The Interstellar Alliance
The Interstellar Alliance is a Federation of twelve allied star systems populated primarily by human descendants from the UESS Pioneer, which departed Sol and arrived by apparent accident within the sector. Closely unified by their shared origin, diplomatic ties, and international interests, the Interstellar Alliance has grown quickly across its twelve stars and many more worlds to varying degrees.
The Interstellar Alliance aligns itself with the ambition and ideals of a society lifted above base desires, where its citizens are able to actualize feats of engineering, science, and art on their own merits. Basic living needs are provided by the state, while a citizens own work furnishes them with solid social reputation and further resources.
About
The Interstellar Alliance | |
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Capital: | Landfall City, Planet Eden |
Major Species: | Human, Half-Elves |
Minor Species: | Elves, Kishargal, Gartagen |
Official Languages: | English (Trade) |
Currency: | None |
Current Year: | 3021 |
Government Type: | Federation |
Image of the Federal Seal | |
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President: | TBD |
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Vice-President: | TBD |
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Date of Establishment: | 2920 |
Approximate Population: | 21.3 Billion |
The first seeds of the Alliance arrived when the UESS Pioneer misjumped into the sector, bringing with it a new group of humans to spread across the stars. Being a dedicated colony vessel, if a misplaced one, the Pioneers crew were able to adapt to the harsh climates of its settled worlds, starting the process of taming them. Over the years of settlement they have cohabitated or attracted a myriad of other species and citizens from around the sector with their open society, and voracious appetite for foreign culture.
Common Alliance Citizens
An Alliance citizens life may start from many places, and take many more paths from there. Being a descendent of the original colonists or otherwise, there are many lives to live within the Alliance for the timid or bold alike. Many Alliance citizens take up avocations within the arts and sports, and are often highly educated. Some enjoy the leisurely lifestyle the Alliance provides, some choose to defend it, and some choose to attain status and responsibility for it. With a mostly automated monitoring and healthcare system Alliance citizens are often healthy or at least cared for, albeit levels of medical knowledge differs between species. Alliance medicine is fantastic at dealing with mundane problems due to sheer economy of scale.
While VINA operates or manages all the mundane parts of society, there are those who choose to be more independent. Either because they do not enjoy the close contact with their fellow beings in a city, the love of nature, or a simple instinctual mistrust of such vast authority. Certain elements of the Alliance population choose to live well outside the concrete jungles and among the wilds of nature no matter the harshness of its touch, while VINA politely maintains a detached presence.
Common Alliance Backgrounds:
- Cosmopolitan: Large cities are not common within the Alliance, but they produce many well educated individuals used to living with technology and rubbing shoulders with a wide variety of visitors from other species. Other citizens living outside the cities often regard this population as soft, and cuddled by VINA, but that means little to a daring cosmo.
- Spacer: Life in the void is never quiet, despite what they say about space. Spacers are consummate spacers, opportunists and sharpish. Cramped quarters and noisy life support systems are a comfort to them, and trade and value are their watch words.
- Homesteader: The frontier needs the brave and the tough, and the Alliance does produce the odd throwback who would rather the company of nature than their fellow being, and to make their food in the old ways from the land. These folks live in the backwoods, on the edge, away from the glimmer of city streets, they live with the discipline of needed to maintain their lives away from the support of others. Many are well experienced with firearms, and survival skills as the frontiers of the Alliance worlds are not for the faint or the foolhardy.
Humans
Humans had already been in the sector long before the Pioneer arrived, being descendants from those colonists or a traveler from other human populations among the stars, humans make up the dominant species in the Alliance. Taking cues from the idealist hopes of their forefathers, colonists of the Pioneer established the foundation of laws, traditions, and mechanisms by which the Alliance still operates today. Humans are found in very corner of the Alliance.
