Mandate Of Heaven - An "Of Unity" Narrative

[Chac1]

Apologies that it has taken a week to get here for me, at least.

This is interesting and understandable, but obviously a sequel. Will those of us who are new readers manage to mentally digest this properly? So far it is easy to follow along but as you said it is "early days yet."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Apologies that it has taken a week to get here for me, at least.

This is interesting and understandable, but obviously a sequel. Will those of us who are new readers manage to mentally digest this properly? So far it is easy to follow along but as you said it is "early days yet."

No worries, probably a few months until we leave the prologue behind.

I'm hoping to use the prologue to bridge over the gaps between Life2.0 and Mandate Of Heaven in a kind of "where are they now" approach so that reading what may well be 80+ pages of Life2.0 by the time it is finished, isn't necessary.

Additionally, the scope is much wider for Mandate Of Heaven - to the rest of the galaxy, Life2.0's story can be reduced to a one liner "MSI settle long-running employment dispute with structural reforms, share price falls X%" on the scrolling ticker at the bottom of the evening news. It's no longer a slave revolt, but a battle for the fate of empires.

The early days yet line was referring to thinking of making Life2.0 and Mandate Of Heaven into a trilogy more.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: Liberation Of Lukhuin"
1st Vorosh, 11 U.R.
Vorosh
Gleaming Shell, Lukhuin​

I Cavitate Liquid to traverse the open surface waters of Lukhuin, heading for Gleaming Shell. We Lukhuinites are surface water dwellers by nature, in the sunlit upper regions, close to shore - there are dangerous monsters in the open water and the deep darkness.

I have learned so much since my apothesis. But I must liberate my people before joining Amothetet to study further.

Once, Gleaming Shell was a confluence centre of the mages of Lukhuin. A very long time ago a gigantic clam lived here. It was big enough that when it died, there was enough space to put a small town inside.

Now, it is the capital of Sosoth Tidecaller, MSI's pawn.

My scrying on approach tells me there are armed guards, but I am not here for them. The alarm is raised; I am quite loud on accoustic sensors.

I Invoke Oblivion on the entrance to the tunnel through the shell, ripping it from our reality.

Once inside, I see my enemy in counsel with his advisors. Most notably is that Julius Antonius - his MSI contact - is missing. Appia recalled him last year, after the defeat of Septima.

Everyone turns to look at me.

I stare at Sosoth. "Sosoth Tidecaller, pretender to the crown, I am Vorosh, former apprentice of Shelk of Seeker's Landing, and I am come to break your empire."

'King' Sosoth stands immediately. "Bind her! Now!"

Several of his Lukhuinites swim towards me, but none come within a few metres because of the heat of my Fusion Flare boiling a bubble around me.

Others are gathering with crude psionic negators. Sufficient to limit the lower level mages of Lukhuin, but nothing next to a Chosen One.

They scream as I Blank-Mind them without looking away from Sosoth. "Your attacks are of no use. Surrender."

Sosoth raises a tentacle, and his forces raise harpoon guns and fire. I Manipulate Space-Time to pass them without injury.

He turns to the people. "By order of the king, no one is to recognise any challenge that is fought so devilishly."

I call out loudly. "This tyrant is at an end. Pay no heed to his ramblings."

The huddled Lukhuinites turn from Sosoth to me, then back to Sosoth, wondering.

Waiting.

Murmuring.

I look at them. "Lukhuinites! This pretender is nothing more than a pawn in the employ of those who supplied the weapons, armour and ships with which he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Lukhuinites." I take out the hologram. "See his masters!"

Appia and Julius appear.

Sosoth swims onto the table. "I have never seen these people in my life!"

Julius frowns. Appia laughs. I look at his council. "You know the man."

One by one, they turn their backs on Sosoth, knowing he is done.

The Lukhuinite people look at me. Some begin to chant my name.

I look at my enemy. "Sosoth! Do the right thing, and abdicate."

He draws the steel spear that MSI gave him, and swims at me, roaring as loudly as he can.

Until I Irradiate-Mind him, superheating his brain with microwaves until it boils out his nostrils and ears. His roar becomes a scream, and then silence.

