Space crew based sci fi interest check

E

Ego

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I thought since my DnD check seems to go nowhere, I'd go with something more simple to test the waters with. Especially since most I've seen isn't to my specific tastes. Now, onto the story, if the pitch sounds good, chime in and with sufficient interest, say four or five people defos commited, I'll post it:


The year is 15608AD, humanity spread far and wide, as well as encountered numerous civilizations, made relationships, friendships and wars with them. Space, even this galaxy, however is far from explored, many a stone left unturned. The exploration of space is as dangerous and profitable as ever. Since it is too bulky, risky and too expensive to send a lone FTL equipped probe into unknown horizons, many a pioneer has set out to chart the new horizons first hand. Some stepped forward to lay claim to new habitable planets, others to hunt for ancient artifacts of civilizations long gone, while others try to seek themselves out. Much a similar task fell upon WES New Berkshire, a flexible, multitask ship, best defined as a cruiser. Built to be fully independent of any supply lines and with capability to support even if need be - generations spanning exploration. The ship has part enlisted military's crew and part civilian crew of their own qualifications.

Important plot points:
Tech:
The tech is similar to that of Battlestar Galactica or Homeworld, both in grand scale of fleets and personnel aspects, however unlike BSG small ships like fighters or corvettes cannot perform FTL jumps and they have to board a carrier ship beforehand. Also unlike BSG or even Star Trek, the FTL tech does not rely on a mystical plot convenient material, but rather on the ship's own nuclear reactors and jump drive emitting the required frequencies to envelop the ship in a FTL field, that are required for the jump to begin (so, much more akin to Homeworld). The universe has capital ships equipped with magnetosphere generators. In addition to being capable of providing adequate gravity throughout the entire ship, it also can envelop it to create a protective barrier that would protect it from most asteroid impacts and ordnance, however the technology should be considered inelegant and rather crude, thus not being end all be all and a lot of defense capabilities comes from the fighter and corvette squadrons, as well as close-in weapons systems.
Cultural:
The human experience of space exploration led humanity to be reputed as vikings of space. They've fought many a race, they've eradicated many a race and plundered as much technology as they could seek out. Once humanity left the safe haven of their solar system, it spread at an exponential rate, that led humanity to be considered a potent superpower. While the Viking-like invasion and carnage is gone for over two millennia now, it has shaped humanity as both adept and willing to fight. Humanity however is far from unified. Different countries still exist on Earth for more than just show, as well as insanely rich, multi trillionaire oligarchs buying entire planets and declaring their own sovereignties, becoming any kind of government they desire and either making them with their wit or breaking them with literal insanity. While the core systems are rich and have top marks in every positive aspect and freedom, the outlaying systems are by contrast generally poor, less educated and it's citizens considered second class, not allowed to settle back to the core systems. The resulting unfairness also propagated the rise of pirates, be it small bands of cutthroats and traffickers or an organized militia, that respond to their own governing body, with the protective force of the Outlaw League being known as The Spartans clan.
Races:
The races of this universe represent a vast difference of biology and ideology, their relation with humanity varying from being hated to being idolized. If to look at other sci-fis, the races that are most similar to the setting are found in Sins of the Solar Empire and Mass Effect (big surprise). Most prominently the kinds of races like the Advent (this universe's equivalent is genetically compatible with humans, the big difference apart from being pale is the commonality of psychic powers like types of kyneses and sixth sense - when focused being able to perceive their environment with their minds, such as incoming ship with a hostile intent), Vasari and Turians.

I will add more down in the thread, as soon as I get any further questions, so ask away for further clarity.
 
Hmm it seems interesting! I'd be down to try, I haven't done a lot of sci fi based stuff.
 
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Wow, I'll take a look at this, too. Sounds interesting!
Mind if I ask a few questions?

Will we be limited to being humans only, or should we pick alien races, too? Do we need to have had a prior career to end up on the WES New Berkshire, or could civilians be inbound, too?

Do you want us to 'flesh out' the universe with you, or should we be going in 'blind' - so that every new planet, ship class, race, etc is new?

But yeah, I'm in with irregular-neptune!
Sci-fi is a favourite genre of mine, so, I'm psyched.
 
