convention: Descriptive or fanciful invented names.
Typical Allies: The Idealists have few strong ties. They can get along with younger Stored through their commonalities as solid state societies with firm individualist streaks. Stardwellers would also be popular for their dedication to ideological and physical freedom. The Nanori are kin to them with their devotion to constant evolutionary improvement.
Typical Enemies: Just as they have few allies, the Idealists have few enemies. The Builders are held in disdain due to their insistence on maintaining hierarchies among themselves. The Cognitive Union is utterly reviled for taking personal freedom from its citizens. Mechanicans are dismissed as backward bigots who can't see past their own grey matter.
Benefit: The Idealists have a competitive advantage with Cognitech. They most often use this advantage for analysis and defense against Metatech conflicts.
Capabilities
Civilization: Bio —, Cog 5, Meta 4, Nano 5, String 4
Citizens: Bio —, Cog 5, Meta 3, Nano 5, String 4
Neuroform: The Ideal Assembly are dataforms. Group-minds form maybe 2% of the population but are drawn to collapse and merge over time.
Core Values: Sovereignty, Transcendence

Idealists hold personal Sovereignty to be an absolute necessity. Nobody can tell you what to do with your own self, and you cannot do anything to infringe on another person or their property without their permission unless it's to defend yourself. Sovereignty drives them to seek consensus about any changes to their world's hardware, processing capacity, or root coding. Their population growth is kept in check because every new Idealist is a little less space available for everyone else - an infringement if not agreed upon.

The Assembly was gathered to seek Transcendence. They seek to achieve their Optimal Personas through intelligence expansion and existence in digital environments they can alter to facilitate their personal journeys. This value also drives them to value philosophy as a means of brainstorming new forms of thought and being.

The HOM is a massive "Web of Worlds" — wormhole-connected planets comprised of the major societies from 21st century Old Earth, all guarded by a powerful militaristic Hegemony and governed by a coalition of megacorporations.

The Hegemony is a futuristic extension of our global culture today; politically polarized, economically complex, brainwashed by media, and most of all, ruled by money.

Core Values: Power, Self-Reliance

• Power refers to the drive for success and dominion over others. The Randian "American Dream" has been digested, regurgitated and swallowed again as the very core philosophy for most Hegemony citizens.
• Self-Reliance refers to the independence from parents/government/social programs saught by all Hegemony citizens as soon as they're old enough to join the workforce.

Lessor CVs: Hedonism, Diversity, Obedience, Capitalism

Typical Allies: Given their "primitive ways," the Old Worlders are not taken seriously by the general public of the Hegemony. But they are respected. Some Old Worlder groups are even granted representation on the HOM Senate, though they rarely attend (perhaps because the Senate is such a charade). People think of them like the Amish.

Typical HOM propaganda portrays the Daoine as tree-loving monks with gorgeous ships and a lush capital planet. They are a trusted ally that provide continuous trade and safe destinations for tourism. However, the Daoine tend to keep their advanced technological secrets to themselves and limit Hegemony visitations to strictly diplomacy, trade, or tourism.

Typical Enemies: The Hegemony of Man has a deep mistrust of outside civilizations such as the Stardwellers and any known Cargo Cults. Popular media depicts these civilizations as being comprised of "outsiders" and anarchistic barbarians who live in the outskirts of space.

The HOM military would shoot Stardweller ships out of the sky if they ever bring them into orbit around a Web World.

Common Neuroform: Some citizens wear a Neural Mesh (p.104). Fully digitized minds are unheard of.

Average Citizen Capabilities:

• Biotech 2 - Gene therapy and bio-engineered food give the average citizen prolonged life, but only the mega-rich can afford immortality. Household biosensors are the norm.
• Cognitech 3 - Many citizens can afford rêvetech service and have brain implants, giving them constant access to the Web infospheres. Lenses cost money.
• Metatech 2 - Experienced government officials can read their opponents mental and emotional states within five minutes of interaction.
• Nanotech 1 - The average citizen has no need for enhanced physical senses, but remote drones are commonplace for large industrial projects and some advanced structures are self-maintaining.
• Stringtech 3 - A normal Hegemony family may own a plasma gun for personal protection, and a wealthy family may own a basic fabricator (although large-scale commercial replication is not common). Many citizens carry some form of personal electric reserve.

Military/Civilization Capabilities:

• Biotech 2 (same as above)
• Cognitech 3 (same as above)
• Metatech 2 (same as above)
• Nanotech 2 - Soldiers are given cyberware that lets them see into the UV and infrared spectra, have perfect proprioception, etc. Elite troopers may even have dermal microbots (p. 99)
• Stringtech 4 - The Hegemony torchships can fire fission beams and capital warships are powered by tiny specks of antimatter. Planets have superconductors that emit virtually limitless electricity, and environmental strategies allow for planet-wide weather control. Wormholes are common in the Web, but very expensive to create.

Benefit: Citizens of the Hegemony must take an additional Core Value of 3 or higher.

A spacer ship that was hired to render assistance to a Nanori outpost whose star was close to going supernova. Unfortunately, the Spacers were disabled in close proximity to the supernova with the Nanori still on board. This caused them to suffer horrendous losses to the hard gammas that ripped through their bodies. With the Spacers Biotech insufficient to repair the ongoing damage, some of the Nanori felt forced to resort to the reckless use of nanophages that broke organic cells down into inorganic cells. This resulted in the loss of their organic bodies to all on board, and necessitated much reshuffling of their new fully inorganic bodies. When the dust had settled, many of the Spacers on board had not been able to adapt and had perished. Others having survived would prefer to have not survived and would end themselves rather than live on as less than human. Those that survived had to adapt to their new life.

For starters, being no longer biological, their methods of procreation had to be reworked. When Abyssals decide to procreate, they each gift a pruned Neuroform that is merged into one Neuroform that is implanted into a new body that is to be a new Abyssal. The fact that the number of parents does not have to be more than one allowed some Abyssals to prune themselves and regress back into an infantile state rather than live with the knowledge of what they once were.

With their lost humanity, so too did their goal in life, no longer could they sow the seeds of humanity far and wide, but they did not forgo the stars either. They now work at rendering assistance to any and all that may have troubles while on a voyage, and thus maintain ties with the Spacers and the other spacefaring Civilisations.

Some Abyssals have taken to using not human looking bodies, but rather becoming actual ships; some have come to consider their bodies as tools to further their goals rather than an actual part of themselves. Those that do wear clothes tend to favour utilitarian jumpsuits with pockets, patches, tether rings, microboosters and more.

Most Abyssal ships are run by one Neuroform that is built into the ship, with others to assist them in a hierarchal system to insure working status.

Common Name: Abyssals
Emblem: A bright halo with an unblinking mechanical eye looking out of it.
Typical Allies: They maintain lukewarm ties to the other Spacers, and will render assistance to them. They have no permanent allies.
Typical Enemies: They have no permanent enemies.
Benefit: Abyssals have no Biotech score, having had replaced their whole bodies with Nanotech. They have competitive advantage in Nanotech. This also means that they use Nanotech in place of Biotech for all purposes.
Capabilities:
Civilization: Bio 1, Cog 3, Meta 3, Nano 5, String 4
Citizen: Bio -, Cog 3, Meta 1, Nano 5, String 3
Common Neuroforms: Most Abyssals are Baseline Dynamic, often locked into their artificial bodies. Some however become Dataforms in order to switch bodies, considering the body as more of a tool than as a part of their own person.
Core Values: Star-Birthed and Diligence
Star-Birthed is the belief that they must aid others that travel in order to avoid others facing what they found themselves going through. Abyssals use this CV to aid others that require assistance while on a voyage, but also to avoid attempts to make them settle down.
Diligence is what kept Spacer ships functioning for so long in the depths of space, and they prize this quality above all others. This is of particular importance to the Abyssal, being something that failed them in the past. It gives a bonus to all actions performed very carefully and without haste, triple-checked and tested for certainty. This takes about twice as long as usual. Abyssals can also use this to prevent people from convincing them to do a half-assed job.

The Hou Po'e Kanaka was a Cargo Cult that derived its name from its origins as a movement to return to a mythical Hawaiian and Polynesian past, that grew beyond its original roots to include North American Anglo and South East Asian cultural elements (Philipino and Javanese in particular).They would have remained a Cargo Cult, albeit one with a Hawaiian and Polynesian theme, if not for the intervention a noble from the Tao of History several hundred years ago.

King Kamehameha the Great had been a Tao noble playing the great king and several of his descendants when the milieu passed him by, leaving him at loose ends. Like a small number of Tao in that situation, he travelled. Specifically, he joined the Patent Office as an inspector. During that time he encountered the Hou Po'e Kanaka Cargo Cult. They fascinated him immediately. Their culture was recognizably descended from his milieu and understandable by him, which also frustrated him and infuriated him, seeing the trap they were in. Still, he studied them and learned their culture and language very well. Eventually he retired entirely, saying he was considering a new role.

Then he, a lot of money and people disappeared.

Several years later, visitors reported that the Hou Po'e Kanaka were fighting amongst themselves, over new concepts and ideas and that outsiders were involved. The outsiders were Kamehameha and his followers, using the best they could afford to overturn the Hou Po'e Kanaka Cargo Cult and put in place something new.

Twenty years later, the Hou Po'e Kanaka dominated their world. For them, this means they’ve conquered all the islands they want, leaving Old Worlders to the continents, and control an equatorial subcontinent. They instituted a new form of government, an elective monarchy with a strong representational body organized along family and clan lines. In short, they bootstrapped the Hou Po'e Kanaka from a Cargo Cult to a minor civilization.

While fairly amiable and forthright in their dealings, they do have a reputation for aggression and assertiveness, using a mix of force and persuasion to control areas they desire. They also use geologic taps, nanotech and limited terraforming to form new islands. Among their notable projects: the creation of the Havaiki island group; the creation of floating islands (Kanehunamoku); the Ocean Arks (mostly self contained, solar powered ships that are easy to make).

Stereotypically, Hou Po'e Kanaka are light gold to dark brown, with brown eyes with some epicanthic fold. Hair is black to brown, with either straight or curly. They also tend to be of slightly less than average height and bulkier than the norm. The reality is that a multitude of phenotypes can be found within the phyle due to their syncretic origins. They also include humans adapted for aquatic life. Given their traditions (sailing, navigation, hula, hula chants, story telling and poetry), the following features are common among them: a natural sense of direction, internal clock, ability to drink salt water, natural sunglasses and beautiful voices.

Culturally, they have always enjoyed a number of arts, sports and games. The arts they favor: story telling, poetry, shadow puppetry, singing, dancing, drumming, guitar, slack key guitar, gamelan, woven arts, hula and hula chants. The sports that the Hou Po'e Kanaka commonly enjoy are: sailing, canoeing, fishing, hunting, archery, target shooting (typically with compressed air or low power gauss guns), "sledding" (holua), surfing, windsurfing and various martial arts (boxing mokomoko), kuntao, wrestling (hakoko), Kapu Kuialua, stick fighting (kaka la au, arnis/escrima). Traditional games are also popular, games like patterns, tops, disc bowling, to kohana (a traditional board game) and darts.

Clothing tends to be loose light, colorful and patterned, taking full advantage of advanced materials and nanotechnology. Tattoos are also common and frequently have cultural significance. Nanotech pigments are common, allowing the tattoos to be turned off, change color and even switch between patterns. Still, the old ways of tattooing are found and are popular due to their authenticity.

Their ocean ships (moku or wa'a) resemble old Polynesian catamarans, but the resemblance ends with the double hulls. They are larger and incorporate modern technology: solar cell smart sails, solar cell decks, variable smart hulls and keels, osmotic extractors and other modern conveniences and necessities. The truly authentic canoes are left to enthusiasts and hobbyists.

Hou Po'e Kanaka architecture is light and airy, resembling ancient Hawaiian buildings, with elements of the Hawaiian Renaissance. They take full advantage of modern materials and technologies to make it as durable, comfortable and ecologically sound as possible.

For all their physicality and appearance of bright colored simplicity, the Hou Po'e Kanaka are a highly advanced civilization on par with any other in the universe. They have a culture with every bit of complexity that their high cognitech, metatech and nanotech capabilities can bring. They are excellent nanotechnologists and cognitechnologists, using these tools in everyday life. Replicators are common, and computers pervade every material. Utility fogs are in commonly used for a variety of means.

They are open, welcoming and reasonably tolerant. This does not mean they are naïve or ignorant. Their security is appropriate and low key, able to be escalated as necessary.

Family ('ohana) and clan ('ohana nui) are very important to the Hou Po'e Kanaka, forming the basis of political units for election of chiefs (ali'i) to the phyle assembly and social welfare. The ali'i chose the King (ali'i nui) with a term of 15 years.

Among the major civilizations, they get along well with the Masquerade and Stardwellers. They’re a bit more ambivalent toward the Tao (and the Tao towards them) due to their role in the creation of the Hou Po'e Kanaka. Mechanicans are welcome, but frequently leave the Hou Po'e Kanaka scratching their heads. The Replicants they compete with as athletes, but leave the more extreme sports to them. Roamers are always welcome (for a number of reasons).

All of the societies from the core rulebook are found among the Hou Po'e Kanaka, though the Group Minds and Darwinians are very rare.

For someone first arriving on Gothica, it looks like a Tao of History world, with people dressed in archaic costumes, old architecture and strangeness that looks historic. On a closer look, you realize that the fashions and architecture are a mix of disparate eras ranging over several hundred years. At that point, you begin to realize Gothica is something different…

Gothica is a civilization of contradictions. The citizens are fascinated with death, but live life with zest and enjoyment. They also are broadly tolerant, welcoming and inclusive to all, but they tend to have a uniform look to their bodies. The architecture looks old, but makes use of modern construction techniques and conveniences. And those are just the easily apparent ones.
Gothica has roots in a subculture dating back to the late 20th century Europe and America music scenes and survived beyond its narrow beginnings. When the Diaspora opened the possibility of colonizing other worlds, the Goths of the day eventually organized and paid for a colonization effort that created Gothica.

Over the centuries, the Goth culture changed and adapted, especially as new technologies came on the scene. They quickly adopted genetic alterations striving for the ideal look. While there is no civilization wide agreement or enforcement of what is pretty, it has resulted in an average though – tall, lean, somewhat androgynous, pretty, pale and dark haired. The reality is more complex, with most human phenotypes represented, but they all do tend to be at least striking, if not beautiful. The infosphere, the mesh and other technologies were also adopted and used to achieve their ideal. The result is a very high tech civilization that looks lower tech than it is. The result is what is now known as Gothican. Of special note are Gothican poison gardens. They take full advantage of the genetic engineering to create beautiful and deadly plants. Entering one without a guide of some sort is strongly advised against.

Gothican architecture can be described as heavily over built, and pre-ruined. The look is distinctly Victorian to Medieval, with a dark look to it. And ruins are added, as is ‘decay.’ Given the materials they build out of, is the best way to start. The end result are very comfortable, durable, if gloomy buildings that could survive Mechanican party.

Which leads to another element of their culture – Gothicans are fascinated by death and decay. As a result they are intimately familiar with it. While this occasionally results in a gloomy one, most of them are cheerful, upbeat, life loving people – especially with each other. They are convinced life should be lived and enjoyed to its fullest because death is at the end of it and it brooks no exceptions. One aspect of this is that they tend to be pacifists. Another aspect of this is that Gothicans do defect to the Replicants on a fairly regular basis. Despite this love of life, there are those that are truly morbid, fascinated with death and very ghoulish.

