User talk:Maloncanth

[SIZE=5][b]Background[/SIZE][/b] [b]History[/b] The first group to come to power in Amanata Colony during the bitter times immediately following the Collapse were something of a far right cult. Reacting to the nuclear annihilation of the Japanese home islands the fanatical K Faction's heavy-handed restoration resulted in purges, street fighting and eventually, a firm push back from everybody else. But while their hardliners' vision of a new and pure Japan thrown back to the early 20th century was never realistic, the main pillar of their moderate faction, the idea of a state dedicated to the restoration, preservation and expansion of its own culture and humanity, was etched into the basic spirit of the forming nation. In order for humanity to have continuity, it had to be fertile and widespread on an interstellar scale. For culture to have continuity, there needed to be robust interstellar communication such that traditions could survive the destruction of any number of worlds. Only then would these valuable things be truly resilient in the face of a universe that had, in a way, reverted to the stone age in terms of its security. Agreement over this principle was the first step that allowed the smouldering new country to spend the rest of the 23rd century finding out what those two things were and how to go about protecting them.

Among the first groups to be conceded a place at the seat of power were genuine theologians concerned with more than simply the national myth, a technocratic union dominated by robotics engineers and computer scientists and a coalition amongst the foreigners resident in Amanata Colony that made up some 30% of the population by the time the tide of refugees eased. The first group, the theologians, were tackling the questions presented of Buddhism and Shinto, old Japan's most prominent traditional belief systems, by a universe where Earth, or at least Japan, had been destroyed and humanity largely existed in Space. It turned out that the former faith, nontheistic and international to begin with, got along quite well in Space and would produce more than its fair share of crazies as the decades went by. Shinto, almost entirely limited to Japan itself and tied to traditions stemming from land and objects that no longer existed, was in dire need of radical change. In order to survive in Space, Shinto, much like Amanata itself, could no longer be solely Japanese. It would also need new gods and new legends to be created by humans themselves. In the end, lacking any genuine central authority or guidance, Shinto reached a tipping point and turned suddenly from a reclusive and endemic faith to one that was, in a sense, the most liberal and democratic.

The technocrats meanwhile insinuated themselves into the colony's economic recovery process, founding many of the massive corporations that are still so intertwined with their role in government that they are often characterised as state enterprises, though who is controlling who is sometimes up for debate. In addition to advancing Amanata's increasingly active military, robotics also permeated the manufacturing sphere. In the civilian sphere, adoption of a slave class of human-semblance robots quickly accelerated, initially in part to curb the old curse of sexism against human women that was threatening to re-emerge under policies of population growth. Initially designed to be submissive and apolitical if sentient at all, it was flesh and blood humans who demanded more and more from their androids and gynoids and then asked whether biology was even necessary to be considered a human or to produce culture. Mu-Industries became the first of Amanata's post-collapse megacorps to fall victim to significant reduction. It was replaced in the domestic robot and AI space by the socially owned Iteration N who unhinged all the doorways of discovery, just to see what would happen. Nowadays, robots and AI of all kinds are entrenched in society up to the highest levels of power. They fight, love, lead, create and commit crimes. But while [i]norms[/i] have certainly been established, very significant questions of law and humanity have not yet been fully answered.

(to be continued... )

[b]Government[/b] The position of Head of Government is jointly held by the Regency Council, an entity held over from the early days of K Faction control. There is no check on their collective power, nor any laws governing its size or how often it can be shuffled. A series of recent movements has left the current council with seventeen sitting members, including two artificial intelligences. Each is generally so connected that they inevitably represent multiple interest groups and are thus, if not impartial, then at least distant from the day to day cut and thrust of factional politicking. Aside from the overall direction of government, one of their most important duties is to carefully consider who to include and exclude in their own ranks as well as those of other powerful government offices to ensure the stability of the state.