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My apologies for not responding any sooner, alerts actually didn't warn me of posts in this thread or I was just too stupid to notice. D:
@irregular-neptune I really don't think this should be a problem. I don't intend to gauge experience in the genres. If you treat this as slightly more serious Space Station 13, you should be fine. Or if you don't know what it is, treat it as modern setting and you'll be on point.
@lepidoptera
A) I permit near any race, I'll publish some "superpowers" than one could pick from (or not, they're not all friendly to one another), and in the event nobody feels like choosing any of them, one can still make a character of their own race, but they'd be from a "minor" power, in other words, there's a lot less of them than other races and their colonies/military/influence is naturally a speck by comparison. In the context of this role play it doesn't really amount to much, only in the context if your character would be talking of their own race or nationality. Just keep in mind that whatever race they'd be, if they don't breathe oxygen, they'd still have to survive an atmosphere aboard the ship that's optimal for humans. I'd say their rooms would cater their atmosphere, but if life support gets downed, their prefered atmosphere will likely come back on line the last. So if you think something like Volus' atmospheric suits from Mass Effect, you should be on point. The only limitation I have so far will be the AIs. I may not even implement them at all, or if anyone wants to be AI, they'd have to go over the limitations and possible powers given.

B) Since its a mix of civilian and military crew, they can easily be prior crew or new arrivals. I intend to confer the title of XO to another player, but it's down to the player if they want themselves to be a "new transfer" or veteran crew member. Race-wise the crews of other races can easily be either military or civilian. Be it because they're experts in certain fields or have assignment as a learning experience aboard the ship, I want to leave as much leevay to open interpretation as possible.

C) You're free to use own lore for own races, the universe is large and varied. You can easily make own lore for a human faction. Like I mentioned oligarchies owning planets and systems are rather popular and range anywhere from ingeniously managed to utterly incompetent or in the middle of civil war, mass starvation, absolute liberty or a paranoid super police state, those choices are on the table. Otherwise I will try to detail the universe through exposition and you can add the leaves to the branches, so to speak.
 
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Hey~hey~^^!!

Interested!

But like here is the Boo Girlie s questions:


What is required:
~writing level?
~post frequency?
~face claim art style?
~max. number of RPers?

~Can we play multi charries?
~Is there dice/stats use?
~Discord for OoC?

Thanks ya!! ;DD
 
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Hi there, @Ego ! Thanks so much for your answers, and just so you know - I looked at your old D&D thread. I'd be willing to run a D&D 3rd Edition campaign after I'm a bit more familiar to the site, and if you're still interested then, maybe even a one-on-one? Give me a little time to mull it over. Anyway, this sounds AWESOME and you can consider me well and truly psyched!

Edited to note that yeah, sometimes alerts work and sometimes they don't? I've resorted to tagging people all the time which, well, might be annoying, but is probably better than letting things fade.
 
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@Boo Girlie BoomBoom
Hey~hey~^^!!

Interested!

But like here is the Boo Girlie s questions:


What is required:
~writing level?
~post frequency?
~face claim art style?
~max. number of RPers?

~Can we play multi charries?
~Is there dice/stats use?
~Discord for OoC?

Thanks ya!! ;DD

Writing level I ask of is fairly simple, if you can write at least a paragraph or two, you're g2g

I would expect a post once per one or two days at latest, not too fast, not too slow.

Face claim art style? I'm confused? If you mean the art type you could use, it's free to interpretation. I really think that bar some very key characters, the appearance doesn't show up other than general appearance.

I don't have a max number of RPers atm, I'm partially considering to keep an always open entry, so any less crucial characters could be posted by new people coming in.

Yes, you can play as multiple characters, so long as you can keep up with them and they're clearly distinct IC, be it the text color, different tabs, etc. I don't have any strict rules about it.

There's no stats per say, but dice may be a thing in the event of combat.

I've yet to see to making a Discord server for it, once I post the RP signup thread, I ~should~ have a discord server for people to discuss the RP.

@lepidoptera
I see about the notifications and I personally never did table version of D&D although for better or for worse I did watch some the 4chan greentext stories of some characters. I don't do it to make a greentext story out of it, I just find D&D stories highly entertaining.
 
@Boo Girlie BoomBoom
Hey~hey~^^!!

Interested!

But like here is the Boo Girlie s questions:


What is required:
~writing level?
~post frequency?
~face claim art style?
~max. number of RPers?

~Can we play multi charries?
~Is there dice/stats use?
~Discord for OoC?

Thanks ya!! ;DD

Writing level I ask of is fairly simple, if you can write at least a paragraph or two, you're g2g

I would expect a post once per one or two days at latest, not too fast, not too slow.