Gothican clothing can be described as dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress. It has Victorian, Renaissance, Regency, Elizabethan elements. It has a profusion of black velvets, lace, fishnets and leather tinged with scarlet or purple, accessorized with tightly laced corsets, gloves, precarious stilettos and silver jewelry depicting religious, magical or occult themes (bone earrings, rosaries, pentacles, ankhs, skulls) typically made from silver. Both sexes are sexualized with their clothing, with very different looks from one sex to the other. High tech personal items tend to be implanted, or incorporated into jewelry and clothing. Their art is widespread throughout their world (some days it seems every other person is an amateur artist) and while technically able, much of it can make a viewer from another civilization uncomfortable.

Gothica makes extensive use of the technologies available in the modern age. Streetside replicators are common, and computers pervade every material. Most of the government and police have metatech training and implants, and children are often taught the benefits of cognitech methods from an early age. Over 80% of the population wear neural meshes, though not all take full advantage of them.

Gothica is a relatively free and tolerant civilization, with many modifications of the human genome and psyche available. Most of the modifications do tend to stick to the human form though. Using Nanotech to perform a scan of someone you meet is generally considered rude (in modern American society, it would be on par with staring at a woman’s breasts and crotch while you talk to her), so there’s no easy way to know whether someone’s enhanced. Gothicans tend to be polite and formal when first meeting someone.

For all their oddness, the Gothicans are good neighbors. They have a responsible government – an odd mix of meritocracy and elective nobility/monarchy. Gothicans have to sit for an exam to enter government, there the score on the exam determines the rank they enter at. After that they are elected to posts (maximum rank determined by exams) for periods of 10 years, with a maximum of 50 at a time. Anyone can sit for the exam, and all are encouraged to do it. Those that already have positions typically continue to study and sit for exams to increase their rank.

All of the societies in the core book can be found among the Gothicans, with a large number of Artisans, Group Minds and Hyperevolutes. From the fan material, there are Interstellar Association for Longevity Studies and the Technomagery, with an unusually large number of the latter found there.
Common Name: Goths
Emblem: Gold Ankh on a black background
Inspector Status: Local police
Benefit: +1 Twist per game that can be spent on the themes of Romance, Magnetism and Terror.
Core Values: Thanatopsis and Sensation

Thanatopsis is the contemplation of death. For the Gothicans, death is part of the process of life and should be contemplated, understood, accepted and even embraced. This CV can be used to resist death threats, or things that would normally terrify. It can also be used to help contemplate death more closely.

Sensation holds that the universe is a vast, fascinating place and there to be experienced. This CV means that the Gothicans will seek out enjoyable experiences and avoid boredom. It can be used to tolerate painful or unpleasant experiences. "To enjoy the flavor of life take big bites" sums up much of their belief on this.

Other common core values: Androgyny, Beauty, Carpe Diem (or Noctem), Community, Diversity, Elegance, Fashion, Ghoulishness, Grace, Hedonism, Rank Hath Its Priveleges, Spirituality, Tolerance, Thanatophilia and Worship.

Gothican Societies

Gothica has three societies unique to its civilization: Nocturnals, Vampires and Resurrectionists.
The Nocturnals are a society that works and lives at night. They have made adaptations to themselves for this.
Core Value: Nocturnalism – to live at night. Can be used to advocate for it, and as a penalty for function during the day or in bright light.
Benefit: +1 to Nanotech which can raise them above the Gothican maximum if necessary. They do not suffer Import reduction for exceeding these maximums.
The Vampires are the descendants of those who took the possibilities of genetic engineering a little too far. Vampires feed on volunteers, replicated or vat grown blood. As a group, they’ve been in a slow, but steady, population decline as they lose members to genetic resynthesis and or the Hyperevolutes.
Core Value: Vampirism – the behavior of a vampire.
Benefit: Vampires have minimum Biotech and Nanotech scores of 4, which can raise them above their civilization’s maximum if necessary. Their Biotech is considered one point higher for the purpose of resisting disease and old age. They can exceed the Gothicans' maximum Nanotech and Biotech by one without suffering Import reduction.
The Resurrectionists are possibly the strangest of the Gothican societies. Some families and individuals opt to use neural meshes and nanotech in an odd way. They use them to embrace and survive death. Each Resurrectionist has a mesh and enough nanotech in their bodies to slowly, over their lives, adapt their minds to survive the death of their bodies. In the end, as they die, the brain is encoded into mesh, and rebuilt to survive the ordeal. The body, now dead, is preserved by the sheer quantity of nanotech, revived as a sort of remote or servitor. There is a several day period while the nanotech finishes the bodily reconstruction, rewiring the brain to control the re-built body through the nanotech. For those who die of extreme old age, the process could be gradual over years. For those who die suddenly and young, the process would be an emergency, and would leave the person incapacitated for some time as they get used to their new body. Even so, the process is imperfect. The resultant person is something of a shadow of their former selves, their personality subdued and their body, in some ways, weakened.
As time passes, even this form of immortality would fade. The body would grow ancient and even the nanotech decay. And so processes would be built into the infosphere to allow the not-quite-dead to sublime their consciousness. Unlike stored, who are still human, these data-ghosts are anything but. They are the reflection of their old selves, the idea of a person made real.
Resurrectionists have been with the Gothicans for some time and are accepted members of society. The raised Resurrectionists cannot hold political office, but have several special representatives and a minister for their affairs to look after them. They also loose 2/3 of their property and wealth on death and resurrection.
Core Value: Thanatopsis see above.
Benefit: Nanotech bodies. Resurrectionists do not have a Biotech score and instead use Nanotech for it. This applies to lifespan and contests as well. Unfortunately, they are not what they once were. As a result, their Metatech score can never exceed 6 (2/3 of the Gothican maximum) and lose all ties on Metatech rolls.

The CMS, or Pretties, are a unique little civilization with an interesting take on changing behavior…

The CMS is a small civilization that grew out of a successful Old Worlder settlement of Westerfeld that collapsed. Focused on a mid-20th century American culture, it eventually grew and changed and was on its way to becoming a minor stellar civilization, when it got caught by its dependence on petroleum. Specifically, an oil eating bacteria emerged. Apparently an attempt to come up with a cheaper method of refining oil, it was dangerously flawed. Instead, it changed the chemical structure to something much more volatile - either leaving an empty container and making the area around it very dangerous, or exploding the container. No matter which option, fires usually resulted. Worse, the bacteria used the fire to spread itself. Before long, their world was wracked with fires.

Since so much of their civilization was dependent on oil (plastics, power, transport, agriculture, etc.), it was the end of their civilization. 98% of a population of billions died between the initial disaster and its aftermath.

After the collapse, long years of warfare and hardship followed as survivors squabbled over the remains. None of the old organizations survived. Cities and towns, dependent on the infrastructure of their civilization, failed as well. Still, small groups managed to survive. Most of these were outside the mainstream.

Some were survivalists awaiting the collapse of their civilization or invasion by the Transcendentals or their minions. Others were other versions of Old Worlders that had rejected the changes of their world and clung to older, more sustainable and traditional ways. Some were pragmatic scientists and leaders who used their skills to navigate the changes their world faced, or the remnants of their planetary security and defense forces.

At first, these disparate groups were separated by distance - the collapse had rendered large parts of the world marginally inhabitable (at best), creating dead zones. Invasive and bioengineered species further upset the ecology.

When civilization did rise again, it was in the form of small settlements in a few safe areas with vast spaces between them. These settlements were further separated by differences in culture (thanks to founder effects) and background. Some were very rustic and primitive, others very high tech. Some blamed mysterious enemies, or the rest of the human diaspora, or the mysterious Transcendentals, or their own civilization. Still, as they grew they came into contact (usually among the ruins of their civilization that they were looting/mining for raw materials), they discovered a common conviction: The world must not be wrecked again.
The new cities established contact and traded, usually information and things they couldn't manufacture locally. No one was interested in re-establishing the highly interdependent society they'd had previously. Lacking oil, they turned to solar, wind, OTEC, geothermal and nuclear power.

Overall, it was a time of peace and cooperation. The population was so small (and the ruins so large) that there was little competition for resources or territory. And with the collapse, war seemed a bad idea.

Still there were conflicts, and the worry that they could become wars preyed on the minds of most. The recurring worry was that the cities might grow strong enough to wage war, and that someone might re-discover, rebuild or reinvent some of the old weapons.
Almost a hundred years after the Collapse, a think tank was convened to study human conflict. They studied the more regressed Cargo Cults and Old Worlders who still fought endless bloody feuds. They studied old psychology and neurology texts, trying to find a way to end war forever.

After much research, they shied away from changing humanity too much neurologically. Instead they began to 'hack' known problems to take advantage of them. Specifically, they took advantage of the halo effect and the exposure effect. The halo effect is the tendency to think that pretty people are better than the rest of us. The exposure effect is the human tendency to be attracted to things we recognize. The texts they rediscovered showed that beautiful people were treated better than their less attractive peers and got into less trouble. This lead to the idea that life might be better and more peaceful if everyone was pretty.
So, they began designing plastic surgeries that made everyone pretty, and familiar enough that people they were attractive. Genetic alterations were considered, but since old traits (like putting on fat) had been needed in recent memory, they decided to leave that alone. To further take advantage of this, they emphasized young looks and symmetry. At this point, the think tank became The Committee for Morphological Standards, or more commonly The Pretty Committee. Over the centuries, they refined this and added pheremonal and voice effects as well. All of these developments lead to Prettytime, an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity.

Above is the official history. The reality is that while prettier, the Pretties did still fight and compete with one another. Since they were still human, they still fought, rebelled and sometimes hated each other.

If war was to be eliminated, while still remaining human, they needed something more drastic.

Since everyone was queuing up for the pretty surgery (who wouldn't want to be gorgeous or devilishly handsome after all?) the answer was another bit of reversible surgery.

Bubblehead surgery.

With small alterations to areas of the brain courtesy of implants, the personalities of the subjects could be changed. They could be made compliant, trusting, unaggressive, happy, sweet tempered and a bit lazy. But not unintelligent, or incapable of learning or foresight. The process also could (and frequently did) enhance the halo and exposure effect. They were all but impossible to make into soldiers (though those implants could be deactivated); bubbleheads would never go to war. Incapable of dealing with lots of children (and offered alternatives with birth control), they didn't re-create a population overburden. Plus, they were unlikely to want to change the system that made them beautiful and happy.

The Pretty Committee kept this secret, and by this point had acquired enough political power to have great influence over the various statelets. Before long, the surgery went from voluntary, to mandatory - only withheld if it might kill the subject, or as a punishment.

Still, the committee needed some people without the bubblehead effect. They had to sacrifice their own innocence and happiness to guard the world that was being created. This meant that there was a minority that could still see cold, cruel reality as it was, even if they were beautiful on the outside.

Before long, these non-bubbleheads saw themselves as … special.

These specials soon began to augment themselves, becoming "better." Wardens, rangers, firefighters and search and rescue needed to be stronger and faster. Others needed to make cold rational decisions to protect humanity. Some were the last line of defense against troublemakers and rebels, a job that required a cruel beauty commanding instant respect.

They didn't depart from mainline humanity all at once. Each generation improved the next growing stronger, faster, more durable, colder and crueler looking. They began to call themselves Special Circumstances because they handled all of the messy, unpredictable things that Pretties had difficulty with. After decades and centuries of this, they saw themselves as different from the rest of humanity, as special and with different rules.

In most of the cities, the Specials hid themselves, becoming a shadow government known through rumor. They pursue rebels, runaways, guard the borders and keep a watchful eye on humanity to prevent it from wrecking the world again.

Life Phases

Phases of life are strongly and carefully defined in Pretty culture. Outside of young children and their parents, people live segregated by age. They obey different rules, entertain themselves differently, even speak different ‘languages.’

This isn’t an accident. The government uses this to control each group by rewarding the behavior they wanted. It also made it easier to conceal the effects of the bubblehead surgery. By separating the new Pretties from their families and younger friends, they found it easier to believe that humans suddenly changed as a result of turning sixteen.

The phase of life are: Littlies, Uglies, new Pretties, middle-Pretties (Middies) and late Pretties (Crumblies)

Littlies

From birth to eleven, children live with their middle-pretty parents in the suburbs. Littlies went to school with other children their age, but with strong parental relationships. This is the only stage of life where traditional nuclear families are considered appropriate.

Parents are encouraged to only have one child per decade (to the point of encouraging abortions for multiple births). This is offered as means of controlling the birth rate. It also prevents strong sibling bonds.

Uglies

At age twelve, children leave home to live in dorms in a part of town called Uglyville. Separated from their families for the first time, they went through systematic social programming to increase the desire to become a Pretty at age sixteen.

This conditioning comes from being encouraged to call each other by ugly and insulting nicknames. The dorm uniforms are basic and deliberately unflattering. Combined with other memetic programming, a low self-image and –esteem, it is the rare Ugly that doesn’t welcome an entirely new face and body.

The dorms are under heavy surveillance using drones and other devices, but Uglies often hack the machines and rules governing their lives. Many cities allow and encourage this as a method of spotting troublesome personalities early. The most rebellious are more closely monitored even after the operation, and the most resistant to the surgery are recruited for jobs requiring aggression and independent thinking.

Uglyvilles

Uglyvilles are physically separated from the rest of their cities physically and with some carefully narrowed and monitored bandwidth. Examples of physical separation include islands, peninsulas, mountains and fullair arcologies.

New Pretties

When Uglies turn sixteen, they undergo the Pretty Process to become new Pretties. The Process is actually several operations: skin replacement, cosmetic surgery, body morphology change, dental replacement, hormonal alterations, digestive alterations, etc., etc.

And of course, bubblehead surgery. Since the human brain can rewire itself, the effects of the surgery are more pronounced in the new Pretties who had recently had the operation. To help hide the effects, the new Pretties are kept separated from other age groups in New Pretty Town. They are also plied with distractions: huge clothing allowances, fast changing fashions, sex, drinking, drugs, bungee jumping, ballooning, as well as regular fireworks displays and nightly parties. Also during this time, they are expected to complete at least some basic courses, continuing their education.

Middle Pretties

After several years the initial effects of the process begin to fade, and most become bored with the distractions of New Pretty Town. They then take a series of aptitude and interest inventories to determine what jobs they will hold as an adult and begin a course of study for that.

At this point the people who had been tricky Uglies and most resistant to the bubblehead effect are marked for jobs requiring fast reactions, independent thinking and/or aggression. These Pretties then have some of the effects of their implants dialed back, or turned off. They are then trained as wardens, Rangers, firefighters, paramedics, search and rescue, doctors, nurses and surgeons.
Once assigned jobs, Middle Pretties move out of New Pretty Town into the suburbs outside of the central city areas. At this point, they are allowed to marry, have children and live in single family houses instead of dorms. As they age, they have minor operations to change their appearance, replacing the markers for youth and beauty with those for wisdom, experience and authority.

Late Pretties

At age eighty, Pretties retire and move to assisted living estates and facilities circling the cities, nicknamed ‘Crumbleyville.’ There, they live quietly, garden and carry out other similar activities until they die.

Since their rediscovery by the greater human universe, the Pretties are under stress. Their society is engineered for stability at the expense of growth and innovation, and the sudden exposure to the wider world is troubling.

They have limited contact with the wider universe, but the pressures are there. The Roamers skip around the edges. Old Worlders attempt to contact cultural analogues on Westerfeld. Then there are the Tao … They have clamped down further, but have opened one carefully controlled access through a ‘freeport’ at New Malta. Here, the greater human universe politely queues up and gets in for whatever reason. They cannot leave New Malta and are under great scrutiny and surveillance by the CMS Special Circumstances. Unfortunately for CMS, the visitors can (and sometimes do) entirely bypass their surveillance and do what they want anyway.

As planets go, Westerfeld is very earthlike, but scarred by the industrial development and ecological collapse. Still, it is pretty. The city-states of the Pretties are widely separated, separated near sources of power and resources (typically the ruins of their old cities and industrial areas). The cities do have their own architectural styles and are as pretty as the citizenry. If they ever open up, they may have a future in tourism.

