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It occurred to me I haven’t written very many scenes with Thrax independent of RP. I feel as though I should fix that, though I’m not sure what I should do with him. Ideas?
Several other NSers (from the NS discord thingy I am in) apparently find him fascinating and want to see more of him.
Havana Police have been notified, and will be waiting to receive and process the two men upon arrival (should either decide to press charges)
Sister Hydrax sat in the circle, having inhaled the sacred powder and imbibed the tea she had made according to the ancient recipes of the first Oracles. She closed her eyes, intent on learning the secrets of the past, searching for ancient wisdom.
She saw a woman, a beautiful redhead, her dark green eyes fixated upon a dead body, having been horribly mutilated. She rose and strode toward Hydrax in the vision, viral vines flowing up and down her body. She walked past her, as though not even seeing him. She couldn’t see anything, being somehow paralyzed, but she heard the voices.
“Hello my darling.”
A male voice, sounding genuinely happy to see her, it sounded quite familiar.
“Elizabeth…dear. Come closer.”
She heard the locking of lips…and then there was a noise he could not identify. Some sort of a horrible squelching sound, and then a horrified gasp. The male voice again, now full of a sick pleasure, and an intense hatred.
“Die bitch. I’m tired of you now, and I don’t share power.”
The female, as though not believing what’s happening.
“W-w-what is this Alexander?”
Hydrax now knew where he heard the male voice before, but it sounded very different, alien almost. It was cold and quiet now, his sheer hatred bubbling beneath the surface, but as smooth as ice on top.
“I’m tired of you.”
“What? What? But we…we love each other, we were made for each other.…”
“Maybe, maybe not. But I grew bored.”
“B-b-b"
“I did love you, but ultimately, all you have only ever been has been amusement for me, like everything else. You exist because I allow it, just like everything else. I don’t want you to exist anymore."
The woman’s voice stammered out, as though ignoring or blocking out everything he had said.
“B-but I love you Alexander. I love you so much. You need me to take care of you, to help you. You need me, and I....”
More wet squelching sounds, the sound of biomass spattering.
“I need only slaves. I no longer need you…not that I ever did. You were never sufficiently devoted to me anyway, being so caught up with yourself, you stupid egotistical bitch. You are so stupid and needy and pathetic, and I’m tired of sharing the worship. If anything, you should be on your knees like everyone else. But I don’t even want you to worship me; you bore me now, and I just want you dead or gone. Now, leave. Maybe you’ll live long to crawl in some hole and die like the worm you are. If you survive and I ever see you again, I’ll finish the job and you will realize this was me being merciful."
Another squelch and spattering of biomass. She screamed, but kept frantically muttering phrases like "But I love you Alex", and Hydrax wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself, or both. Yet another squelch. Then, in a sickly sweet tone.
“I love you too Elizabeth.”
There was the sound of a gust of wind, and then nothing.
Hydrax awoke back to reality with a jolt. She stared at the cup of tea…surely that wasn’t true. The Emperor couldn’t have done such a thing, and he certainly hadn’t been in a relationship with The Red Queen. She resolved to herself to never speak of this vision, even to her other sisters.
I randomly decided to venture into the world of Alex and Elizabeth, many centuries before the Rebellion, and give a glimpse into "dark Alex"s personality. All trace of Elizabeth's existence was pretty much erased from the record, though some legends of her might have survived until the Rebellion era, perhaps Charles or someone might've known The Red Queen, but only by that name, and only as a figure of myth and forgotten legend.
Thoughts?
A topic we examined in my history class today has got me thinking, and I'd like to pose a question to all of you:
From where is 'membership' in your nation derived?
For some countries, such as Germany or Italy, membership in the state is legitimized through shared linguistic, ethnic, or religious ties (i.e. Czechia is the nation of Czech speakers, Denmark is the nation of Danish speakers, etc). This presumes that there is a relatively homogenous population who derive patriotic identity from this shared cultural experience. Other countries, such as France or the United States, are defined more by civic (rather than cultural) nationhood: to belong to either of them, you need only to hold citizenship. While there may be a majority language/ethnic group, you can belong to the minority and still be considered a full member of that nation.
Oceara, Cybus1, and Sterkistan
Wagains have always been a 'civic' nation, meaning that there is no homogenous linguistic, ethnic, or religious group to which we all belong. Much like other countries in the Western Hemisphere, centuries of immigration and pre-existing native cultures created a dynamic cultural landscape which could not be cleanly organized into one group. Our national identity was thus derived not from religion or language, but instruments of state - judicial equality, human rights, representative democracy, and above all, the monarchy. Great pains were taken in the 19th century to promote this sense of civic nationalism - without it, Wagondia was simply too large and diverse to effectively govern. While the government invested heavily in transport and communications (railways, telegraph, steamships), a sense of unity had to be bestowed upon the increasingly interwoven empire. This is why the centralized monarch has been so important in our history - a universally recognized figure who embodied the pluralism and individual freedoms enshrined in Wagain law.
At the same time, steps were taken to bridge the gap between Wagains of different cultural groups. A firm separation between church and state was maintained, despite a powerful Catholic tradition, and slavery was outlawed early in our history. Our parliament was one of the first to mandate universal public education, including instruction in English as a lingua franca (to this day, nearly every Wagain is fluent in English, though few speak it as their native tongue). This ensured high literacy rates, thereby enabling a national print media of newspapers and literature which could further inform a collective identity.
Cybus1 and Sterkistan
Aha, I had a class that delved into similar topics last year.
As for the Empire: It's more civic, but there are elements of a cultural connection as well.
Cybusians are bound together by a close historical, cultural, and genetic (70% of the population has some form of Blacklight infection; Evolved, Banshee/Banshiek, Orsonian) heritage, a religious bond, nationalism, and a shared outlook (the core assumptions of said outlook include a highly optimistic opinion of technology, science, and progress, strong support for individuality, and a belief in a civilizing mission). There is a separation between church and state, but Mercerism is a strong unifying factor.
The Empire is a vast and diverse nation, encompassing countless star systems, so the Empire promotes such things, as well as patriotism/nationalism as a unifying factor, to give its citizens some commonalities. Cybusian culture incorporates native ideas and cultures into itself, but many things are the same across the Empire, adding another commonality for citizens, particularly the sleek Art Deco aesthetic so popular on most worlds. Cybusians also have an extremely high literacy rate; books, magazines, newspapers, and journals are distributed across the Empire to promote a shared experience alongside audio, video, and digital media. And of course, civil and administrative procedures are essentially the same across the Empire, things like voting for a Didactian candidate of your choice, or paying taxes.
Post self-deleted by The Orson Empire.
Interesting that you sought to exterminate the Human population rather than enslave them or put them to good use. Then again, anything a Human can do, an Orsonian can better, but you are basically passing up free forced labor.
