Minkowski
"The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle." - Leonard Nimoy, Civilization IV
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Summary
- Concept: Drone-shagging religious spacenoid engineers.
- Faction: League
Astrography
Yama
Yama is a large rocky planet massing nine Earths. It has an excess of high-mass elements and is a prime source of fissile material. Rrobotic mining operations dot the surface.
Yami
Yami is a small watery planet massing one-third Earth. Microbial life is present, along with remains of more complex forms.
Naraka
Naraka masses a mere 0.05 Jupiters and contains a high proportion of water vapour. It is orbited by the helium-mining colony O'neill.
Heaven's Stair
Minkowski's primary asteroid belt, also known as 'Changcheng' or simply 'the Belt' lies between Naraka and Xibalba. The majority of the Minkowskan population lives here, in the major colony complexes Gagarin and Tereshkova.
Xibalba
Xibalba masses 2 Jupiters and contains a high proportion of methane.
Diyu
Diyu masses 0.5 Jupiters and is almost exclusively hydrogen and helium based. It is orbited by the helium-mining colony Einstein.
Biology
Minkowskans are very much changed from their original form, having rewritten their DNA to match their new environment.
Physiology
Minkowskans at first glance are short, slim humans, being engineered for small stature and to deposit little fat. Their only particularly obvious alteration is their hand-like feet.
Feet aside, the most radical changes to Minkowskan physiology are invisible. Their musculature is optimised for twitch rather than sustained force, and their skeleton is designed along similar lines, with significant cartilage and limited calcium. The circulatory system is likewise rebiased to compensate for the lack of gravity. Minkowskans never suffer from space adaption syndrome, being naturally adapted to zero-gravity from birth, however they are vulnerable to their own array of issues on planets and gravitated structures.
Minkowskan skin ranges in tone from pale brown to pitch black. Mechanically, it is thick and reduced in elasticity to prevent bloat under vacuum. It is resistant to high-energy radiation and can rapidly switch between glossy reflective and matte radiative modes to optimise heat control in space. Furthermore when exposed to vacuum their skin wrinkles into tiny ridges and folds to maximise radiation area. The price paid for this density and complexity of machinery is reduced sensation - over much of the skin, Minkowskan nerve sensitivity is reduced from the baseline norm. It also impedes hearing slightly due to thickness of the eardrum. In compensation, Minkowskans have enhanced visual acuity and incredible ability to operate in extremes of light, aided by a tapetum lucidum and a secondary eyelid that protects against vacuum and intense light. They also possess a superhuman sense of smell to help police air quality, and a highly-advanced kinaesthetic sense.
Said vacuum adaptions are of course useless without the ability to survive the lack of air. For this reasons Minkowskans have engineered the ability to 'shut down' their lungs, preventing transport across the alveolar membranes and halting the loss of blood oxygen normal lungs suffer when exposed to vacuum. Their blood itself is extensively redesigned with many times the oxygen capacity of baselines, and the ability to exchange oxygen with a special gland below the liver which stores it chemically. With these enhancements a well-prepared Minkowskan can survive in vacuum for half an hour or more before suffering from significant medical problems.
Outside of space, in temperature-controlled, zero-gravity environments, hair and sweat cause more problems than they solve. Minkowskans posess neither, and typically lose excess heat by the somewhat less elegant method of panting.
The most fundamental, but also most invisible change to Minkowskan physiology is the alterations to the human genetic system. Minkowskan DNA is multiply-redundant and the replication systems contain extensive error checking. These modifications have made Minkowskans all but immune to the deleterious effect of the radiation that soaks their system, at the cost of slowed growth - wounds take longer to heal, and gestation and aging proceed at approximately 3/4 the baseline rate.
Psychology
Minkowskans think differently. They would say better.
