A Thousand Worlds - Community Project

[Steerpike]

A Thousand Worlds

Some of you may remember the Thousand Isles community project that ran for awhile (and may still be resurrected).  I thought that collaboration was a tremendous success, so I thought I'd start a similar project.

The idea is to create a huge, sprawling, richly detailed science fiction universe one world at a time, as a community - anyone can post.  Entries should mostly focus on planets, planetoids, space stations, or other specific locations rather than entire systems or empires; political organizations, species, and the like can be introduced through these descriptions.  Other entries might instead have an even tighter focus '" on a particular ship, character, creature, artefact, or something similar.  There is no minimum or maximum word count, but as a broad guideline aim for a digestible snippet between 100-1000 words.  The overarching goal is to build a futuristic universe from the bottom up, starting with the details.  Entries can relate to one another or can stand entirely on their own.  I'll keep a list of all the entries below, by category.

In terms of content, tech level, style, or aesthetic, anything goes.  I'm imagining the default approach to be more space opera than hard sf, but that's really up to the actual posters.  While the details of human history can be fleshed out as we go I'm imagining that humans have been a space-faring race for a considerable period of time, and have settled multiple worlds; in other words, the twenty-first century is not recent history.

The advantage to this kind of approach is that a) it avoids disagreements about the general shape of the universe and thus doesn't require as much internal cohesion, preventing arguments and creative conflicts that can otherwise threaten mass collaborations, and b) GMs looking for inspiration, ideas, and material can borrow as much or as little as they'd like.

I've added a couple of entries in the post below to start things off.

Planets

Aerl
Perdix
Cyst
Vladiir
Titanos
Durnir
Phantion V
Somniferous VI
September
Bruges
Gronnock
Ataxia
Hess
Ylva

Species

Humans
Elueth
Daidelai
Nemat
Vadtha
Balon
Mechans
Vri
Shaxi
Nemesis
Mwanwi
Ysäj
Brugians
Lorridian
Nyx
The Ir
Ylvs
Herkatoi

Factions

The Erotocracy of Aerl
The Planetary Threat Assessment
The Excelsior/Drake Conglomerate
The Octillionares Hunting Club
The BLZ
The Space Government
Cult of the Odolvwom

Characters

Adamastos
Dr. Iphegenia
Purth
Byzannica
Cosm-Father Dutiful
Ironeye
The Black Lady

Ships

Herkatoi Ships

Technology

Lazarus Fields
Exopod Platforms
Mechocites
Mononets

Region

The Canter Belt
Squamous Telema

Other

Void Beacons
Bug Two
Bug Three
Bug Four

[ooc]A few inspirational sources to ponder:

Orion's Arm
Wookieepedia
Mass Effect Wiki
Species from The Culture
Warhammer 40000 Wiki[/ooc]

[Steerpike]

Two diametrically opposite species and worlds, to get the ball rolling.

[ic=Aerl]The people of Aerl '" a folk called the elueth, widely regarded as "the vainest species in the galaxy" '" have a society entirely based around physical beauty: the so-called Erotocracy of Aerl.  Within the Erotocracy, ethics and aesthetics have been wholly conflated, such that goodness is equivalent to beauty, evil to ugliness.  The elueth political system is democratic in character, but the voters select their leaders entirely on the basis of their sexual attractiveness.  The election process is thus identical to a beauty pageant.  Of course, the Erotocrats have stables of advisors (appointed rather than elected) who possess most of the real power.  Thus the Erotocrats are, in actuality, the physical embodiments of certain political ideals as well as aesthetic ones.  The result is a bewildering governmental system which seems to only make sense to the elueth themselves.

Physically, the elueth are slender, androgynous humanoids with huge eyes and pale, translucent skins which partially display many of their bizarrely elegant internal organs.  They communicate in part through pheromones, chemical sprays that can be deliberately released from certain glands scattered throughout their bodies.  Humans and other anthropoid species often find the elueth overwhelmingly alluring and exotic, an effect exacerbated by the aphrodisiac cloud that swirls like an aura about all elueth.  Hermaphrodites, they possess both male and female sexual organs; they rarely form permanent monogamous pairs, though they do enter into temporary, contractual marriages formalized to last anywhere from a single month to a full decade.  Through cosmetics, gene-manipulation, and various therapies (some of them carried out by nanites), elueth can live well over a hundred years without aging past their early twenties, when they reach adulthood.  At the first sign of a wrinkle or blemish, however, many poorer elueth who cannot afford nanorepair commit ritual suicide out of shame and self-loathing, literally "saving face" for their funeral.