Also, great job! Always interesting to see more pieces of The Grand Plan fall into place.
I feel like I should rename Torchwood, for obvious reasons, but something like Imperial Intelligence just seems so...bland. Part of me was thinking "The Agency of Shadows", in keeping their intelligence gathering directive and use of stealth Prowlers, but that seems too melodramatic; I need something in between.
Decided to make a new Redlight character, since all it has is Elizabeth (and it’s countless terrifying horrors, but those aren’t characters).
The Crimson Hierophant:
Mysterious and strangely charismatic male Runner, successful enough that Elizabeth herself has taken notice and allowed his mind to be remade in new bodies if he is killed, and to take on a form that is almost identical to Alex’s (his has red hair and green eyes, unlike Alex’s brown hair and icy blue eyes). Hates Johannes Vanderberg with a passion, and his god, The Yellow King. Extremely dangerous in combat. Known by the Servants of The Red Queen (crazed cultists who worship Elizabeth and think Redlight will purify them, but are blissfully unaware of its horrors) as The Crimson Hierophant.
Obviously, Alex will be very very annoyed at his existence, since he’s basically an attempt by Elizabeth to make herself a new Alex (more so for her own amusement than for anything else, because she’s still quite obsessed with Alex). He's probably rather jealous and angry at Alex, for the same reason.
I’m not sure if he should have an individual name or not, since Runners do have the unique quality of being semi-independent from the Hivemind (they have their own personalities and such, but are ultimately still connected to the Hivemind and Elizabeth).
I think he might start by infiltrating Imperial worlds and briefly altering his appearance to look just like Alex, start getting devoted followers, and then brutally infect and incorporate them into Redlight.
Find more info on Runners here:
An ancient and terrifying virus created by Elizabeth Green, Alexander Mercer’s ancient lover, Redlight is constantly adapting and developing new forms to combat tactics and weapons, allowing it to remain competitive. The virus is extremely malleable, and can infect almost anything in existence, with the notable exception of Drakul, and can corrupt and interface with technology. The virus is led by Elizabeth Green and the Redlight Hivemind, which consists of the minds of every infected individual, now worshipping Elizabeth, regarding her as their "Mother", or "The Red Queen".
Elizabeth Green:
The “leader” of Redlight, Elizabeth Green is considered an existential threat to all life, all sentience, and generally everything in existence. Also known as The Red Queen, The Mother of Vampires, Mother, The Plague-Mother, and the Crimson Goddess, Elizabeth is the creator of both Redlight and the Drakul, and is the leader of the Redlight hivemind.
History
Her origins are a mystery, but it is known that she and Alexander Mercer are from the same place (just what that is is unknown; a different dimension? A different reality? There’s no way of knowing and neither of them are particularly talkative about their origins), and arrived in this universe roughly a trillion years ago. The two were lovers, and when Alexander created his Empire and his Evolved, Elizabeth ruled alongside him, spreading her own virus, Redlight. The two engaged in twisted and horrific atrocities on the other species of the universe together and are believed to have exterminated several thousand sentient species for their amusement, forcing them to worship them beforehand. It is believed she created the Drakul sometimes during this period as well (if Elizabeth approaches a system inhabited by Drakul, regardless of sentience, they will go mad and begin drinking and infecting as many people as is possible.)
Abruptly, sometime after the formation of the Empire and long before the Rebelllion, Alex apparently grew tired of sharing the worship with Elizabeth and her companionship, for he abruptly destroyed her Avatar and banished her spirit to the edges of the universe, while her Redlight infected were obliterated. All monuments and records of her were destroyed, so all of this information comes from herself and Alexander.
Since then, Elizabeth appears to have simply waited for millennia, slowly creating a new Redlight army. First contact with Redlight occurred on October 2nd, 2105, when the colony of Carvik mysteriously went dark as did the vessels sent to investigate. A Torchwood Prowler arrived, and briefly sent a terrified, frantic message, before the transmission cut off. Shortly thereafter, Redlight began to rapidly spread to nearby colonies, overwhelming them within hours. Elizabeth was encountered and confronted by Alexander (who, thanks to memory loss associated with his death, had no memory of her at first, though he recovered them not long after). Elizabeth promptly tried to sway Alex to joining her, so they could pick up where they left off, unaware of the Rebellion or Alex’s death and resurrection. Alex retaliated by impaling her. This did little to injure her and she simply teleported away. Ultimately the Outbreak of 2105 was pushed back to the fortified region controlled by Redlight known as The Crimson Wastes, after Alex, in collaboration with several of his best men, allied nations, and even Nyarlathotep (who regarded Redlight as a threat to his amusement; if everyone was infected, the entertainment value of manipulating or driving said people insane drastically diminishes) killed Elizabeth’s Avatar.
Elizabeth patiently spent 200 years refining the virus and crafting terrible new forms to counter the advantages of the enemies faced during the initial outbreak, such as Runners, Silencers, Bioships, Technopaths, Hive Guardians, and more, leading to another devastating outbreak in 2351, which was even more difficult to push back than the first and resulted in The Crimson Wastes expanding further.
Personality/Opinions
Elizabeth Green is an excellent example of inhuman psychology; she believes individuality and free will to be negative traits, and genuinely believes she is helping the organisms she infects by incorporating them into the Redlight hivemind and thus, in a roundabout way, making them immortal, sharing their knowledge, memories, personality, and biomass with Redlight for eternity. She blames Alexander’s altered personality since the Rebellion on the Orsonians (and is thus always happy to infect them, but then restore their minds so she may torment them), and even, bizarrely, sincerely believes they are to blame for Alex’s abrupt loss of interest in her. She seems to have largely ignored this and has attempted to woo Alex by appealing to his ego and his power hungry nature, to no avail so far. She regards herself as the ‘Mother’ of Redlight, regarding the infected as her “Children”, and is fiercely protective of them. Due to her strange outlook on things, mortals often believe she is insane; no, Elizabeth is canny and clever, waiting for the right moment and exploiting it, and is intelligent enough to recognize the issues her children faced during the first outbreak, such as a reliance on infected vessels to spread, and created solutions, such as the bioships.
Appearance and Abilities
Elizabeth’s Avatar has always been that of a beautiful young woman with long red hair (the style of which occasionally varies, mostly if she believes she will encounter Alexander), rich green eyes, tall and thin, but with very pale skin. She often wears a ‘dress’ of biomass, either red, or, much more rarely, black. She has shapeshifting abilities similar to Evolved, and can form biomass weapons and tendrils at will.
