Post by Dutch on Mar 6, 2013 19:11:43 GMT -6
A basic outline of Seaport and
Cortal
Seaport:
As implied,
Seaport has its origins in a coastal city. Over a time period of one
thousand years, Seaport developed into a global superpower. The
country is a form of Oligarchy, with ultimate power being in the
hands of a ruler called the Highon. The Highon makes the final
decision in everything, with the exception of wartime when the
military takes controls the situation. The Highon is supported by a
five-hundred man Advisory Council, a sort of senate, who he will go
over any major decision with. He is required to carefully consider
their advice, although he can still make the final call. Although, if
the Council strongly disagrees with him, and if 75% disagree with his
decision, they can overrule him. Otherwise, the Highon is only bound
by the Base Tenants which decree certain actions the Highon cannot
due without invalidating his authority, designed to keep the
rulership from becoming corrupt or abusive with their power.
The advisory
council is, as said, composed of five hundred members. They are
elected by certain members of the general public, namely those who
have attended a two-year long school in politics as so they can make
intelligen and informed decisions, not merely vote for whoever has
the best PR. The government overall has made it's primary purpose the
security and prosperity of the nation and its citizens. Seaportian
government does go to great lengths to establish and protect its
citizens. That in mind, it also has declared the safety of the state
to be above that of the individual, and that the state will pursue
any path needed in order to protect the state and the masses.
By our standards,
Seaport is first-world. The police have more freedom, but in return
are also required to have more transparency. Crime is a dangerous
game to play in the country, due to the public image of crime
-reinforced by a degree of propaganda- and crimes such as murder can
be seen as treason. Treason carries the price of loss of citizenship,
and a non-citizen loses most rights and may well be deported or
executed.
The country is
quite rich though, and in its golden age the price of living was
remarkably low, while the standard of living was towering high. This
prosperity came at the price of Seaport bullying and back-stabbing
its way into a global superpower, and being sure to cripple any other
country that became too powerful. Having both a mighty military, and
a foothold in the global economy, Seaport used threats of embargo to
twist other nations arms. The only exception to this was Cortal.
Cortal
Cortal began as a
loose union of tribes who united more firmly and expanded, conquering
neighbouring groups and swelling. This situation was reversed when
they ran into a large group of nomadic warriors called the Tobis. In
this reversal of situations, the Tobis struck Cortal and took the
capital city in a gruesome and one-sided battle. There, they stepped
in and took control, partitioning the nation among the most senior of
the Tobis. Through brutal crackdowns, Tobis quieted civil unrest and
set about reforming the corrupt and bloated country. Relying on their
dead-loyal armies of Rakkila soldiers, Tobis became the say-all and
end-all in Cortal.
Cortal is, in
effect, ran by the Tobis. A Tobis is a warlord, a special soldier
like no other and in a social and military class of their own. Each
Tobis has an army of handpicked soldiers he trains called Rakkila,
who are completely loyal to their Tobis. High-ranking Tobis's act as
governors for Cortal's provinces, keeping things stable but
interfering little with the civilians.
In Cortal,
everyone person has both the right and the means to survive, the
right to defend themselves, and the right to prosper. Things are
fairly loose in the country, and generally many matters are left to
the civilian population to sort out, leading to a state of
leveled-out anarchy. For example, some individuals may band together
to start a company such as a production group, software developers,
bankers, etc. And they are free to do whatever they can in order to
do well, with a general 'survival of the fittest' idea in place.
However, companies are kept in check by their customers. Virtually
the entire nation has had military training, and various weapons are
widely available. Any company or corporation that enrages its
customers could very well face being ransacked or attacked by said
customers, armed. Since a shoot-out with customers is bad for
business, most companies opt for transparency on their policies, and
for excellent customer service. Happy customers are apt to buy more
and shoot less.
This whole
situation is overall managed by two key entities. The Grand Master
Tobis is the overall head of Cortal, calling the shots on all matters
that come to his attention. The other entity is the Eishi Council, a
largely honorary organization of highly respected and highly
distinguished Tobis that has no real power, but does have mighty
influence on the Tobis overall none-the-less. All Tobis owe loyalty
to the Grand Master Tobis, who is generally decided on by the Eishi
to be the best and most capable Tobis in his skills.
Being warlords and
soldiers, fighting does occur between Tobis. However it is settled
between each Tobis and their Rakkila, trying to keep the country
itself uninvolved. Cortal is the second superpowr on the planet,
rivals only with Seaport with whom they have had multiple wars with.
A (very) brief history of the two
powers
Note: The term 'BE' is short for
'Before Exodus', and refers to any time on Capern that occured before
the Exodus. Likewise, 'AE' refers to anytime after the Exodus.
In 1700 BE,
Seaport was founded by tribals looking for a home. A section near the
coast had good soil and good fishing, they settled there. However,
these 'Seaside People' or 'People by the Sea' did not became what
would be called Seaport for nearly five hundred years.
So in 1200 BE, a
man called Derji proclaimed himself as Highon or 'God-hand' Claiming
to have been chosen by Ka, their deity, to be his holy stewart over
all the Seaside People. Meeting some opposition, he killed key
opposers in single-combat. Winning over many who believed that he had
been divinely aided in battle, he established himself as a absolutist
monarch, beginning the First Dynasty. Being originally a laborer, he
recogized a need for innovation in terms of technology to make tasks
more effeciently done, and encouraged the most creative and
intelligent thinkers to come forward and try to think of solutions to
problems, and to make improvements to everything they could. This was
origin of the Collection of Adept thinkers, which is almost solely
responsible for Seaports great success.
