Alshain
Run by MJ12.
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National Overview
As Of August 2195
Genre: Blessed be you by the light of Blake (Religious Transhumans) :|
Head of State:
Head of Government: (decide later)
Government: Dictatorship
History Paths
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. - Voltaire
A1) Longshot Mission (+Fabs)
- Adhara was originally colonized by ideologues believing that equality could only be reached when everyone was made equal. This turned into a religious fervor in a fairly short span of years.
A2) Dominantly Transgene (++Transgene)
- Given the religious pressure towards advancement and human enhancement that the early Adharans had, it was no surprise that they embraced modification. To worship their creator, they would create him, and his heavenly host, via augmentation and AI research.
A3) Hell World
- They chose a world that was actively hostile to human existence, with conditions reminiscent of primordial Earth. It was their Eden.
A5) Adapt (Radical Morphological Change)
- Humanity had become weak and broken with their sin, which made many think that Adhara was hell. They were wrong, of course. It was Eden.
B1) Transgene Migration (+Population, +Transgene)
- Despite their status as a religious cult, the offer of free top of the line bioenhancement to anyone who emigrated was sufficient to bring many into the fold, and the technology used to enhance the men and women who arrived developed rapidly. And for a time, it was good.
C1) Military Action (+Military)
- However, such could not last. One sect believed in the divinity of the posthumans and their constructions, including feral drones. Other sects disagreed. Disagreements on ideology soon spiraled into full blown warfare after a few drone raids.
C3) Training Ground Religious Warfare (+Doctrines)
- Warfare between religious sects threatened the integrity of the Adharan project.
Chaotic) My Little Lacus Cyber-Ghandi (+Transgene, -Military)
- One brave preacher-cyberneticist came to the front, his words of peace immortalized in the Book of Blake.
D1) Isolated (+Stockpiles)
- All this, of course, went unnoticed by the vast majority of the galaxy, as the Breakdown occurred near-simultaneously.
D2) Go Weird (++Transgene)
- In that time, Adharans, united again, started further development of their bodies and minds, turning them into the most capable transhumans in known space.
E1) Sign the PACT (+Aerospace Technology, +ECM Technology, +Pulse Technology, +Carrier Technology, +Wealth, -Theta)
- As Adhara was a notorious hive for feral drones after the reconnect, a PACT peacekeeping mission was sent in to reduce the likelihood of feral drone raids on nearby colonies, crushing its nascent government and installing a dictatorship.
H1) Transhumanize! (+Transgene, +CIP, +tech, -morale)
- But even still, science and religion marched on in Adhara, hand in hand.
H2) Arms Production Center (+PIP, +RP, +weapon tech)
- But now the science, instead of being focused on tools to bring man closer to godhood, became focused on ways to fight their fellow man.
H3) Area 52 (++Doctrines, ++Tech)
- Its advanced technical base, hostile environment, and heavily enhanced population made Adhara an excellent place to test doctrines, advanced technology, and put a hostile environment survival school.
Total Path Bonuses: Radical Morphological Change, +Fabs, +++++++Transgene, +Population, +Stockpiles, +PIP, +CIP, +Wealth, +RP, +++Doctrines, +Weapons Tech, +++Technology, -Morale, -Theta
Faction Bonuses: +Aerospace Technology, +ECM Technology, +Pulse Technology, +Carrier Technology
History
The 21st century Brazilian debacle was one of the many obstacles that transhuman technologies had during their adoption. The discreditation of mental enhancment technologies was a harsh hit to the Church of the Imminent Eschaton, which was a rapidly-spreading religious view that mixed concepts from sources such as Christianity, Hinduism, and quantum physics. The major tenets of said religion, that God had made man in His image to create himself in the future, a perfect loop of reincarnation and divinity, and that the method to get closer to God, to worship Him, was by heavily enhancing oneself in body and mind, made it anathema in the backlashes against human enhancement, both mental and physical, that occurred. The founder and his flock left, eight thousand strong, finding a world to colonize. The loss was palpable, as many of the worshippers of the Church of the Imminent Eschaton were brilliant or at least dedicated scientists and engineers, specializing in human enhancement.