Though the Erotocracy has no imperialist ambitions it does maintain several colonies on other planets and a largely automaton-based military presence to deter would-be conquerors.  Their chief exports are cosmetic-based technologies, drugs, and highly stylized, dramatic erotica that include tactile and olfactory virtual sensory stimulators in addition to visual and aural content.  Apart from these elaborate, pornographic plays the elueth actually produce startlingly little art: their energies, it seems, are directed elsewhere.  Architecture is perhaps the largest exception of note '" the cities of Aerl emphasize form over function, and frequently include spaces whose sole purpose is beautification.[/ic]
[ic=Perdix]Inhabited almost entirely by the machine-race called the daidelai, Perdix appears outwardly inhospitable or bleak.  Its surface is a grey waste without organic life, a desert littered with disintegrating remnants of the world's original species.  Though many assume that the daidelai must naturally be a race of wholly rational, emotionless beings without a sense of individuality, this is not the case: the daidelai are in fact the scions of a biological race which shed their physical bodies en masse in favour of the mechanical ones they now inhabit, an event known as the Ecdysis, or Sloughing-Off.  Having uploaded their consciousnesses into digital simulacra controlling elegant and wholly customizable robotic bodies of multifarious design, the daidelai allowed their original bodies to perish.  The Ecdysis was conceived of as a spiritual event, a purgation of bodily want and need, a transcendence of the flesh.  The daidelai do not reproduce, instead slowly repairing their own bodies as needed, preserving themselves indefinitely.  Their energy is almost entirely provided by electricity harvested by a swarm of "star-sucks," a huge fleet of individually small satellites in orbit around the system's star which absorb solar radiation and periodically return to Perdix to supply the planet with power.  Of course, the daidelai do not require sustenance in the form of food or water, nor do they wear clothes, though many decorate their bodies with elaborate glyphs and attachments, often hand-made.

Having achieved an essentially post-scarcity economy the daidelai have an ad-hoc, informal political system without centralized government.  Most live alone, considering the family an outdated and unnecessary social unit for post-biological organisms.  Many spend their days in study or in the creation of enormous artworks, some of which are visible from space.  Various sub-sapient slave drones perform any difficult manual labour the daidelai require, though without muscles or a sense of pain the daidelai cannot become physically exhausted.  While their population is static and not particularly dense the daidelai cities of Perdix are nonetheless extremely impressive to behold, with gargantuan mega-structures, public forums, galleries, and archives occupying central positions within communities.  Many daidelai prefer to live far from their fellow machines, however, instead dwelling within huge, self-sufficient mansions in hard-to-reach locations on or below the surface, or in orbit.

While the daidelai are mostly a reclusive species, preferring little contact with the greater galactic community, a few of the machine-race have been known to travel the galaxy or take up residence in the more cosmopolitan cities of known space.  Some become celebrity artists touring systems and erecting their gigantic masterpieces to wide acclaim, or reciting their days-long, multimedia poem-symphonies before mass crowds (on Perdix general wisdom holds that bigger is better).  Others have become missionaries, attempting to convince other beings to abandon their organic bodies and free themselves from "enslavement to the meat"; the daidelai spiritual system is too disorganized and decentralized to be qualified as a cohesive religion, however.  With the exception of converts who wish to emulate the daidelai and abandon their organic forms, few non-daidelai have much contact with daidelai technology '" the machine-race guard their secrets quite closely, having little need for commerce.

It is said that some of the daidelai refused to abandon their flesh-bodies and departed the planet for parts unknown in an enormous generation ship during the Ecdysis.  Their descendents '" if they survive '" have not yet been located, and the destination of their craft was unknown.  At the time of the Sloughing-Off the daidelai had not yet cracked the light-speed problem and were thus unaware of the greater galactic population.

No one knows what the daidelai's carbonic bodies looked like, as producing images of these bodies is forbidden on Perdix as blasphemous '" this is the strictest taboo of the daidelai spiritual system.[/ic]

[TheMeanestGuest]

You know, I really want to contribute this, but all my good sci-fi ideas are currently earmarked for Carbon Skies. This will require some thought.

[SA]

Ooooh!

Oooooooh!