Amanata still recognizes the Tenno (the Emperor of Japan) as Head of State and considers the position to be vacant, not acknowledging any current pretenders. It neither precludes the possibility of the position being filled in future (though how this might occur is not clear) nor sees any issue with the throne remaining vacant indefinitely. Republican pressure mounted from the 2250's to revise this position given that Amanata was clearly no longer simply "Japan in Space" even if it owed by far the most to Japan for its origins. The Regency Council adopted a middle position and revised the constitution to the current version which affirms that the Tenno is a state and territory independent entity. This indirectly absolved Amanata of being Neo-Japan and implicitly accepts other sovereign governments' recognition of the Tenno as their head of state.

As a symbol of modern Amanata's cultural philosophy, designs of replacements for the lost Japanese imperial regalia were recently crowd-sourced. The resulting artifacts were produced by hand and are now used to represent the Chrysanthemum Throne ceremonially. They are treated with all the reverence due the originals but are occasionally displayed during special occasions at the shrines housing them.

[b]Religion[/b] Neon Shinto was a term originally coined in a certain popular post-Collapse song that was meant as a derogatory reference to the gaudy holographic calligraphy still associated with Amanata's shrines. As Shinto shrines are not directly taxable, they were and still are used as fronts for all sorts of gray or black market enterprises, in some cases even being veiled gambling dens or brothels. Over the past century however, even entirely sincere places of worship have embraced the term to differentiate themselves from their Earthly, strictly Japanese predecessors. After all, there are no traditional gods or holy places anywhere other than on Earth, so traditional Shinto could not survive in Space without change in fact and philosophy.

In modern Amanata, shrines and religious organizations range from the deadly serious to those that are kayfabe entertainment productions with the latter being rather more popular, and society at large having gone well past the point of considering one end of the scale to be exploiting the other.

Although not Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples are traditionally tolerated when they fill out tax forms meant for shrines. Buddhism still lends itself to being serious and a foreigner with traditional views of religion might interpret Amanata as a Buddhist country more than anything else.

Religious movements that directly preclude or restrict other worship are unconstitutional in the same sense that a workplace cannot restrict an employee's worship, making them illegal to proselytize, though not to privately observe. This presents issues with strict orthodox readings of the Abrahamic faiths but is largely enforced as an anti-cult law.

[SIZE=4][b]Territories[/SIZE][/b] Unlike many of her peers, Amanata is a prominent land power and has only turned back towards the stars in relatively recent years. Where many successor states have stayed contained to the borders they had as colonies, Amanata's terrestrial land borders have expanded considerably since the Collapse, with Dominion lands stretching across the southern seaboard of Prospect's largest continent. The nation has been actively launching settlements or integrations of its frontiers as a supplement to its programs of population increase and cultural exchange.

[b]Core Region[/b] (Prospect – Major: $5000) The so-called Core Region is the densely populated and highly developed area in the southeast of Prospect's largest continent. It corresponds more or less to the pre-collapse borders of the former Amanata Colony founded in the expansion era. It is divided into three provinces:

Miyako, physically the smallest but also by far the most densely populated, lies along the east coast. Once covered in temperate rainforest, the region has been heavily settled into a massive connurbation with numerous large cities catering to varying tastes and styles interspersed with quiet towns and green belts. At the center of it all is the eponymous, sleepless megalopolis of Miyako, the nation's capital and by far its alpha city.

Nankai, facing the south, is a vast karst landscape with rough terrain covered in temperate rainforest on the surface hiding catacombs of limestone caverns and innumerable underground streams and rivers emptying from the rainforest watersheds to the north. The province contains much of the nation's heavy manufacturing sector, which can conveniently and politely be hidden out of sight and mind beneath the surface in sterile, highly automated complexes. The actual population living in the province is more modest but increasing numbers are attracted by the striking landscape which is still mostly covered by the same temperate forest that has been cleared away in Miyako.

Kirisame, the interior, is the largest but least populated part of the Core, being covered by subtropical to tropical rainforests. Humanity's expansion into the area was initially limited but longstanding tracks and trails have been followed by roads, shrines and towns in recent decades. In addition to the obvious biological value of old growth forest that had not been present on much of Earth for centuries, it is an important source of timber for traditional buildings as well as additional wonders made possible by its giant trees. Whilst Prospect gravity is slightly higher than Earth's, the alien trees in the Misty Forest have different structural proteins allowing them to grow much larger than their Earthbound counterparts.