Half-Elves and Elves
Elves were among the first of other cultures the founders of the Alliance interacted with, and for many decades relations were very friendly. These relations began to result in more mixed-ancestry children being born, especially as a fertility crisis among the elvish race developed. Some elves bemoan their apparent fate, while others embrace the future. Elves and half-elves may live among the general Alliance population or within primarily elvish settlements with limited citizen from other Alliance species. Elves are the rare of the two, and treated often quiet well wherever they go as a novelty. They also provide the core of the Alliances magical knowledge and resources.
Kishargal
Being explorers and spacefarers, sizable numbers of Kishargal have come to call the Alliance home and have been warmly welcomed by other citizens. Kishargal culture has been thoroughly examined by the Alliance, and there are even widespread fashion choices that include capes and other Kishargal garb.
Culture
The Interstellar Alliance was originally founded by colonists from the UESS Pioneer. This ship was full of engineers, hard workers, and scientists looking to make a new home for humanity. Their ideals and science-minded attitudes has led to a very open, results-driven, society focused on improving the well-being of all its citizens. Though it has been nearly two hundred years since the Pioneer arrived, the frontier spirit is still very much alive in parts of the Alliance. Many in the Alliance still view it as their duty to help others, and to help further the Alliance as a whole. Many are driven towards high-minded endeavors in scientific fields such as medicine, geo-engineering, and exo-biology.
Alliance citizens tend to voraciously consume foreign culture (even as they produce their own), they are curious and adaptable. Alliance culture places a quiet nobility to the pursuit of self-improvement in sports and study of the arts and sciences, which leaves the Alliance population with a lot of home experts on a staggering variety of fields whose expertise it can call on. However, despite these ideals the Alliance still has a need for police as crimes of passion, misunderstandings, or even boredom still occur requiring domestic police.
Despite lacking an official currency, VINA tracks a complicated system of merits and demerits for each citizen, and applies a priority to their living and personal resources relative to the area they reside. While all citizens are entitled to basic living conditions, healthcare, and services, there are significant material and prestige gains to motivate professional pursuits and labor. A basic citizen in Landfall City may be entitled to live in a small one-room apartment in the busiest parts of the city, while a citizen in a rural or remote area may be entitled to a larger townhouse or even single-family dwelling as incentive to colonize more remote areas of the Alliance.
The Alliance is famous for its fusion cuisine, mixing a variety of alien and human cultures to create new, some would say shocking, crossovers of food. Many foreigners believe Alliance citizens are simply unable to cook at all due to their reliance upon matter synthesizers for food, exposure to Alliance fusion cuisine may or may not strengthen this assertion.
Population
The Pioneer only carried five million colonists in addition to its crew, spread amongst the twelve stars this has left a lot of space for the Alliance to grow and serious lack of citizenry to fill it. Along with the influx of new citizens as it absorbs new cultures, and medical advances in fertility and other medical technology means children, or even large families are possible for almost any citizen. Even between couples who are not normally genetically compatible or able, using artificial wombs and genetic engineering. Large families are rewarded by the Alliance, and many resources are made available to families of all size, in some parts of the Alliance it is not uncommon to have households of more than five children.
Civilian Organizations and Companies
While the Alliance does operate basic goods and services, private enterprise is permitted and even encouraged as an avenue of expression, with many products being traded within the Alliance and exported to other nations.
- Alliance Shipbuilding & Engineering Co.
- Normandy Iron Works
Government
The Interstellar Alliance is a federation of human colonies allied under a single central government for their common benefit, while each individual colony world retains its own independent local government. The central government is organized into a senate based on the capital world of Eden, comprised of representatives of each member world or system. The Interstellar Alliance government is headed by a President and Vice President, who are elected every four years and may serve a maximum of two terms in office.
The Senate is housed at Landfall City, the designated capital of the Interstellar Alliance and the initial world colonized by the UESS Pioneer. Each member world is represented by two senators, an elder senator and a junior senator. These senators and other elected officials work to create policy and operate the Alliance government, primarily focusing on overall wellbeing, defense and trade among the member worlds, while individual planetary governance is overseen by the local governments.