Face claim art style? I'm confused? If you mean the art type you could use, it's free to interpretation. I really think that bar some very key characters, the appearance doesn't show up other than general appearance.

I don't have a max number of RPers atm, I'm partially considering to keep an always open entry, so any less crucial characters could be posted by new people coming in.

Yes, you can play as multiple characters, so long as you can keep up with them and they're clearly distinct IC, be it the text color, different tabs, etc. I don't have any strict rules about it.

There's no stats per say, but dice may be a thing in the event of combat.

I've yet to see to making a Discord server for it, once I post the RP signup thread, I ~should~ have a discord server for people to discuss the RP.

@lepidoptera
I see about the notifications and I personally never did table version of D&D although for better or for worse I did watch some the 4chan greentext stories of some characters. I don't do it to make a greentext story out of it, I just find D&D stories highly entertaining.
Cools. Thanks for answers^^

Yeah face claim is the pic that represents your charrie. Style is like: Real, Anime, Comic, Digital, etc.

But k post speed is too fast for me and dice use is ewww. So imma pass but good luck with RP k ;DDD
 
@Boo Girlie BoomBoom tbf "dice combat" in spite of setting is by and large an optionality, that's dependent on GM events, not PvP, unless it becomes setting-centric, those who are respondent to events, get a go at it. The ship is meant to be big so there's far more things to do than combat.

That's just me explaining it a little further. Nonetheless, if it's not for you, it's entirely understandeable.
 
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Good luck elsewhere, Boo Girlie! But, @Ego - Worry not, I'll type fast enough for two players! (Probably. No promises.)
Anyway, I might post some more questions here, later. For now, one last one - basically, ultrasuperrich people owning their own planet/planets is fairly common amongst humans, right? And, theoretically, during the height of the viking age, they could've bought a planet... With other sentients on it?
(I've got an idea! It isn't done yet, but it's an idea!)
 
@lepidoptera
To answer your question... Well, here's the short and then the long answer:
Theoretically it's possible in the late "viking" era, when priorities started changing from purely military, to a more balanced military - civilian - commercial trifecta in terms of priority and influence.

Lorewise it goes that the viking epoch was one that was hardline expansionism. Right after that, the Trillionaire era began and their buying of own planets. Creating their own realms was something that was the aftereffect of exploiting new territories for resources and massive investments into the military-industrial complex. During expansion the fleet were more akin to commerce raider groups, keeping the fleet slim, but fast and relatively easy to replace, but new territories needed protection, which led to massive investment into a more defensive posture fleet and fleet reserves, more suitable for protracted warfare. Being a shipyard owner or a mining corporation was extremely profitable business at that time. It was damanding massive amounts of manpower, but also returning absurd levels of profit and wealth, previously unheard of. With the government wanting to recoup what they've spent and prepare more defensively, starting to propose the idea of selling some of the mofe fringe planets to the ultra-rich. The government would sell the planet and everything on it, including anyone who has settled to work on there or any sentient species that just happened to live on it, be it because they were conquered or simply glossed over due to being less advanced and thus "undiscovered" as a result.

What would be feasible to fit your idea would be the late expansion era, or rather the dusk the era, when things started feeling tad overstretched, and I may sound, like I am repeating myself, but I'm being specific about this period now:
It was a kind where almost everyone could foresee the change in military-industrial posture and invested in it for early profits, in order to be ahead of the curve in the trend. That's the time where commerce raiding and ground warfare was still a thing, but also it was glaringly obvious something needs to be done in order to keep the gained territories and overall security and sending the fleets even further would stretch the fleet so badly it couldn't handle any kind of meaningful retaliation. With manpower shortages in every sector ranging from food and raw resource operations to enlisted and drafted military personnel, things like preferring to put newly discovered or conquered alien races into protectorates, which could also be enlisted or drafted to do less information-sensitive and perhaps more mundane auxiliary roles became feasible enough to become the official policy. It was kind of like Roman Legions, who would allow foreigners fight for gaining the Roman citizenship.

