#sci fi lore

[cyberhick420]

Outta curiosity

Would y’all wanna see some lore/world building stuff I’ve posted on discord?

Yeh sure^^

Not rlly(fair but how dare you :,/)

Voting ended onApr 19, 2023

[the-space-game]

Tidbit of lore #1

The reason for Plasma-based weaponry’s existence was because ammunition costs were way too high in the pre-colonization period. The acquisition of things like gunpowder became harder due to multiple strange coincidences, and other alternative low ammunition cost weaponry were just too bulky and inefficient. Plasma weaponry was still just that, but managed to be just effective enough to be worth the funding. After colonization started to take off, an unexpected added bonus to their design was that they worked in other planets atmospheres and in vacuums, cementing their place in history forever. Nowadays these alternative weapon types that didn’t make the cut hundreds of years ago have been researched and manufactured along side plasma, which include Kinetic-based and Ultra/subsonic-based.

[the-space-game]

Random Facts (part 2)

Space travelers use special ‘Absolute Clocks’ which automatically slow down and speed up to account for time dilation when traveling interplanetary.

Apexs are the largest form galactic division. Their borders were made before being fully explored, meaning that anything discovered within their borders belongs to that Apex regardless of the discoverer. The A110 Galaxy is divided into four Apexes: Miikkila, Sunder, Berivit and Deszendre.

Currently, the A110 galaxy (also known as The Milky Way) is the most populated of all currently inhabited galaxies. This is because it is the birthplace of 4 of 7 of the known sentient races, and was the first to be colonized due to 1 of those 4 races being Humans. Even so, it’s still only 0.057% explored.

There are only 8 other galaxies that’ve been inhabited, all of which are positioned entirely random (yet enormous) distances from A110. These distances are colossal because the means of travel to get to them are only by wormhole. The technology using Metaspace to get to other galaxies is impossible because the DMS slug cannot be shot fast enough to travel even a fraction of that distance.

Instantaneous matter transporters ala science fiction are quite difficult to create outside of Metaspace travel, but even that is somewhat experimental and unstable. Not to mention the philosophical quandaries that arise from tearing something, or someone, apart on the microscopic level then rebuilding it in a new location. This lead to intensive study into quantum mechanics, specifically quantum tunneling, by the military. After hundreds of years of research, enough progress has been made in this field to allow for relatively simple teleportation. Quantum Moles are special small devices that can take any item placed inside it and ‘burrow’ a quantum tunnel between it and any other Mole. This technology is also being used by the military for special Instantaneous Personal Short-Range Transportation Devices, their alternative names are Blink modules.

After Dark Matter was used as the key to unlock the door that was Metaspace, it was also discovered that Dark Matter was merely a product of Metaspace, and was after that regarded more commonly as Metamatter. Still, the scientific nomenclature for it remains Dark Matter so to keep past scientific journals relevant. When Metamatter enters our reality, it creates an otherworldly “smearing” effect, as photons that hit it freeze in place while on its surface instead of being absorbed and reflected. This is due to its timelessness.

Although the use of the Gregorian Calendar is still prevalent, the new Postgregorian Calendar has started to take its place in professional settings, such as large businesses and for measuring time scientifically. It’s a altered version of it’s predecessor. There are still 12 months, but now each month boasts an even 4 weeks, each week also includes an extra day between Sunday and Monday named Tuneday. This calendar also does not include Leap Years.

Legally, planets with multi-cellular life forms are off-limits to explorers, and deeds made by the explorer are immediately reinstated to the SOU. This deed is then handed down to the Bureau of Multi-cellular Alien Life Preservation to set up blockades and other protective measures to prevent poachers and general traffic from interacting with them. This is so the natural order of evolution

However, if all that exists is simple proto multi-cellular lifeforms and single celled organisms, the same rights do not apply. Explorers can catalog these primordial creatures for profit if it’s of danger to sentient life. If so, proper SOU employed medical professionals will be dispatched once it’s been cataloged to begin research and development of a cure, vaccine and phagacide. How much research and the possibility of making a phagacide are dependent on how high traffic or resource rich that planet happens to be.

[the-space-game]

Sentient Races (Vis)

The Vis are a definite maypole of controversy. Like Gosei and Krakens, they’re an unconventional addition to the SOU due to their abnormal biology. The ‘abnormal biology’ in question is that they are considered sentient viruses. Although whether their virus form itself is conscious is still up for debate, after infecting a host, they most definitely display levels of intelligence that pass the Denzel-Turing Test and qualify for civil rights. This does not require the host to be capable of sentient.

Back in 2403, the universe was still recuperating from the Corporate Wars. Exploration into the the Unfathomed was picking up as the SOU and now broken economy was in dire need of more resources. On the planet bg24020403g5-3ts, or now nicknamed “Temnosevoye”, a group of explorers and scientists were studying the plant and animal life when one came down with a horrid fever. They passed out for several days and slowly began developing a rash around their eyes that got exponentially worse, until the flesh was peeling back and their eyes were covered in scars. When they woke up, they’d completely changed. They were obviously blinded, but still managed to move about freely, they didn’t respond to their own name and reacted with hostility when anyone tried to interact with them.