[b]Kazami Province[/b] (Prospect – Minor: $2000) Kazami, the region west of the forest, is a growing province set to emerge as a second economic core after Miyako. The land is rapidly filling out, though almost all the large cities are still located along the southern coastal band. Further from the coast rolling grasslands and savannah to the north are dominated first by a vast and expanding belt of agriculture that skirts west of the forests of Kirisame before turning into fields of indigenous grasses, flowers and herds of megafauna. Kazami derives some benefit from a northbound highway that forms Amanata's main land route into Fusang but relations are quite poor most of the time.

[b]Kajiura Province[/b] (Prospect – Minor: $1000) Once a wild hinterland, the uncompromising hills, dense scrub and so-called "dry tangle" of Kajiura were a barrier to civilization and Earthborn life for a century and a half before one too many armed groups driven from Amanata's muted power struggles set up shop to harass the borders. The result was Amanata finally making a determined and effective push to clear the place out from the air down. These days, terrorists are still a problem but a relatively rare one and the roads and rapidly growing towns are, if not outright safe, then at least navigable for the sensible. While mineral and geological heat are the primary things extracted from the land, the best known features of the area are, of course, the hot springs which are not common anywhere else in the Dominion and had been sorely missed.

[b]Mukue Province[/b] (Prospect – Minor: $2000) Mukue (Mugunghwa) is a former United Korean colony that turned into something of a creepy medieval throwback after the Collapse. At one point not itself on bad terms with Amanata, it was finally repeated refugee crises, serious security vulnerability in the small country itself, and a watershed fiasco involving two extremist groups that convinced Amanata there was more argument than not for just knocking the government over and setting up shop. Mukue is located on the western peninsula, at the confluence of antarctic currents and warm fronts from the inland sea. Unlike the rest of Amanata, Mukue is cold in winter, though not bitterly so, and has some of the most intense snowfall on the planet. Economic activity in the province is modest compared to the population but it is bolstered by activity from Amanata's considerable westward military presence.

[b]Houraijima[/b] (Bunyan – Minor: $1000) Formerly an abandoned UKSA base, this small moon of Bunyan was purchased by Amanata through the state owned Hourai Fusion Turbine Company which resettled the shanty towns that had developed in the swiss cheese-like interior. Houraijima is 130km long and masses about 1.6 x 10^18 kg. It had little intrinsic value other than as a location for the HFTC's massive helium refinery complex, now a keystone of Amanatan energy independence. Since then, the moonlet has become a thriving space metropolis and diversified in function with new wings continually being added. In addition to significant military involvement as Amanata's sole interplanetary naval base (for now), many of the assets and facilities of Dominion Star Yards have also recently been spun off there as Hourai Star Yards, making it a center of shipbuilding as well.

[SIZE=4][b]Infrastructure[/SIZE][/b] [b]Nekonet[/b] (High Speed Telecommunications – Miyako) Nekonet is the state enterprise that provides free wireless network access to all Amanatan citizens as well as to visitors free of charge for the duration of their visa. Nyaana, a cat eared goddess, is considered to be the patron deity of Nekonet. Her main shrine is located in downtown Miyako and receives millions of visitors annually.

[SIZE=4][b]Cultural Advantages/Disadvantages[/SIZE][/b] [b](+3) Skilled Bankers[/b] (+1.5% GDP Growth) The preservation and spread of humanity is a core long term policy for Amanata. Some of the initiatives undertaken include supplementing human resources with considerable numbers of androids, gynoids and general robots, as well as programs and technology designed to produce sustained and sustainable population growth and mill the results through a towering education system. These measures have been highly effective, if alarming to those attached to traditional family structures. Given it is now properly in a phase of demographic expansion with large numbers of young people finishing school, the nation's economy is predisposed to growth so long as space and resources last.