In 900 BE, after
five successive corrupt Highons, the First Dynasty was brought to and
end. Seaport had expanded massively and was focusing on internal
growth. But after the fifth Highon, a scheming and greedy man named
Heredej, was brought down and executed by a military coup and a new
Highon was established, the Base Tenants were written and the
Advisory Council was established, restricting the absolute power of
the Highon, and introducing the Safan Guard. The Safans were tasked
with defending Seaport first and the Highon second, giving them the
directive of defending the Highon, but also to despose of the Highon
if the Highon tried to breach the Base Tenants.
Just after this
Seaport met Cortal, newly taken over by the Tobis. Both countries
were expansive, and violence erupted immediately. Tobis-led Rakkila
tore through Seaportian legions and punched towards Tshari, the
capital city. However superior technology won out, and crossbow-armed
soldiers moving in disiplined formations gored the Cortalans, chasing
them out of the country. As the nations evolved, six more wars would
explode. Called the Dominance Wars, they lived quite up to their name
as both countries became super powers, and the dominance of global
influence became the stakes. Continuing until the invention of
nuclear weapons, both sides lost tens of millions of people,
entrenching a deep grudge between the two, with only the threat of
mutually assured destruction being sufficient to keep them from
holding a final winner-takes-all showdown.
For over one
hundred and fifty years, this cold war continued, with both sides
fighting for power and influence around the globe. Cortal, outright
as always, took whatever it needed from whoever, the Rakkila were
unparalleled as a fighting force. Seaport was more subtle, gaining
traction in nations economically, and threatening to isolate them in
the global market if they resisted. Growing in power, these two
giants stalked the globe, slowly circling each other.
The asteroid
fields opened up to mining, Seaport claimed them and denied access to
anyone else except Cortal, neither of whom would risk war with each
other. They became rich on the minerals taken from the rocks.
Gravity-dampening technology was developed, allowing for more
sophisticated spacecraft and airborne vessels, soon both Seaport and
Cortal had large air fleets of deadly gunships prowling the skies.
And on 1 BE, Cortal attacked.
Seaport had
expected it for a long time. Such a thing was inevitable with the two
massive powers, and a course of action had long been decided on. To
flee. Fighting off Cortal this time would demand reprisal, to crush
it, to destroy it, and the destruction that would result from this
war would deplete both powers to nothing. So Seaport fled. A
collection of star systems, believed to have habitable planets, were
charted for. For over ninety years, in most secret, vast ships were
slowly constructed in the asteroid belt. And when the attack came
with a volley of pinpoint nuclear blasts, Seaport ran. Aiming for
maximum genetic diversity and skill sets, just over one million
people were assembled out of four hundred million.
Massive ramships
they were, using vast magnetic electromagnetic fields, thousands of
miles in size, to shunt interstellar hydrogen together, creating
fusion to propell the massive ships just below the speed of light.
With almost a million people in cryogenic suspension, a skeleton grew
of a thousand experts directed the ships one-hundred year journey to
six different star systems, six systems chosen out of fear of
Cortalan pursuit.
They reached their
destination, and were blessed by six habitable worlds. Another fifty
years passed as automatic robots and crew prepared these new worlds
for habitation by sapients, as they had no native intelligent
species. Adjusting Seaportian immune systems to the alien climate,
they founded a planet called New Tshari, which was to become the seat
of a mighty power.
The people landed,
adjusted, thrived. Unopposed by anyone else, they exploded in
population -aided by some genetic engineering- and in physical size,
sprouting buildings and settlements across the six worlds. It was
through this power of utter necessity that faster-than-light
communication was invented, using the reality of quantum
entanglement. Likewise was the invention of Space-Under-Space
technology, the creation of portals into the compressed and amazing
reality of Point Zero Space, allowing travel between stars within the
human lifetime, within just a matter of weeks.
Across multiple
worlds, capable of communicating and travelling with each other, the
Seaportian Confederation established itself. And in 500 AE, they
re-met Cortal.
After Seaport left
Capern, Cortal took it. A dozen other nations fled, sending vessels
towards distant stars to escape the arm of the Tobis. One of these
ships in particular went wayward, crashing on a small blue planet
under the fires on a medium yellow star. It was a planet that would
over time be called Earth.
Cortal went after
them of course, growing out across the planet and onto Capern's
moons, now with no one to slow them down. And this was how they
discovered Point Zero Space travel, encountering the nomadic aliens
called Rashmi who sold them the technology for a considerable sum.
Utilizing this new power, Cortal overtook the other fleeing countries
and simply waited for them at their destinations, and annexed all but
one of them. Cortal now had eleven colonies outside its system.
During 300 AE, they ran into the first great threat since Seaport, an
alien power called the Scythie. Details are unclear whether or not
Cortal or the Scythie started the war, but Cortal finished it.
Crushing their fleet with the wonders of fenton -also courtesty of
the Rashmi- they scavenged what they could from the Scythie, obtained
quantum entanglement communication, and took the war to the Scythie.
Twenty worlds they took, and the populations of twenty worlds they
destroyed, killing most and shuttling the rest off to spread fear.
Twenty worlds was
many, the Cortalan power was stretched thin. They ceased to ravage
the Scythie who had ceased to be a power in any respect, and set
about tending their new galactic empire. Seaport met them in 500 AE.
And the two sides nearly resumed fighting then and there. However it
was the Master Tobis called Thouwabin who pointed out that humanity
was not the only race in the galaxy, not the only power. All this
took into consideration, both sides decided that they had potential
mutual enemies, and it would be a waste in contrast to fight each
other. The Human Union was signed in 504 AE.
This is where the
stories take place. Through space, on alien worlds. From the jungles
and wars of Casanaly to the subtle dealings on Earth, during the year
2050. This is the universe in which the stories are found.