Soon after this, the crew were mauled by a group of wild animals. Their tactics were reportedly very complex, probably too tactical for any sort of wild herd. One of the reported deaths showed that a crew members had died housing an illness unregistered in the Medica Compendium, so a Quarantine Dysphere was set up to stop traffic to the planet and a team of medical professionals began work on a phagacide. While researching however, one of the field agents observed particular behaviour from the animals that were infected by the plague. They exhibited strange behaviours, ones found specifically in early sentient life. At the scouts request, they ran the Denzel-Turing test on a contained animal. Sure enough, the infected animals passed while the uninfected ones didn’t. 

This created a problem, as the Vis (what they were now known as) were still dangerous and feral, and had garnered a reputation for being what seemed like an antagonist from some sort of science fiction serial. But by law were extended temporary civil rights until proven to be non-sentient. Their extermination was halted indefinitely, and the construction of schools and medical centres were set up around their planet. This caused some unrest in the outside world, as the misconceptions and rumors being spread about how dangerous the Vis were was starting to grow more fearful. Thus began a long and hateful introduction of the Vis into the SOU and society.

The SOU set up the BodyTrust system, where they’d take DNA from willing volunteers to create mindless clones for the Vis to take over. Of course, DNA needed to be constantly donated due to legalities relating to disease immunity. The reason for this was because when the Vis inhabited animal bodies, most of the time speech or complex communication of any kind was almost impossible. Putting a newborn Vis (meaning their original host died, so the virus would proliferate in the body until the flesh is consumed, leading to an entirely new Vis) in a body capable of such communication would help race relations, not to mention make them seem much more approachable aside from the horrible rash. The program took a lot of time to grow in size because of the now deep seeded mistrust of the Vis.

The SOU was aware of the backlash that was the Vis’s involvement in normal society. They were a hive mind after all, and a virus that wiped the hosts individuality for their own. So, in an act of desperation, the SOU tried to quell these statements by performing genetic experiments on the second generation of Vis newborns. Since the SOU monitors all births and deaths, they made sure to stay ahead of the game by restricting Vis mobility to their home planet. Whenever an old Vis died and a new one was about to be born, they made modifications to their virus form. They would genetically separate them from their hive mind and stunted their after-death reproduction, making them almost sterile. 

Looking back at it now, the SOU deeply regrets tampering with nature's natural progression. Since the Vis’s thinking was based off of multiple minds planning tactics, they lost a lot of basic functionality. They didn’t possess any ambition, they became incredibly impulsive and couldn’t think about how actions in the present would affect them in the long term future. They also lacked a proper family unit due to their asexual reproduction. This was in the past filled by the hive mind, but now only served to show how bad at socializing they were. This lead to constant loneliness within their population, which in turn lead to struggles with depression and anxiety.  Because of their already poor long term thinking, most Vis turned to synthetic means of happiness, the most common being drugs. The usage of narcata most often lead to high crime rates, which continued to perpetuate their already negative stigma.

The Vis’s introduction into the SOU was the longest out of every race, only being accepted recently in 2495. This is because of the self proclaimed Freebodies. They are just normal people who are still afraid of what the Vis use to be capable of. Most are uneducated in Vis history and biology, usually believing that the Vis still infect people, acting as sort of body snatchers. This was never the case of course, but fear mongering can turn the anyone into a bigot. They actively protest political events trying to help people accept Vis. Hate crimes are rampant, with multiple snake-oil salesmen asking for money to fund a ‘cure’ for the Vis.

During the time leading up to the inclusion, gun manufacturers began a trend of producing anti-vis weaponry. Things like Curiary gel. They used the unfinished formula for the phagacide to create a new gel that wouldn’t kill Vis, but put them into writhing agony for a couple minutes. They went as far as to make Auto-gel Compensators specifically for it which were included in the Vaccinator fully automatic pistol design. These are now banned and are considered hate symbols, but are still being cycled through the black market due to their long production.

Even though Vis are generally maladjusted to our universes society, they have do have one place of acceptance. The Mother Hive, which is a religious group which seeks to bring the Vis back together under one mind. Legally they’re supposed to allow anyone from any race into their church, but behind closed doors actively bully non Vis members out. Their group has about 44% of the Vis populus, but is a very small force as Vis only take up about 5.4% of the universal population. Although not considered radical, their methods including massive amounts of fear and hate mongering, as well as belittle Vis that refuse to join, calling the Iron Hive (which is meant to be derogatory).

[the-space-game]

SOU

Since the dawn of the colonization of space, Humans had needed some form of government to keep their minds at peace. At first called the ‘United Nations Department of Intergalactic Law’ (UNDIL), it was a branch of the now unified earth governments to keep the new colonies from becoming a new wild west. Later, after the discovery of interstellar travel in 2101 and colonies beginning to utilize it to stake claim in distant star systems, The UNDIL pushed to become its own independent, centralized government. Eventually, in 2109, the UNDIL was given full independence and rebranded itself as just the ‘United Republic of off-Earth Colonies’ (UREC).