Their infosphere is very barren, restricted and stripped down compared to the universe at large. The CMS controlls access to information and communications among its citizens using servile AIs and dataghosts to monitor the infosphere as a whole and individuals in particular.

The CMS government is an authoritarian meritocracy. Its executive committee is the CMS and admission is granted by a mix of political and technical ability. Most citizens remain minors until their mid to late twenties when they began the exam process.
Militarily, the Pretties have no real forces. The wardens and rangers are urban and rural police respectively, and largely focus on search and rescue and preserving social stability. The CMS Special Circumstances are effectively a planetary security agency and city level shadow government, and like the wardens and rangers, focused on social stability. Their reach offworld is limited to purchasing wormhole access until they buy or build their own. Right now, the Pretty Committee has invested in planetary wormhole interdiction fields. They are also hiring military trainers to train up their forces for real planetary security.

On a related note, the Pretties are intensely interested in Neural Mesh technologies. While they are capable of building them, they’d overlooked them as a development. The interest stems from the idea of being able to control their population more thoroughly by using some version of the slave mesh. At this point, all they need are the experts to help them along the way.

Similarly, a not very terrifying technology they are interested in are Dermal Microbots. Since their civilization is so focused on appearance, they are going to be very popular with all segments of their society.

The Pretties are also a touchy bunch. They get along best with the Tao, but are very cautious about the Tao’s desires to gain access to their world and its historical archives. The Roamers were initially welcomed until the Pretty Committee realized the instability they could bring. Since then they’ve tried to exclude them, but that makes them a more tempting target for the Roamer youths. The Stardwellers and Mechanicans scare them badly with their inhuman appearances. The Replicants, Stored, Logicians and Union scare them even more with their apparently inhuman natures despite the protests of their representatives. The Independents are welcome, due to their appearance and the technologies they bring for sale and apparent closeness to them.

In terms of societies found among the Pretties, the Hyperevolutes, Organized Crime, Artisans and High Society can be found at this point. As contact increases, one can expect other societies to gain foot holds. They have outright banned the Group Minds and others as threats to stability.

Common Name: Pretties
Emblem: None
Benefit: One additional Twist for Romance, and another Twist for Magnetism, due to their striking good looks.
Inspector Status: Advisors only – equivalent to 20th and 21st century Interpol.
Core Values: Stability and Beauty
The Pretties value a stable world. Stability means that the Pretties abhor sudden change, especially change for changes sake. This means the CV can be used to resistance Metatech attempts to force them to change, especially without a good reason.
Beauty means they value appearance over the deeper traits. This CV can be invoked to reduce resistance to an attractive or striking person, as well as add to attempts to use their own beauty.
Other common Core Values for the Pretties include Conformity, Elegance, Hedonism, Humanity, My City, Order, Physical Perfection, Pleasure, Sensation, Stability, Tradition and The Common Good.

Metagame Notes

The Pretties are written up here as t hey appeared in the first three books of the ‘trilogy’ – a post scarcity, authoritarian dystopia. By SA standards, they’re a backwater world with a very shallow philosophy and tightly controlled. Which is where the PC’s can come in.

By the end of Specials and the beginning of Extras, the civilization(s) have undergone a renaissance – the Mind Rain its called. The bubblehead surgery is gone – its cure is widely distributed. As a result, humanity has begun to settle back into more normal patterns (at least to those of us in the early 21st century). Freedom is everywhere, with an explosion in art, science and technology as the caged human creativity is released. Morphological freedom is also on the rise with different body types (Manga heads, Surge Monkeys (going for extreme body modifications), Plain Janes (people that just want to look like people), etc.) all over the place.

If you want that civilization instead, a few changes need to be made.

• Their government becomes a strong confederation of city states, some democratic, some dictatorial, some meritocracies, some reputation based.
• They still have an eye towards preserving their world though, so they begin moving into space and building space laser launch facilities and beanstalk (its still cheaper than wormholing into orbit, which is ‘halfway to anywhere’).
• They also begin to hire the expertise of other civilizations to help ‘re-terraform’ their world and preserve it.
• They also build fullair and seagoing arcologies as well.
• The life phases described above are no longer mandated, but optional. Even so, societal inertia keeps them moving that way for some time.
• There is wider contact with the larger human universe and less negative reaction to the disparate branches of humanity.
• Darwinians, Group-Minds, Heterolinguists, Hospitalers, Hyperevolutes, Sleepers, Transcendental Worshippers, and the other societies can now be found on their world.

Their summary changes a bit though as they begin to open up the throttles on their creativity and are exposed to the cultures of the greater universe.

Common Name: Pretties

Emblem: A golden Phi on a white background.

Benefit: One additional Twist for Romance, and another Twist for Magnetism, due to their striking good looks.

Inspector Status: FBI, RCMP or Customs Inspectors.

Core Values: Beauty and Ecology

Beauty means they value appearance over the deeper traits. This CV can be invoked to reduce resistance to an attractive or striking person, as well as add to attempts to use their own beauty.

Ecology means that the interactions of living systems are complex, subtle and not tampered with needlessly. To this end, they can use the CV to resist arguments to meddle with, exploit or damage ecosystems. It can also be added to arguments to help study and preserve them.

Other common Core Values for the Pretties include Discovery, Diversity, Elegance, Experimentation, Freedom, Hedonism, Humanity, Identity, Individuality, My City, Physical Perfection, Pleasure, Sensation and The Common Good.

Originating on the world of New London, the Heliothane came from the Umbrathane civilization. Originally a fairly low tech civilization with survivalist leanings, they deliberately stayed away from some of the higher tech options that the Transcendentals gifted mankind.

The fall into a cargo cult came from diseases. They'd established and maintained a society easily equivalent to Earth before the Nanotech wars, but like Earth, they battled diseases. And just as on Earth, those diseases became resistant to their treatments. Eventually, a new a virus emerged, one that attacked the brain. It had symptoms not unlike advanced syphilis - something that stripped the victims of language and cognitive ability, leaving them alive for a time. Given its rate of spread it broke their civilization because they'd deliberately turned their backs on much of the technology that could have helped them. Only a small group that extensively used neural meshes and lenses were able to improvise a solution and that by using the meshes and lenses as a 'neural prostheses.' These at least allowed useful victims of the disease -able to function and use tools. With the collapse of much of their civilization, they had to concentrate on maintaining themselves, rebuilding the industrial base and then eliminating reservoirs of the virus. The last they accomplished by exterminating all the infected (and then all) higher primates they could not assure themselves were clear of the virus. These survivors became the Umbrathane.

Since that time, they rediscovered, repaired and recreated much of the Transcendental technology. Initially, they used it to spread through their solar system, terraforming one world and harnessing the power of their sun with solar taps. Then they moved beyond, colonizing other worlds and stars.

At this point, the factions within the Umbrathane erupted into civil war over issues of political power and doctrinal purity. Several years of fighting generated a new faction - the Heliothane. These were the engineers of the society and in charge of power generation and transmission. The war crippled their systems and ruined projects. When they realized that by controlling the power that they could control other things, and that many of their high efficiency power systems could double as weapons, it didn't take them long to defeat the Umbrathane and become the new masters of their solar system.

Since then they've quietly colonized several solar systems, emerged into the larger human community and established a reputation for successful brute force engineering techniques.

While the Heliothane were more peaceful than their predecessors, they still had the Umbrathane at their roots. This makes them an odd civilization. As a whole, they tend to be fairly quiet, technologically advanced, touchy, violent and extremely Darwinian in their outlooks. As a group they believe they should not coddle those that make bad decisions (bad decisions can include living in a disaster prone area without an evacuation plan, drug addictions, to "breathing my air" or "being in my space"). Reactions to bad decisions range from snubbing, to fights to active euthanasia. This also means there is an alarming lack of safety devices in their civilization.

With this attitude, and access to a lot of power thanks to solar taps (wormhole and physical), their cities are interesting and dangerous places. They spend power freely using antigravity to elevate structures and build floating heavy ones. Their arcitecture tends to be at a scale that makes one feel insignificant in the face of it.

They are also very averse to treating diseases with treatments the diseases can evolve immunity to before a replacement becomes available. This gives Heliothane medicine a 'rough and ready' feel to it, with a debriding and amputation common (but since limb regeneration is common -either unassisted or with medical help - this isn't a major issue).

One expression of that touchiness and violence is the way they guard their names. They are living personifications of "Your name is in the mouth of others: be sure it has teeth." If a Heliothane tells you his or her name, one can be sure that you have earned respect. Don't use it casually until invited by the Heliothane though - at best the result is painful, fatal at worst.

Heliothane government is a brutal meritocracy. If one is good at what one does, then one rises to the top of the field - or beyond. If not, a more capable counterpart or subordinate will take your place. Add in their touchy and violent nature and bad decisions by political leaders are seldom repeated.

Today they are lead by the Great Architect Goron Thote. He has held the position and title for 80 years and is actively looking to step down and retire to his hobby of the genetic recreation of Old Earth dinosaurs. Oddly, his hobby has influenced a large portion of Heliothane society and it is not unusual to see recreations, or near copies, of dinosaurs as pets, guard animals, working animals and zoo exhibits.

As a civilization they can be dealt with, usually by the diplomatically adroit, or very durable. This means that Tao and Mechanicans get along best with them, followed by Spacers and Logicians. The Darwinian, Hyperevolute, Heterolinguists, Organized Crime and Survivalist societies can be found in Heliothane controlled areas.

Common Name: Heliothanes
Emblem: A stylized hand grasping a sun.
Inspector Status: Equivalent to local law enforcement with special consulting powers due to cultural issues.
Benefit: Neural Mesh for all members of the civilization
Core Values
Survival of the Fittest: Heliothanes believe that natural selection is still a necessary force and will not coddle the weak or unfit.
Efficiency: That which is unnecessary or holds us back should be trimmed away.
Other common core values: Good breeding, Continuity, Control, Diligence, Power, Responsibility

Humans have created their own gods since the late 21st century with the Transcendentals and the AIA. The Rix are a civilization that worships the Aia and works towards their ends and to create more.

The origins of the Rix are confused, as is the meaning of their name. There are elements of their society that echo beliefs of some of the early AI researchers that created the AIA. Whether these are recreations or actually descended from those beliefs is the province of psychohistorical researchers and historians at this point.

The Rix are a caste based, single sex society. They are (largely) parthenogenic using DNA manipulation to increase genetic variation. They also use replicators to create sperm and ova for specialized purposes.

The Rix have used this to alter themselves substantially – sometimes as much as the Stardwellers or Mechanicans. The ruling caste makes extensive use of pheremones, as well as brain alterations and extensive metatechnological studies to make themselves more convincing to their subordinates and outsiders. The thinkers have neural meshes and alterations allowing for faster thinking and enhanced modes of thought (or even parallel processing). Other specialized castes have alterations suitable for their jobs, most of them sensory, or allowing improved tool use.

As a civilization, they have replaced their blood with a fluid that does double duty as blood and a lymph system making them incredibly resistant to disease and most nanotech plagues. Their joints are incredibly efficient and they tend to be hairless, though some cultivate it as individual expression or as part of their job. They can pass for human, especially with minor disguise and if they alter their body language and typical birdlike motions in movement.

The notable exception to this are the warrior castes. Their alterations draw from genetics and cybernetics. Unlike the other Rix, their cognitive alterations are solely concerned with memory and enhanced reaction time (typically at the cost of empathy and human feeling). They also don't have hearts – they actually have turbines instead. Their bones are made of nano fiber and ceramics, which while it makes repair and healing difficult (not always an issue for a warrior caste Rix – they are ultimately considered disposable), makes them very durable. They also have alterations that make them equally comfortable in free fall as well as higher gravity (up to 2 g). A minor design quirk that autopsies cannot answer (and the Rix have not told anyone the answer to) is that nano fiber plates are visible at the soles of the feet, knee, elbow and shoulder. The advantage of this remains unknown but Mechanican engineers speculate that it is for the attachment of mission specific accessories.

Overall, their goal is to bootstrap as many Familiars (be it Servitor, Bonsai or Scout) into full blown Aia status. Their methods range from piracy and hacking to simple purchase (though the Stored stopped selling to known Rix centuries ago). They also serve as a (known) cutout for actions the Aia try to keep at a distance from themselves (and their servers), as well as a option for maintenance and creation of new Aia habitat. The last is a long term goal of the Rix and the AIA.

The Rix govern themselves through a genetic caste and dictates revealed to them by the AIA. This has lead to their actions in the attempt to form a Dyson Cloud at 3152 Volantis, the mass liberation of Familiars from the Stored and the subsequent conflict with the Stored, their loyal Familiars and Mechanican mercenaries. It has also lead to some interesting breakthroughs in Stringtech that the Aia found but would have taken to long to prove out from their viewpoints.

Like the Mechanicans, they only have one core value. Psychohistorians speculate that the Rix have only persisted as long as they have is because of Aia intervention. Without it, they feel it is likely the Rix would splinter along caste lines.

Because of their goals, the Rix seldom get along with most civilizations and its members. Their intelligence arm has agents in most places, but once revealed are rooted out with prejudice by security and counterintelligence. They frequently come into conflict with the Stored (and their daughter civilizations), the Mechanicans (several design groups are intensely interested in their warrior caste designs) and the Stardwellers (industrial espionage). They usually don't have any use for other civilizations save as a source of AIs, which can be a cause for commerce or conflict.

"Infosocialism's success is predicated on its memetic virility, not the leadership of any one nation. Communism was the first memetic power bloc on Earth, but failed because it was centuries ahead of its time."
—Kyle Porter

This was a political philosophy developed (under the name "information socialism") by the Australian academic Kyle Porter in the first half of the 21st century. Originally from the left-anarchist tradition, Porter felt that the vision of a pure anarcho-socialist society was unrealistic. Nevertheless, he observed that although modern civilization was utterly dependent on information technologies, the central notion of "intellectual property" often gave rise to significant injustice. He called for the state to seize ownership of all copyrights and patents. He believed that only the state could properly reward innovation, while still distributing the benefits of such innovation fairly to all. Infosocialists began with the premise that "information needs to be free" but redefined the nature of freedom as the nationalization of intellectual property and its distribution by the state. Thus, patents are not awarded, but research and creative endeavor is subsidized. This is less absurd when one imagines a "university" rather than "corporate" model of research and development.

Tenets of Infosocialism

The original formulation of Information Socialism argued that information has several properties that make it fundamentally different from "normal" material goods:

• it is non-tangible, usually thought of as meaning primarily digital, although Porter used the term to refer to information as being conceptual rather than physical;
• it is infinitely replicable, meaning that information can be copied any number of times without reducing its inherent use-value to the original possessor;
• and it is socially constructed, as all ideas, even new ones, are fundamentally based upon other people's ideas, which in turn are based on still other people's ideas, and so forth.

Porter then argued that, while markets for scarce physical resources can theoretically lead to optimal distribution, markets for information tend inevitably towards dysfunctional monopolies, as the nature of information makes it impossible to treat as a scarce but tradable object.

In classic infosocialism, then, the role of the state is to act as the "social monopolist," having ownership of all intellectual property, but making it freely available to all parts of the society. Porter claimed that innovation would still happen, as there would still be traditional markets for the physical goods and services derived from public intellectual property, and that a "reputation market" would emerge to promote the creation of new ideas. Infosocialism, as defined by Porter, is focused narrowly on the control of pure information, and leaves physical goods to whichever market distribution methods were preferred by society. Porter thought that a true abundance society would require the rise of nanotechnology in an already-infosocialist society, which in turn could only happen in heavily-networked advanced technology nations.

