Stories So FarPatient ZeroThe origin of the Flock and the conquest of Iharis told from the viewpoint of Saataa, the Flock memetic's Patient Zero.
Shattered LegaciesA nation tearing itself apart at the seams is invaded by the Flock and atrocities are committed under threat of subjugation as glorified foodbeasts.
Mayday on Aria Station IN PROGRESS
Kh'nr is jostled out of his boring job as a ticket cruncher on Aria Station when pirates attack.
Setting DetailsThe See column at the end of each entry is a list of stories featuring that character or polity.
CharactersLibrary Entry: SaataaSpecies: Ihari
Gender: Female
Saataa is the original Patient Zero of the Flock memetics. She was born in a small fishing town to lower-class parents. She excelled in biology and mathematics at an early age. The old government took an interest in her and quietly abducted her as a test subject for Project Flocking Ibis, where she was subjected to numerous tests and injections to enhance her intelligence further.
See: Patient Zero
Species: Ikamo
Gender: Activator (male identity)
Kh'nr is a living example of the inclusionist policies of the Coalition, ascending from a ticket cruncher on Aria Station to a renowned admiral during a pirate attack on the station. He was later elected by a small margin to the position of Prime Minister.
See: Mayday on Aria Station
The Vhemm Star Empire is a now-defunct autocratic polity. The last known high commissar was Pkasrat III of House Vatar, widely regarded as a bumbling idiot who only ascended to the throne by birthright and powerful backing. The extensive civil war between Pkasrat's powerful backers looking for an easily controlled puppet and the forces of the upstart general Nashata of House Laisat destabilized the nation, making it an easy target for the Flock's invasions. Vahemm fell within a month. Most vhemm were enslaved as livestock, but approximately 60,000 refugees made it to Sareeta space.
See: Shattered Legacies
The Flock is the result of an experiment gone wrong. The Ihari leaders were formerly decadent scientists obsessed with improving their own genetics and intelligence at the expense of the lower classes. The Ihari government thus spent a large portion of the welfare budget on a project codenamed Flocking Ibis. Project Flocking Ibis involved extensive cloning and genetic manipulation to create a super-intelligent Ihari strain and then transform the current leadership into said strain. The project succeeded, although not how the scientists expected- it linked the minds of the affected Ihari to the point where affected individuals lost their own personality, but drastically increased their intelligence as well as infect them with a memetic strain. Simply talking or listening to an affected individual or listening to a recording of one speaking would quickly assimilate the victim Ihari into the Flock. The Flock quickly assimilated the entire staff of Project Flocking Ibis and most of the surrounding city before the government deployed infohazard measures. The Flock, however, was more cunning than the government, sending partially disconnected "sleepers" across borders and checkpoints, hacking public speakers to play recordings of Flock members speaking remotely and secretly infecting emergency workers. 98% of the population on Iharis was assimilated in six weeks, and the remaining holdouts were absorbed within five months. The Flock then proceeded to assimilate the colonies over the next year.
See: Patient Zero, Shattered Legacies
The Coalition of Sareeta Suns is a large xenophilic democratic polity and a member of the Star Axis. Approximately only 35% of the empire's population is Sareeta. The rest are various alien species.
Demographics:
Sareeta: 35%
Ikamo: 15%
Paridayan: 12%
Nerubian: 11%
Kul: 9%
Idabla: 8%
Quefoz: 6%
Kathrian: 3%
Vhemm: 1%
The Coalition of Sareeta Suns currently is ruled by the ikamo Kh'nr.
See: Mayday on Aria Station
An individual ihari possesses a bipedal humanoid body, with a pair of wing-arms and long scaly legs tipped with sharp, dextrous talons. The beak is very sharp and has hooks at the tip. They possess two pairs of slitted eyes and brightly colored crest feathers and face skin. The feathers are thick and downy to guard against the cold.
Gisesse Ihari
The Ihari strain engineered to survive the outback world Gisesse has a thinner feather covering on the body, with streamlined feathers that wick heat away from the body through the gaps between them. They also possess microscopic vision and lack feathers on the legs.
Cobis Ihari
The Ihari strain engineered to survive the atoll world Cobis have slick, waterproof feathers, a hydronynamic body with light webbing on the talons, and small fins on the backs of the legs and spine. The beak has a small structure designed to filter salt from drinking water and release it in a powder format on land. A third stomach is present, used for storing compressed air supplies which allow the Ihari to hold their breath for up to six hours.
An ikamo has a humanoid, bipedal body, with two pairs of arms. The upper pair(referred to as the primaries) is stronger, although the lower pair(referred to as the secondaries) is better at fine manipulation. The eyes are single-faceted, set in the front of the head. A pair of kinked antenna sprout from the forehead, and the back hosts two pairs of wings, one for actual flight and one for protecting the delicate membranes of the flying wings. Ikamo have four genders: Surrogates, Activators, Ovids and Drones. During reproduction, an activator stimulates an ovid to ovulate, who is fertilized by a drone. The fertilized eggs are laid by the ovid in the gestation pouch of a surrogate.
A sareeta posesses a wormlike body, with a large mouth on the front end. Four retractable arms tipped with five thin fingers extend from the middle sections. The face is ringed by a pair of eyestalks and four chemo-sensor tipped tentacles for trapping food. Sareeta have warbling voices seen as unnerving by many other species.
A nerubian possesses a slender humanoid frame. The head possesses a large beak, and two movable frills behind their earholes. The skin is leathery and comes in various earth tones and greens.
A paridaydan is a strange creature to most more humanoid species. A individual paridaydan possesses a desk-sized egg-shaped body with two pairs of fronds sweeping from the sides. A short, thorned tail extends from the rear, and the bottom has a trio of holes, each housing a retractable manipulator vine. A glowing cluster of berrylike eyes is mounted in the front of the body. Most paridaydans communicate with non-paridaydans by way of a mechanical translator that vocalizes text typed on the keyboard using the manipulator vines. The fronds on their body photosynthesize and project psionic waves to levitate the paridaydan approximately three feet above the ground.
A vhemm is a bipedal humanoid, approximately 8 feet tall. The head resembles a trio of pyramids attached to a cube, with two projections extending from the sides of the head. The mouth consists of a upper beak and two flaplike mandibles on the sides. The skin is covered in light scales, with most adults possessing traditional tattoos over their entire body.
Space travel is only possible thanks to the FTL drive and the hyperlane network. Only about 1% of the stars in the galaxy are part of the network and thus available for colonization. Travel is instantaneous, with most time being spent charging the drives and moving to the edge of the system to minimize interference from planets and stars. Many scientists theorize that there may be hundreds of seperate networks, each with their own empires forever seperated by the lack of intervening jumps.
Most spacefaring empires will attack or be attacked by another empire at some point. Dedicated militaries are usually held by all empires, even if it is only to protect trade routes. Typical starports are equipped with a small battery of lasers and missiles for protection, but most small starbases are undefended or guarded only by a single laser turret. Shield generators are standard equipment for all space vessels, providing protection from weapons, micrometeorites and collisions. Fleet composition usually consists of a large group of small, lightly armed and armored ships to absorb fire, backed up by a smaller number of medium-sized artillery vessels and a few large ships like cruisers and battleships. If larger ships with hangars are present, there will also be small sublight-bound fighters in the melee. A friendly starbase may provide support if the battle occurs within missile range.
Author
Topic: Stellaris: Tales of Many Peoples (Read 2709 times)