With the advent of interstellar travel came the discovery of other lifeforms capable of sentient thought. The UREC was unprepared for something like this, but eventually retooled to extend the rights of human colonists to these new ‘races’, which included human health care, education, civil rights, etc. As of 2129 Gargoyles and Wisps had been found and the UREC had begun a lengthy campaign to erect these amenities while introducing them to humanities nomadic way of life. Of course this always took either 1 to 2 generations before being fully accepted, as each race was still developing as a society and were almost always aggressive towards this completely unfamiliar subject matter.

Unbenounced to the humans, they were responsible for the assimilation of thousands of alien cultures. Most of alien language and customs disappeared as they educated alien children and adults alike using techniques common to humans. In fact, the names Gargoyle and Wisp weren’t even what they had called themselves, but eventually just learned to accept. This wasn’t meant to be malicious. If the UREC had known that’s what they were doing they would’ve made huge reforms, but with the large amount of area they had to govern conformity was all they had to keep people safe.

In 2250 with the discovery of Zephyrs, the UREC had realized what their education was starting to do. Over the course of the introduction of Zephyrs to the UREC, they decided to rename again as the Sentient Organisms United, or more commonly referred to as the SOU, to be more inclusive. They then inducted the best diplomates from each race to a chair in a Cabinet of Unity, a council meant to fairly run the Universe as everyone see’s fit, not just humans. A new era in government had been born, and the SOU continued to make great strides in alien relations and civil rights until 2318. That’s when the Eon Wars began, causing distrust and war to ravage the universe.

Now, in the present year of 2505 and the war being over for about a century, history’s come full circle. The SOU now has been spread thinner than ever before. There’s been the addition of newer, stranger races into the Cabinet, specifically the addition of the Vis, causing the volatile pot that is race relations to start bubbling over again. Human culture and conformity are being revolted against for its tight grasp on the universe. Rumors of a possible second coming of the now vilified Eon Solutions are popping up. Crime, both corporate and domestic, festering with more force than ever. Everythings starting to fall apart again, and the SOU might not make it again

[theemeraldwings]

The more I think about it, the more carrier warfare actually fits the antagonists of the sci-fi story I'm writing really well.

I've established it as a more dated doctrine, with the development of energy shields (and more advanced superconductors allowing for even higher-velocity railguns) allowing big gun battleships to overtake them. With the <Builders> (the bad guys) being more technologically advanced (but far, far less experienced in fighting enemies with similar technology), it lets the forces of the Galactic Assembly (the good guys) have a way of winning beyond just "swarm them" while still keeping them incredibly threatening when they can control the terms of engagement.

It also adds to the comparison I want them to have with the US military. One of the most iconic things about the US navy is it's carriers--a dozen gargantuan, ludicrously expensive, incredibly powerful vessels that are central to it's doctrine. The US military in general also tends to just spend a lot on things. Drone fighters aren't used by any Assembly members, because it's too expensive an investment compared to organic pilots, and the entire point of fightercraft is that they're supposed to make it back to the carrier anyways. The <Builders> don't care about that cost because costs are for barbarians and the live in a society where everyone is a billionaire.

[theemeraldwings]

By the standards of first contact wars, the Human Rl'shan First Contact War was a long, brutal affair. By any other standards, it was a small conflict--nine months of human and rl'shan fleets staring menacingly at one another from across the Epsilon Eridani system, occasionally interrupted by a brief shootout, all while the linguists tried to figure out how to communicate. Of course, at the time both species feared they were at the beginning of a war for their very existence.

It was also likely one of the most important conflicts in galactic history. Once cooler heads prevailed, the two sides quickly made peace, and began to lay the groundwork for interspecies cooperation and politics. A year later, the Galactic Accords were signed, and the Galactic Assembly was founded.

[whisperproject]

🔻 Echoverse Lore Drop: The Skythread Cradle 🔻

“They say it sings, but only to those who’ve forgotten their name.”

Tucked in the upper thermals of Arken’s Wake, just beyond where breath begins to fail, floats an ancient construct known as the Skythread Cradle. From below, it appears as a tangle of broken filaments—thin silver lines against the mist—stretching impossibly between two jagged cliff-arches. But those who've climbed high enough (or been dragged there by the storm currents) tell a different tale:

The cradle isn’t broken. It’s listening.

No one knows who built it. Some say it predates the Harmony—others believe it’s a living organ, grown from root-music and old moon marrow. Pilgrims once used to tie offerings to the threads: old coordinates, faded photos, names they were trying to forget. Many of them never returned.

Now the Cradle hums on its own. It’s been doing that since the last Vaultshard went dark.

Tag your Echoverse theories. Has it moved lately? Is it waking something? Is it... weaving? 🕸️

https://thewhisperproject.net/wiki/