(I'm excited)

[Cheomesh]

Tempting to do a non-carbon based life form with Starfish Alien Overtones but that'll take a while and not really add anything.

I look forward to seeing how this will develop.

M.

[Mason]

How about a Hitchhikers style compendium...you know..witty remarks. Dry humor. The works. So many serious sci-fi settings. Inject a little humor into it.

Just my two cents.

[Steerpike]

I agree!  I thought the Erotocrats were pretty funny, as is the idea of a machine missionary trying to convince you to save yourself from the perils of the flesh and upload your consciousness into a machine body (maybe that's more disturbing than funny... I get those two confused sometimes).  There'll probably be a fairly diverse tone if this gets enough contributors.  Personally I'd want to avoid all-out parody or stuff that's so over-the-top to shatter suspense of disbelief, but if someone wants to write about militant space kittens with souls blacker than daleks and the bloodlust of klingons who terrorizae the universe in ships with names like Mr. Whiskers' Revenge and Deathcuddle then they're welcome to.  Anything goes; no limits.

[Steerpike]

[ic=Lazarus Field]Lazarus Fields were first developed by humans during the Flenser Wars.  Consisting of a swarm of molecular nanomachines that envelops and clings to an individual's body, a Lazarus Field cannot be seen with the naked eye.  The Field is activated following the clinical death of the subject, having been previously attuned to its user's heartbeat.  The nanomachines that constitute the Field rapidly perform a scan of the user's corpse to determine the cause of death, then set about correcting the problem by repairing damaged tissue and dematerializing foreign objects.  Finally, the Field resuscitates the cadaver's brain and cardiovascular system, effectively 'resurrecting' the dead user.  This process can take as little as a minute to several days if the damage was extensive.

In cases of information-theoretic death a Lazarus Field will be ineffective unless provided with a brain scan of the individual in question.  Most who wear a Lazarus Field carry a mental simulacrum (a previously scanned version of their mind) in a portable drive, clipped to a belt or concealed in a broach, ring, or other ornament.  Such simulacra can be linked to a Lazarus Field such that in the instance of information-theoretic death the nanomachines can restore even a damaged brain to a previously "saved" state (though this is time-consuming).  Of course if the user's body is utterly destroyed the Field will be unable to restore them; if not destroyed itself the Field's drones will simply disperse.  In circumstances in which a resurrected individual wiuld immediately expire upon being revived '" for example, if the user is placed in a vacuum without protection '" a Lazarus Field will be quite useless.

Lazarus Fields are mostly military in application, but some civilians, especially criminal and terrorist organizations have been known to acquire them as well.  They are susceptible to deactivation by EMP or other anti-nano measures.  Of course, most dead bodies that haven't suffered information-theoretic death can be revived in a medical bay later even without the use of a Lazarus Field.[/ic]

[Gamer Printshop]

Cyst is a volcanic planet with a sulfrous atmosphere, though a vast and briny shallow sea covers half the world.

Nemat - is a collective conscious, derived from thousands of nematodes (worms) that find the poisonous waters as a nutrient rich home for their kind. Though each nematode lacks any defineable intelligence they tend to congregate into vast masses and become awakened. Although they can congregate in thousands of such gatherings, there is but a single intelligence.

Before the humans had devised their Lazarus Field technology, a ship of colonists was forced to land on the inhospitable surface of Cyst, to undergo repairs to their damaged communication array following entry into a rogue meteor cloud tail. Why the humans sought to explore the planet while awaiting maintenance is unknown, however multiple nematodes managed to gain entry into their exo-armors and parasitically infest them. Within the flesh of alien species worms reproduce in mass, eventually killing their hosts, then the nematodes exit their hosts gather into a ball of intelligence and takes over of the ship.

Once a 'brain' is formed, all Nemat still within a host can be controlled by the mass mind so that the hosts become automotons performing various tasks, though complex tasks such as operating a starship is beyond their comprehension.

Thus colonies of Nemat have been established on a dozen worlds. The nemat have no technologies of their own, stealing those of their hosts and adapting them to nematodal biologies.

[Gamer Printshop]

Vladiir - a dead world destroyed by a self created doomsday device in a final war over 200 hundred years ago.

Vadtha - one of the neutral races of Vladiir who recognized the coming cataclysm left aboard a hundred trader vessels, for a total of 100,000 at the start of their odyssey to which there is yet an end. The Vadtha are traders, fortune tellers, entertainers and purveyors of rare exotica from across known space, though they have a reputation for selling fake goods as well.