The Alliance Senate is responsible for matters of diplomatic policy, shared trade and defense, and oversight of the large bureaucracies and apparatuses of state. The Alliance Senate is generally regarded as a slow, carefully assembly that prefers a light touch. While chaired by a President as an executive authority, this authority is not beyond question as senators are able to question and examine any decision and call for redress if necessary. However, the President is expected to respond appropriately to immediate crises and is empowered to act to send immediate countermeasures.
Local governments vary in their layout, but all feature some manner of democratic process. this level of adaptability accommodates the enormous diversity of populations, geographic realities, and even interplanetary issues that arise from interstellar government. Each system votes on its representatives to the Alliance Senate and its local governor in a uniform way, while elections of other positions are done with local measures. Some systems may utilize a parliament structure, while others may use a direct democracy or republic voting system. While the Alliance does believe in infinite diversity in infinite combinations, above all is the right of the citizen to choose, and to live where they feel their choices matter. This chaotic movement of people means some colonies in the Alliance have almost transient populations of voters as government popularity waxes and wanes, but political theatre is at least kept civil as citizen mobility releases pressure on the political system.
Military
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Art by Juliana Wilhelm |
The Interstellar Alliance retains a modest, but well equipped and trained armed force primarily for defense from outside threats, however most of its time is spent in more peaceful pursuits assisting with exploration, scientific observation, and humanitarian missions. The Alliance military is headed by a Supreme Commander, who heads the Alliance Military Command which seats the heads of all military branches and a civilian oversight board made from elected officials. The Supreme Commander regularly reports to the senate and meets with the President to discuss policy and matters of import and urgency.
The Alliance military members are of high value to the Alliance with high expectations on their conduct and professionalism and trained in multiple roles. Alliance officers are rigorously tested, examined, and academy trained to be a mixture of soldier, scholar, and above all a thinking mind. Enlisted ranks are much more open to general enlistment, but training is still regarded as a process and professional development is constantly undertaken. Orderly conduct is expected among the enlisted, as their actions reflect upon the whole force.
The Interstellar Alliance Navy is often leading edge of the Alliance military apparatus, responsible for ensuring smooth star traffic, protecting Alliance citizens, and deterring any threat potential threat before it might become an actual one. Alliance doctrine leans heavily towards very capable ships able to perform multiple duties, due to this flexibility Alliance ships are rarely held in port on reserve and are frequently underway for long periods of time and maintained by their crews unless crews are unavailable for them. Alliance Marines operate aboard Navy ships as a direct arm of the Navy as security detachments, honor guards, and advance landing forces. Mass restrictions means Marine hardware tends to be lighter and more aggressive than Army weapon systems as the Marines need to transport themselves onto the planet and back to space again.
The Interstellar Alliance Army is the primary planetary protection force, operate planet-side bases and other defenses as well as general assistance to local populations. The Alliance Army is the symbol of intent that the Alliance is here to stay, with heavy equipment and protection. The Army corps of engineers is always busy civilizing the frontiers of the Alliance. The Interstellar Alliance Foreign Legion is a volunteer force made from beings from all corners of the galaxy and is regarded as one of the fastest ways to attain Alliance citizenship or die trying. Education and training is rigorous, and the Legion is regarded as a somewhat awkward but flexible tool somewhere between the Marines and the Army in its mission, rounding out the gaps in both.
Interstellar Alliance Navy | Interstellar Alliance Marines | Interstellar Alliance Army | Interstellar Alliance Foreign Legion |
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One of the Alliances greatest assets may be its officer exchange program, which allows Alliance and foreign officers to server aboard Alliance ships, and often vice-versa. This gives the Alliance an immense amount of strategic insight, and subject matter experts on almost every other military force in the sector.