Ironically or perhaps by fate, the proto-Adharans had generally used mechanical or nanotechnological methods instead of the Brazilian retroviruses for cognitive enhancement, replacing chunks of skull with solid-state machine. Thus, they avoided most of the problems of said enhancement.
The world they chose was Messier, in the Adhara star system, with conditions extremely similar to primordial Earth. Perhaps in a few hundred million years, life would evolve in its organic-rich seas and its harsh rocky continents. The symbolism of having a true Garden of Eden, a world like that which developed humanity, instead of the false gardens that others sought, was combined with pragmatism-by ensuring that only the heavily enhanced could survive the environs without severe technological aid, it ensured that they would be left alone for the most part.
The colonists set forth rebuilding themselves and building a society, one where the circumstances of your birth were unimportant, as enhancement was offered freely, to save one's soul. Adharan evangelist-cyberneticists traveled far and wide, spreading the word, to a range of responses ranging from interest to open hostility-but there were those, the poor, the sick, the ones who saw a method to improve their lot in life-and so they went and were enhanced. Most of them converted, whether out of indoctrination or out of gratitude. Some did not, and came back with their augmentation. Sometimes nations sought to deal with Adhara, sending converts and money and supplies in exchange for blueprints. The touch of Adharan design, whether purchased outright or reverse-engineered, can be seen in most of the cybernetic and some of the genetic augmentation in the human sphere, even today. It seemed like despite their fundamentalist roots and their belief, they were on their way to building a true Eden, one where all that mattered was your ethics and drive.
Near the Breakdown, though, a demagogue interrupted this process of self-improvement. Karin Shiva and her doctrine that the posthumans were living gods, or at least angels, became popular over the years, and with the Breakdown, the religious schism spiraled into full-blown warfare. Machinery and technologies were repurposed to the art of war, and Adhara had not evolved so far away from human normality that they had lost their taste for it. The arms race that resulted brought theoretical advancements in human augmentation, as well as weapons and armor technology, into practical use, and the directed evolution of the Adharan augmentation suite catapulted them into, essentially, the most augmented transgenics in the human Sphere.
Eventually, one man, Gregor Blake, came to the forefront. A famous and skilled deacon-cyberneticist, he could take no more of seeing his children maimed by weapons of war, and spoke out. His own personal charisma and sayings brought peace, if an uneasy one, and immortalized his words in the Book of Blake. However, the doctrine of posthuman divinity became more and more accepted as time went on, eventually leading to Adhara becoming infamous for trading or at least not interfering with posthuman-derived feral drones. After the Reconnect and before the start of the ZOCU war, such incidences became so bad that the USASF assisted a pro-US and anti-drone faction of the CoIE in a coup, backing their dogma with a carrier battlegroup and divisions of US Marines. Today, Adhara still feels the the US presence, in the form of the Howard F. Magnus Marine Survival School, a significant USASF presence nearby, and a small but still prominent undercurrent of bitterness and pro-independence sentiment.
The ZOCU conflict did not do much to affect Adhara's stance, either pro- or anti-PACT, its government still grateful to the US deposing those who followed the doctrine of posthuman divinity, the people generally ambivalent or slightly displeased. Although flareups in insurgency operations and terrorism occurred as the Marine presence was lightened due to need, in general the withdrawal of peacekeeping forces did much to prevent Adhara from breaking away and going independent or outright joining ZOCU. Adharan ground forces are somewhat infamous for having fought on both sides, a significant amount of heretical Eschatonics defecting outright to ZOCU, while Adharan combat cyborgs fought on the side of the PACT. The few Adharan on Adharan conflicts in the ZOCU war were the most brutal ground conflicts in existence, as neither side expected or provided mercy to the other. No prisoners were taken, no surrenders were offered or accepted-the only acceptable outcome in either case was the elimination or routing of the enemy.