Much like communism, infosocialist doctrine failed to take hold in the developed nations of the day and instead got picked up by less developed nations, many of whom felt they were exploited by wealthier corporations locks on major genetic patents and software systems. One of the policies of inofsocialism was an end to enforcement of things like international copyright agreements and trademarks. This had a side effect of leading to a huge upsurge in piracy, especially of pharm animals, drugs, and nanoviruses.

The resulting international sanctions helped weld the nanosocialist countries into a tighter (and increasingly paranoid) block. While it was not one of the causes of the Nanotech War, it was a noteworthy contributing factor.

Even thousands of years later, infosocialism remains an important factor in post-Diaspora politics, with Unified Interstellar Socialist Alliance (UISA) on the scene, as well as infosocialist parties and sympathizers in most civilizations.

Because of these beliefs, infosocialists tend to flout patent laws and frequently come into contact (and conflict) with patent inspectors.

The UISA

While the Unified Interstellar Socialist Alliance looks like a unified ideological front to the outside world, the reality is somewhat more complicated. Unlike the ideological pacts of the past, there is no clearly dominant powerful state leading the UISA. The member nations of the UISA have little in common with each other culturally other than a political ideology. Even this memetic linkage is somewhat tenuous, as the diverse implementations of infosocialism among the Alliance members has often led to strained relations.

The UISA does not have a formal leadership or command hierarchy independent of the constituent states. The closest to an official body is the Coordinating Committee, which seeks to align the foreign and military policies of the UISA nations. Representatives are appointed by each state, and are usually active members of the national government; the Speaker of the Committee is elected annually by the representatives, and is usually a good indicator of which faction or constituent holds political sway. The Coordinating Committee does not have the power to enforce its decisions, but so far in the brief history of the UISA there has not been a coordination crisis.

Aside from the Coordinating Committee, the only other clearly-defined UISA structures are the Directorates. Each Directorate claims responsibility for a particular function or activity; participation in a Directorate is voluntary, although the primary Directorates do have representatives from each UISA nation. For the most part, Directorates are tied closely to an individual state's government, taking advantage of its resources and heavily influenced by its policies. It is not unusual for a small Directorate to only have participation from one or two UISA states; it is not unknown for certain Directorates to be kept secret from other UISA members.

Key Directorates in the UISA

Acquisitions: The Acquisitions Directorate is responsible for bringing in ideas, designs, software, and other information from outside of the UISA. This is the largest of the Directorates, and the primary target of many of the Alliance's enemies. Some Acquisitions agents specialize in entertainment content; others specialize in classified military designs. The Directorate is omnivorous and indiscriminate, consuming everything that gets sent its way. There are rumored to be tens of thousands of Acquisitions operatives , a number that's multiplied when it includes the local hackers, smugglers, and casual pirates whose efforts often end up in the hands of the UISA
A sub-department of the Directorate, Recruitment, works to expand the number of information sources for Acquisitions, whether conscious or unwitting. Recruitment suffers the highest losses of all of the operative agencies, as it cannot be passive. Recruitment agents must seek out likely candidates, thereby putting themselves at risk.

Defense: The Defense Directorate attempts to coordinate military activities among member nations. Although it is responsible for turning political goals into military strategy, it spends most of its efforts on logistics. Defense only focuses on physical military preparations, as the Intelligence Directorate (Internal) has responsibility for network and memetic defense.

Distribution: Working closely with Acquisitions, the Distribution Directorate comprises independent Directorates in each Alliance nation. Each Distribution Directorate chooses how best to make the acquired intellectual goods available to the country's citizens. Differences in distribution policies is one of the main sources of friction between UISA members.

Innovation: Although the UISA has a reputation as intellectual property thieves and scavengers, the Innovation Directorate provides substantial support for the research, invention, and development efforts inside of the Alliance. Much of the innovation has historically focused on better decryption and network intrusion tools, but this appears to be slowly changing. In 2099, the UISA released a new economic modeling application, designed using Innovation Directorate funding, that does successful demand-projection for non-market economies.

Intelligence (Internal): The Internal branch of the Intelligence Directorate also deals with threats to the UISA, but focuses on rooting out spies and defending the various information and communication networks from attack. As with External, most of the popular non-UISA representations of Internal are incorrect; Internal does not operate as a secret police force, as each Alliance nation has its own local version. Internal Intelligence works with national, regional, and local law enforcement departments to search out and eliminate threats from within. This does not mean dissenters or political activists; the Intelligence (Internal) Directorate focuses exclusively on counter-espionage and counter-terror, and has built up an impressive record of arrests. Internal Intelligence uses the most advanced technology of any of the operative Directorates.
Intelligence (External): The Intelligence Directorate is a group that coordinates the disparate intelligence and espionage resources of the various Alliance members. The agency focuses on espionage and memetic warfare. Contrary to many InVid thrillers and virtual worlds, External does not deal with acquiring intellectual property. External is concerned only with potential threats to the survival of the UISA.
Intelligence (External), conversely, tends to use whatever technology is needed to get the job done. Its agents around the world must be scrupulously careful to avoid any connections to the Alliance, and build up substantial alternative identities to mask their true activities. External Intelligence agents are considered heroes in UISA propaganda, but are never identified. It's rumored that even the Coordinating Council cannot access the identities and locations of External operatives.

Simulations, Modeling and Planning: The Simulations, Modeling and Planning Directorate has primary responsibility for Alliance-wide economic issues.

Theory and Praxis: Of all of the UISA's directorates, Theory and Praxis is perhaps least known outside of the Alliance. It is, ostensibly, the center for ongoing development of the theories of Information Socialism, and it produces an abundance of articles, manifestos, including declarations on the legitimacy of various forms of political expression, uses of new technology, desirability of foreign entertainment and research notes, some of which get re-published in the mainstream world (and generally ignored). Theory and Praxis also enforces ideological purity across the Alliance. The Directorate also serves as the UISA's secret police, monitoring dissent, making troublemakers disappear, and carrying out elaborate memetic rehabilitation on those who it deems threatening to the long-term survival of the Alliance. The power of Theory and Praxis has grown considerably in the last several years, and it has become quite influential in the Coordinating Council. A recent drop in Acquisitions activity, which some UISA opponents had claimed was the result of internal power struggles, was actually part of a careful plan Theory and Praxis devised to shift the Alliance's overall strategic position. Theory and Praxis considers itself the last line of memetic defense for the UISA.

Networks and Monocultures

The chaotic internal structure of the UISA Infosphere is entirely intentional. One of the fundamental tenets of infosocialism is that well-connected diversity is a source of strength. By limiting access to information or ideas, a nation or company acts to undercut its own long-term power. Similarly, by forcing adherence to a particular standard, an organization (whether government or commercial) runs the risk of being defeated by an attacker who knows the standard's weaknesses. In this logic, the Alliance's combination of deep connections between states, a lack of top-down hierarchy, and diverse set of methods and tools is the key to its ongoing success.

As a result, it is nearly impossible for an outside power to "decapitate" the UISA by eliminating the a key member. While the network structure of the Alliance does lead to haphazard initial responses to threats, it also allows the UISA to be highly strategically flexible, able to adapt to changing conditions in ways that ensure its continued survival.

The UISA has actively avoided settling on a single design for its weaponry, information and communication networks, even for its methods of production. This, too, is intended to keep the Alliance alive when threatened. Even the best-designed or optimally-emergent system can have weaknesses, and relying wholly or even in large part upon a single system would leave the UISA open to attacks on that weak point. By mandating system diversity, the Alliance sacrifices efficiency and convenience in pursuit of robust security.

UISA Member Civilizations and Their Politics

NuevoPaz: Multi-party Democracy. NuevoPaz is decidedly focused on internal development, going so far as to avoid participation in Alliance-wide military exercises.

Erusea: Single-party Authoritarian, local democracy. Infosocialist party came to power in free elections, but used various crises as justifications for canceling elections. Regional and local elections involve multiple candidates from state party.

Osea: Military-Authoritarian. Possibly the most brutal dictatorship in the Alliance.

haqIslam: Military-Authoritarian. The coup brought in the current regime, whose power rests on a combination of military force and broad populism. Wealthy elites were driven out by the coup, and haqIslam now has one of the highest average standards of living in the UISA.

Minerva: Military-Authoritarian. The current government was installed in a military coup. The continued strong military presence is due to the ongoing conflict with guerillas.

Donegal: Multi-party Democracy. Donegal became a nominally nanosocialist state in 2086, and the subsequent elections have largely been competitions between rival hard-line and moderate nanosocialist parties (referred to sarcastically as "Reds" and "Whites"), with a few other parties winning local seats.

Horthval: Military-Authoritarian. A military coup in brought the current regime into power. Radical and assertive, it seeks to become the leader of the UISA. It has recently butted heads with HyBrasil over Alliance military policy.

HyBrasil: Single-party Authoritarian, local "party guided" democracy. The infosocialist party came to power in a broadly popular revolution, and it remains well-supported in both rural and urban areas. The HyBrasilean party is both the most radical in its infosocialism and the most populist in its message, and has won the affection of the populace with its noisy condemnations of the other UISA countries.

Deisho: State of Emergency. The infosocialist party came to power in a free election, and was promptly set upon by rebels. Horthval and HyBrasil have provided military aid to the beleaguered regime, which promises a return to democracy once the uprising is successfully defeated.

Mordovi: Possibly the most democratic and infosocialist members of the UISA. Democratic from the beginning, it joined the UISA and has contributed ever since. It has the highest standard of living of the UISA, but is frequently criticized for not sharing its progress with other alliance members.

Maldanado Republic: Military-Authoritarian. One of the oldest members of the UISA, it was originally a democratically elected government, but the military staged a coup over a lack of ideological purity by the government. Today, it suffers from an internal rebellion and can barely contribute to the alliance.

Economics and Politics

"Information is power, in the most fundamental sense. It flows, yet it must have a medium through which to flow or it dissipates. It makes all action possible, yet it cannot do anything on its own. Nothing is possible without information. Those who forget that information and power are one and the same do so at their own peril."
–Kyle Porter, What Is To Be Done? (v2.0)

Although most UISA opponents consider the Alliance to be a monolithic ideological whole, there is actually considerable diversity within the coalition regarding politics, economics, and the implementation of infosocialism. Member nations came to Infosocialism through a variety of means – from coups to popular election. Infosocialism is a populist movement, and pundits frequently neglect to mention its continuing popularity in most of the UISA states.

Economically, the Alliance members are all socialist in the broad sense, but with varying types of internal markets. In most UISA states, services such as power and web connections are state-funded, while agriculture and consumer products tend to be more market-driven. Horthval, HyBrasil and Minerva are aggressively statist, down to giving production quotas to individual farmers and small manufacturers. Donegal and NuevoPaz fall closer to the classic infosocialist model, only having state control of intellectual property distribution and basic services, while leaving most production decisions to a lively internal market. The development of demand-prediction software has helped to better synchronize Alliance-wide supply and demand, and most member countries are able to manage their economies without causing the economic meltdowns that socialist nations in the 20th century often faced.

There is also considerable diversity in the manner in which technology is distributed by the governments. Despite being the cornerstone of the infosocialism concept, the free availability of intellectual property has proven to be a controversial topic even within the UISA. In some countries, all citizens have full access to the UISA Library, from popular entertainment to weapon design; in others, citizen access to the Library is restricted, limited only to pirated Bollywood musicals and escapist InVids. The divide between free-distribution and controlled-distribution states falls along the same axis as the split between democratic and authoritarian UISA nations; in short, it comes down to whether or not the government trusts its people.

Unsurprisingly, the UISA is highly factionalized. Since its inception, it has seen the loss of founding members in a interstellar war, continued brushfire wars along its borders, and relentless propaganda. Intelligence and covert operation attacks against its survival by leading nations. How to respond is the crux of intense ongoing debate within the Alliance.

While the inter-member conflicts are highly visible, and many have deep historical roots, the cross-civilizational factional conflicts have a greater influence on the ability of the UISA to respond to crises. Each faction is able to bring supporters into the streets to rally for or against government policies, and each claims a seat of official power that prevents the others from moving decisively against it. Factional rivalries can be brutal; there have been hundreds (if not thousands) of assassinations of factional leaders and notable activists since the formation of the Alliance. In some cases, the factions themselves are split between those who favor central control and those who wish to expand citizen participation in the evolution of the UISA.

Known factions

Hard-liners: Cooperation with the Corporatist world is inevitably a mistake in their view. While many tend towards authoritarianism, a substantial minority believe that the only successful revolutions will come with full citizen support. Ideologues can be found in much of the national leadership, and the Directorate of Theory and Praxis is an important center of power.
Philosophers: A younger generation of infosocialists see the ideology as an evolutionary process, not a rigid dogma. They are dedicated to the philosophy, but want to make it work in a changing world. While they disdain compromise for short term gain, they are not as stubborn as the hard-liners. In factional conflicts they tend to be balancers and subtle politicians. Their primary approach is to look at "big picture." The are a small but influential faction, primarily found in the Innovation Directorate.
Pragmatists: The so-called Pragmatist faction is willing to do whatever is needed to keep the UISA going, even if that means sometimes compromising on principle. Many of the side-deals cut by the UISA (for wormhole connections, or 3He, inversion beams, or medical supplies) were carried out by Pragmatists. They are found throughout the Directorate of Intelligence (External), but are also visible in Innovation and in Acquisitions. Most tend towards a democratic approach, especially those in Innovation, but a strong minority are happily authoritarian as needed.
Revolutionaries: The Revolutionaries are hard-liners; unlike the older faction, they tend to be aggressive about the need to export infosocialism to the Corporatist world.. Most Revolutionaries are younger citizens of the UISA. The new generation claims to have learned the lessons of the past, but still brooks no dissent, especially any that suggests that the UISA will not eventually lead a interstellar revolution. They are often found in Acquisitions, especially in recruiting, but are also common in Theory & Praxis.

Military Forces

As a result of its commitment to systemic diversity, the UISA's military is quite haphazard. Member nations use a wide range of equipment, much of which is derived from the weaponry of the other civilizations, usually with local variations. This chaotic situation is made manageable by the widespread deployment of replicators, allowing a single supply unit to provide ammunition and spare parts for every weapon and piece of equipment.

At their worst, however, UISA military forces are more delicate and require substantially more maintenance than their counterparts in other militaries. While replicators allow for the supply of diverse units, it often takes upwards of several hours to produce the correct pieces of equipment, making "on-the-fly" re-supply a dangerously slow process. And when Great Power opponents encounter UISA weapons based on their own designs, they're often able to attack based on their classified knowledge of system weaknesses.

Technology

The UISA Infosphere

In comparison to the infosphere as seen in developed civilizations, the UISA Infosphere is wildly outdated. Little of it is fully-immersive, and vast sections still rely on ancient protocols. As with many of the UISA-wide systems, however, the UISA Infosphere is designed to value robust flexibility over elegance and control. The network has proven to be remarkably resilient, staying available to most of the Alliance even in the face of massive infrastructure attacks.

Once completed, the UISA Infosphere was connected directly to the interstellar one. The Alliance's opponents quickly cut connections to the UISA, however, trying to prevent both Alliance piracy of material on the and mainstream access to already pirated material. When this happened, hackers on both sides worked to re-establish links. This cat-and-mouse game continues to the present, often with the unwitting cooperation of transition nations.

The ability of the UISA Infosphere to remain usable even when routed across networks of dubious reliability affirms the decision of the designers to focus on robust simplicity. Complexity was only added when needed; the UISA Infosphere was originally planned to be open to the world, but later updates cordoned off a section limited to internal communication. Another addition allowed individual national governments within the UISA to cordon off certain sections, restricting citizen access to the material.

With the connections to the outside, of course, comes regular attacks by opposing governments and hacktivists. An Alliance report once claimed that the UISA Infosphere has been subject to a greater volume of hostile activity than any other network every created, and few disagree. In the first several centuries of the UISA Infosphere's existence, it was regularly brought down by hackers. Over time, the UISA Web's defenses grew stronger, and there hasn't been a successful denial-of-service attack on the network in decades.