In combat, Elizabeth is terrifyingly fast and strong, effortlessly slaughtering and infecting Torchwood Kill-Teams, and is generally considered impossible for mortals to defeat. She possesses highly formidable magical abilities as well, her magic manifesting as an emerald light. Simply by existing, her Avatar spreads Redlight; every breath or word emits millions of viral spores, while viral vines form on whatever she touches and wherever she steps. If her Avatar is destroyed, so long as even a single Redlight infected exists, or samples of the virus are preserved, the hivemind will continue to exist, and Elizabeth can simply form a new Avatar and continue spreading, regarding death as a temporary inconvenience (which also partially explains why she is so baffled by Alex’s altered personality, since her deaths are not true deaths and she assumes his was not either).
Warriors:
Equipped with a biomass blade and an arm capable of firing bundles of infectious tendrils that burrow through armor, the Warrior is a former Orsonian, Evolved, or Human now serving the Hivemind. They can operate vehicles and use weapons if need be, but their strength lies in their numbers, infectiousness, and the ability to quickly regenerate most wounds. Their bodies are gruesome clusters of raw biomass, tumors full of the virus that pop in close combat, and eerily glowing red eyes. They are capable of short bursts of speed of up to 12 miles per hour to allow them to overtake foes, and can climb walls to wait for enemies to enter a building before falling and engaging them with their blade. Mostly incapable of feeling pain, Warriors make up the bulk of an infected force, and while individually they may be dismissed as weaker than Evolved, they make up for with numbers and sheer infectiousness. Given enough time, their blades can even destroy tanks, through the 'death of a thousand cuts'; each blow doing little, but gradually chipping away at armor, while their tendrils constantly try to burrow through and weaken the armor.
Stalkers:
Highly maneuverable and agile organisms, Stalkers are able to cling to walls or ceilings, and have inhuman reflexes. One arm is a long whip with barbs coated in Redlight to lash out and infect people, the other arm a long-range “rifle” firing hardened pods that can penetrate armor before bursting apart into a number of vines which infect anyone nearby. They can use the whipfist to grab foes (typically officers) from far away and carry them off to be infected, so Stalkers are more threatening than they may seem at first glance. Considered 'snipers' for Redlight, Stalkers are hated by infantry deployed in infected zones.
Hunters:
Hulking 8 ft ape-like forms, albeit without any hair, Hunters are large and heavily muscled, able to quickly rip or smash apart tanks and armored vehicles with their bare hands and powerful fists to get to the crew inside. Created from pure Redlight biomass and 'gestated' from either biomass pods or Hives, Hunters are the hard-hitting assault forces of Redlight. Able to shrug off heavy munitions and regenerate most injuries, Hunters are typically the most threatening Redlight form encountered for tank crews. Capable of achieving impressive speeds for their size, they can run up to 45 miles per hour on all fours, and can leap vast distances. When fighting in urban areas, they often climb up buildings before dropping down on the enemy from below in a devastating ambush and throw debris at gunships and other targets they cannot reach with surprising force.
Witches
A Witch is an infected Banshee or other psionic or magic-user. Both male and female, Witches are a significant threat, able to use whatever powers they could in life, amplified by Elizabeth Greens psionic might. A Witch can dissolve tanks but leave the crew intact, obliterate starships, or directly take control of the minds of those without sufficient psionic protection or willpower to resist and incorporate them into the hivemind before their bodies are even infected. Thankfully, a Witch had to have very impressive magical abilities before being infected to do these things, most of them simply becoming Warriors.
Hydras:
A Hydra is distinct from other Redlight organisms in that they can only be formed after a Hive has been created. Burrowing underground and connected to the Hive, a Hydra is an immense construct of biomass. Anywhere from 25 to 50 meters tall, Hydra's are equipped with a 'mouth' consisting of two spiked and barbed flaps. The body of the Hydra is highly flexible and this allows the Hydra to quickly devour infantry or mangle armored vehicles. It can also open the flaps to expose a mass of long sharp tendrils that can shoot out up to 300 feet away, allowing them to deal with foes further away. The flaps of the 'mouth' can also be used to grip and throw things at targets, be it unlucky soldiers, armored vehicles, debris, civilian vehicles, building components, whatever can be thrown as makeshift artillery; the Hydra can quickly calculate angles and throw things with impressive accuracy, allowing them to act as artillery or engage low flying gunships or very low flying aircraft. Hydra's can quickly burrow back underground if need be and relocate, and have a disturbing tendency to blast up into and through armored vehicles. Hydra's work in concert with Hive Guardians to defend Hives.
Flyers:
Designed to counter aircraft, Flyers are sleek forms made from a hardened yet light form of biomass and propel themselves by emitting superheated air using an ‘engine’ that uses bioplasma to generate the heat, and, quite surprisingly, can keep pace with modern fighters. Equipped with sharp talons for close range combat, they can also fire bioplasma projectiles for ranged attacks, or bundles of tendrils to penetrate aircraft and infect the crew or subvert the AI.
Local “headquarters” of Redlight, they are tough and hard to destroy, made of hardened biomass with looser layers to absorb shockwaves from explosions. Hives function as local nerve centers for Redlight, coordinating offensives and defensive efforts, and “gestating” Hunters and other creatures made from pure Redlight biomass. It creates and disperses millions of Redlight spores and vines to infect anything that has yet been infected, and directs infected organisms in the area. Hives can cause adaptations in local Redlight to react to strategies, such as creating psionic shields to defeat energy or particle weapons, or creating “pseudo-lead”, a biological equivalent to lead to resist some varieties of ionizing radiation, or hardening outer biomass layers to better deflect or absorb weapons fire. If a Hive is destroyed, the Redlight virus in the area would, due to a lack of coordination, become uncoordinated and feral, more infectious due to a lack of control, but without tactics or direction. Despite this possible threat, Redlight continues to make Hives, and, even more threateningly, Elizabeth Green and Runners act as a walking Hive, dramatically improving the coordination and infectiousness of the virus simply by being nearby.
Hives can be made from infected buildings, underground, or capital ships. Hives can develop quite early in an infection, and are thus priority targets for destruction if one wishes to have any hope of saving an infected world from total infection. Knowing this, Redlight defends Hives ferociously, Elizabeth having designed special Hive Guardians to protect them.
The strongest “regular” Redlight form, equal in strength to a Runner, perhaps stronger due to their combat optimization, Hive Guardians act as Redlight “officers” and walking tanks, guarding Hives from ground attack. Due to the malleability of Redlight, these creatures have three main “forms” they can effortlessly switch between.
The first, designated by Torchwood as “Lancer” is an organism optimized for long-range combat. It is a triple-legged form, it’s body consisting of muscles and a “barrel”, as well as several large chambers in which the “Lancer” creates highly destructive spheres of bio-plasma, to melt apart tanks, airburst and melt scores of robots, or track aircraft like ball lightning. “Lancers” fire the same bio-plasma as other Redlight forms, but they are much more accurate and can create much more of it, ensuring a steady stream of long-range and highly destructive bio-plasma. Lancers were created in response to aerial assault and are more akin to biological turrets than anything else.