The height of the era was when the fleet and manpower felt sufficient even if less technologically advanced with comparative races. Even with substantial territorial gains, it took a fair while to set up logistical outposts for the fleets and took even more time to colonize (and convince people to settle) the habitable planets. By and large it was not the time when ridiculously rich were in the position to bother the government to buy any planets.
Not that it was deemed viable initially, due to uncertainty of the prospects of keeping those territories and lack of confidence in fleets' ability to defend anything outside Sol and the systems of immediate vicinity, like Alpha Centauri. I mean a purchase of a planet could probably be done, but the way that the situation looked at the time, few people were confident that the fleet would protect them from the wrath of any alien race, that would be going on a retaliatory campaign. It would just go against the period-specific logic.
 
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Feel free to repeat yourself, lore is always awesome. It shows that you've got a lot of ideas for this setting, and that makes us interested, too! I'm still playing with 'do I wanna do an alien, and if so, how humanoid do I wanna go for, and if so - ' portion of character development, with a lot of ideas brimming in my mind, too.

I was kind of imagine something like the later-era Legions, to be honest. Where humanity had several loosely-aligned client races... Using another ME example, Turians + Volus. Since it's humanity, though, I'm thinking that a lot of the relations were - transactional, as well? Just good for business, as it were.

Finally - humanity only 'hard' controls it's immediate vicinity, yeah? (Meaning... Sol + Environs, Alpha Centauri, possibly listening points at places like Barnard's Star?) And it's safe to assume most of those are either terraformed, or have extensive habitation complexes?
 
I love this idea but I'm not super familiar with the shows you said as a sort of background for the tech. Despite this, I would still love to try this out.

Just a few questions first though:
  • Would pairs of characters be allowed, like a couple or siblings? I find I write a little better when I have two people bouncing off of each other
  • I have an alien that I love playing as so I would probably bring her into the mix, she's not very humanoid though but from her lore, there's a whole planet of her kind, so with this in mind, would she still be rather minor or no? I'm just kind of confused on that point
  • Is there any sort of restriction on plot things? Like no romance or no comedy? I've seen a couple like this where they fully removed certain plot ideas from the story and it all felt rather forced to me
Thanks so much, I really love this idea, I just want to understand a bit more.
 
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Zahara, if Ego nixes couples/siblings, let me know and I'd be willing to work out a 'people who know one another prior' type thing. Anything to get a bit more attention to this! Also...

Your avatar is, incredibly compelling...
 
Zahara, if Ego nixes couples/siblings, let me know and I'd be willing to work out a 'people who know one another prior' type thing. Anything to get a bit more attention to this! Also...

Your avatar is, incredibly compelling...
My avatar is amazing! Messed up Mickey stares into your soul. I totally will, thanks so much!
 
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@Zahara
-There are no restrictions on playing siblings at all. Personally I have roleplayed as pairs of people, be it monster hunter siblings, colleagues, AIs (yes), Student to mentor etc many times before and I know exactly where are you coming from. It helps to bring out the personality and chemistry of your character.
-I left "minor" races for people to invent, so I have no issue whatsoever with you guys using your own characters that you feel comfortable with, be it your own or your favorite fiction. I'd only really have an issue if the character was some kind of overpowered Mary Sue, but hearing that you prefer some inner banter with sibling characters, I would trust that you can present a reasonable character
-Lastly I don't have restrictions for Romance or Humor. Our world doesn't have such restrictions (save for awkward situations) and honestly this roleplay shouldn't either. I enjoy incorporating humor and varieties of it with my characters all the time.

@lepidoptera

I'd say client races are easily a workable thing, although such relations would really develop on the late "Viking" era and onwards, eventually humans warming up to the idea. No so much out of luxury, but out of necessity.

In the peak of that era the attitude that humanity had was based on the questions "Can they ever be a threat to us?", "Do they have any technology we can take?" and "Do they occupy territory of a significant importance to us?". A large part as per why humanity spread the way it did was because of overpopulation and risk of another civil war if things would go too stale again. The first civil war was between Earth and Mars, but that war was lost before it even began as Mars was still dependent on vital supplies from Earth. At that time all Mars had it's dome cities and the terraforming process was something that was just beginning for it. End result was actually worse conditions for the rebel planet. But back on territory stuff. Aside eventually getting overstretched, the other big reason why such territorial expansion stopped was because they finally ran into another superpower that they readily recognized as being about the same size as themselves, so there was no need to risk their gains and territories on an impulsive whim. That's when the policy really shifted to a defensive posture, anticipating an invasive force.