[b](-3) Disorderly Citizens[/b] (+1.5% Social Upkeep) Protection and promotion of culture as well as a certain amount of free speech are keystones in the legitimacy of Amanata as a non-democratic state. In addition to generous handouts to cultural and artistic projects, there are strong protections in place for citizens' personal and expressive freedom so long as the interference with the functions of state are "not excessive". In practice, both citizens and the state take this social contract quite seriously because it has a highly educated population that would not otherwise tolerate an arbitrary government well. Thus, for all the economic or political restrictions, Amanatan society is quite personally and expressively libertarian. As usual, the concerns of freedom and social cost start to clash somewhere between sex and hard drugs. In some ways, the fewer the laws, the more overbearing the remaining ones seem and Amanata's presentable face belies a thriving underworld. Unlike the Japan of old, Miyako is dangerous by night and the battle against the black market is constant.

[b](-3) Engineering Buffoons[/b] (+1.5% Infrastructure Cost) Amanata is a cultural project and as such there is a strong pressure for everything to look pretty. Neighbourhoods need parks, shrines and temples. Districts need plazas, fountains and statuary. Train stations and terminals need tasteful but exacting decoration and commercial towers have to be distinct from their neighbours yet fit stylistically into the skyline even at the expense of not fitting into a budget. The country's engineers aren't [i]bad[/i], but they don't get to make the final decisions.

[SIZE=4][b]Military Advantages/Disadvantages[/SIZE][/b] [b](+3) Better Ground Troops[/b] (+3 Attack and Defense) The Holy Amanatan Army's competitive regimental system has successfully produced an armed force infused with esprit de corps and not a little of the samurai spirit of old. Unique procurement arrangements based on standardized equipment series with a large but sane amount of modular customization ensure soldiers hit the battlefield with a great deal of gear tailored to their unit's training, tactics and abilities and powerful regimental commanders have vast access to capabilities they decide they need. In addition to excellent communications and leadership, Amanatan troops down to the section level have wide access to autonomous or semi-autonomous drones, combat droids, specialized or remote scanning equipment and precision strikes from aerial strike craft. Compared to peer forces, its rate of powered armour adoption is also exceptionally high, made possible by Amanata's inheritance of old Japan's robotics sector.

[b](+3) Better Sensors[/b] (+3 Sensors) [b](+3) Better Stealth[/b] (+3 Stealth) [b](-3) Worse Ship Weapons[/b] (-10% Hit Power) [b](-3) Expensive Ships[/b] (+7.5% Cost) Until fairly recently, Amanata's only shipyards were on the ground. Terrestrial gravity therefore placed mass limitations on military ship designs above and beyond the similar limitations presented by the need to mount modern superluminal drives. Moreover the nation had quite limited space forces until fairly recently, having preferred to contract mercenaries until the political realities blocking a collective orbital defence scheme similar to an expanded Terra Nova Skywatch became clear. This has forced Amanata's ship design bureaus to do more with less as well as to build disruptively to compensate for the inevitable disadvantage in numbers and mass that the Cosmonavy would face into at least the intermediate future.

Emphasizing stealth, electronic countermeasures, sensors and electronics

A fairly new navy, the Dominion of Amanata Cosmonavy has aimed to be somewhat disruptive in its order of battle and incorporation of technology, having the ability to do so since it also doesn't have much historic baggage. This is all in an effort to avoid like-for-like encounters with a peer power that is likely to have more and bigger ships for the intermediate future. To that end, much of its naval power in its fleet rests in stealthy light carrier groups. That said, even if brought to battle Amanatan ships do prove immensely survivable at the expense of some firepower, giving them the chance to disengage and avoid defeat.