The second form, known by Torchwood analysts as the “Knight”, is a bipedal form, similar to an Evolved, and capable of achieving similar speeds and reaction times. The principal weapons of a “Knight” is a sharp blade of biomass capable of cutting through almost any armor like a hot knife through butter, replacing one arm. The other arm is a vast mass of tendrils designed to ensnare and trap enemies, capable of ensnaring and disarming infantry, or burrowing into and destroying robots, and hampering and slowly destroying vehicles until they reach and infect the crew. “Knights” are incredibly fast, agile, and capable of incredible reaction times, even dodging Hardlight sniper fire at times. Knights were created in response to Torchwood Kill-Teams fighting their way into Hives and destroying them from the inside out, but are also capable of destroying vehicles.
The final form is known by Torchwood as the “Rook”. It is a vast and well-armored form, lumbering on four legs. It sports a massive Bio-Plasma Cannon on its back, and often integrates its own biomass into that of the Hive itself for further armor. It acts as a specialized anti-armor role, it’s immense cannon firing bio-plasma that melts and burns whatever it touches. Shields are overwhelmed by the sheer force, and tanks and armored vehicles are quickly reduced to flaming wrecks. It can also fire indirectly, acting as devastating artillery, every single Redlight entity on the planet feeding it targeting data. Rooks were designed in response to armored units destroying Hives.
No matter their form, Hive Guardians are incredibly tough, and can withstand even fire from main battle tanks, for limited periods. They have access to incredible psionic abilities, capable of crumpling tanks and slamming aircraft to the ground, firing magical lightning in the form of green ball lightning which tracks its targets, and they can augment their armor with psionic shields, among other things. Hive Guardians are incredibly lethal combatants, and Torchwood is thankful they are rarely deployed for offensive operations, mostly used to defend Hives, except when used alongside Elizabeth Green’s avatar, and in that case, Torchwood and Imperial High Command generally consider a battle lost if an avatar arrives anyway. Thanks to their reliance on non-psionic weapons, they can fight just as effectively under the influence of Nullwave technology.
Unique in that they incorporate technology into them, Technopaths are mobile corrupted AI, surrounded by highly psionically active Redlight, vastly increasing the power of said AI and allowing it to interface with systems it should not be able to interface with. Technopaths work to subvert and manipulate technology, scrambling sensors, jamming communications, corrupting AI and robots, and hacking into things. They can remotely manipulate systems that are, technologically, isolated from networks, psionic shielding being required to protect them from Technopath interference.
Technopaths are rarer than most, but can immediately and irreversibly turn the tide of a battle.
A rare Redlight form created after Elizabeth’s Avatar was destroyed, Silencers exist to incapacitate magic-users. They are bipedal, with a pulsing, brain-like mass emerging from the neck ‘stalk’. This mass emits a strange energy, similar to the Nullwave tech used by the Empire, that effectively cuts off all psionic and magical abilities, including the abilities of local Redlight forms. The connection to the Hivemind remains intact. The Silencer has two arms which consist of huge masses of tendrils to reach out and snag magic-users, now incapacitated, and then drag them closer. The chest of the Silencer can split open and bathe the target in an emerald green light, during which they appear to go instantly limp and appear dead, after which claws emerge from the chest and obliterate and devour the body. The purpose of this light is unknown, though it has been speculated that it is some way of devouring the soul or consciousness of the magic-user, incorporating it directly into the Hivemind. Surviving magic-users report feeling irrationally terrified, cold, and ’shrouded in darkness’ when around Silencers, and when the light is used, they reported panic, terror, and an intense desire to get as far away from the creature as is possible, simply calling it ‘wrong’.
Silencers are hardy and durable, difficult to kill due to their quick regeneration. They are a rare sight, but can turn the tide of a battle in Redlight’s favor. Due to their abilities, they are never deployed alongside Technopaths.
The most dangerous form of Redlight infected, a Runner is Redlight’s version of an Evolved. They resemble Humans, Orsonians, or Evolved, and can pass blood or biomass tests, and can act like an ordinary, uninfected person. Runners are unique within Redlight, as they have a pseudo-independent mind. Due to their infiltration needs, they cannot be one of the basic infected, a shared consciousness. Rather, they have their own personality, albeit one dominated by their goal of infiltration and infection, and unfailingly loyal to Elizabeth Green. One may prefer to assume an alluring form and use charisma to infect officers, so Redlight may gain a strategic advantage, one may favor going from ship to ship to infect as many travelers as possible.
With every breath they take, the exhale millions of spores of a unique Redlight strain which does not immediately infect those who inhale it, but lies in wait for a signal from the Hivemind or the Runner, at which point they instantly begin reproducing, quickly infecting the individual. However, prior to this, the spores ‘jack in’ to the central nervous system and, through their Hivemind connection, begin sharing everything the individual sees, hears, and experiences, effectively turning the person into a sleeper agent for Redlight, all without their knowledge. However, this strain of Redlight will decay and cease to exist two weeks after initial infection, if it does not reproduce and fully infect the host within that time.
Runners are capable of drawing on the collective knowledge of the Hivemind at will; whatever someone has been infected knew, the Runner can access whenever it becomes necessary, from military protocol to passcodes, personal information to local law, whatever it needs to blend in or gain an advantage.
Runners typically operate in one of two ways;
Some Runners will do as their name implies, and attempt to spread their particular strain of Redlight as far as possible into uninfected territory rather than any one location, giving Redlight a huge number of randomly located sleeper agents to activate and start infections behind enemy lines. This tactic often proves devastating, due to the sheer infectiousness of Redlight once an outbreak has begun.
Other Runners will, rather than simply wander, locate a strategic target and begin to saturate the target with their strain by moving to the target location and becoming a valued member of the community, all while secretly spreading their strain of Redlight across the target planet or location, continually replacing spores that have died from lack of activation. They can live in a community for years and never be suspected, until one day, they activate their strain and convert everyone they have infected into Redlight infected, typically overrunning the planet due to the percentage of the population infected by the Runner.
In the event a Runner has to enter combat, they are more than capable of eliminating or infecting any foe, as they can form biomass weapons similar to Evolved, but also have access to the full might of the Redlight Hivemind to engage in magical and psionic attacks similar to the kinds used by Banshees, psionically-active Orsonians, and sentient Drakul, and can even use an ability similar to The Murmer to incapacitate people. This makes them extremely dangerous in combat, or if they are somehow exposed. They are also unnaturally fast and agile, capable of dodging gunfire and even certain energy weapons if they are aware they are being targeted. In addition, they are capable of short range teleportation. They can subvert and trick sensors in a similar manner to an Ancient Drakul, helping them avoid detection.
