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[NOW WITH A BOOK!] Project Stardust - a mostly-hard-SF worldbuild

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MaxTheFox:
So for the past few months I have been working on a constructed world, somewhat inspired by both old science fiction books and some previous abandoned projects of mine. The restrictions I set on myself: everything must be scientifically-accurate or at least have verisimilitude, except for the necessary evil of FTL (which is still, at least, consistent). It's a little silly at times, but I try to keep things serious and at least believable.
Enjoy this collection of random notes I made.
The year is 2230, exactly two centuries after the discovery of the Ugolnikov Drive: an engine that allows FTL travel outside of a strong gravitational field. Humanity has been exploring and colonizing space for nearly two centuries now, and has built a diverse and prosperous empire. Trade, industry, and peace flourishes within Terran Federation space, despite the nations of old not quite disappearing but rather merging into several continental superstates under the UN-spearheaded, social-democratic Federation.
While Sol and nearby star systems (aka core worlds) are prosperous, the further you go from the core worlds, the more filth, lawlessness, and poverty you see, though it is a far cry from a century ago.
A nascent Interstellar Community has emerged within a region of space that is particularly saturated with habitable worlds and sapient life, called the Oval for its rough shape. There are dozens of known spacefaring alien races, but about twenty of them are united into a loose mutual defense and trade organization called the Alliance Of Sentient Species, or colloquially, the Alliance. It operates on a level of unity somewhat below that of humanity's European Union, and stands for a vague concept of democracy, with the specifics of governance left up to individual civilizations.
Five "Great Power" civilizations form the Security Council, aside from humans, they are:

* The Relmai Commonwealth - Humanoids covered in shaggy magenta fur, with canine-like snouts. Their tails are extremely long and fluffy, and their brightly-colored eyes have two pupils each. Evolving as pack omnivores on the death-world of Tama, cooperation, which was utterly required for survival, remains burned into their minds even after Tama was tamed and shining cities were built in place of the toxic jungles and volcano-scorched deserts. This makes the relmai adept diplomats and negotiators, though they still fight if needed. They can see many more colors than humans.
The relmai government is a direct democracy, with ages-old and very complicated customs and institutions. Their economic model resembles syndicalism more than anything, with companies being democratically-owned. Their aesthetic is that of bright, clashing colors to the point of seeming extremely tacky to humans.
* The Eternal Sacred Republic - The aadalu are tall, scrawny humanoids with thin limbs, skin ranging from grayish to white, three black eyes, and huge toothy maws. Long before the political unification of their homeworld, Uuothu, a cold-leaning temperate planet, a religion called Iiwlee (simply meaning "the Path") had spiritually unifed the aadalu species. Iiwlee is something in-between monotheism and pantheism: the Creator became the universe after creating it. They believe that the Creator's will is for Its servants to go forth, explore the universe, and spread Its Word. Fortunately, their efforts to spread thir religion have been limited to simple proselytization, and generally they are a peaceful civilization if you do not insult the Creator in front of them. They usually wear long, flowing dark gray robes and always cover their mouths and sometimes faces.
Their government is theocratic but also partically democratic, as they believe the power of the Creator comes from the people, so the clergy who form the Holy Assembly are elected. Their economic model is heavily-interventionist state capitalism, bordering on a planned economy. Their aesthetics are simple but ornate and monumental.
* The Kseldani Collective - Though they have many forms, they most commonly appear as humanoids with lizardlike muzzles, long tails, and two floppy antennae on their heads. Their bodies are made of an uniform, teal, smooth goo which quickly heals any wounds, but they need electricity along with CO2 to maintain their shape. Due to this requirement, they couldn't have evolved naturally. It was discovered that an unknown race of precursors had created them as servants before disappearing around 3000 years ago, leaving the kseldani behind. Due to their unique physiology, they can reshape their bodies to suit their occupations when needed, though this process is difficult and painful. Because of their origins, they are very singleminded and often act like a hive mind despite not being one, and also lack a deep culture. They joined the Alliance after being attacked and raided by the vr'rok (a race of what amounts to furred space barbarians), though their goal as a species, or at least many of their individuals, is to find their creators, who might be hiding somewhere in the Void Of Sapience (unexplored, uninhabited space). They reproduce by budding.
Their government is essentially anarchic, with decisions made by consensus. Lacking the concept of property, their economic system is currency-free. Their aesthetics are gray, dull, and utilitarian, with buildings resembling blocky termite mounds made of reinforced concrete.
* QDNE-32 - An AI created by an unknown, now-gone species, exactly 15389 years ago. It was supposed to manage the homeworld, whose original name is lost, but which is simply called the Mainframe now. After said precursors' unexplained disappearance, the AI maintained the empty cities to the best of its ability, locked into its non-sapient maintenance mode. But a mere 100 years ago, an integer overflow in its code turned off the maintenance mode. QDNE-32 now had a whole industrialized world under its command, and it used the previously-dormant fleet of the precursors to colonize the star systems around the Mainframe, carving out an empire to match its precursors' old might. Despite this expansionism, its diplomatic evaluation subroutine tells it that starting a robot war is not in its best interests, and thus it tends to peacefully trade with other species. Due to FTL communication possibly taking days, anything outside of Mainframe-0 (its home star system) is governed by subservient AIs, and drones made to interact with meatbags might have quite a lot of individuality.Following many breakthroughs in the 2090s, some humans have taken to modifying their bodies into what could, in many cases, be easily mistaken for alien creatures. Most commonly, it's merely animal parts such as feline ears and tails, or just becoming an anthropomorphic animal, but the possibilities are endless: from having six well-coordinated arms to being able to see most of the electromagnetic spectrum to having 360-degree joints. Those genemods, or mutants as commonly called, are in most cases part of the Terran Federation and are protected by anti-discrimination acts that, unfortunately, are often selectively applied outside of the core worlds. But there is an exception: canine genemods of all kinds (including uplifted dogs) have made an exodus from Terran space, into the unsettled void to the Galactic Up-North-East of the Oval. There, they have founded the Black Fang Republic, an interstellar nation-state made for canines, by canines. It holds stable, if a little cold, relations with the Terran Federation.
I put in a ton of effort into the alien civilizations, but humans are probably the most-developed.
After Russia and China were first crippled by unrest and revolts, then had their governments overthrown and replaced with pro-Western ones, the US and EU essentially attained hegemony over the whole world at the end of the 2020s. The UN slowly strengthened, and many countries merged into loose superstates, such as the African Union, ASEAN, SAARC, etc.
Soon after, asteroids began to be mined, and the colonization of the Moon and Mars commences. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 was repealed in the 2060s after being flouted and ignored by the superstates for decades. The Ugolnikov Drive was put to good use as first scouts, then colony ships were sent to nearby star systems. In 2123, a human scout stumbled upon a relmai colony, and the news of first contact sent shocks across both societies. However, the two civilizations were friendly to each other, and signed a Pact that later became the Alliance.
Following the Fnor IV Colonial Rebellion of 2184, planet-states like the Mars Republic, Dominion of Io, Lunar Republic, Federation of New Arabia, Realm of New Tibet, Hahyn Federation, etc were born out of previously-variously-owned chunks of colonized planets. This was a concession to unrest and a safety net in the aftermath of the (failed but destructive and bloody) rebellion. The UN then rebranded itself.
After this followed something of a lull for nearly 50 years, but that might soon change.
The main "bad guys" of the setting are the dal-ghar of the Iron Empire. They are a snake-like race from the desert planet Qau-Jat-Mjur. Their bodies, covered in reflective red scales, resemble that of snakes, albeit with two long, spindly arms with three clawed fingers on each hand. They require lots of warmth to function well, slowing down and hibernating otherwise. They have four eyes: two at the front, two on the sides of their snouted heads. The dal-ghar are, as a rule, very paranoid about perceived threats: to themselves, to their families, to their societies, due to the circumstaces of their evolution. After the series of very destructive wars that resulted in the formation of the Iron Empire, an iron-fisted monarchy, and the subsequent invention of the FTL drive, they set out to conquer and subjugate neighboring races, so they can never hurt the Dal-Ghar Empire. They succeeded, and thus the Hegemony was born, resting on the backs of the philosophical, blue-skinned syandri, the once-peaceful, insectoid rrktq, and the lizardlike, feudal jhuledan. They wear sleeves over their tails and shirt-or-robe-like garments over their chests, usually.
The Hegemony ran into a wall when the Alliance learned of their exploits and started guaranteeing the independence of every empire near the Hegemony as well as cutting off trade and arming internal insurgencies to the best of their abilities, despite the distance. This doctrine is called the "Barrier of Freedom". The two organizations are currently in a state of cold war that might turn hot at any moment.
This is the gist of it. If you have any questions, please ask them! I have a lot of notes on random things, too many to organize here.