Some Minkowskan intelligence structures are significantly enlarged and changed from the baseline. Apart from superior kinaesthetic sense and orientation, Minkowskan mechanical and spatial reasoning is dramatically improved and also broadened - the Minkowskan brain can comprehend and analyse inhuman distances and geometries with (relative) ease. However such optimisation has its drawbacks - while never suffering from agora- or claustrophobia, many Minkowskans find two-dimensional environments psychologically oppressive.
Continuous life in a hostile environment, where single mistakes could injure dozens or hundreds, has given rise to the half-natural half-nurtured ability to rapidly internalise routines and precautions. Minkowskans are inherently conscientious and conservative, and it is this ability as much as their spatial intellect that has given them their engineering tradition and made their society so resistant to outside influences. The obvious downside is however in effect - Minkowskans are xenophobic, intolerant, and often overly hostile to new ideas.
More controversially for some observers, the neural structures that give rise to spirituality have also been enhanced. It is almost unheard of to find an atheist Minkowskan - those who do leave the Cavorite faith join another religion.
Minkowskans Abroad
Minkowskans experiencing protracted gravity can suffer an array of medical issues, including muscle fatigue, skeletal deformation, unreliable balance and cardiovascular problems. Due to obstruction from the religious establishment and a lack of the enormous research infrastructure of the Core, progress on developing easy countermeasures to these problems has been slow.
Beyond the physiological issues are the psychological issues of never learning to deal with pervasive gravity. Many Minkowskans never learn to walk, although it is mandatory for members of the military. More important to many Minkowskans is the spiritual aspect, that compels them to undertake frequent rituals to cleanse and shield their soul while exposed to the influence of the Adversary.
Popular ways to make stays in gravity more enjoyable include light exoskeletons, mobile furniture, and swimming.
Template
Sociology
Economy
Primary Industry
Mineral mining, dust mining, computronium mining, whaling.
Secondary Industry
Shipbuilding, weaponry, advanced materials, electronics, nanotechnology, drone byproducts & derivatives.
Tertiary Industry
?
Quaternary Industry
Minkowski has a bloated R&D budget, only partially compensated for by the hefty (by local standards) fees it charges to foreign students looking for a global-class xenology education. Within the Sea of Solomon, its engineering, mathematics, physics and chemistry degrees are highly prized.
Culture
Minkowskan culture is undergoing a liberal explosion (by local standards) as the stresses of the War fade and collide with new social issues.
Religion
Gravity is the destructive influence of the Adversary, only by abandoning it can we ascend to Heaven.
Heterodox Sects
Language
As it was from the start a strongly multinational colony, English was the natural choice for Minkowski. The government embraced this, and Minkowskan children - natural or artificial - were educated in a modified version of the Standard English form devised in the 2030s for international education. This was however done with the understanding that language is mutable, and over time the form, both taught and used, has been modified by the cultures the colonists derived from and live in.
Minkowskan English also has a complete and directly compatible signed form, which every native is fluent in.
Food
Zero-gravity life places harsh restrictions on conventional foods. Free liquids and very small objects are impractical, as is anything that crumbles. Most Minkowskan food comes in bitesize chunks impaled on skewers or chained together, to be eaten by hand or foot (gloves substitute for utensils). Common foodstuffs are meatballs covered with dissolving sealant and filled with flavoured sauce, modified derivatives of potatoes and tomatoes, and sweet or savoury doughnuts. Indian spices are common flavourings, but for the most part it is hard to relate elements of cuisine directly to an Earth ancestor.
Artistic presentation of meals comes in the ordering and arrangement of the balls in their chain network or on their skewers. Minkowskan edible sculpture is its most famous cultural export, and any ethnic restaurant will have a dramatic mandala of floating food in the window to catch the eye of customers.
Entertainment
The premier sport on Minkowski is Nullball. Various forms of zero-g tennis, volleyball and contact sports have been developed and popularised on Minkowski since its founding, but the original 'zero-g football' of the pre-colonial era has never lost dominance. In most of the sphere it is a niche or second-tier game, but on Minkowski it is a national pastime and source of pride.