The Vadtha are a truly starfaring race, as they have no planet to call home and have spent a half dozen generations aboard their ragtag fleet of mercantile barges and gunrunners. They are a diminuitive humanoid about four feet in height, lythe and elegant forms, raven black hair, and oddly light green eyed, fair of skin they closely resemble humans in every other way.

Once per decade all the disparate ships of the Vadtha meet in a secret predetermined location that changes each time, their most closely guarded secret.

Some call them Gypsies, or a dozen other names in as many languages most should not be translated in polite company. Though they only live aboard their vessels they do frequent every starport to trade and exploit then leave to travel once again.

Most Vadtha vessels are only lightly armed, moderately armored and faster than most vessels of their class. Though these people are not known for agressive tactics of any sort, being exclusively defensive in their capability.

Whether truly precognitive or not, the Vadtha do have a sixth sense about impending doom, and have been known to leave without notice just prior to many disasters that strike. Though they have some reputation as the perpetrators, such incidences are often geologic or beyond their technology. Still this adds to the distrust most have against them.

It is said the only thing more beautiful than their dancing women are the lies they tell.

[Gamer Printshop]

Titanos - a gas giant in a binary star system, twice the proportions of Jupiter sized world.

Balon - within the 37th gaseous layer of the Titanos stratosphere lives an aerial race of floating beings similar to Portugeuse Man-o-war jellyfish, though are singular species rather than colony like as jellyfish are. Using gas-filled bags and varying applied tension coupled with paddle like fins to their ventral areas they navigate their cloudy layer. Their large brains are hidden under the mass of tissue below their air sacks, are known to be telepaths and only allow remote communication.

Titanos is a world rich in varying gases used by many starfaring nations. The Balon know which layers of atmosphere contains desired gas commodities and sell them to passing tanker traders. The Balon only trade in carbon monoxide to replenish their own layer of preferred breathable gas as a form of currency.

Little is known of their ecology. A dead specimin found in an adjacent layer is the only evidence of their form and biology, most only know them by the voice heard in their head.

[Ghostman]

The gas giant jellyfish are pretty similar to those from the Hyperion Cantos books by Dan Simmons.

[Gamer Printshop]

Never read those...

[Steerpike]

All ecxellent entries, Gamer Printshop!  I really like the Nemat - that style of hive-mind is very underused (only other example I can even think of are cranium rats from planesape).  I was thinking of doing space gyspies as well if no one else decided to, so great job with those!

[Gamer Printshop]

Thank you, sir! I will add some as I think of them and have time to post. Here's another...

Durnir - is a high gravity planet, with mostly stunted biological forms. It is rich in heavy metals and has an usually large magnetic discharge surrounding the planet.

Mechan - are a race of dwarf-like humanoids, large boned and densely muscular, though only four feet tall they weigh 400 lbs or more per individual. They are a copper-based blood form which confers a copper like hue in their skin and eyes. The Mechan are master engineers and metallurgists. They have shielded the entire planet surface with an armored exoskeleton, and dwell beneath the surface in metallic conduits and catacombs.

While Mechans are extremely strong with high constitutions, they are a slow moving race, though have dexterous hands. Long ago the Mechans created Exopod platforms, which are bipedal robotic walkers with varying limbs for grasping and tooling. These mechanical outer bodies can move at greater speeds, endure harsher environments and lift extremely heavy and hazardous substances. Often these platforms are weaponized to serve Mechan military purposes. The living tissues of the Mechan are not in lethargy, as in a natural state they tend to stay in one place - walking takes extreme endurance on their world. The operating handles and switches in their 'cockpits' take great strength to manipulate.

Mechocites - are complex mechanical computer-robots with nanominiaturized internal parts. Resembling a crab in size and appearance, these self-aware bots integrate themselves into alien superstructures like starships, at first in a mechanical study of how the ship works by releasing nanobots into the ships energy and fluid systems, then returns to the integrated mechocite and begins integrating itself directly into the system. Mechocites work to improve the mechanical operations it finds, bypassing unnecessary substructures, even replacing existing fixtures and assemblies. Self sufficient, self repairing mechocites combine alien technologies into more viably integrated systems.

Mechocites are the primary commodity offered by Mechans to offworlders. However often the new technologies created by mechocites are beyond both their builders and the operators of the ships they attach themselves. So replication by mechanical races fail everytime.

GP