Territory-wise it would depend on the epoch you're asking. The time that the RP is to take place in is going to be somewhere around where there are the "core" systems that aren't just solid ground for humanity, but also the wealthiest places around that are a pleasure to live in. Outer worlds, however, while properly colonized, they don't enjoy such wealth as the core worlds, some faring better than others, but mostly it's "adequate" at best. As a result there is some friction between the core and outer, because it has people from outer territories be treated like second class citizens (quite literally, they're barred from settling back to core worlds), even though they're the ones who bring the bulk of wealth in terms of raw resources. It's kind of why it was intentionally decided to not confer the bulk of industry to the outer worlds, so that in the event of any one territory uprising, the core worlds wouldn't have much of technical difficulty in putting down a rebellion. No heavy industry, no hostile warships (something that was learned from Mars' uprising). As such, having a shipyard built in any one system is a sign that steps are taken to make it into the ranks of a core world. Meanwhile the oligarchies tend to live in generally secure yet backwater areas in which quite a lot of them managed to make their own little empire or completely ruin it through inbreeding and civil uprising.

Terraforming on the other hand is a kind of technology that's a little out of the grasp of humanity. I mean, yeah, they can do some simple operations, like turning inhospitable deserts, to arid, yet habitable planets, etc, but if the planet is too toxic, it's generally left alone. Note the word "too". Humans first colonized Venus by building floating cities in the upper atmosphere, slowly clearing it of it's toxicity and runaway greenhouse effect. It's kind of why humans historically preferred a ground invasion and conventional warfare over nuking everything they meet back to the stone age from orbit - habitable planets don't come by that easy.

Also I figured I'd drop one of the races I made for this universe about a year or so ago (I wouldn't be surprised if old errors exist in the text). just to give a suggestive idea, be it for RPing as such or something derived from this idea:

Cael Genus:
Cael Genus (Latin for Folk of the Sky, trying to denote their avian roots, albeit Cael is their word for their race as well) are an avian race, who’s most close relative on Earth is a heron. Their history and its pace is remarkably similar to that of humans, albeit the modern, space-age Cael Genus are famous for secrecy, solidarity and maintaining a strong, defensive policy, rather than being the space Vikings, that humans came to be. The most probable explanation to that may be the following piece of their history:
Several millennia ago, an unknown race have tried to manipulate the politicians of their race, breaking their planet down into a series of conflicts and revolutions, trying to maintain a poor, scientifically undeveloped society, serving as slave labor for the gold mines, which Cael Genus had plenty of, because the planetary crust of Man’Taar was extremely rich in gold. It was so rich in gold, that ever since the advent of gunpowder weaponry, gold was the mainstay metal used for the manufacture of bullets and other kinetic projectiles. However, the whole scheme backfired on the alien race, once an agent of theirs slipped up, and was captured by people not in their employ. Soon enough a base on the moon was discovered, and the machinate aliens were terminated, with the collaborator politicians being exiled to the moon… without oxygen or any supplies.