Territories of the Alliance
The Interstellar Alliance is made up of twelve star systems, each represented by a star on the Alliance flag. Many of the Alliance systems were once mostly or semi-habitable worlds, so their area of expansion extends long this zone of habitability. While many systems in what are now Tai Pan and Kowloon contained fully terraformed worlds, the Alliance did not claim these due to the elf civilizations already that existed there. Some humans did elect to live among the elves peacefully.
Major Star systems
- Alpinia system
- Belfort System
- Cascadia system
- Catalonia system
- Eden system
- Hyperion system
- New Britain system
- Normandy system
- Orion system
- Pacifica system
- Washington system
- Yamato system
Places of Interest
- Landfall City - Capital city, Eden system
- New Texas
- Arizona Colony
Economy
The Interstellar Alliance is on its way to becoming a post-scarcity society since the invention of the Matter Synthesizer. With its introduction the general populaces need for food, clothing, shelter and anything else that would have once required money has become a thing of the past. Rather than money, the Alliance now uses a complicated reputation as the personal currency of its citizens. Individual efforts and deeds towards the betterment of the Alliance society as a whole determine the subjective wealth of a person in the eyes of the Alliance, or more specifically VINA, the multi-planetary AI running much of the background of the Alliance system. While currency is no longer applicable within the Alliance, the government still trades with other nations in the form of material, directly trading raw material that can be synthesized or collected in more standard ways for items and materials that cannot be created by the matter synthesizers.
All households within the Alliance are provided with a matter synthesis device, a self contained government owned and maintained unit that allows all occupants within the household to synthesize any basic items they need, from food to clothing to computers and other simple machines. More complex or larger items can be created at any number of local large scale or industrial scale centers provided at all community hubs.
The continued existence of corporate entities within the Alliance is a subject of some debate within Alliance society and the government. Citizen corporations are often used as an intermediary between the Alliance and foreign customers, providing an interface through which the Alliance can import and export goods, services, and other more delicate instruments of trade and exchange. In return Alliance corporation are rewarded with resources and individual reputation points from VINA to reward the success. These corporations are a major way the Alliance is able to import much of the materials it cannot locally produce.
History
The history of the Alliance started the moment the UESS Pioneer activated its jump drive on the perimeter of Sol, and according to all witness's disappeared. Between sabotage and outside interference the ship found itself rematerializing in an entirely unknown sector of space. Stranded, lost but alive. The crew took stock, got their bearings and began detaching their support frigates to observe nearby stars. Finding several systems nearby with mostly habitable worlds, the Pioneer began the long process of cruising towards the planet that would eventually be called Eden. Preparation for colonization was hampered by Eden's rough climate, but the air was mostly breathable and with a bit of work large scale colonization was soon underway.
Further systems with readily habitable worlds were also settled by various colony groups to expediate the process, and some colonists even went to live in Elf society. In 2920 these disparate colonies were united by agreement under the charter of the Interstellar Alliance and formed into a singular Federation with each star system granted voting rights. The Alliance has gone through many hurdles and crisis' since then but has remained united with its pioneering spirit, ability to adapt, and flexibility of its systems.
Technology
Alliance technology is well known for its advanced technology, but without the super sleek edges of Taianese technology. Alliance technology has a certain non-threatening rounded boxy shape to its designs, with simpler ergonomics and operation. Alliance armed forces prefer lasers and other energy weapons over old fashioned ballistics despite the maintenance required.
- Propulsion and Power Technology
- Sublight Propulsion
- Hyperspace Drive
- Defensive Systems Technology
- Deflector Shield
- Hull Armor
OOC Notes
Jimmy's Notes: Ultimately, the Alliance is an optimistic take on Mankinds future, but not a perfect one. People are still human, and humans are flawed creatures. I should probably leave a reference somewhere about Alliance fusion cuisine. In other notes, the Eden system OR planet might need to be renamed.
Items that need work:
- Need names for president and vice president.
Art Credits
- Alliance flag and emblems, by Gunsight1
- Alliance-chan, by Juliana Wilhelm, p