02-09-2020, 01:23 AM
(02-09-2020, 12:37 AM)Drashner1 Wrote: In all fairness, this may be an area we need to revisit and do some tweaking to to make sure this diversity of views is more clearly written down vs possibly being more implied than stated or even operating more as 'tribal knowledge' within the OA community.
Since the start of OA the intent has always been that each empire has a sort of overarching 'memetic' - the point of view of its ruling Archailect - but that there is great variation within each empire as to how that memetic is interpreted and lived. The analogy that was usually given was the concept of 'Western Civilization' vs how that concept is interpreted in different ways as you look at different 'Western' countries. Or the concept of Christianity compared to the many different denominations and sects that exist under the umbrella of the term. Multiplied by millions given the scale of the OA setting.
It should also be noted that the different empires vary in how they operate and how closely they may follow the ruling Archailect's take on things. The Negentropy Alliance and the Solar Dominion (although hugely diverse in the diversity of the internal variations and interpretations of their memetic) are more centrally controlled and probably a bit closer to the traditional SF trope of an interstellar empire. On the other end of the spectrum, the NoCoZo ruler(s) take an extremely hands off approach as a matter of policy and places like the MPA or the Sophic League are somewhere in the very broad middle.
Regarding intra-empire diversity - maybe the existing Sephirotic Empire article can be tweaked slightly to emphasize it more. Off the top of my head, the CoWorlds, NoCoZo, Utopia Sphere, and Sophic League articles already mention that there are different interpretations of the core doctrine and factions within said empires.