The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





A lurker on this site, decided to finally introduce myself
#20
(02-08-2020, 09:31 AM)Madine Wrote:
(02-08-2020, 09:05 AM)SolarRider Wrote:
Quote:Drashner1
Speaking more generally, how is what you're describing significantly different from the other empires already in the setting? You seem to be making a point of saying that this civilization is different or unique in some or many ways from the rest of Terragen civilization, but I'm not really seeing that from the description provided so far. Can you help me understand better, please?
The plan is for the civ to have their own history, politics, cultures, tech(or variants of existing ones) and memes w/o interference from outside influence. As isolates, they are unaware or vastly ignorant of the greater terragen civilization and many have grown to fear or even hate them because the past major transgressions that occurred in the civilized galaxy. The ruling Archai who although is distant with eir subjects, created this indifference and intolerant towards the greater terragen civ because E eirself hate them especially the dominant archailects for the atrocities they commit. Now E doesn't want to seek their destruction but E rather distant eirself and eir civilization that e created. Eventually that attitude will change as E seeks diplomatic relations with the greater civilization and opens the border for trade, cultural exchanges and immigration so long as they abide by eir rules. The Civ is also multicutural and multicladal (if that the correct term) like the greater terragen sphere but on a smaller scale. There will be variants of existing clades with their unique history prior to the exodus as well as new clades that formed. The overall culture of the civilization will evolve drastically different from their main sphere cousins. Inhabitants of my civ will identify as different from terragens. They don't see themselves as terragens as for them the terragens are "corrupt demons", however they acknowledge that they are descendants of terragens. This is still a work in progress but this is main idea of their overall culture. What I plan to do is making the culture similar yet alien enough to make even the most alien, out of touch terragen individual from the greater civ to feel out of place in my civ.

Okay, I'm getting a little more info here, but I still don't feel I have clear picture of what this civilization is like. Right now they seem to mostly be defined by xenophobia towards other Terragens, but even xenophobic societies IRL have more traits than that. As for the last sentence: going from one star to another in the Sephirotic empires - or even moving from one habitat or computer core to another in the same solar system might make a Terragen feel out of place. Beyond all the void drives and baby universes, "ontologies" and other systematized protocols for translation and interaction between radically different sophonts are some of the most amazing inventions of the archai, because Terragens are so wild and diverse.

More generally - is there a generally shared religion or philosophy among this empire? Do they tend to believe in a common ideal of what the good life is (even if there are manifold expressions of that)?
They don’t have a shared religion due to various religion and cults that are practiced in the Civ. As for a major religion, many Modosophonts do see the transaps/Archai as guardians of their civilized society but never revered as gods. They are the elite of their society, an example every Modosophont should follow. They are what Modosophont should strive for and many will try to seek Ascension from the Transap. Transaps see Archai in a similar fashion as well. That why there many smaller policies across the Civ created by modosophonts and lower Transap because the Civ itself is sandbox and they want to achieve the same greatness as the major empires. Think of it as an mmo, where you have the noobs that will try to grind in order to be as good as the pro players. Inhabitants of this Civ will have that urge to grind for success. Ofc it doesn’t have to be carving an empire(many do end up failing) but it can also be minimal mundane thing like gaining a high position at a modo workplace. This is of course done at their leisure time since it a post scarcity society. For the economic side of the Civ, I do have to work more on that and do more research on post scarcity societies. That where the common philosophy ends. The Civ while united, has major differences and conflicts among themselves. Among the Modosophont bionts, there exist xenophobia between Humanoid clades and Extremophile clades. During the Early history of the Civ, a huge wave of Hu supremacy swept among the Hu majority worlds. Many Humanoids seeing Extremophiles as abomination of nature and a threat to humankind. They rejected pantropy, radical genetic engineering/cybernetics, neogenics, uplifting and encouraging terraforming world to be suitable for human life and creation of more space habitats suitable for humanoids. They viewed any provolves, splice, cyborgs, neogens, and  tweaks as Extremophile (or just not human in general) As a result of this sentiment shared by many hu (not all), a reactionary movement also sparked up among Extremo majority worlds, seeing Humanoids as inferior and biological primitive. Bitter conflict will result because of this and cause the creation of two empires: one siding with the humanoid clades, the other with them extremophile clades. It was formed by transaps who took sides in the biont feud. These two empires will later become two of the six superpowers or major empires of the the Civ. I promise that for these two, it not their core beliefs but rather their origin as I plan to flesh them more. As for Abiont or Ai descended being, many do support either side and even join on it however others just it as nonsense from the “meatbags”. There are also others who feel that there must be a separation between bionts and aioids. As someone mentioned in the forum, there is a difference between the evolution of biont & aioid. Both thrive differently and their psychics is radically different from each other. these Aioids will have beliefs similar to Ahumans but not as extreme. They believe that aioids should have their own spaces to thrive and develop away from biont inhabitanted space. However they still will form a beneficial and mutual relationship with them as long as they respect their space. They would end creating the third major empire. As for the other 3, I plan to have one of them be a theocracy with the common belief being a doomday religion. They become obsessed with surviving the end of the universe and insuring true immortality by ascending all its followers to becoming to one powerful godlike entity that can thrive even after the Black hole era. For the other 2, I’m still brainstorming.

If you guys have tips or guidelines on how I should make more unique traits for them, I would very much appreciate it.
Reply


Messages In This Thread
RE: A lurker on this site, decided to finally introduce myself - by SolarRider - 02-08-2020, 11:41 AM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)