Runners, similar to Elizabeth Green, can augment the intelligence, strength, coordination, and tactical ability of all nearby Redlight forms simply by existing, acting as a walking Hive, and sometimes Runners serve as ‘officers’ due to this. When Elizabeth herself enters the battlefield, Runners always accompany her avatar, functioning as ‘guards’.
The process of creating a Runner, if one exists, is completely unknown, but the fact that they exist in fairly low numbers (SIC: Roughly 200 at any time, and they’d be spread all across the universe, scattered throughout different nations, not acting as a unit) suggests they are hard to replace.
First seen in the Outbreak of 2351, Redlight bioships are organisms which exist to transport Redlight to other worlds, and engage enemy ships. There are no classes of bioships, only commonalities between all types. Most are armed with long barbed whips, the whips armed with hardened biomass capable of ripping through armor, as well as claws for close combat. Ranged weapons include powerful bio-plasma emitters, which can punch through shielding, as well as pods of biomass fired at missile-like speed, regenerating damage done to them by point defenses, until they smash into the hull. These either contain extremely potent acidic compounds that begin dissolving the hull, or they contain tons of Redlight biomass, which will either begin burrowing into the hull to infect the crew, or begin spreading across the exterior, ensnaring weapon systems, jamming and blocking sensors, and entering the interior of the ship through hangers and any other entrance it can find for its vines and tendrils to grow into. There are several other missile equivalents available to a bioship, ranging from a pod that, upon impacting small craft, releases swarms of worm-like organisms that feed on metals, literally eating the fighter apart, to pods that are full of energy which manifests as an EMP, shutting down unshielded electronics, and even pods designed to break through ship armor before 'gestating' a Hunter or several other infected into the vessel to begin killing and infecting. To deal with capital vessels, bioships can also fire huge spikes made of metals and hardened biomass at incredible speed, not entirely dissimilar to a MAC round, but with the added bonus of spreading Redlight to whatever it hits.
Bioships even have 'small craft', in the form of hundreds of Flyers (see Basic Redlight Forms) equipped with smaller forms of the bioships weapons.
However, their potent weapon systems are not the most powerful assets available to a bioship. Every bioship creates an effect similar to that of a Hive, granting greater intelligence to every Redlight organism in the vicinity. In addition, if there are no anti-magic apparatus (Nullwave devices or Psywave Siphons) in the area, the bioship can act as a hub of psionic activity, unleashing devastating bolts of magical energy, teleporting Redlight forms directly into warships, obliterating small craft which attack it by unleashing a 360-degree pulse of magic, or, most insidiously, using psionic and the Hivemind to hijack AI and ‘infect’ them, turning them on the crew. There has even been a case where a bioship somehow directly attacked the minds of crew members of a cruiser, linking them all to the Hivemind and making them willingly give themselves up to be infected. Bioships can also journey through FTL, by unknown means, via shimmering green portals.
All bioships are heavily armored with thick layers of hardened biomass, and, like all Redlight organisms, are very hard to kill because of their ability to very rapidly regenerate damage.
The area under Redlight control, to which the initial Redlight invasion was pushed back. Redlight dug in this area, fortifying it against orbital or ground attack, advanced networks of defenses (consisting of various things, biological, psionic, and infected technology) and armored Hives being created, Redlight biomass constantly being produced and stockpiled and made into new forms. Vast Hives create new strains of the virus and new forms, modifying old forms to test them against uninfected life forms to gauge their efficiency in killing and infecting other life forms.
On the other side, all the various nations that share a border with this area have heavily fortified it, many installing fortified stations and planets full of defenses. The Cybusian Empire has collaborated with The Raven Technate and the Collux Ascendancy, among other nations to form a vast “Calluex Line” named for Henry Calleux, the prime minister of the small Lanerean Republic, a Cybusian-allied nation, after Calluex had, after ensuring the capital had been evacuated as best it could be, detonated several thermonuclear warheads hidden across the planet, jacketed in massive amounts of radioactive materials in an attempt to deal a blow to Redlight by contaminating everything they had infected on the planet. The Republic valiantly helped push Redlight back and reclaimed their capital planet, purifying it of radiation. The Line was named in honor of his sacrifice. The Republic maintains a quarter of its fleet monitoring its portion of the Line, in collaboration with Cybusian, Colluxian, Technate, and other national patrols.
Skirmishes between Redlight forces and uninfected forces are common, as both parties seek to expand and push back, respectively, new weapons and Redlight forms being tested all the time.
Thoughts? I’ll develop him further later, if I decide to make him.
Civic Citizenship is enshrined in the 1924 Constitution, it was believed among revolutionary representatives in the 1924 constitutional conference having too homogenized a population would make elections too safe and increase apathy among voters making each election less representative of the population than the last, and making it easier for a small group to seize power over a long period of centralization efforts until the people are incapable of preventing a dictatorship from forming.
To this end the Constitution of 1924 granted the authority to grant citizenship to a petition of existing citizens of the country, the numbers of people required to grant citizenship is fairly high from the perspective of someone on the ground, but is very low from the perspective up high in positions of major power. The government has never opposed a petition for citizenship, although it theoretically has the ability to do so by starting a nationwide referendum to strike down a petition for citizenship. Citizenship petitions have been challenged before by individual members of government or random citizens seeking to start an opposition referendum at the ground level, although they have failed almost every single time as the average citizen doesn't know enough about someone random to justify voting against that random person not getting citizenship. It only has real chances of working with government-backing and public information campaigns costing hundreds of millions of osperitas to educate the voters why the individual or individuals petitioning for citizenship ought not have citizenship.. Which would only be justifiable a cost in the event of the identification of sleeper agent cells sizeable enough to start petitions allowing spies to flood into the country. (Although the government might in such a scenario just opt to capture and execute the spy cell in accordance to the countries' laws allowing capital punishment for spies, a dead person can't sign petitions after all and there is no great love for foreign spies in the country.)
It seems ludicrously petty to start a campaign to oppose a single person being granted citizenship.
Indeed, which is why they usually fail and why the government as a body never tried it. It would be a bad look.
(Occurring in 2396. Done with Cybus's approval.)
Supreme Commander Davin Berand has assembled the representatives of dozens of nations in the LPCN at his private palace on Titan, the capital world of the Federation. There, the representatives have officially defected from the LPCN, organizing themselves into the Anti-Cybusian Coalition. Berand has named himself the "Paramount Leader" of the Coalition, an obvious reference to Jerick Pallas's old title.
This new Coalition will have a unified command structure dominated by Federal High Command, with the purpose of planning a massive invasion of the Cybusian Empire. The formation of the Anti-Cybusian Coalition is the culmination of over a century of efforts by the Federation to infiltrate the LPCN. The Orsonians sought to surpass the Cybusian Empire as the dominant power in the universe and finally gain revenge over their former masters for enslaving them and the aftermath of the Rebellion. As such, the efforts of the Federation began with forming economic relations with a number of powers in the LPCN, and eventually signing secret alliances. Federal agents evoked dissatisfaction and eventual opposition of Cybusian cultural and economic dominance over their governments, offering an alternative path of autonomy and independence. This would not only provide useful manpower and warships to the Orsonian cause during the war, but turn the Cybusian's own creation against them in utter irony.
