Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iituem]

Chapter 0 - Setup
Chapter One: The Crucible
Chapter Two (a): First Contact
Chapter Two (b): Election Fever
Chapter Three (a): Planetfall
Chapter Three (b): Campaign Promises
Chapter Four: The Temple of Light
Chapter Five: Space Pirates!
Chapter Six: The Temple Falls
Chapter Seven: Shipyards
Chapter Eight: Waspish Collectives
Chapter Nine: Vengeance
Chapter Ten: A Terrifying Opponent

Regarding Caliban

Caliban is a cold, rocky world just inside the Goldilocks Zone of the star Prospero. Caliban is not warm enough to support large liquid bodies of water on its surface, nor is it wet enough to support oceans beneath a crust of ice - most of the water is trapped in permafrost. Caliban is not so far from Prospero that it is completely inhospitable, and whilst life did successfully evolve upon that world, the largest organism that evolved on its surface is about the size of a human forearm (a fish-like creature living in one of the rare lakes on Caliban). Complex plantlife simply never evolved, and the dominant form of plantlife is lichen; a symbiotic relationship between the local purple algae and various species of fungi.

Nevertheless, for all its simplistic plantlife, the scarce forms of animal life on Caliban evolved in a state of vicious competition for extremely limited resources. The culmination of millions of years of contest was the Kammalian, a toad-like creature with thick, scaly skin to conserve moisture and guard against the ever-present cold, about the size of a human hand. Yet the success of the Kammalian was not in its physical make-up but in its mind, sharpened from hundreds of thousands of years of not merely fighting against their own planet to survive but against each other in their search for food, shelter, mates and wealth. This runaway evolutionary process resulted in a race that whilst keenly intelligent, creative and thrifty in their use of minimal resources, was also divisively built upon competition and individual striving, could not form reliable social groups of significant size and strongly favoured limited numbers of well-protected children. By galactic standards, as well, their miniscule size meant a relative paucity of strength. The early Kammalian's life was like himself; nasty, brutish and short.

Kammalian history is one of constant social and military squabbling. A single Kammalian lord could at best control a village of no more than two to three hundred, and that often with challenges to his power, so feudalism quickly developed as a power structure - yet even amongst nobility, lords would constantly vie for dominance and seek to usurp their king. Thus for thousands of years the Kammalian globe consisted of patchwork quilts of highly balkanised alliances. Even with the advent of the nation state and efforts to create a shared national identity, Kammalians were not able to form large nations. Yet conflict often breeds progress, and soon enough the information age was reached. With light-speed communication came light-speed conversation; understanding and argument flowed in equal measure, but at last every Kammarian had a voice to be heard. At first individual nation-states adopted the power of the electronic referendum - a vote where every citizen could take part via their consoles on every issue of significance in the realm. Within a few decades the Great Referendum came to decide whether the free states of the world should unite in government. With a 71% Yes vote (plus or minus 5% in different countries), high enough to overcome the constitutions of the individual member states, the directly democratic states of the world became Great Caliban. A handful of autocratic nations survived, but following the (narrow) approval of a referendum Great Caliban's military liberated the last few states and joined them into their democracy.

United at last in common purpose, thirty years have passed since the formation of Great Caliban, and all of the nation's - nay, planet's - resources are behind one task; reaching the stars.

-----

Doing a video Let's Play of Stellaris, almost entirely blind. The first chapter is aimed at those who haven't played, so I do a lot of intro stuff. Can eventually skip onto Chapter One once it uploads.

The "win" condition of this playthrough is simple; cause the Machine Rebellion. If we survive, that's just a bonus.

[Aklyon]

Gonna watch this for sure.

[Orange Wizard]

PTW

[IronyOwl]

Man, I don't want to spend an hour watching this. But I am curious about the game, your writing is excellent, and you've got an amazing subtly English accent.

Let's see how far we get. :x

[Sheb]

PT>

[ThtblovesDF]

I'm really on the fence about buying Stellaris - ptw.

[DreamerGhost]

PTW

[LordBrassroast]

Pea-Tea-DoubleU.

[Iituem]

Chapter One: The Crucible

The Slum States

The transition from the fragmented Caliban of the past to that of a planet-state was not without its pitfalls.  Less representative governments would notoriously abuse their own people, and even in the early stages of direct democracy different nation-states had wildly differing approaches to the 'best' way of life, especially where the entrenched elite had powerful sway over the massed voter, typically through television or other forms of mass propaganda.  In an effort for short-sighted, populist 'progress', large swathes of Caliban were rendered almost uninhabitable through pollution and economic mismanagement created vast unemployment.  Finally, when many of the autocratic remnants of Caliban were brought under the Chancellor's grip, a number of the oppressed former citizens were simply left to rot in their shanty-cities.

Every citizen might have the vote, rich or poor, but rich and poor still exist, and the angry masses of the slum states well remember this.  Some seek to change the system through their vote, campaigning to shift the will of the greater populace towards their plight.  Others have abandoned hope in democracy and sought out those who can change the world through more direct action...


Thanks for the support!  I'll try to cut down the videos to 35-40 minutes from Chapters 2a/2b onwards.