[b](-2) Fighter Toughness[/b] (-4 HP) [b](+3) Fighter Weapons[/b] (+3 Power) [b](+3) Fighter Pilots[/b] (+3 Defense) [b](+3) Fighter Targeting[/b] (+3 Attack) Amanatan mobile fighters have a surfeit of moving parts, complex variable geometry and designs that emphasize increasing the basic power:mass ratio as much as possible. The result are highly maneuverable craft with excellent acceleration and range at the expense of some robustness. All models are also outfitted with dedicated support AI which lightens cognitive load and increases situational awareness for the pilot considerably.

[SIZE=4][b]Shipyards[/SIZE][/b] [b]Dominion Star Yards[/b] (Houraijima) 6 Escort Slipways (60) 2 Cruiser Slipways (40)

[SIZE=4][b]Espionage[/SIZE][/b] [b]KAMI[/b] (Counterintelligence) Inevitably, all of Amanata's enemies come to realize that [i]someone[/i] keeps their unlikely country obliviously safe, but it's difficult to say who they are. Among the national security organs of the successor states, Amanata's tireless guardians are perhaps the most secretive, seemingly existing beyond the society, scrutiny and laws of those they protect. It is secrecy that preserves them, and secrecy that imprisons them in an endless and thankless hell. In a certain district far in the outskirts of Miyako, it is said there is a large but quiet shrine where sincere prayers are sometimes answered. Perhaps gods do still exist after all.

Demographics: --human 80.26%, artificial intelligence 19.74% --standard english 95%, other 5% --Imperial Church 72%, protestant 10%, Roman Catholic 8%, other/non-affiliated 10%

Throughout all this, the non-Japanese struggled and succeeded in making themselves heard, turning Amanata into something more than Japan in Space.

As the years passed and the rebuilding and expansion continued with more and more disparate groups putting words (or bombs) into the mix, it seemed like Amanata's answer to the first would be disturbingly similar to a cyberpunk dystopia. With the state as a source of protection and economic control that guaranteed the basic necessities and controlled the accumulation of money and power, it was arts, thrills, the living of life and the breaking of taboos that people turned to.

[b]Analytics Office[/b] (Analysis) The Analytics Office is not formally an intelligence organization but rather a general purpose government ministry that grew naturally from the requirements of administering a very large state. It is a clearinghouse of information buzzing with hundreds of experts and often quirky AI's that collects mostly domestic, but also foreign data and then attempts to serve it all up in an understandable way to other government offices. This unsurprisingly is a complicated job with other bureaucrats variably accusing "Anno" of trying to tell them how to do their jobs or just plain being wrong. That said, the department's work fits very well with the Regency Council's view of foreign affairs, which is to see human space holistically, as an ever-developing situation rather than focus overly on particular events or operations at specific times and places.

[b]Military Intelligence and Surveillance Office[/b] (Military) Amusing as their acronym is, Amanata's military intelligence organ is underestimated at their enemy's peril. Their mandate, an oddly indirect one, is to protect the state and the armed forces from avoidable losses, giving them wide license to liaise with the Analytics Office and to search for unconventional or even non-military solutions. Of course, giving strike groups the information to carry out their missions works just as well most of the time.

Rather than faith in the traditional sense Neon Shinto is thought to rely more on collective suspension of disbelief, providing a way to show devote, to add meaning to things done, and to gather people now and again to have a festival. Divine entities are happily created, fictionalized and retold again and again. What is true and what is real are different.

A strong terrestrial army is considered important, oddly enough, to space defense as its presence encourages the development of collective security

[SIZE=4][b]Budget 2316[/SIZE][/b] [b]Unitary-Socialist[/b] GDP: 10500 Trade Base: 8.5% FY2316 Taxes: (55%) -6% Infrastructure Projects -10% Military Upkeep -10% Trade Revenue 24% Social Spending Espionage Risk: Low

[i]Nekomi Academy[/i] (University) Nekomi Academy was founded in the high colonial era as simply the University of Amanata and was even more boringly renamed the State Cultural and Religious Studies Institute for a period after the Collapse. In a period of nearly two centuries it has gone from a third rate political checkbox tick to one of the most renowned centers of learning in human space. Unlike all of its peers in that short list however, Nekomi Academy focuses entirely on the arts and humanities.