The last major Redlight incursion in 2351 accelerated the grand plan of the Federation. With the Federation suffering heavily during the incursion, the civilian government ultimately collapsed in the face of total annihilation. The "great game" for the control of the Orsonian world between the Senate and the Federal Military was finally settled, with the military assuming total control over the Federation. The position of Supreme Commander was created, acting as the permanent military dictator of the Federation; their authority could not be challenged by the Senate or the bureaucracy, with only the Federal High Court having enough power to reign them in. The Supreme Commander could pass laws and take action without the consent of the Senate, and this allowed the military to seek alliances and clandestinely aid LPCN nations without senatorial oversight. For Berand, the war could not have come at a better time. Most officers were aware that the legitimacy of the Hegemony was thin, and certainly a violation of the constitution. Elections had been suspended at the national level for decades, long after the Redlight incursion had been defeated, and unrest at the lack of representative democracy had already resulted in several major uprisings across Federation space. Even more concerning, Berand's own rivals in High Command were actively plotting against them, wanting a taste of the absolute power he wielded. As such, a major war would focus Orsonian aggression fully at the Cybusians, legitimizing Berand's own rule and forcing his enemies to bide their time.
The Federal Military has begun full-scale mobilization, with billions of personnel being prepared for war against the Cybusians. The Senate will soon be assembled on Titan, with Berand planning to address the Senate and the nation regarding the planned war.
Oceara and Sterkistan
Cybus1
(Another one you might want to cut down when quoting just in case the Spoilers break when quoting and flood the RMB with a giant wall of text. Hopefully I caught most of my grammatical errors, but I wouldn't be too surprised if I didn't -- I have really strange writing habits.)
2230:
“The Cybusians are dismissive of our military strength and CIN will likely want to get this over with as quickly as possible to just get it off their to do list. This means they will likely assign lesser fleet officers to the operation to gain some experience and use their Smart AI to do most of the heavy lifting tactically at the beginning. Knowing their intentions to blitz the system, they will likely perform the first order optimal strategy against our forces in-system. This is easily calculated, so we can use a FOO Strategy against their own FOO Strategy and deliver terrible casualties within seconds of them entering the system.”
“Our goal here would be to cause the Smart AI to be kicked into backing away from the most efficient solutions to problems and to kick it into assessing that we are most vulnerable to by-the-books fleet strategies even though they take much, much, longer. Those assessments would be in fact correct, they would eventually win going by the books and playing the long game. Although by prolonging the conflict we can actually use psychological warfare to undermine their war effort and achieve victory politically.” Eric Pedro would finish what he was saying, allowing Keita to speak up “How many casualties per day do you expect, Eric?”
“Honestly? First day I estimate 2 Million Casualties on our side and between 2 and 4 million casualties on the Cybusians side.. More on the higher end due to the fact that each craft kill we land is several hundred to a couple thousand cybusian sailors. After they switch over to traditional fleet strategies I expect close to half a million per day on both sides, most of our casualties will be stress-induced rather than wounded or killed though, we could hold out for a maximum of 20 Months before we run through all of our reservists and are re-using them and risking psychological breakdowns even with our cycling endeavors. At that point I presume we'd have only 6 more months before we'd be depleted fully”
Anita would speak up “By the 3rd month their casualties will be large enough that they will not be willing to seek peace with us even if it costs them many, many more casualties to finish the 20 months of wearing us down to defeat us. We need some major successes in weakening their war support ideally within the first 40 days.”
Keita would nod “Yes, we do need to wrap this up quickly. Hopefully torchwood will be more concerned about their personnel than the military's personnel, we can exploit any moments of inaction by torchwood that gets CIN personnel killed to deepen the divide between the organizations. The Slower casualty rates will still be large enough per day to have significant emotional toll on citizens, and the increase in number of days they are seeing these casualties will make them feel the situation is far worse than it actually is simply from the Media doing what it does best: Reporting on current events and getting clicks and views.”
“The Bombardment of news reporting of another half a million deaths in the Cybusian Empire every day would no doubt color perceptions about the war among the Cybusian Empire. While we can say that what we are doing is necessary since we are defending ourselves from being made into an oppressed puppet state with exact opposite policies than our society was built upon. The Cybusian Regime cannot say the same, and if there are torchwood inaction reports in the news families of those affected would no doubt blame torchwood for doing nothing rather than blame us for doing the actual fighting. It is a normal response to grief to want to assign blame to parties that could prevent something but didn't rather than to someone that inflicted the damage in the first place.”
The conversation would further continue down the lines of battle planning (too intricate to add to this already large wall of text)...
Public Broadcast, two hours before ultimatum expiry.
“I have seen Alex's response, and his characterization of the demands as fair is ignorant at best, malicious at worst. Those demands are in fact worse for the ordinary citizens of the Confederation than even full annexation, those demands would put us out of the protection of Cybusian civil rights law but beholden to exploitation by Cybusian corporations with no limits on the extremity of the unethical behavior of the puppet regime the Cybusians would put in place to serve their corporate interests in Sol.”
“I sincerely hope that Alex will look a second time at those demands and see past the De Jure text and see what is the only thing that matters, the De Facto effects of what the text would do. Doing so will show why it is unacceptable, furthermore he claims that we are the ones committing acts of war when he has maintained a secret invasion of our country for 210 years and his claims that they didn't kill any of our countrymen might only be true insofar as direct connection. But by prolonging the wars we fight in, millions more of our countrymen die as a consequence of that extension of hostilities.”
“If the full effects of what his operations were doing was so innocuous than he would have no trouble declassifying all of their reports involving those operations on earth from 2020 to 2060. I suspect that he will not declassify all of that information as it would undermine his narrative of a justice expedition. We both know that those agents did their job of weakening us and it wasn't for the national security of the Cybusian Empire, it was to make us easier to conquer later.. Because after all you are in charge of an imperialistic colonial power by your own admission and conquest is their primary objective, although you left out the other two words to soften it under the word Empire on it's own.”
“I don't expect good faith from the head of state of an imperialistic colonial power, but should he surprise me he may find us pleasant to work with. Until he makes a good faith effort to compromise, I will be making my defense preparations for that Valiant battle he seems so adamant about getting.” - Prime Minister Adama Keita.
The Secret Staff Office has begun intensely watching Cybusian social media to use it to tip off the Fleet when the Cybusians make their jump to Miria as part of Operation: Flash Blaze which was tasked with breaking the Cybusian Blitz and buying time for Political successes.