Postwar, the Adharan defectors as well as many who believed completely in posthuman divinity have been slowly trickling to ZOCU or Independent worlds which do not mind their dogma as long as they back it up with skill in warfare or bioengineering.
The Adharan
Homo Sapiens Adharae autopsy report
Sociology
Adharan society is based off of one tenet-equality. Equality in ability as well as equality in opportunity. Adharan education, medical care, and augmentation are all subsidized, with privatized or semi-privatized education, healthcare, or mods being a high crime. Inheritance and wills are illegal, with any property at the time of death (save a very small allowance for heirlooms, slightly larger if the heirlooms are inherently without utility such as jewelry or the like) returning to the state. They have not been able to eliminate the "old boy's club" entirely, as the rich still have connections, but they have been able to curtail it somewhat with social stigma-many Adharans refuse such help due to said.
Although nominally secular worshippers of the Church of the Imminent Eschaton are still favored, especially in occupations where augmentations are routinely upgraded or replaced such as military or high-risk construction fields. This is most visible in the field of human augmentation, where someone without a divinity degree is unlikely to be accepted into a prestigious program (and is not very likely to be accepted into any program)-although not an explicit policy this is a heavy societal norm.
Military
The Adharan military has three arms with nominally separate chains of command, although in practice someone is expected to defer to someone of equal rank in a higher-prestige unit. These arms are generally separated by quality of training, harshness of selection, and miscellaneous requirements, with all personnel starting in the Adharan Citizen's Defense Forces, issued basic equipment and given basic training. ACDF personnel are expected to defend Adhara from foreign invasion and assist in civil affairs.
ACDF personnel who perform particularly well in practice are allowed to attempt to apply to the Adharan Expeditionary Forces, the arm generally deployed to quell external threats whenever PACT requests assistance from its member-states in a peacekeeping action or the like. ACDF personnel are generally heavily enhanced with cyberware and given training roughly equivalent to a ranger or parachute battalion in the PACT or EU. Although cross-training with the USMC is common there are often minor issues with conflicting egos between the two sides. Furthermore, some have criticized the AEF for their particularly large egos as well as the common condescension they show towards baselines (whereas the ACDF are generally friendly and the MD are generally indifferent).
The Manus Dei, the Hands of God, are the most elite arm of the Adharan military, and the most selective. The basic requirements to attempt to join are at least 2 years' service in the AEF, a divinity degree, and an Atherholt Trauma Function score of 88 or above. Manus Dei generally serve as special forces, although they are technically a fully independent (if small) military with their own naval, armor, and aerospace arm as well. Although there are still noncombat occupations in the Manus Dei, all members are expected to be at least capable of functioning as elite light infantry if necessary no matter if they are chaplains, intelligence analysts, naval crew, or pilots. For this reason the Manus Dei training regimen is extremely tight packed, pushing even Adharan augmentation to the limits as personnel get a minimum of respite, sometimes training for more than 20 hours a day for weeks on end.
Although promotion upwards is fairly standard, Adhara often promotes soldiers with particularly high levels of competence and drive "sidewards" into more prestigious units. The prestige of being a member of the AEF or Manus Dei is such that there are inevitably more applicants than there are ever acceptances, with the rejection rate being anywhere from 30% for the AEF to over 75% for the Manus Dei.
The Manus Dei
Ranks and Authority
From highest to lowest w/rough conventional equivalency:
- Seraph-9X (O-8 Major General)
- Cherubim-8I (O-7 Brigadier General)
- Throne-7H (O-6 Colonel)
- Ophanim (O-4 Major)
- Dominion-6G (O-3 Captain)
- Virtue-5F (O-2 1st Lieutenant)
- Power-4E (E-9 Sergeant Major)
- Principality-3D (E-7 Sergeant First Class)
- Archangel-2C (E-6 Staff Sergeant)
- Angel-1B (E-5 Sergeant)
- Noviciate-0A (Recruit)
Ranks 1B to 9X are ranks used by active-duty personnel, Noviciate/0A is given to trainees regardless of their previous rank-if successful, they are inducted into the Manus Dei with the Manus Dei equivalent of their original rank. Ranks Angel/1B to Power/4E are enlisted, Virtue/5F to Seraph/9X are commissioned officer rank-equivalents.