Not all of the attacks come from outside, another factor in the UISA Infosphere's current stability. A substantial number came from within the UISA – not from spies or dissidents, but from curious (and sometimes vaguely malicious) young adults, seeking to explore the limits and weaknesses of the UISA Infosphere. The network's defenders quickly learned to counter all manner of threat, and claim, with some justification, that the UISA Infosphere may be the most secure open network in the world.

At present, the UISA Infosphere provides access to a broad range of intellectual property. Some of it is original to the UISA, some is public domain or open source, although much of the content, from entertainment to genemod designs and software, is pirated. Some of the material has been hacked to take out content-rights management routines, but a surprising amount has not. The Directorate of Acquisitions often simply posts new content directly to the web; many unwitting would-be-pirates have been caught using downloaded material still fully protected by CRM code.

Replicators

As throughout the rest of the universe, replicators, minifacs and 3D printers are wildly popular in the UISA. They are still relatively few in number, however, so most are controlled by national governments, which tend to give the military priority. Numbers are steadily increasing, and UISA leaders have realized the political value of their greater distribution. Unlike in much of the developing world, the cost of product design licenses will not deter the rapid growth of minifac use in the UISA.

Power Sources

Authoritarian UISA nations tend to rely on cheap to implement, highly efficient large-scale installations such as 3He Fusion plants, satellite power stations, and multi-acre (or mile) solar arrays.

The power networks being built in low-authority UISA states are heavily distributed, with many small plants and very few major installations. As with other elements of the Alliance infrastructure, diversity and redundancy are seen as key features. Solar arrays and fusion plants have been supplemented, even replaced, by so-called "micro-generation" systems, which often use older but still useful technologies: vehicle-sized fuel cells powering buildings, gas turbine engines powering neighborhoods, high-efficiency solar cells used as building exterior material and more recently, small inversion powered power supplies. Member states are also taking advantage of regional resources where possible, such as tapping geothermal energy or tidal power.

Common Name: Infosocialists

Epithets: Commies

Emblem: Hammer and helix.

Inspector Status: None. Patent Office has no official relations with the UISA and is considered an “enemy of the state” by most of its member civilizations.

Benefit: All members of the UISA are able to access items and services that individuals normally could not. For purposes of these rules, they can buy moderately expensive items without concern, or highly expensive ones by getting the appropriate permissions.

Core Value: Infosocialism and Self-reliance

Infosocialism – that the market distribution of information and its products tends towards dysfunctional monopoly and therefore states should act to distribute information, making it freely available, while subsidizing research and innovation.

Self-Reliance drives the moral center of the Infosocialists. It’s what makes them eschew the tech they'd have to buy from outside powers, and what makes them turn down offers of alliance from other civilizations. It generally makes life harder for the Infosocialists, but to them it means that they’ll sink or swim on their own merit, not because of others. This CV also led to the UISA’s non-standard infosphere which poses a problem for both ordinary travelers from other civilizations and Independents away from home.

Metagame notes

I'm not sure about the fit of the Infosocialists in the setting, but I figure some sort of opposition to the T's and the Patent Office should exist. Anyway, they're intended to provide 'repeat offenders' for a game, and more credible than the New Republic and with more oomph than the Darwinists or a Nihilist society would.

Any comments and suggestions on improving them would be appreciated.

As an old-school megacorporation, Genetech is primarily concerned with one thing: profits. Sure, they give to charity like any large corporation, but they also have hordes of genetically-engineered soldiers ready to seriously eliminate the competition. Fads and fashion sweep across GT on a daily basis, and nearly everyone loves it. They're the center of galactic pop culture, as well as being the galaxy's best at biotechnology. The division between have and have-not is strong here, and living in the gutter isn't nearly as uncommon as GT's Chief Planetary Officers would have you believe. Those with money do very well indeed; those without it barely scrape by. All citizens are referred to as employees.

Core Values: Fashion and Profit
Capabilities: Bio 1-9, Cog 1-6, Meta 1-8, Nano 1-5, String 1-8
Special Benefit: GT employees have been working biotechnology into their genetic codes for generations. Their Biotech scores can be one higher than normal for their Import level - for instance, they could go to Biotech 8 and still have an Import of 7.

I'll have to dig up more from my old files. I'm considering going back and doing a total conversion, since a significant amount of setting info is already written.

The New Republic is one of those names that gets you two lies for the price of one - it isn't new and its not a republic.

Founded by a mixed bag of East-European technorejectionists and royalists hankering for the comforts of an earlier century. In the market-oriented democracies of pre-Diaspora Earth, they'd been cast by their millions on the scrap heap of history. Given a new world to tame, and the tools to do it with, they established a conservative social order. A generation later, a vicious civil war broke out between those that wanted to keep using the cornucopia machines (replicators and self-replicating nano assembler factories able to manufacture any physical goods) and those who wanted to switch to a simpler way of life where everyone knew their place and there was a place for everyone. The progressives lost: so the New Republic remained for a century, growing into its natural shape - Europe as it might have been during the twentieth century, had physics and chemistry been finalized in 1890. Thereafter they controlled the working classes by restricting access to education and tools and putting tight bottlenecks on information technology.

While the New Republic is a bastion of royalist and technological rejection, they are pragmatic rejectionists, especially when it comes to state security and military. The Curator's Office (the local secret police and memetic defense agency (visitors from other civilizations joke that it has the name because the New Republic is a museum)), has access to neural meshes, advanced surveillance nano and drones as well as slow guns (a gun that marks the target and then fires self guiding wasps with neurotoxins at the target - its supposed to point out the horrors of unrestricted technology). What infosphere there is firmly under the control of the Office of the Curator, and attempts to bypass that control warrant visits from the Procurators (officers of the local secret police). Rumors persist in the use of neural meshes to correct the attitudes of dissidents persist despite vigorous denials by the Curator's Office. Otherwise, these technologies are banned to the general citizen of the Republic.

The military is the other area with an exception, especially the Navy. Naval spacecraft have artificial gravity that does not come from spin or thrust, they especially have acceleration compensators. They also have several beanstalks, one of which is dedicated to the Navy (Klamovka beanstalk), built before the destruction of the replicators. Add in their own wormhole generators and weapons purchased from and maintained by civilizations with greater competency in them.

The New Republican Navy certainly looks impressive with its dreadnaughts, cruisers and destroyers - the very model of a modern space navy. However, they do have certain blind spots that may prove an issue if they force a confrontation with the Spacers, Stardwellers or other space faring civilization.

Outside the state security and military apparatus, the New Republic is odd.

The government and businesses are very big on centralization. Thus, there is no e-mail, but there are a few public or government phones that route through a central operations center. Private phones are very rare and require ruinous taxes for the owner. Telegrams are more common though - and easily tie into the centralization of the civilization. The fact it is easier for the Curator's Office to eavesdrop is purely coincidental. Offworld text communications are available to the public, but it costs one Republican Marka per word. Private ownership of radios and radio broadcasting is highly discouraged by local laws and the Curator's Office.

Rail travel is commonly used. The trains run on time, and use atomic powered locomotives due to the abundance of uranium that can sustain criticality without enrichment. In the cities, light rail and trolleys are common, as are steam and flywheel powered cabs and small buses (coaches in the local argot). Horses and carriages are usually found in smaller towns and for parades. The bicycle is ubiquitous throughout the New Republic and used for a wide variety of things besides transport.

Government subsidized zeppelin services provide air transport (outside of Navy craft and shuttles) within the New Republic. This is only possible by the government weather satellites and observations from the beanstalks.

Because of the technorejectionist origins of the New Republic, politics bans smart matter, replicators, volitional and volatile nano, computer networking, artificial gravity, implanting neural meshes and a host of other things that make modern life (outside the New Republic at least) possible and pleasant. This means that the industrial base is limited by statute as well as ability.

Despite its name, the New Republic is not a republic. It is an imperial monarchy, with Ivan Hasek III the Emperor. Only the nobility have representation. and despite the titles they are all equal in the eyes of the government and its apparatus. Their legislative body (Sjem) has no real power in the face of the strong emperor and state. It cannot raise taxes, declare war or any of the traditional powers of a legislature. It only exists as a sop to the nobles and acts as a talking shop and to air their grievances.

Below the nobility, with its wealth, titles and holdings, life is tougher. Information and education is restricted by the government to the nobles, merchants and artisans. What information they do have access is to, is heavily biased by the government (towards its stability). Life is difficult for them, especially compared to a member of another human civilization. But compared to the peasants and laborers, it is heaven. The peasants are literally bound to the soil by law and cannot leave it, with all that it entails.

Gender difference is another thing that the founders of the New Republic brought back. Women are definitely second class citizens, without even the limited rights of the men. Clothing emphasizes the differences between men and women - from head coverings (lower classes) to skirts (all) to corsets with low necklines (upper classes and social climbers). This is one of those things that infuriates female visitors from other civilizations. Fortunately, lenses are available to help with this.

Unless one is carefully schooled in the rules (and laws) of the New Republic class and gender system, it can be frustrating, if not dangerous, to do this. Offworld clothing styles ought to be avoided though as they visibly mark one as alien.

Even with the handicaps that they have, they’re an expanding militaristic power. Granted, they’ve expanded to worlds that harbor either Cargo Cults or Old World civilizations (Lamprey), or are vacant (Rochard’s World).

Most civilizations do not care for the New Republic at all. In many ways it is the personification of everything bad for the past and the present – discrimination, censorship, secret police and wasted human potential. Despite this, they still interact with them.

The Tao, Old Worlders, Stardwellers, Mechanicans and Independents interact with them the most. The Tao, as always, are interested in purchasing rights to create a milieu based on them and entertainments based on their history. The Independents, Stardwellers and Mechanicans sell things to them – mainly space craft, weapons and surveillance technologies. The Old Worlders visit to learn and determine what to avoid. The Independents are cautiously courting the New Republic, but are beginning to consider abandoning it in the face of the authoritarian government, brutality and repression.

New Prague

The capital and jewel of the New Republic, it is a famous tourist attraction for both citizens of the Republic and beyond. It is a beautiful city, rich with parks, beautiful architecture and winding streets. The air is clear since the New Prague light rail and trolley services use electrical power drawn from the atomic power stations. It is cool compared to many other places, but the Winterfair is worth visiting with the sports, ice sculptures and snow castles.

The sites to see in New Prague include the Square of Five Corners with the Duchess's Simulacrum, the clocks of St. Michel, the Great Museum and the Old Palace. Visible from all points of the city is the Basilisk, the headquarters for the Curator’s Office.

Common Name: Neeps

Benefit: Extra core value and can use practical pieces of technology without training, as if they had a skill at level 6. They have no Reserve when using this effective skill.

Inspector Status: Advisor only

Core Values: Tradition, Order and player’s choice. Usually this will be something that reinforces the civilization – Loyalty, Royalist, Pragmatic, Honest, etc.

Its primary purpose is to hold the New Republic together, giving citizens bonuses to actions that keep the civilization intact (such as fighting off civ-wide metatech assaults, convincing other citizens to keep to their traditions, and the like). The Tradition CV doesn’t say that any specific tradition is important; rather, it is important to have traditions and to hold to them. It says that all traditions have worth and value, that they are what bring people together.

The Order CV is used to resist attempts to provoke riots, obey disagreeable laws and their enforcers. And also being lawful and orderly while visiting another civilization (it’s rare, but it does happen).

The New Republic: Metagame notes

For those of you that need a comic opera set of bad guys for your campaign. Of course, they can be a lot more serious too. To do that, make sure there are a lot of them and arm them with the latest and greatest from the League of Independent Worlds or the Mechanican Union. In terms of PC's, the New Republic is a great place to be from.

The Vyomachaarinah (Sanskrit, "the people who wander over the sky"), started like the Spacers - as a colony ship – an entire O’Neill colony, the Ramanujan. Launched by an alliance of Indian derived organizations, their motivations were complex, but partially a desire to safeguard what they considered the unique Indian way of life in the face of accelerating changes in the solar system, partially a gamble for interstellar resources. The idea was to colonise the protoplanetary disk around Vega, a huge dust belt with enormous easily accessible material and energy resources but no habitable planets. The plan was to establish a colony in the disk, awaiting further arrivals from the Solar System. The founders had gambled that mankind would soon begin a true diaspora towards the stars, and Vega could become a major way station, with shipyards and abundant volatiles to use for reaction mass.

The Ramanujan took almost a hundred years to reach Vega. During this time most of the crew was frozen, while a small society of awake individuals maintained the ecosystem and ship. All colonists took at least one waking shift of a few years, keeping a constant active population. As intended, they adapted to living completely isolated in a space habitat, and a very unique culture developed. The rotation of crew also made sure the goals were not forgotten due to cultural drift or new generations.

On arrival to Vega the colonists began building back up habitats to make sure the entire project was not wiped out by a single disaster. The first habitats were small, hurried constructions intended to make sure the entire project was not wiped out by a single disaster. Later constructions became more extravagant, as self-replicating robots made construction mainly a matter of finding a suitable asteroid and directing the systems. The habitats became known as the Viha-ga, the Realm of the Sky.

At this point, the colonists waited for additional slower-than-light colonists and expeditions to arrive. This did not happen, and the Viha-ga was left alone. The drop off of broadcast communications from Earth made them wonder what had happened - they began to think civilization had collapsed in the Solar System. The reality was the increased use of wormhole communications for security and ease of use.

An internal struggle developed between the "Upakramah fraction" (the project fraction), which wanted to follow the original plans and at least set up the laser contact with the other colonies, and the "Gupta fraction" (the secret fraction) who wanted to turn the Vega system into their true home and keep it secret. They centered around a classicist revival that had emerged during the later part of the journey, where some influential people saw their isolation as a new chance to both rediscover ancient truths and to combine them with the future without being limited by other cultures; the goal was to create something truly unique and uncontaminated. They revived Sanskrit and began developing new forms of societies.

In the end the project fraction went ahead, but their communications array was wrecked by meteors or sabotage (the truth was never discovered). They began constructing a second array, but in the end the project was abandoned as most of the colonists began to direct their energy towards colonizing the Disk instead of uncertain and not very practical long-term communications.

Life in the Disk is somewhat dangerous; even if most of it is near vacuum and meteors are rare, over time micrometeors and occasional lucky shots destroy installations. Repair systems can manage most problems, but habitats can be lost if they are very unlucky. Most habitats have extensive anti-meteor railguns and lasers, and the colonies have a philosophy of dispersal – better not put all the eggs in the same basket.

The habitats have an extremely high and comfortable standard of living, being run by non-sentient AI and robots. Most are nearly paradisaical worlds, tended by ever-watchful drones and symbiotic animals connected to the computer systems.

It is a thoroughly aesthetic society, where the beauty of anything, any act is judged against many aesthetic scales. When the implementation is fairly easy to do (which is the rule with replicating robots and powerful support systems), the aesthetics becomes the deciding factor. Daily life is somewhat hedonistic, a relaxed leisurely routine that is not taken very seriously. In principle everything could be automated, but most habitats have deliberately set up some tasks that have to be done by humans in order to keep them active and aware. However, the Chesterton cluster and descended habitats have deliberately done away with all work – they think that it would be an imposition to force any human to work when it can be done with automation. Instead people will find their own useful things to do.

The inhabitants of one habitat usually regard each other as part of the same extended family; in small or young habitats this is literally true. Ties of marriage unite different habitats and groups within the same habitat. Some habitats are strictly hierarchical, while others are extremely informal democracies or near-anarchies. However, as a rule there exists a class of Brahmans with high prestige; they are the technocrats, experts, priests, scholars and leaders organizing things. The Weg Brahmans are not necessarily descendants of the original Brahmans of India, although there exist some ties.