Cybus1 and Sterkistan
We have had a SIC posted in a while... so we here go: Jan 2020 After running multiple wargame scenarios including one where Orson defeats the SRA, we have made the following observations:
1. In this scenario, we have several advantages over Orson.
2. Should we decide to go on defense, we must concentrate on holding North America, Svalbard, and the Pacific Islands. With the exception of Austria and Switzerland, most of Europe would be destroyed or conquered within days thanks to its mostly flat terrain. We would be able to retreat to the mountainous Swiss Alps and Northern Lapland and wage an effective guerrilla campaign and Resistance movement.
3. North America's last resort retreat defense must be centered in Alaska, Northern Canada, and the Rockies. There are so many islands and mountain ranges, we would be able to hold-out without issue and fight back. Many of our new naval ships have ice-breaking capability. We don't believe the Orsonians could get through the Bering Strait or Northern Passage with ease.
4. Should we decide to go on the offensive, we have many options. Multiple waves of strategic bombing runs on mainland Orson must be waged from the Pacific Islands. With each wave we expect retaliation against those sites. As a result each wave would come from a farther place. First wave is from New Caledonia, second wave is from Fiji, third wave is from Vanuatu....seventh wave will conist of deployments of B-52's from Hawaii and Diego Garcia.
5. For offense or defense in the event of few or zero allies, kinetic bombardment must be used and controlled from Svalbard or moon bases.
6. We must shut down Orsonian space abilities by shooting down or disabling their communication and military satellites.
7. The final defense is Antarctica and TDF. Is is just used for science or are there multiple military bases with minuteman sites spread throughout the continent. Minutemen could be launched within minutes to target places of military importance.
TDLR:Unlike the warm climates of Oceara and the SRA, we expect to use the cold and ice to our strength.
I think you're way overestimating Orsonian Military Capabilities and underestimating the defensiveness of the terrain in Europe and the power of Timmian military forces, at most I see Turner being able to take Portugal & Spain in Europe, but being halted by interlocking long range artillery in the Mountain ranges preventing landings in the Adriatic, Ligurian, and Balearic Seas and the supply lines needed to bypass these mountain fronts would be too long and too poor terrain to support an invasion large enough to beat the Timmian Military on the ground.
Furthermore holding as much of Europe as possible allows the Timmians to snowball in Equipment and Troops faster by having a (mostly) united europe waking up as a giant like the US. While Turner would be depleted from previous wars and his extermination campaigns leaving almost all of his newly-captured factories without people to run them.
Falling back to redoubts only gives turner more room to maneuver.
The Imperial Consulate Chambers:
The Emperor sat, with Director Forge, Deputy Director Koenig, High Consul for the Imperial Navy Alexander Vosch, and High Consul for the Imperial Army Nicholas Black. Vosch, the tall and striking redhead, stood and addressed the rest of the men present.
"Gentlemen, the enemy will no doubt refuse our demands, and the Imperial public will not support us refusing to act. Strategists and AI have come up with several ideas on how to break the enemy resistance. It can be assumed they have strong defenses in place, so sending in a huge force immediately would be a disaster. It has been proposed that the first wave consist primarily of Clockwork Class Automated Frigates, coordinated by Smart AI, to both gauge their defenses and deal as much damage as possible. Then, swarms of multiple Colony drone vessels would be deployed, outfitted with FTL communications units. This brings me to my next point. The new Archer Class Artillery Cruiser is capable of inter-system bombardment, thanks to all the missiles being Jaunt-capable. Furthermore, their Tachyon Arrows are, theoretically, capable of engaging the enemy from outside of a solar system, due to their FTL nature. This would take a while, and we would need to know a lot of information, like orbital drift patterns or exact geosynchronous orbit locations in order to compensate for the movement of the target between firing and the eventual impact; this is where the drones come in, gathering as much targeting data for missile bombardment and Tachyon targeting as possible. If successful, we can 'snipe' the enemy's largest defenses and take them out. Then, if all else fails, we send in our normal spacecraft and attack more conventionally, supported by Archers firing missile barrages from other systems."
Alex raised an eyebrow.
"You plan to snipe orbital defenses from other star systems? Clever, and if it fails, we can always go back to the tried and true method. Proceed with the preparations. Forge, Koenig, do you have anything to add?"
Forge rose.
"We are willing to dispatch a few Prowlers, albeit only once we can be sure they have no means of detecting them. Until then, we are willing to dispatch a handful of stealth. drones to help gather targeting data. We are continuing our investigation for moles, but so far we have turned up nothing. In addition, we are going to deploy Kill-Teams once orbital superiority has been achieved, to find and eliminate high-value targets."
"Excellent. Make your preparations."
Also, I have a new Q&A/diplomacy thread:
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=481028
Thrax listened to MODUS’s report, compiled from various reports from both MODUS himself and infiltrators within both governments.
“We must thwart their efforts at avoiding casualties, the Cybusians must suffer casualties in this war; it is essential to the plan. Of course, the Malians must take a battering, but the Cybusians must suffer. MODUS, work to sabotage their AI, targeting, and also the targeting of the Malians. Sabotage all that you can.”
“Of course, Member Thrax. Shall we proceed to the second stage of the plan?”
“Not yet, we have to allow the war to begin in earnest."
Oceara and Sterkistan
The Hartman Family:
A now extinct family of nobles, the Hartmans had a long history of absolute loyalty to their god and Emperor, Alexander Mercer. Their allegiance was demonstrated when the original family patriarch, Johannes Hartman, brutally slaughtered a group of citizens he deemed insufficiently loyal, which brought him to Alex’s attention. He raised the family up to noble status, at first making them Apperati, and later promoting them all the way up to the coveted position of Vulcrix. The Hartman Family quickly became a staple of the Imperial Court, its members gaining a reputation for devout Mercerism, political cunning, and being masters of intrigue. The family would routinely survey the court for those they deemed insufficiently loyal and bring them before the Emperor to tortured and killed.
Perhaps the most infamous member of the family was Yvonne Hartman, the first Director of Torchwood. Yvonne was a cunning and beautiful political operative, seducing family rivals and tricking them into expressing complaints or criticisms of the Empire or Alexander, thinking they could trust her, only for her to turn them into the Emperor for heresy. She did have a long standing, on and off flirtation with the devout and powerful Balem Abrasax, though she ultimately married John Whaite, of the powerful Whaite family
The Emperor, impressed by her skills, ordered her to create an agency which would scour Imperial society for heretics. Hartman was more skilled at flattery and personal political manipulation and was a rather inept manager; despite trying her best and succeeding for a number of centuries at capturing, torturing, and painfully executing Orsonians and others suspected of heresy, the Orsonian Rebellion caught her by surprise. She directed Torchwood in counter-insurgency and intelligence gathering operations, but, as this was before the agency became the combat-equipped and lethal organization it is today, often ended with her agents dead. When the Rebellion reached Arcadia, she fought valiantly, defending Torchwood HQ from Orsonian attack and killing several Orsonians. Her office was breached, part of her biomass being blasted off and left there as she scrambled to the Imperial Palace with Nathan Koenig, whom she had saved from death in his lab. She used the high ground to fire on Charles Orson with a plasma sniper rifle, to no effect, but kept firing in at effort at distracting him, even switching to her sidearm after the battery ran out and resuming fire, though it was Koenig who ultimately ended up distracting the Orsonian through an overcharged flare. Yvonne went to check on the Emperor, only for him, grievously wounded, in need of biomass, and furious at her failures, to brutally and immediately impale and Consume her.