As the Manus Dei are technically a monastic order, the leader of the Manus Dei is always an Abbot (if male) or Abbess (if female) and holds proportional religious authority. Most commissioned officers in the Manus Dei also hold religious authority as well, although this is not technically required.
Personnel
The path of the faithful is marked by continual enhancement. -Chapter 41, The Pancreator's Projection
All applicants to the Manus Dei are taken from the members of the Adharan Citizen's Defense Force and Adharan Expeditionary Forces. To join an applicant must have an Atherholt Trauma Function test score of above 80%, a degree in divinity or a related subject, and be extremely mentally fit with high scores in problem-solving, willpower, and other desirable traits. Physical fitness is optional as most Manus Dei submit to extremely heavy cyberization, the start of which is during training-however an ability to tolerate extreme augmentation is not.
The Manus Dei training regimen is secret but what is known is that it pushes even the heavy cybernetic augmentation of its candidates to the limit.
Structure
The Manus Dei is divided into three rough arms, the Oculus Dei (Eyes of the Pancreator), Laminus Dei (Blades of the Pancreator), and the Potentius Dei (Strength of the Pancreator). The vast majority of personnel are in the Potentius Dei, with the Oculus Dei possessing the lowest amount of manpower. Roughly divided, the Oculus Dei are intelligence as well as liaisons between the Manus Dei and allied military forces, the Laminus Dei are the direct action and indirect-action arm of the Manus Dei, and the Potentius Dei are support, including air support, armor support, infantry support, and military support. Furthermore, the auspice of the Potentius Dei also contains most noncombatant members of the Manus Dei, including the chaplain corps, medical corps, and training staff.
Leadership
Current Leader: Abbess Irina Blake (Seraph/9X)
Oculus Dei Director: Bishop Thomas Freiling (Cherubim/8I)
Laminus Dei Director: Minister Shahrazad Shanaz (Cherubim/8I)
Potentius Dei Director: Alexander Engel (Throne/7H)
Tenets
- First tenet: Uphold your faith as a scholar in peace and as a warrior in battle. You have been blessed with the talent to argue your faith with weapons and with words. Use it well.
- Second tenet: Uphold your duty to the Adharan peoples, no matter where this duty takes you or what it asks of you. Understand that as one of the hands of the Pancreator, you will be expected to do the impossible.
- Third tenet: As a warrior show respect to your fellow warrior no matter the situation. He who is fighting against you today merely misunderstands. He will come to learn in time.
- Fourth tenet: Show no disrespect to those of lesser ability, brook no hatred towards the apostate. In time they will, too, learn by example. It may take decades or centuries but were we not all too ignorant of the word of god until recently?
- Fifth tenet: Our brothers are most valued. Stop at nothing to get one back.
- Sixth tenet: As one of the hands of god, you continue a lineage based on your name. Your body is a mere vessel for your heritage. Do not hesistate to sacrifice it if god wills that it be done. As long as your name and your deeds are remembered, you will never truly die.
- Seventh tenet: Remember your comrades and their deeds. As long as one still remembers, the Manus Dei will never cease to be.
- Eighth tenet: The enemy is not the true obstacle. Your doubt is. If you believe the impossible is possible, you will find a way to make it so. If you believe the possible is impossible, you will find excuses to render it impossible.
- Ninth tenet: Be swift, efficient, and precise. Waste no energy on atrocity or unnecessary action. Every move should be considered, every action consciously decided on. The pancreator did not bless you with a mind of silicon and crystal-matrix processors to waste it on actions that a beast could take.
- Tenth tenet: As a champion of transhumanism, the Church of the Imminent Eschaton, and of the Adharan peoples, all eyes are on you. No matter the situation, act with discipline and precision. In your body and your augmented mind there is a shard of divinity. Any actions that you commit that reflect poorly on you, reflect poorly on the Pancreator as well.