The second-most-popular sport is an intellectual one. Algol was invented during the War by the burgeoning community of xenologists, and is now funded on a competition level by their professional organisation. The game's focus on dynamical thinking, rule creation and chaotic behaviour are thought to make it well suited to training and scouting for xenologists.
Clothing
The stereotype of Minkowskans is that they wear spacesuits all the time, and it is certainly true that every Minkowskan will own at least one, but day-to-day clothing is far more varied and practical. Even hard vacuum does not always require a spacesuit. If a short trip across a void is needed, getting changed at either end may take more time than the spacewalk itself, and the exposure would be easily within the physical tolerances of any healthy Minkowskan. The restrictions imposed by cramped zero-g life are that clothing be close-fitting and appropriately modest from every angle, but within these constraints a wide variety of fashions have emerged at different points in time and space. Of course, the possible silhouettes are sharply limited, so spacesuits and casual clothing alike are typically personalised with dramatic colours and patterns.
Native jewellery follows similar principles. Necklaces and bangles are shunned, but rings, chokers and anything else that sticks closely to the body are common. Piercings have never been in fashion but are far from unheard of. What shocks many outsiders is the sheer quantity of gold, platinum and other decorative metals an overenthusiastic Mink might cover themselves with, thanks to the weightless environment and cheap cost of raw materials. Such an approach is not without its problems, however. Accidental collisions arising from an uncontrollably large momentum from jewellery are a stock trope of Minkowskan romantic comedies.
Minkowskans are naturally hairless, but they are not totally impervious to the influence of external standards of beauty, which typically prizes the beauty of hair. Throughout history wigs (and hats) have moved in and out of fashion as baldness is deemed attractive or unsightly. Currently they are in, and the palette of permissible colours and styles is very broad.
Art
The original and orthodox form of Minkowskan art is Absolute Realism, the absolutely faithful depiction of the subject without bias, based in the Cavorite injunction to study and understand the world. Even today it is considered the foundation of art, and all formally educated artists will have produced at least one good work in this style. Despite Cavor's best efforts however, its fundamental limitations and redundancy in a world with holographic video and easy data storage have seen it superceded.
The first artistic revolution began after recontact. It was a time that saw fundamental challenges to Minkowski's national image amid a tremendous influx of foreign cultural influences. The artistic establishment's focus on dry technical accuracy was totally unable to meet the emotional challenge of this period, and there was instead an explosion of 'informal' artistic expression outside of the establishment. An enormous amount of Minkowski's modern popular culture and canon was created in the decades preceding the breakdown. Just as important however is the fact that no coherent counterpoint to the Cavorite establishment emerged. No major trends date from this period, which has been called in Minkowskan history 'the revolution of a thousand details'. And then that catastrophe and the bloody end of the Tereshkova Rebellion brought about an end to the festivities.
It was the establishment itself that would change next. The Magnate War forced dramatic reorganisations of a still quickly growing society, and gave a critical need for propaganda that had not been present before in a society that faced no existential threats. The Church, free of the direct influence of Cavor, endorsed the new style of Metaphysical Realism that held the 'invisible' aspects of an object were just as valid subjects for faithful depiction as gross physical qualities. This gave them the tool they needed to communicate the virtue of sacrifice, the strength of League solidarity and the evil of the Magnates to the general public.
Metaphysical Realism is still the dominant form in the artistic establishment today, but just as with the recontact, the reconnect has seen a renaissance in Minkowskan culture. But the tone this time is fundamentally different. Minkowski emerged from the fires of the War triumphant and strong, dominant in industry and science. Modern popular art communicates a confident nationalism and an exaltation of technology, the military and the Minkowskan society.
Politics
Minkowski is formally a theocracy. The power of appointment of most public officials lies with the Council of Apogees. Below the level of the cabinet they typically act as a rubber stamp for the suggestions of relevant bureaucrats, but all top officials are carefully considered.