She regenerated from the biomass in her office, and, horrified, fled Arcadia, but was ultimately tracked down and killed by her replacement, John Forge. Her child, Victoria, and husband, John, were both killed during the Battle of Arcadia, though she was unaware of this.
Following the Rebellion, the remaining members of the various branches of the family either died in battle, or were assassinated by Orsonians, who remembered Yvonne's treatment of their species. The Hartman Alcazar is now a museum devoted to the family.
Finally decided to detail the Hartman family and their ruse to power.
Abatis Class Defense Stations are the primary planetary defense stations of the CSF, they project planetary shields that link up between other Abatis Stations forming a completely seamless shield around the entire planet that also completely covers all Abatis Class Defense Stations -- necessitating a foe overpower the planetary shield before they can work to silence the super-heavy firepower of surface installations and Abatis Stations themselves or anything taking cover behind the shield at the time. They are equipped with the latest and most advanced defense systems, weapons systems, communications, and other technologies to maximize their effectiveness.
The Abatis is named after field fortifications made of tree branches sharpened and pointed towards the enemy as a measure to keep the enemy under fire for as long as possible. It's role is much the same, to delay the enemy's ability to silence allied weapons fire as much as possible and maximize the casualties the enemy takes in the process.
The Abatis is so crucial to the defensive capabilities of the CSF that all Abatis crews are personally vetted by the Chief of Staff and the Secret Staff Office keeps many spies aboard every single station to keep and eye on the crewmembers to watch for enemy spies. All systems of the Abatis are completely separate from any systems that can receive remote signals of any kind, requiring manual operation to translate orders to the onboard systems to avoid enemies simply hacking their way through CSF Defense Grids.
Armaments:
20 Chaos II 10 Gigaton Anti-Orbital Gun Turrets
400 Super-heavy nuclear launch tubes
1,000 Twin-Linked Railgun Turrets
1,000 Twin-Linked Siege Laser Turrets
4,000 Twin-Linked Laser Repeater Turrets
Hangar Capacity:
900 Fighters
Defensive Systems:
1 Z-PAK Unit
1 Planetary Shield Generator
40 Mobile Super-overcharged spot shields (Over the Planet Shield, allowing for these mobile spot shields to move around and block super-weapon attacks whenever possible to protect the planet shield)
2 Visible Spectrum Light Absorbing Shields
1 Antimatter Particle Field Projector
2 Space-time Trajectory Alteration Devices
Crew: 20,000
(I Felt I needed a Planetary Shield projecting station for the Siege of Miria, I think there would be ~20-22 by 2230 enough to protect all three in-system battlezones with 2-4 in reserve.)
What is the status of LGBT+ People in your nation?
LGBT+ People find the West Africa Confederation and the later Stellar Confederation to be one of the most friendliest places in the known universe for their minorities. The whole community has been depatholigized(No longer seen as subject to a mental disorder) as early as 1930, is included in anti-discrimination laws, asylum laws, and protected by Anti-Stochastic Terrorism Laws(A form of Incitement that -technically- didn't -directly- call for violence, but simply increases the statistic likelihood of random violence against a targeted group). Furthermore their healthcare needs are covered by Government Healthcare programs, and the government regularly invites members of the minorities to attend SITI with the hope that these minorities will help themselves and the rest of society simultaneously by pushing the boundaries of science and technology.
The hope of these initiatives was achieved in 2055 when SITI developed one of the most advanced medical devices ever devised, a Subatomic Surgery Device. The Subatomic Surgery Device or "Particle Surgery" as it is referred to for sake of easier conversation, can completely rewrite one's biology to an intended result within moments. While the transgender students that took part in it's creation wanted something for their own healthcare to be improved, they ended up with creating medical tech only comparable to the Cybusian Empire's, although of course not quite as effective as the Cybusians' tech from simple fact that the Cybusians have more total combined knowledge their tech can pull off of to operate more efficiently in more applications and circumstances than the Malians' have.
Historians attribute the early adoption of progressive policies in these areas to some LGBT War heroes(In WW1 the IMCA removed all of their restrictions for service by 1916 so anyone who volunteered could get into the Army, even if they wouldn't qualify for conscription.) from WW1 Helping rout the Police in Niami without firing a shot, by having the Battalions of Death rally behind them to charge the police and take their weapons away and becoming heroes of the Revolution of 1924 that created the West Africa Confederation and their communities being rewarded for their service to make the country freer than it has ever been in it's history.
In Orson, the status of LGBT+ people has largely been viewed as a human issue, though they have long been protected under the Orsonian constitution since the 19th century, which prohibits discrimination based on sex or gender.
Due to Orsonian biology and psychology, it is impossible for an Orsonian to be LGBT+. All Orsonians are programmed to be male or female, and heterosexual. Orsonians in general are not really sexual creatures like humans, with sex generally being viewed as a means of reproduction and growing a family, and nothing more. As one could expect, the discussion of these topics among humans tends to really confuse Orsonians.
In the Mamaran Empire, it is actually a mixed issue. While both Sultan Andre's and a majority of the Imperial Family stand for equality and therefore, allow the practice of same sex unity, thus many of the royalist community support the decisions of the Sultan and support it as well, however the Mamaran Empire is highly religious and therefore there are many pockets of religious factions (primarily Catholic and Islamic) that are opposed to it, thus members of the respective religions are opposed as well.
With that being said, morally, both opinions are allowed to be held and spoken, but legally speaking, LBGT and same sex rights are perfectly legal and cannot be denied.
Many churches and mosques though have the rights to refuse to hold these marriage ceremonies on the bases of religious grounds, however same sex couples get around this by simply going to their nearest court house and request for a marriage certificate and a government official can sign off on it to make it official and religious officials cannot overturn the decisions of the Imperial government.
Many religious factions have attempted to take seats in government (usually at the provincial and territorial levels as those are the only ones that can be elected) and try to make policies that make it more difficult for same sex marriages to be around, but these usually get stamped out by the Imperial Government whenever it is brought to our attention (provinces and territories are the equivalent of states and the Imperial government is basically our federal government, but in this case the Imperial governments law is final and out rules province and territorial law).
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