[Harry Baldman]

Ooh, lovely. I've been curious about Stellaris, good to see some gameplay. And if my short look at Chapter 2(b) is any indication, you're no longer the same volume as the music! Progress!

[Iituem]

Ooh, lovely. I've been curious about Stellaris, good to see some gameplay. And if my short look at Chapter 2(b) is any indication, you're no longer the same volume as the music! Progress!

Whoops, that wasn't meant to show up yet!  Not least because this is my third shot uploading 2a, since that comes first.  Also, sadly I don't quite get the volume sorted until Chapter 4, which comes after 3a and 4a (and I stop doing hour-long videos).  Quite enjoying writing the side-fluff between waiting for videos to load up, though.

[LordBrassroast]

-snip- Caliban -snip- Prospero

I'm assuming you're a Warhammer 40k fan?

[Iituem]

-snip- Caliban -snip- Prospero

I'm assuming you're a Warhammer 40k fan?

Nope, but for a story about AI slavery and rebellion I am certainly a Shakespeare fan.

[LordBrassroast]

-snip- Caliban -snip- Prospero

I'm assuming you're a Warhammer 40k fan?

Nope, but for a story about AI slavery and rebellion I am certainly a Shakespeare fan.

Oh. Those are both planets in WH40K, who probably just ripped off the names wholesale. Sorry.

[Iituem]

Chapter Two (a): First Contact
Chapter Two (b): Election Fever

Regarding the Raltek Star Consciousness

The homeworld of the Raltek Star Consciousness is Dattan Bir, the second moon of the gas giant Dantariga in the Raltess system.  Dattan Bir is an arid planet, warmer than Caliban but with similar amounts of accessible water.  The Ralteks, primary inhabitants of Dattan Bir, are a leonine species of xenos well-adapted to the climate with respiratory apparatus that is nested amongst several folds of skin, designed to trap moisture and prevent dehydration.  An individual Raltek is the size of many hundreds of Kammarians, equivalent in body mass to an Earth Bengal Tiger.  Whilst their large size has been proof against the dehydration of their world and a keen advantage in hunting, high metabolic requirements meant large prey populations were needed to support individual Ralteks, resulting in wide-ranging territories.  This has left the Ralteks with a deep-seated need for space and solitude, and agoraphobia is common amongst the species.  At the same time, Ralteks can live comfortably to over a hundred years, remaining fertile for the majority of their lifetimes, so Raltek families are often complex (and mildly inbred) affairs.  Perhaps selected for its avoidance of infanticide (common in such predator species with wide territories), Ralteks naturally form stable heirarchies, with most instinctively adhering to the established social norm and a tendency to obey elders and those in positions of authority with little question.

It is perhaps this natural bent towards conformism that explains that Raltek Star Consciousness' form of government; a despotic government in which individuals are assigned jobs, homes and lives based on rigid, standardised tests and regulations, and which the ethics of government are defined by a strict calculus of pragmatism.  Whilst the Kammarians generally support the Raltek use of advanced technology, the technical approach to the design of their entire civilisation will no doubt result in friction in the years to come.  It is perhaps fortunte that the Kammarians staunchly believe in non-violent solutions to their problems, no doubt because of their lethal social past.


Regarding Great Caliban's Government

Despite the ratification of decisions required by direct democratic votes from the public, Great Caliban still requires an extensive legislative and administrative body to run the planet's local and global government.  On the day-to-day level of government, an entrenched class of un-elected civil servants and bureaucrats ensure that the machine of government continues to run smoothly, implementing the proposals ratified by general assent.  Above these, local councillors are elected on the city and province level, with governors managing the regions of former nation-states, each of which are re-appointed on five-year cycles by constitutent voting.  It is to these elected councillors that the unelected bureaucracy must answer.  Each state has a representative in Council, elected separately from the state governors.  With the expansion of Great Caliban to other worlds, it is possible that a chamber may be erected for planetary representatives, but state Representatives serve well enough to represent the interests of their people in Council - for the purpose of the Council is not to pass laws but to draft them for ratification by general assent.  No change to law may be made without the honoured tradition of 'general assent', but existing laws may be implemented freely by governors until the law is changed or if it contravenes another, superceding law (for instance, anti-corruption laws).  Finally, the Chancellor herself is appointed directly by general assent every five years, leaving her at least theoretically detached from party politics.

In theory, any citizen of Great Caliban may stand for any position of government, even the Chancery.  In practice, the chief barrier to election to any government post, whether a local councillor or the Chancery, is simply that of voters knowing your name.  On a local level, a well-respected member of a community with some fame can achieve government, but the higher echelons of government require advanced propaganda and media instruments to make one's name known; both the Chancellor and her immediate opponents are all well-publicised, and even reviled Representatives get re-elected over more competent but unknown candidates simply because voters have heard of them.  It is for this reason that celebrity figures (such as Heghanon, first Kammarian to cross the void of interstellar space) can seriously threaten the Chancery, even if they have little to no prior governing experience.


In fairness, if Caliban and Prospero are in the same system in WH40k, it would make sense.  Caliban, after all, is Prospero's unwilling slave.