Main Government Title:
Commus a Cael

Capital:
Man’Taar (literal translation: Mother of Ours); Obers; Sango Vaarii

Political Structure:
Socialist Authoritarianism

Unique Technologies:
Genetic Engineering:
Genetic engineering is the very technology that saved the Cael Genus from the chains of slavery. After their equivalent of the First World War, a lot of terrain has been damaged by chemical warfare. While the First World War on Earth was a harsh war, it was not as focused on chemical warfare as it was on Man’Taar. Much of the surface was scorched by chemical agents like chlorine, and hydrochloric acid. Needless to say a massive famine followed. The starvation was so great, that it quickly surpassed the numbers of those who died in the war. In a desperate attempt to save their own race, all with at least a slightest idea on how to revitalize the soil or other solutions on how to feed the populace has been recruited to the task of agricultural reclamation. While some tried what they knew – preparing the soil and growing strong produce, others tried the more experimental and unstable path – most notably the genetic engineering. Soon enough the Cael Genus scientists managed to provide genetically modified, high yield crops. While on the surface they seemed like they have succeeded, but many failures also followed. Some being side-effects, including death, others were turning the soil unusable, but over the next few decades, the Cael Genus eventually mastered the guidelines of safe and healthy crops, and the population have started to recover. A few decades even further, the genetic modification started to intrigue the plastic surgeons. Those have followed similar failures as with crops, eventually having the procedures outlawed in many countries for ethical reasons, but like with crops, the end results were eventually understood and mastered, allowing the plastic surgeons to play God with their own kind. While this was usually performed in greyzone legitimacy clinics, underground facilities and proxy countries, the genetic modification eventually have become mainstream – the plastic surgeons could easily add functionality to any being, as well as change looks, improve strength, intelligence; even make a person immortal, all in a matter of several hours. By the time, which would be in Earth’s equivalent the late 80s, a new wave of outlawing has been pushed towards genetic engineering, with the politicians of the superpowers trying to go so far, as de-modifying all who received gene modification, regardless of the end results. By this time it was when the alien agent has been captured and interrogated. Soon, once the few of Cael Genus own (outlawed very soon afterwards) special forces have found out, all that they need to know, they have infiltrated the moon base, by using the DNA of the captured agent, to transform themselves into those aliens. Soon, this cell of doppelganger commando started to sabotage the moon base, and kill the aliens one by one. No matter how many security measures they have used or what they did, Cael Genus commando found their way. They knew that these aliens were after the gold, and so they gave gold – the aliens could find corpses of their fellow beings who have choked on lumps of gold, other times liquefied gold being injected into their blood streams – Cael Genus has shown no mercy to the aliens, and have shown an immense palette of sadism in the way how they executed these aliens. Eventually the aliens attempted to declare truce and tried to remove themselves from their solar system. The aliens boarded the single functional ship that has left after all the fighting, only to be blown up in transit, aboard the ship, by a ten ton bomb filled with gold bearings, which was hidden underneath the central section of the ship. Needless to say none have survived, to date the remains of the said ship, float around Man’Taar, as an ominous warning to the greedy. There was a message that the captain Volshat of that doppelganger commando has sent to the alien homeworld, before returning to Man’Taar: “Your people should not be so greedy. Greed always has consequences. But, their lust for gold has been filled to the brim. If you want the gold, you may have it… by extracting it from your peoples’ corpses.” To date no-one have shown up, and the irradiated, scorched remains still float in the space.
Soon after that, the commando managed to quickly overthrow the corrupt leaders, which were all eventually assembled to a single launch pad. Before the launch, the same captain Volshat proclaimed: “The greed was your God, and those fiends were your idols. So, go on, live where your idols lived… on the moon!”
Temporal Engineering:
The enhanced capability to process information and to quickly devise ideas is part of the Cael Genus genetic engineering at work. Temporal Engineering is the direct consequence. Cael Genus has developed a way on how to manipulate time. Those are but brief moments, that the temporal devices allow, before they overheat, but this enables their special forces to be invisible to intrusion systems and also make them very hard targets to be hit at range by firearms. What really happens is not really known to humanity, but it is assumed, that time pauses around the user for a brief moment (for some 5-15 seconds) and then proceeds again. One thing is certain that this technology is used exclusively by their special forces and that they are far too expensive to be mass produced.

Galactic ranking by:
Fleet: 4
Enlisted Personnel: 4
Garrisons: 1
Population: 4
Industrial Output: 4