The Brahman Assembly coordinates activities among the habitats and is responsible for facilitating communications among them. Representatives are chosen by each habitat, by their own methods, among those that are eligible. Theoretically this is open to anyone, but the years of study required tend to narrow it to a few families on each habitat.

The culture at Vega takes the long view. They intend to continue colonizing the Disk at a leisurely pace, developing a truly unique culture. Many of them definitely think the Vyomachaarinah will be around to watch the planets form in a few hundred million years.

At the same time the ever present risks from meteors make people aware of the transience of everything. There is no true security or stability anywhere: only by constantly moving, taking backups and dispersing can survival be achieved.

The concept "lilah" describes the situation: humans are the playthings of the capricious Gods, but (and here they diverge from many traditional views), humans are not passive game pieces but active co-players. By playing the cosmic game well (and being lucky), one can achieve just about anything. Overall, games have emerged as a major part of the culture, ranging from the traditional atthapada and dasapada chess games, to abstract akasa games, role-playing games, strategic simulations and personal combat games played in virtual reality. Game masters tour the Disk, challenging each other for supremacy in different games or modes of playing.

The society is not static, but changes slowly. Over time groups of people move out from their parent habitats and set up their own, repeating the process that occurred in the solar system but much more slowly and less drastically. It is somewhere between runaway diversification and stagnation, never quite moving into one of the areas. Most likely it will change greatly over the next few centuries but the direction is hard to tell.

Since anybody disagreeing with the society in a habitat can leave, and it is relatively cheap to build new habitats, disagreements tend to be relatively few and low key. Instead there is a gradual spawning of new and diverse habitats, ranging in their origins from orthodox religious to iconoclastic theoretical physics. Inter habitat communications are however important, and even if habitats cannot force each other to do anything they can influence each other. The Net is the mutual meeting place, a system-wide net of radio transmissions and laser links that routes information to all linked habitats.

While there are few true disagreements, that does not mean Vega is an utopia. Social interactions can become elaborate games of one-up-manship, and there are several habitats that spend much time politicking with and against each other. The same problems also occur inside habitats, sometimes producing serious quarrels between the inhabitants. Betting prestige on various gaming tournaments is a common way of resolving the conflicts.

The habitats are usually just a kilometer or two across, spherical constructions housing a self-contained biosphere lit up by artificial lighting. Some are built inside asteroids; while the asteroids are too loose and fragile to bear any loads they provide excellent protection against meteors. Those that aren't inside asteroids are covered with a thick layer of gravel, held in place by netting. They extend long cables holding instruments, antennas or specialized industries that take advantage of high gravity. Inside, the gravity is low with lush vegetation, rivers and fanciful landscapes dominating the view and taking advantage of the low gravity; most habitats are huge gardens that express the local aesthetic. People live in small villages in the valleys, connected by virtual communications and commuter trains.

Some habitats have specialized themselves, like the high inclination and eccentricity Taaraka group that acts as communications relays above and below the Disk, Vikram Sarabhai which produce designs for defensive robots or the Sona Ath habitats that extract Helium 3 from the solar wind or clouds around Kruura-graha. Others like Ganga and Lanka mainly export culture.

Some habitats have very unusual ecologies. Some, like the Pancatantra, are inhabited by an approximation of the animals and plants of old fables (it was created as a deliberate exercise in genetic and mythical design). Other habitats like Polaris and Lanka are attempts to recreate terrestrial conditions; Polaris is an arctic world while Lanka is a tropical sea.

Hinduism remains the major religion, although the forms vary. While the original colonists were rather secular, religiosity developed both due to the influence of the Gupta fraction and the grandeur of Weg. The view that the divine should be revered in every manifestation is common and influences culture to a high degree. Small shrines are common in the habitats and spacecraft. Practically every habitat and person has an istadevata, "favourite god" to which they are dedicated. Many regard Vega itself as a divinity, sometimes identifying it with the trimurti (the trinity Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva). Small shrines to Rudra are especially common: Rudra was originally a minor Vedic deity known as the divine archer, who shoots arrows of death and disease and who has to be implored not to slay or injure in his wrath, but has become identified as the god of meteor strikes; the shrines are to avert dangerous strikes.

Technologically the Vega system is quite advanced in robotics and automation, even if it they deliberately avoided creating volitional AI. The habitat construction techniques, anti-meteor systems and inter-habitat crafts are far beyond anything found among the colonies.

Genetic modifications of plants and sometimes animals in order to create new species and ecosystems are in use and well developed. Human genetic modifications are not widely spread outside of those to make the Vyomachaarinah more comfortable in space, free-fall and resistant to radiation.

Another area of strength for the Vyomachaarinah is the use of advanced knowledge networks and intelligence amplification techniques. Not in order to increase productivity (which is already far beyond what is needed) but to increase understanding. The reasons range from pure pleasure to the ideological goal of truly understanding the processes of history.

The Vyomachaarinah are an easy going culture and get along decently with other civilizations. In fact, there are many Vyomachaarinah habitats that are tourist destinations. The Spacers look down on them, seeing them as decadent and having lost the discipline of being Spacers. The Vyomachaarinah see the Spacers as needing to relax. The Tao, Stardwellers, Roamers, Independents and Masqueraders are all welcome and thought of as friends. Mechanicans, Replicants, Stored and less human looking Stardwellers are welcomed with some reservations, though there is no overt hostility. The Logicians have pleasant, if cool, relations though they do wonder about the artistic efforts and religiosity of their distant relatives. The Independents are courting them as allies, seeing them as closer to themselves than the other civilizations (though they can be forgiven for the error).

Among the societies, the Artisans, High Society, Hospitallers and Organized Crime can be found there. The Transcendental Worshippers are there and persecuted socially. Social Engineers, Cognitechnicians, Survivalists and the Mushashi Flex may be found among the Vyomachaarinah.

Common Name: Vyos or Weg

Benefits: Neural mesh, regardless of Cognitech score, Spacer and Artist professions at level 4. A specialty must be chosen for the Artist profession.

Inspector Status: Adivsors to the Brahman Assembly and acting as local police.

Core Values: Stability and Hedonism

Stability means that the Vyos abhor sudden change, especially change for changes sake. This means the CV can be used to resistance Metatech attempts to force them to change, especially without a good reason.

Hedonism means that the Vyos hold that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically beneficial. Thus, they try to advance that for themselves and others. This means they work towards good government, pleasant conditions, human rights, as well as the ability to have a really good time. This means the CV can be used to help Vyos advance a good cause, as well as a party or other pleasant experience. It can also be used to avoid unpleasant experiences.

The popular stereotype of the researcher is that of a skeptic and a pessimist. Nothing could be further from the truth! Scientists must be optimists at heart, in order to block out the incessant chorus of those who say "It cannot be done."
Academician Prokhor Zakharov

Seven hundred and thirty two years ago, University was the University of Armstrong, a large and reputable institution for higher learning in the Independent Worlds. Known for its inquiries into physics and engineering, it was well thought of, even beyond the Independents.

Then five hundred and thirteen years ago, Armstrong University received its largest endowment ever – a planet and enough funds to do something with it from Prokhor Zakharov. Originally a Spacer emigrant to the Independent Worlds, he was perhaps the most renowned scientist and inventor in Independent Worlds, famous for groundbreaking work in both high-energy physics and artificial intelligence. He and his wife parleyed these inventions into a vast fortune. They both graduated from Armstrong University, and when he retired to teach he was a particularly influential figure, adept at winning support from politicians for his scientific and engineering projects.

Zakharov wanted to establish a civilization dedicated to learning and research, and on his death gave his employers and alma mater the tools and directive to do it. The board of regents, not being fools, and captivated by his posthumous appeal, agreed and over the period of a hundred and thirty years, Armstrong University became, simply, The University.

Over the next century it grew and developed, drawing immigrants from all human civilizations, including some unexpected sources, particularly the Logicians and Mechanicans, shaping the culture of the emerging civilization. The University is devoted to rational and scientific inquiry. They value a deep understanding of the physical universe, and the mastery of physical systems which comes from such understanding. They are impatient with metaphysical philosophy, and have no use at all for "spiritual" or religious ideas. This approach sometimes causes them to ignore ethical considerations in their pursuit of knowledge.

The University does make some ethical commitments. Intellectual honesty, the ability to argue logically and reach conclusions based only on empirical evidence, is paramount. The University also supports the free flow of information, avoiding secrecy and falsehood at all costs.

The University surpasses other civilizations at the business of scientific innovation. From shortly after founding they have had the best computers, sensors, and laboratory equipment. Their ideology makes them dedicated and honest researchers. University citizens are also superb engineers, good at putting their scientific discoveries to practical use. They are likely to be talented gadgeteers, improvising engineering solutions to new problems on the fly.

The University maintains an open society, sharing information freely within and without. This stance is integral to their scientific endeavors, but it can also be a vulnerability. Spies and saboteurs from other civilizations often have an easy time penetrating University security.

Academic's dedication to rational inquiry, even at the cost of ignoring ethics, can often lead to social unrest. This is particularly acute among the University's "underclass," the ordinary citizens who have no scientific talent, duties or valued degrees.

The University's government is democratic, but only among the academic class, and there is a strict hierarchy even there. The higher social classes are theoretically open to anyone, but a citizen who wants to reach the rank of full Academician must go through years of strenuous and intellectually-demanding work. Candidates must earn advanced degrees, perform well as research and teaching assistants, publish original results, navigate the dangers of academic politics, and earn tenure.

Even an academician's field of expertise can affect his social standing. Physicists and computer scientists have the most prestige and influence, with pure mathematicians following close behind. For some reason psychohistorians are low in the pecking order, and students of the arts, humanities and letters are at the bottom.

The University has established a society centered around the academic culture of old Earth. Senior academicians control the state, setting policy and performing day-to-day administrative chores. Lesser academicians do most of the teaching and oversight of research. Students do most of the actual work of research. Finally, there is a large class of non-academics who do support work, growing the food, obtaining the resources, manufacturing and maintaining the equipment needed by the academic elite.

Life in University is comfortable, but not luxurious. Economic surpluses are normally dedicated to laboratory or manufacturing facilities, not to luxuries for the elite. Even "non-academic" citizens receive sufficient living space, food, and entertainment. Class distinctions in University society tend to be social, not economic (although they are no less strong for all that).

University is primarily interested in being left alone, and will coexist happily with other civilizations so long as they do not impinge on the University's interests. It tends to be hostile toward factions which are driven by "religious" ideologies – the Disciples and Cargo Cults in particular.

Of the official societies, only Organized Crime, the Darwinians and the Transcendental Worshippers are hidden. Among the unofficial ones, all are there and relatively open.

Common Name: Academics

Benefits: Academics all have an Academic special ability. It functions as Programmer and one specialization of Researcher professions at level 4. They also gain one extra Twist per game to be spent on Comprehension.

Inspector Status: Equivalent to FBI, RCMP and Customs Inspectors.

Core Values: Rational Inquiry and Free Flow of Information

Rational Inquiry means an Academic will aim to augment knowledge, resolve doubt, or solve a problem, by using rational and logical means. Typically this means gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence through observation or experimentation and subjecting it to reason. This Core Value can be added to attempts to win over others in scientific debate and argument, or persuade them of the benefit of the scientific method.

Free Flow of Information is the Academics dedication to the uncensored flow of information on public, academic and scientific issues. This means the CV can be added to attempts to persuade others not to lie, cover up or otherwise obscure information. This also means they abhor censorship and other restrictions on information.

University As a Society

Not everyone who attends University stays and becomes a citizen – many graduate and leave, returning to their home worlds and civilizations. Those that have graduated and moved on are frequently members of the University Alumni Society. While they do raise funds for University (among other things), it is largely a social organization.

Benefits: Increase Cognitech or Stringtech by 1. This may increase it over their civilization's maximums without suffering a reduction in Import.

Core Value: Rational Inquiry means an Alumn will aim to augment knowledge, resolve doubt, or solve a problem, by using rational and logical means. Typically this means gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence through observation or experimentation and subjecting it to reason. This Core Value can be added to attempts to win over others in scientific debate and argument, or persuade them of the benefit of the scientific method

The Consciousness believes that superior intelligence requires a mastery or rejection of emotion. They believe that only the full use of human intelligence, boosted by cooperation with machines, will be enough to ensure human survival. Their ideal of perfect rationality requires that hatred, greed, and the lust for power be excised (along with love, compassion and joy).

Members of the Consciousness are trained to use cool, clear logic as the basis for all decisions. While this does not prevent disputes, it does permit them to cooperate efficiently without much thought for individual pride or ambition.

The Consciousness and its members are devoted to the quest for knowledge. They are superb researchers, tireless and removed from emotional concerns. They work well with computers and other machines. When advanced computer technology becomes available, they embrace direct interface between their own minds and machine intelligence. They are also very good at understanding and assimilating technology developed by others.

Even the most dedicated "cyborgs" find it difficult to discard all emotional awareness. Members of the Consciousness are often troubled by (sternly repressed) emotional turmoil. At times their logic can fail and they will behave unpredictably. They often have difficulty maintaining healthy personal relationships among themselves.

The fact that the Consciousness has rejected all emotions, including the "positive" ones such as love or compassion, makes its members seem aloof and slightly inhuman to members of other civilizations.

The Consciousness offers a paradoxical lifestyle to its "units." On one hand, it makes no concessions to human sentiment or artistic expression, considering those things part of the animal heritage it hopes to expunge. On the other hand, it recognizes that its units are most effective when they are well-fed, have comfortable shelter, and have plenty of opportunity for social interaction. Consciousness cities are stark places, untouched by art or beauty, but they do offer a rich social and intellectual life.

Consciousness society is an absolute meritocracy. Whoever has the most relevant expertise is deferred to in any given situation. Aki Zeta-Five is the current Prime Function of the Consciousness simply because she is more dispassionately intelligent than any other member. Her authority has nothing to do with personal charisma or political legitimacy, and indeed if another unit displayed greater intelligence she would step down without a qualm.

One quirk of Cyborg society is its difficulty with romantic relationships. The Consciousness is deeply ambivalent toward love and sexual passion. It recognizes that these emotions have a role in propagating the species, but it regards them as insidiously dangerous to the ideal of perfect emotional detachment. The Consciousness recognizes no institution of marriage, and indeed discourages men and women from forming lasting pair-bonds at all. Those who do face subtle discrimination, and often take to hiding their relationship from others.

Units of the Consciousness have a "common name" which is usually drawn from a human language, followed by a "unit designator" which is composed of the name of a letter from the Greek alphabet followed by a one-digit number. The unit designator is somehow related to the member's position within the faction, but the rule is not obvious to those not participating in the Consciousness (the Prime Function, for example, is not "Alpha-One" or anything similar).

The Cybernetic Consciousness is ruthlessly pragmatic, willing to make or break alliances with every shift in politics. Their closest ties are usually with the Logicians, with whom the Consciousness shares many goals and ethical values. They also get along tolerably well with the Mechanicans, but find it difficult to deal with the emotional cyborgs. The Consciousness is bitterly opposed to theocratic civilizations such as the Disciples and most Cargo Cults.

All of the official societies can be found there except the Artisans and Darwinians. Among the unofficial, only the Mushashi Flex cannot be found there.

Common Name: Cyborgs, The Consciousness

Benefits: Cyborgs are immune to emotional appeals, and to any use of the Romance plot score. They also receive a free neural mesh regardless of their Cognitech score.

Inspector Status: FBI, RCMP or Customs Inspector

Core Values: Mind Over Matter and Logic.

Mind Over Matter – Cyborgs are convinced of the supreme power of intellect over everything else.