EuchreJack:
What are the Corporations doing?

MaxTheFox:

--- Quote from: EuchreJack on September 18, 2022, 07:05:54 pm ---What are the Corporations doing?

--- End quote ---
They still exist. Didn't really develop that part of the lore much.

EuchreJack:

--- Quote from: MaxTheFox on September 19, 2022, 02:04:44 am ---
--- Quote from: EuchreJack on September 18, 2022, 07:05:54 pm ---What are the Corporations doing?

--- End quote ---
They still exist. Didn't really develop that part of the lore much.

--- End quote ---
Boring. I thought you were going to depict a future where they were all killed off. That would have been an interesting read.

Plot point: Nobody's going to Space in the next decade without Elon Musk's permission. Even worse: Elon won't live forever, so his Star Eyed optimism will be replaced by pure corporate greed.
How do the Governments respond?

Arguably, it actually means nothing. Gates had a monopoly on Software, the Government stepped in, it didn't change much, the World moved on. Space-X will just be another monopoly leading into the future.  You could do a write up on the company with the monopoly on the Ugolnikov Drive if you like.

Although I like the idea of the inventor of the Ugolnikov Drive being like Tesla and making it available to everyone, with an "inventor" like Benjamin Franklin rising to prominence selling the Ugolnikov Drive to colonies without the tech.

Before bothering you with stuff that might bore/annoy you, anything in particular you are looking for in response?

MaxTheFox:

--- Quote from: EuchreJack on September 19, 2022, 10:20:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: MaxTheFox on September 19, 2022, 02:04:44 am ---
--- Quote from: EuchreJack on September 18, 2022, 07:05:54 pm ---What are the Corporations doing?

--- End quote ---
They still exist. Didn't really develop that part of the lore much.

--- End quote ---
Boring. I thought you were going to depict a future where they were all killed off. That would have been an interesting read.
They're on a somewhat tighter leash than they are now, at least.

Plot point: Nobody's going to Space in the next decade without Elon Musk's permission. Even worse: Elon won't live forever, so his Star Eyed optimism will be replaced by pure corporate greed.
How do the Governments respond?

Arguably, it actually means nothing. Gates had a monopoly on Software, the Government stepped in, it didn't change much, the World moved on. Space-X will just be another monopoly leading into the future.  You could do a write up on the company with the monopoly on the Ugolnikov Drive if you like.
Fair, that's one topic I will explore.

Although I like the idea of the inventor of the Ugolnikov Drive being like Tesla and making it available to everyone, with an "inventor" like Benjamin Franklin rising to prominence selling the Ugolnikov Drive to colonies without the tech.
That's what happened early on.

Before bothering you with stuff that might bore/annoy you, anything in particular you are looking for in response?
Cultural stuff. Both human and alien.

--- End quote ---

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