The Culture:
The culture is surprisingly similar to that of humans, save for lack of militancy, which would usually be found among humans. Other than the architecture of floating cities, there aren’t many immediately apparent differences, but there are a few things one should be aware if interacting with a Cael Genus:
-The Cael Genus languages usually have their own character for a pause (in most human transcriptions it is designated by apostrophe). The pause designated by a letter is meaning of, from or out of and is either a silent gap or a sustained sound. Sustained sound being used for names and titles, while anything that does not qualify as such, would have a silent gap. It is generally advised that if one is to speak in Cael Genus language, one should always try to form full, complete sentences before even saying anything, as a pause has the power to change the meaning of a sentence entirely, and it’s easy to potentially come off as offensive. As a sidenote, names with a pause character (or apostrophe in Romanized alphabet) designate that the person is a knight. While the Cael Genus does not abide by the feudal system, the rank of knight is given to citizens who are of exceptional contribution to their own nation or the empire as a whole. As such, Cael Genus with a knighted name is usually held in very high regard among his or her peers. The name of a knight usually consists of their first name and their birth location (town, city, region, etc.), such as Volleyn’Khitar, which in English context would translate as Volleyn of Khitar (or in German would translate as “Volleyn von Khitar” or in Dutch “Volleyn van Khitar).
-Ever since the machinate aliens the moon and anything associated with the moon is considered a bad omen, and a negative trait. Moon among Cael Genus is generally associated with exile, shame, betrayal and greed. As such, moon reference can be interpreted as an insult. Such as “Seir’Geshin” (literally: “moon child”), meaning traitor, embarrassing, bastard (in genealogical term) or avaricious and “Gin’Seir” (meaning knight of the moon) meant as an insult towards mercenaries and avaricious, greedy people. As a side note, moons are reserved for prisons, and most Cael Genus planets would have their moon as a massive prison.
-Much like the moon, gold also did not avoid the title of a bad omen, and gold in general is not something what one would want to gift to a Cael Genus. While they understand that other races are unlikely to have bad experiences with their moons, gifting gold is considered as an outright insult. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE should one gift anything golden to a Cael Genus, it’s only asking for trouble.
The Religion:
After the involvement of religious leaders in the whole alien machinate affair, many organized religions strongly declined, and there is a certain anti-clerical atmosphere among the Cael Genus. One could say, that just like the democracy, organized religion was effectively killed by the historic trace that the machinate aliens and their associates have left.
The Government:
Cael Genus government is divided into localized and imperial governments. The imperial government is largely ruled by constitution and decree. Decrees are issued by the prime leader, and prior to their enactment they are challenged against the constitutional court in order to ensure that the decrees are constitutional. Colony planets have their own councils, and these localized governments supervise their own local policies in the same way imperial prime leader does with his decrees, except the issues are of local significance.
The Military:
Cael Genus military is one of the most enigmatic militaries to date. Little is known about their actual military, other than that their ships are able to get in and get out anyplace without being detected by any conventional means. It is a rare sight to see Cael Genus navy outside their territory, but when one is seen, most likely it is on an official visit – otherwise one would not be seen at all. Their military is mostly concerned with the integrity of their own territory, mostly doing policing duties and ensuring security. However the more active and avert for warfare young Cael Genus often seek for mercenary work outside their government. And Cael Genus mercenaries over the time have attained the reputation as the best mercenaries money can buy, even though they do not employ their doppelganger commando tactics otherwise widely used by their military. The preparation and training of these mercenaries is clearly there – one would think that anyone as defensive as Cael Genus would not possess such well-trained and equipped soldiers, but the Cael Genus mercenaries are just that, often being employed even by the official militaries of other races. The only-ones who are any better trained than these mercenaries would be the Saas’Kvita (roughly translates to “Wings of Protection”), Cael Genus military’s actual Special Forces. In addition to the equipment and training that they have, Saas’Kvita operators also get to enjoy employing the full potency of doppelganger commando tactics, and their DNA alteration allowing them for a degree of hive mind, ensuring that what one sees, all of them see, making them the infiltrators without a peer and being very well aware and adaptive on the battlefield.
 
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Perfect! I’m totally in then. I’ll need to brush up my understand of some of the background tech you talked about but I think I’ll be fine.
 
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First of all, a centralised imperial autocratic socialist commune heron-folk species is really neat. What I've got jotted down is, offer them gold?
Make jokes about moons? Wait, I think that might be wrong...

I think I've got a much better idea of humanity's tech and the surrounding tech-levels are, thanks; one last question, for now.
For the WES New Berkshire, our mission is basically one of exploration/cartography and diplomacy/cultural exchange, right?
At least at the start of the campagn.
 
Well hello there, you mentioned space, humans and vikings in the same context. This has me very interested in this RP idea.
 
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@lepidoptera
Ah, the mission is a bit of a need-to-know, but for the civilian part it was pitched as long-term deep space exploration.

As for Cael Geni, you would if you want to see just how good they are with their revolving shotguns. Their golden slugs come in at 1/4 pound of bullet mass each.

@Dakota K5 indeedly they are. Boarding is as popular as ever and the marines use axes for their close quarters needs.

To elaborate further there's ethnostates who live away from the rest of society like Neue Wikinger and Novyi Varyagi who live in their hermit societies, but also having military service as a matter of honor and an extension to their warrior "ethnicity" identity. Much like the Cossacks were accepted in Imperial Russia as the cavalry. And much like Cossack children in the day that ride a horse and swing a sword before they even walk, likewise these children learn how to throw an axe and use a rifle before they even learn to be literate. These people are few among the trillionary humanity in space, but they're considered elites by birth right.

To top it all off, even without them there's plenty of warrior-centric beliefs that have their own warriors who embark on military pilgrimages. Tempest Warriors being about the most popular martial believers.
 
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