Logic allows citizens of the Cybernetic Consciousness to avoid any attempts to persuade them which rely on intuition, illogical arguments, or emotion.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
Aleister Crowley

As the Diaspora surged forth from the Solar system, depositing humans everywhere they could find a world, wealthy adherents of hedonism (believing that pleasure or happiness is the highest good) decided to establish a colony centered around that ideal. Using the best in robotics, artificial wombs and psychohistorical engineering and selection techniques, they set out to create Hedonia.

The world they settled, was with minor terraforming, perfect. With only .7G, 2 beautiful moons, slightly higher atmospheric oxygen than Earth, a compatible biosphere, wonderful mild weather and perfect beaches Crowley is a beautiful world. The only drawbacks were the size of some of the indigenous life and that wild fires are dangerous. The physical realities of it means that even puddles have waves on Crowley and that there are more and larger flying life forms than on Earth. Cyrenopolis was the landing site and the first capital, today Tännsjö is the capital.

The biggest challenge of the social engineers was to build a society where pleasure was the highest goal for everyone and not have it fly apart into anarchy or devolve into something else. Keeping this in mind, they set up expert systems and recruited bonsai AI's as the experts for its government (later, Stored were also recruited). They then used a lottery system to pick the representatives and executives of the government, and recruited heavily for the judicial branch. The body of the government, was encouraged to be as efficient as possible – with financial rewards for promptness and positive customer comments, and penalties for negative comments. After some initial bumps, the comments were weighted for the customer's receiving a benefit or a penalty from the functionary. In short, Hedons take care of their bureaucrats and reward efficiency.

The biggest hurdle was the differences in what one considered pleasurable. Rock climbing for one is a wonderful exhilarating experience. Another might find it simply terrifying. And on and on. Enforcing one type of pleasure for their society is impossible, but they did make it possible for any form of pleasure that did not hurt an unwilling participant to be within reach. Thus the laws of the society are fairly loose when it comes to personal behavior, strict for harming others without permission (up to and including obstructing the view (pollution, building without permits)).

The Hedonian education system makes this possible. It is entirely centered around the idea that “Facts are stepping stones in the ford to pleasure.” Thus, Hedons are very well educated, both conventionally and hedonistically (methods of pleasure, drawbacks, minimizing drawbacks, etc.). This is a continuous educational process and surprises outsiders at the extent and depth of it.

Freedom From Morality Class - Healthy amorality doesn't happen naturally

The Hedon founders and their hired pyschohistorical engineers were firmly of the opinion that the human brain tends toward moral commandments. Early attempts using (then) advanced neurological techniques to counter it produced temporary sociopaths – they did not even attempt genetic engineering. So they contented themselves with cultural and educational modifications, and the Freedom From Morality classes are the result.

Freedom From Morality classes do not teach immorality – in the eyes of a Hedon, compulsive breaking of moral commandments is just as dysfunctional compulsively obeying them. They teach students to not associate right or wrong, with things, thus producing the (in)famous amoral Hedon attitude.

It also contributes to their ability to tell the difference between fun and love. Because of this and the attitude “Facts are stepping stones in the ford to pleasure,” no Hedon will ever make much of a romantic.

Despite its eccentricities in the eyes of the other human civilizations, Hedonia is a stable pleasant place to live. It is officially its most egalitarian culture. It is among the top places to visit for those that can afford to go. The cities are exciting because the Hedons live in their streets. Just walking through a Hedon town is joyful: sculptures and murals, interesting sounds, gardens of every kind, friendly people. The streets wind, to forestall the temptation to hurry.

Clothing is another infamous aspect of their civilization. In their mild climate, aside from sandals, clothes are for support or decoration only. Hedon utility clothing, worn for work or exercise, consists of low soft boots and pajamas with many pockets.

Their art is popular, if not critically acclaimed. It tends more towards pleasant amusement than clear statement. As a result, there is nothing there that would make a listener, viewer, participant or reader uncomfortable.

In terms of families, there is no Hedon stereotype. Families range from single parents, to group families, traditional and modern raising swarms of children. Even polyamory works because they consider jealousy a socially humiliating form of mental illness. Not as bad as pedophilia, but right up there with compulsive nose picking.

Which brings up their attitude towards morality and morals. To Hedons, “morals” is a dirty word. They sometimes say it where others would say “primitive,” or “self-defeating.” To them, all three concepts are the same. It all is considered a form of mental illness to them to be treated with kindness, concern and consideration, but not to let the holders hurt themselves or others. Because of this, Hedons are considered very accepting. One particular form of mental illness they deal with is stress. They think its caused by not enough sex, and will offer to help deal with it.

Because of their unique attitudes, benefits and environment Hedons are very unlikely to spread beyond Crowley. While they are specialized, this does not mean they are defenseless. There are individuals in the population that do derive pleasure from a military or warrior lifestyle, and the Hedon government has carefully channeled them into it for centuries. They even use cryogenics to set them aside for later if needed.

Hedonia is a popular civilization to visit among the rest of humanity. Everyone save the Logicians gets along with them, and all save the Old Worlders, some Cargo Cults and the Disciples like them.

Of the societies, all can be found here, though most Hedons wonder about the Sleepers, but understand the impulse to stick around to see what happens next.

Common Name: Hedons

Benefit: Hedons receive the Courtesan and Athlete Professions at level 4 for free and may improve them as normal professions. Hedon characters must choose a specialty for the Athlete Profession at character creation.

Inspector Status: Equivalent to local police due to potential cultural conflicts.

Core Values: Sensation and Hedonism

Sensation holds that the universe is a vast, fascinating place and there to be experienced. This CV means that the Hedons will seek out enoyable experiences and avoid boredom. It can be used to tolerate painful or unpleasant experiences. "To enjoy the flavor of life take big bites" sums up much of their belief on this.

Hedonism means that the Hedons hold that only what is pleasant or has pleasant consequences is intrinsically beneficial. Thus, they try to advance that for themselves and others. This means they work towards good government, pleasant conditions, human rights, as well as the ability to have a really good time. This means the CV can be used to help Hedons advance a good cause, as well as a party or other pleasant experience.

Originally begun as a careful recreation of medieval Aquitaine with the benefits of modern technology, its moved away from that. The initial colonists used neural mesh and lenses to avoid 'slips' out of character, thus setting the tone for the colony and future generations. Careful genetic engineering and psychohistorical engineering ensured that it would be an Aquitaine as it never was: a place dominated by romantic troubadours and dueling bravos, where all the women are beautiful and honor is the highest currency. It was filled with enseingnamen, gratz and espiritu, (honor, grace and spirit respectively) as well as full of brutal misogyny, cruelty and lives wasted for a very narrowly defined ideal. Especially the women – they didn't really count.

It is a place where duels are fought with equal passion over insults and artistic views alike. It is also a civilization that uses modern transport, automation, medicine, information technology and weapons, specifically the neuroducer.

Duels on Nou Occitan are typically fought with modified neural induction weapons (neuroducers), where they can induce specific sensations. Normally, these area favorite of riot police because they hurt, and infrequent exposure doesn't cause problems. On Nou Occitans, they are a common melee weapon in the form of less lethal rapiers, daggers and swords. Frequent exposure causes the body to hallucinate long term injuries (like duelist's eyebrow or loser's grin) that can only be countered with long term hospital treatment. Or a neural mesh with a specific lens. Repeated exposure is dangerous though – it can cause a victim to hallucinate him or herself into a stroke or heart attack.

Because of this psychohistorical engineering it is also a place with an astoundingly high child and adolescent mortality rate due to accident, violence and suicide. Children are actively encouraged to break the rules, but as many Occitans have noted, the survivors had a great time. This is ironic since they have a fairly low reproduction rate and value and spoil their children during the early years. The intent is to create the male bravos and artists that the originators wanted.

On reaching adolescence and passing a series of tests, adolescents become jovents (young men) and donzelhas (young women) and are emancipated from their parents, become eligible for a allowance from the government (a niggardly thing that encourages them to seek other sources of income) and able to live in the quartier des jovents quarter of their city.

A quartier des jovents is a place of art, honor, passionate love affairs, duels and taverns. The art is frequently bad, the honor strained at best, the love affairs passionate as only teenagers can be. The taverns are good though. An uglier side of this is the use of neuroducer weapons for rape by the jovents.

Noble titles are awarded by lottery and have specific public duties and appearances that the nobility must keep up. The real government is by meritocracy with an automated system of placement and promotional exams for Occitans that tire of the life of the jovent and leave the jovents quarter. These become the bureaucracy that actually runs the civilization. Oddly, there is a tradition of scholarship for these former jovents and donzelhas, primarily in the social sciences (history, literature, economics, etc.) but also some very good psychohistory and engineering.

Nou Occitan was a violently creative, chauvinistic and flamboyant culture. It still is artistic, creative and flamboyant, but it isn't as chauvinistic or violent as it once was. Since recontact, Nou Occitan has had to undergo radical change, with the willing help of the civilization's youth and government.

For one, they learned much of their history was a fabrication to perpetuate their worldview and ensure the that it continued in the directions the founders wanted. Then as the jovents discovered what others lived like, they decided they wanted life like that, especially the women. Making matters worse (or more embarrassing – there is very little difference for an Occitan) was that their government had known this but not told them or altered the curricula of the schools.

One near revolution later, and a multitude of social reforms (including the donzelhas taking up arms, typically less lethal weapons like neuroducer dart guns, dazzle weapons and the like), Nou Occitans is fairly nice place much sought out for its art and romantic atmosphere. The quartier des jovents is still a lively place, but now no one is forced to go there. Duels still occur, but the Infosphere is just as often a duelling ground as the real world.

The look and feel of Nou Occitans is thoroughly medieval, but takes full advantage of modern materials and technologies. Lights and advertisements are designed not to reflect up into the sky and obscure the stars. Clothing has many medieval touches with tunics, tights and liripes for the men, and elaborate dresses for the women, but it now has quick and easy access and is much more comfortable than it looks. No matter the look, it is said an Occitan can make a potato sack look fashionable with a bit of preparation.

Their world, Wilson, a well terraformed planet with only one subcontinent and a host of islands, is nice. Almost a garden, but one with a wilderness look to it. As a result Wilson has some of the most spectacular scenery in the human diaspora.

For most of its history, Nou Occitan only had a planetary police force (a thankless task on this world of fierce individualists). With recontact and the realization that not all of the human civilizations are friendly, they established a military – the Legion Occitane. While non-natives may make fun of their uniforms, they are a reliable and competent force that works closely with the police (they view them as their eyes and ears on the ground – the police view them as the heavy hitters), and for planetary defense.

They've made a name for themselves, thanks to their art, literature and dramatic social reforms. The beautiful scenery and the excitement of the quartier des jovents makes for a wonderful tourist trade. On the whole, the get along well with the Masquerade, Independents and the Tao (negotiations by the Tao for the rights to create entertainments based on their history have helped there). They also get along well, but with some reservations, about the Replicants and Stored. The Logicians, Union, Stardwellers and Mechanicans unnerve them though.

All of the societies except the Group Minds, Sleepers and Hyperevolutes can be found among the Nou Occitans. All of the unofficial societies can be found there, especially the Mushashi Flex.

Common Name: Occitans

Benefit: Occitans receive an extra Twist at the beginning of each session, which they may only spend through Romance, Intrigue, or Magnetism.

Inspector Status: FBI, RCMP or Customs Inspector equivalent.

Core Values: Because of its unusual psychohistoric and social design, Nou Occitans typically will pick 2 Core Values from from Honor, Spirit and Grace. This allows for a dynamic and stable society.

Honor is the code of integrity, dignity, and pride, among Occitans, maintained by force of arms and scathing wit. This means the CV is used to fight back against insults (real and perceived) by the recipient. It also makes it very hard for the Occitan not to fight back against the insults. Usually found among Occitan bravos, duelists and raconteurs.

Spirit is vigor, courage, firmness of intent to the Occitans. This means that it is used to bear up under difficult circumstances and persevere in the face of opposition – be it physical or social. This is commonly found among the artists of the civilization.

Grace has a dual meaning for Occitans. First, it is the seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion that they possess and can be used to charm, impress and other social actions. It is also the disposition to be generous show goodwill and mercy – even when vengeance is appropriate. Historically, this was a female virtue, but now it is widely found throughout the Nou Occitan civilization.

While it has no central government, a powerful oligarchy of Major Houses sets the tone of its diplomacy with the rest of humanity. There is no centralized military, but the various forces belonging to the separate Houses create enough of a deterrent to possible invaders (and law enforcers). Besides, the helpful citizens of Jackson's Whole will sell their services in any case …

Jackson's Whole is a cold and mountainous world, temperate only at the equator with a notable axial tilt making the seasons alternate between springlike and very cold. Most weather involves some form of wind, snow or sleet, and is part of what drives the Deal – people need shelter and warmth. All of the Major Houses have some establishment on the surface, ranging from mildly fortified to extremely fortified, as do most of the Minor Houses.

Freiporto
Freiporto is the most famous (or infamous) city on the planet. It is the only one not dominated by a House (unless you count Freiporto itself), and provides a safe neutral ground for the others to meet and outsiders to do business with the Jacksonians in relative safety – it is the only place on Jackson's Whole that purchased arrest orders will not be enforced (though if a Freiporto administrator finds the arrest order legitimate it will be carried out). Because of this, it is where embassies from outside civilizations are established. On the downside, disturbing the peace and most forms of free expression are ruthlessly policed and punished with fines. If a fine cannot be paid, the the offender is expelled, or if they have a mesh, work it off under a lens. Also, being a vagrant here is grounds for expulsion.

Being descended from criminals all over the human diaspora, Jacksonian culture is a mishmash. They have common language – the Jacksonian Patois, which can barely be understood by most outsiders, given its shifting vocabularies and deliberate attempts at obfuscation by its speakers.

Architecture leans towards fortresses or a neo-brutalist style. What decorations Jacksonians have are inside the buildings (and thus the defensive perimeter). There they tend to as opulent as the owner can afford, and not always that tasteful. “As garish as Jacksonian magpie nest” is a common saying among the outer galaxy.

Clothing tends to be utilitarian, with the wealthier Jacksonians being made out of higher quality materials and having some decorative elements. Color is very important to Jacksonians – the Houses use three color combinations as badges of membership.

A House on Jackson's Whole begins as an association of individuals that all made a Deal to be a House; it is something between a business corporation, a 20^th century Mafia family and a 21^st century Eastern European mafiya. After that first generation, the core of the House is usually a specific family or group of families, with additions by the Deal.

Houses generally have a single ruler, who holds power through a mixture of ability, experience, craft, and cold-blooded ruthlessness. There will invariably be rivals who would be delighted to replace him. Most Houses have several sub-divisions and departments, which cooperate with varying degrees of effectiveness, thanks to the prevailing culture. In all honesty, it is the ruler of the House and his or her advisers opinions that matter and shape House policy. Each House is autonomous to itself, with its own laws and customs, but generally falling within the limits of Jacksonian Law.

Jackson's Whole is currently home to 93 Great Houses (or Houses Major), and countless Houses Minor, the distinction being wealth, influence and military might. The Great Houses are usually significantly more powerful than the Houses Minor (and if they become less powerful than a House Minor, that House is not long for the world). A very old or very powerful House Minor can often claim the honors of a House Major, and be given due respect and bargaining weight by the Great Houses.

The oligarchy of the Houses forms what government there is on Jackson's Whole. So far all they have agreed upon is to keep other civilizations from annexing them or otherwise compromising their unique way of life.

The Underclass
On Jackson's Whole, belonging to some sort of organization which can provide shelter, backing, finances, and firepower is vital. For most of the locals, this would be a House. Any sort of rank inside a House, however menial, is preferable to existing as part of the underclass outside the Houses. A House's associations can reach seamlessly down to the lowest levels of society, involving street gangs and informers: should they perform well, they can hope to be formally absorbed into the House.

Those outside the House system have no guarantees of protection, shelter, or food: they lack the money to be able to obtain the tools to do better for themselves, whether weapons or ships. The only hope for an them is to provide some skill or service to a House, and to earn a place in their ranks. Other than that, there are no civic measures to care for the poor – and nobody who is interested in their plight. While many of them would dearly love to leave, transport is expensive, and outsiders can only rarely earn enough money for it.

The Law

Jackson's Whole follows five precepts:

• The Deal – Once a Deal is established, both parties must fulfill their sides of the bargain.
• The Golden Rule – Whoever has the gold makes the rules.
• The Eleventh Commandment – Thou shalt not get caught.
• Caveat Emptor – Buyer beware.
• Property Rights – even when they extend to human beings.

The Deal
There is only one thing sacred on Jackson's Whole: The Deal. There are no laws, no automatic rights, no protection for the weak, and no government. Only the Deal can set boundaries and establish rules to be followed. Without a Deal, everyone is alone, and nobody can be trusted. Whether it is the usual Deal of belonging to a House, or some personal Deal involving private profit, every citizen of Jackson's Whole understands that the Deal is sacrosanct. Once a Deal is established, both parties must fulfill their sides of the bargain.

Unless the Deal gets broken later, for a greater profit. But then, this is Jackson's Whole – everything is for sale.

A Deal usually begins with the fact that both parties have something to offer which interests the other, and the phrase, "Let's Deal." In the discussion leading up to this, it is good Jacksonian etiquette to state that if the answer to a question matters, then it is information for sale or trade, not free. When a conclusion is finally reached, both sides may state that, "It's a Deal." It is not uncommon for a certain amount of short-changing to take place in the later payoffs, where one side believes that they can get away with it, but total betrayal is unusual. Though not impossible.

There is no such thing law between the Houses on Jackson's Whole, only Deals. If an individual has the allies or power to back up his or her wishes, then he or she can do as he wants on his own territory. However, when interacting with other civilizations, some of the planet's basic principles are generally quoted as law.

The most frequently mentioned of these rules is that property belongs to the person who paid for it; this will be enforced by any local Jacksonian authorities as long as the buyer has the finances to pay for it. This applies to all intellectual, physical, and potentially claimable property, while on Jacksonian territory – including replicants created for specific purposes. When off Jacksonian territory, such claims may be put forward through the nearest Jacksonian consulate, upon payment of suitable sums to whichever House is operating it. Generally, this is good for amusing or infuriating judges unless it is very well documented or presented in an extremely persuasive manner. Alternatively, the Jacksonian's "moral" right to "property" may be dealt with by using force to fetch said "property" back, irrespective of the laws of whatever planet the "property" is currently inhabiting. Because of the gap between Jacksonian law and the rest of the human universe, many Houses use the second option.

One extension of that is replicator immortality. Unlike the Replicants that make it available for all, the heads of the Houses keep it for themselves, their favorites and those that are willing to pay and keep it secret. As a result, there is a thriving trade in the wealthy visiting Jackson's Whole for 'The Treatment' and returning home with careful plastic surgery, or leaving it all to a 'long lost relative.' Most governments consider this a form of suicide (and thus the new person a non-person, or simply a new person), and the Replicants and the Stored find it disgusting and reprehensible.

Arrest Orders
The most visible application of the Golden Rule is arrest Orders. On any Jacksonian territory, except Freiporto, "arrest orders" can be purchased by anybody who wishes to lay charges against someone else. The cost varies, depending on the severity of the crime, the probable ease of arrest, and how rich the bidder appears to be. When caught, the person who is being arrested can outbid the person who bought the arrest order, and is always offered the opportunity to do so. If the purchaser is not outbid, then he will be taken to the nearest Jacksonian prison, and held there until the purchaser can collect him. The purchaser can withdraw the bid at any time, but will lose the deposit. The hirelings sent to arrest the target usually carry less lethal weapons (shock-sticks or vibro-clubs, electrolasers, neuroducers and webbers). There are surcharges for unsuccessfully resisting arrest, to be paid by the target: these consist of any money he has on him, or failing that, a thorough beating.

Once Jackson's Whole emerged as a minor civilization, the rest of humanity collectively shrugged its shoulders. To most, Jackson's Whole is barely a step above a Cargo Cult (an erroneous but understandable impression), and an obnoxious one at that. The Transcendentals have been unusually closemouthed about the Jacksonians, but they do (generally) pay their patent fees on time. Patent Office Inspectors have been repeatedly dispatched to inquire into and deal with this, and other issues.

Psychohistorically, Jackson's Whole is very fragile – it has only a single identified core value. A single CV indicates a lack of cultural cohesion - the only thing they have holding themselves together is that they are Jacksonians. Its not something you can assemble a complex and subtle set of values around. Forecasts have it dissolving into civil war, consolidating under one House (with or without the civil war), popular revolution, splitting into competing minor civilizations or Cargo Cults, collapsing entirely or declining into just another organized crime society.

Jacksonians get along with all civilizations – so long as they pay in advance and in cash. More seriously, being from Jackson's Whole is a reason for careful inspection by custom's inspectors. The Association of Eternal Life, does not care for the Jacksonians at all given their attitude towards replicants. It seems to be one of the few things that they and the Stored have in common. Everyone else watches them carefully for industrial espionage and hired espionage. Taoist historians are in negotiations with several Houses Major and few Houses Minor for access to their records about the founding, as they are considering it for a possible entertainment.

All societies from the core book can be found on Jackson's Whole, though it seems redundant to mention that organized crime isn't hidden there. Survivalists, Mushashi Flex, Social Engineers and Cognitechnicians are also found here.

Common Name: Jacksonians

Benefit: Gangster at level 4. This can function as either the Criminal, Crisis Control or Soldier Professions and can be improved as a normal profession, but at the cost of two Potential per level.

Inspector Status: No regular status. Only individual Deals with Houses.

Core Values: Profit

Profit is what drives Jacksonian society and individuals. They can use this to resist attempts to give up attempts to profit in transactions, or not create opportunities to profit.

Morganites are devoted to free-market capitalism. They are strongly libertarian in outlook, advocating the right of individuals to make free economic choices, enter into contracts, and hold property. This leads them to prefer democratic forms for society, at least in theory. In practice, they have revived the old distinction between "shareholders" (who have a vote in policymaking) and "employees" (who are generally required to do as they are told). Thus while all Morganites are theoretically equal, the wealthy wield much more social power and influence.

Previously, it was worse – in fact several hundred years after the establishment, the one share, one vote method it used threatened to bring about revolution by those disenfranchised under the system. The corporation changed their method of voting – now shares vote logarithmically (1 share, 1 vote; 10 shares, 2 votes; 100 shares, 3 votes) with each citizen being a shareholder on birth (or completing immigration) with 1 share.

Also, social institutions and customs have evolved to curtail the worst excesses of the system. Debt slavery is still legal, but not practiced. Memetic assault could be used as a tool for business, but it isn't thanks to the widespread Responsible Meme Society (though those visiting Morganite cities claim its far from the case – the level of advertising there can stun a person). Private police and security forces could be littler more than thugs, but the Police and Security Regulation Bureau and competing police rating agencies keep them from devolving into that.

The Morganites are usually willing to deal with any other civilization. They will approach othersoffer trade or contracted services, willing to ensure that both sides benefit. Naturally, the Morganites are sharp dealers and will strive to win advantage out of every transaction for themselves.

Morganites are usually wealthy, in material goods, intellectual property and in energy. They are very good at extracting profit, both from the exploitation of natural resources and from trade with other factions. A stereotypical Morganite is as slick as fresh diamondoid, able to sell vacuum to a Spacer, and make money off routine transactions with the Union. The same stereotype has that Morganite fulfilling any contract entered into freely and complying with the law, sometimes grudgingly, but complying.

Much of the Morganite economy is devoted to luxuries and consumer goods. As a result, they are unable to maintain large military forces. In any case, individual Morganites make poor soldiers and usually try to avoid military service. As a result, they hire much of their military from outside their civilization and are always on the lookout for reputable mercenaries.

Children are an economic liability under the Morganite social system. Children need to be fed, clothed, and educated at their parents' expense, and by the time they reach adulthood they become "independent" (and so make no economic return to their parents). As a result, Morganite communities tend to have relatively low populations. Because of this, many Morganite parents, club together forming creches for savings and economies of scale.

The Morgan way of life is more opulent than most. All but the most chronically unsuccessful Morganites enjoy spacious living quarters, plenty to eat, comfortable clothing, sophisticated entertainments and objets d'art. Naturally, these vary in quality depending on price. An ordinary citizen lives much as a middle-class American might have done before the great disasters on Earth. The CEO Morgan Industries and his fellow tycoons live lives of unimaginable luxury.

In theory, the Morganites have their elected officials to administer the colony charter. In practice, most decisions of any importance take place in corporate boardrooms. Since almost all citizens hold stock in one or many corporations, they have at least some voice in public policy through shareholders' meetings. Of course, the great tycoons hold thousands of times as many shares as any one ordinary citizen, so their influence is considerably greater.

There is a dark side to the Morganites' glittering capitalist utopia. Business competition is almost completely unregulated, and involves all manner of underhanded dealings. Meanwhile, those who are unwilling or unable to hold a job receive no charity, and are likely to be forced out, if not supported by a "productive" citizen. Some citizens manage to survive only by taking dangerous or degrading work (medical test subjects, prostitutes, gas mining, and so on). Morganites, regardless of class, can't rely on anyone but themselves and their family. And sometimes, not even them. Even those in the upper echelons don't rest easy, because there is always someone waiting to pull you down. That stereotypical Morganite mentioned earlier is always scheming, looking for some personal advantage in every transaction..

Every society in the core rules can be found in Morganite controlled space, especially the Hospitallers, High Society and Hyperevolutes. All of the unofficial societies can found there as well.

Common Name: Morganites

Benefit: Morganite at level 4, which can function as either Finance, Politics or Media, and it may be improved as a Profession, but at the cost of one point of Potential for one level. They also receive a +1 to Metatech to persuade, and resist persuasion thanks to growing up in one of the most ad soaked societies in the galaxies.

Inspector Status: Equivalent to any other Morganite police force.

Core Values: Profit and Liberty

Profit is what drives Morganite society and individuals. They can use this to resist attempts to give up attempts to profit in transactions, or not create opportunities to profit.

Liberty keeps the Morganites from ever completely uniting – it also keeps them out from under other people’s thumbs. They may make alliances, even owe favors or take orders from outsiders, but they never give up their ability to act on their own. Alliance is acceptable; reliance is not. Morganites use this CV to avoid attempts to take away their self-reliance. It also helps Morganites resist any attempt to remove what they see as basic rights, and lets them argue more effectively against restrictions that might be put on their actions or selves.

Naturally, the Spartans have a strong military ethic, drawing inspiration from great military cultures of Earth's past: the original Greek Spartans, Roman legions, Mujahadeen, Gurkhas, Zulu, Masai, Normans, Rajput and the Japanese samurai. The ideal Spartan is strong, well-trained, utterly disciplined, and ready to die when the fortunes of war turn against him or her.

As might be expected, the Spartan way of life is a harsh and austere one. The Spartans practice eugenics, using genetic engineering, nanotechnology and cognitechnology to reshape any child or infant that is physically imperfect or shows mental weakness. This is an improvement – historically they practiced euthanasia or involuntary sterilization for those same types of children. Children spend most of their time in communal creches, where they receive intensive combat training along with their other education. Adults are assigned to military or paramilitary units, living in barracks. Even pair-bonded couples receive no private quarters until one of them reaches officer status. Until then, they must get permission (or sneak away) if they want to spend time together or with their children.

Spartan communities are built and organized as military bases. They are usually kept clean but hard-edged, full of bare metal and stone, with no works of art other than memorials to soften their austerity. They have few public spaces, other than meeting rooms, dining halls, game fields, drill fields and athletic arenas. Spartan citizens receive uniforms and equipment from the state, and can often carry all their personal possessions in a small pouch or backpack. At times they also engage in elaborate military ceremonies, designed to instill pride and loyalty to the state.

Spartans do enjoy entertainments, which usually involve intense athletic competition. Of note, their entertainments are either easy for everyone to follow (soccer, combat rugby), or technical (martial arts, shooting, blade work) and only really fun to the participants and other Spartans. Currently, Spartans have taken championships in classic, modern and military pentathlons and decathlons for the last 12 years.

Even 'non-military' Spartans receive basic military training and are expected to act and live in support of the Spartans and their military. This class split in their society is there, but anyone that meets the physical and mental criteria, and is willing to live under their rules for 15 years in the Legion can become a Spartan. The Legion is for those immigrating into their civilization and the upwardly mobile.

Spartans are are by far the most well-trained and motivated soldiers available. They take pride in being able to defeat the enemy even when working at a numeric or technological disadvantage. Their strong discipline also holds during times of peace (and has for centuries), reducing social unrest and making their military police units more effective. While they are no better at scientific research than any other civilization, they do have an uncanny ability to turn any new technology to military use. New weapons systems are thoroughly tested, and, if they pass, they push them into mass production, distribute them to their soldiers, and combined with tactical doctrines developed during testing, all much faster than others can manage.

Because of their views of things not connected to the military, the Spartans make extensive use of automation of repetitive tasks in their civilian sector. They also make extensive use of neural meshes throughout their society, particularly with competence lenses and similar things to make up for skills they lack and to make the boring more tolerable.

In theory, the Spartan state is a military dictatorship. Every citizen has rank and a fixed place in the chain of command, and disobedience can be met with harsh punishment. In practice, every command-grade officer has a personal staff of advisers, by which ideas and complaints can (and do) filter up through the hierarchy. Complicating it further is their tradition of resolving disputes through unarmed or knife dueling while off duty. This means that even a low level enlisted could challenge the Supreme Marshall over a matter, while off-duty. This provides a safety valve, other than mutinies or desertion, for dissent, as the winner is obviously more fit.

While the Spartans have their dissidents, most of them are committed to their way of life. Although their life is harsh, those who survive to adulthood know that they are among the strongest and most capable people in the universe. Spartans are a brutal and violent people, but they are also fiercely proud and loyal.

Since they re-emerged into the galaxy, the Spartans have discovered a host of foes and targets. In fact their conquest of several Cargo Cult worlds was what brought them to the attention of the other Civilizations. The comment of the Transcendentals on the Spartans was, “Ah, right on time.” After a form of peace was negotiated, the Spartans realized that any future wars would have to be more careful and measured. In the meantime they have earned a reputation as mercenaries of the first water. Spartan units are known as the best soldiers in the galaxies and worth the money. The fact it allows them to gather intelligence on possible foes and blood their troops 'safely' is helpful.

With their attitudes, the Spartans are not a well liked minor civilization. In fact, some of their clashes with the Independents and Mechanicans have nearly led to war. They have no allies, only enemies and employers – and would not have it any other way.

Darwinians, Heterolinguists, Hyperevolutionists and Organized Crime can all be found within Spartan territories, though some more openly than others.

Survivalists, Cognitechnicians, Social Engineers and the Mushashi Flex can be found from the unofficial societies on Spartan controlled territories.

Common Name: Spartans

Benefit: All Spartans receive Soldier at level 4.

Inspector Status: Advisory role only – equivalent to Interpol.

Core Values: Strong Over the Weak and Discipline

Strong Over the Weak means that the strong are those that survive and command in the universe. Because of that the Spartans will do their best to be the strong, though they are learning that there is more than just weapons and physical strength to measure strength.

Discipline allows Spartans to resist attempts to take them away from the Union or to make them disobey their superiors. Discipline helps mold the Spartan Federation into a cohesive whole by making resistance to legitimate authority an anathema to them. It can also be used to help them obey orders an individual Spartan doesn't care for.