I look at the Lukhuinites. "I am Vorosh, apprentice of Shelk, and restorer of the Confluence. Here to heal the damage this warlord caused."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: Introduction to Social and Martial Philosophy"
13th Buri, 26 U.R.
Zhao Qing Lung
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute​

We recline on clumps of utility foam that reshape to suit us. It's quite comfortable. I lay coiled on mine, about midway up the stands.

Grepp-Schnepp Rikki is a little bit late when he finally arrives to give this guest lecture.

He stands on a stage, and begins by looking at each of us.

He licks an eyeball. "Students of social and martial philosophy. We will begin. What is the fundamental issue upon which all interaction stems on?"

We stay silent.

He licks the other eyeball. "No volunteers? Fine. You." He points out at a Human. "Tell me."

The Human - a young man with light brown skin - "Negotiation?"

"That's a type of interaction." Looks at a Lukhuinite. "You. Tell me."

"Resources?"

"Closer. But not quite. Scarcity is the fundamental issue. The universe, while vast, is not infinite. There is a limit on it's energy, and there is a limit on the amount of work that can be done to use it. Likewise, time is also limited. You can manipulate it. Even stop it, at a localised level. But gaining time is not possible. Energy and time are scarce. This simple fact couples with a very simple reality." He points at someone." You." Then someone else." You. Both come down."

He waits. One is a Xenayan woman, the other a Kyaese man.

They stand in front of Grepp nervously.

Grepp flicks his eyes between them. "We will have a demonstration."

Grepp draws a sword, and thrusts it into the stage. Then he steps back.

He looks at each of them. "This is a zweihander. A human weapon, roughly seven hundred Earth years old. Whichever of you fails to take it, leaves this institution."

The whole room goes cold in an instant.

The beast of a woman peers down at the much smaller black Avian.

He however...

He nervously looks up at woman's horns and sabres. He puffs out his chest, tries to seem brave.

The woman looks at Grepp, one eye on the Kyaese. " You can't be serious."

Grepp stares at her. "In the Prikkiki-Ti, I would have instructed that only the survivor retains their place."

She now turns directly towards Grepp. "This is not fair."

Grepp snorts. "Life is not fair. The universe is not fair. Fairness is an illusion."

The Xenaya turns to the Kyaese. Her face stiffens in resolve as she turns back to Grepp. "No." She pounces at Grepp, catching him off guard and pinning him down, her sabres to his neck. The Kyaese leaps back in fright.

Grepp snorts, and flicks her off. "Well tried."

She dusts herself off, growling low. Grepp resumes his position to address us. "There is no such thing as fairness. Reality comes down to the application of force. In social contexts this force is applied with subtle guile. Martial contexts with violence. The apparatus of state exists to apply force in both social and martial contexts to achieve the goals of the state's directors. Now, what is the correct form of defining the directors of the state?"

The Human man he picked on earlier replies. "There is no specific correct form."

Grepp snorts. "We Prikki disagree. Consider a natural population. In any natural population, you find a degree of inherent genetic variability, irrespective of any factors you may subsequently impose upon that genetic foundation. Some of the population will be of good character and capability, others less so. The state exists as a means of directing this population, with the minimum function of enabling the population to persist and overcome through adversity. Efficiency therefore dictates that the state take charge of this natural genetic variability and curate it to construct a society where the former are supported and the latter processed. The Immortal Prikkiki-Ti is the final step in that process, every citizen optimised for their place in the population oriented towards the goals of the directorate."

The Xenayan woman laughs. "But, it obviously isn't so superior, otherwise the Prikkiki-Ti wouldn't be merely one of many great powers. There are dozens of great powers as strong as the Prikki in our galaxy."

Grepp frowns at her. "Do not presume the present status quo to be inviolate." He turns to the rest of us. "Thousands of empires on thousands of worlds have considered themselves to be the peak of history and achievement, that they would endure without end. They were wrong. This civilisation is our rising star. We have already seen how Naomi Of Unity approached the genetic variability issue, and almost all of you are fruit from the labour of love that went into her mother, grandmother and all her biological children. Namely, Naomi adopted an approach to the genetic variability issue of boosting the base level so high that the lower end of the genetic distribution is still far above the baseline of the natural population." He pauses to pan his view. "It is up to you all to vindicate her faith and hope in your generation."

He looks at the two he brought down, and waves them on. The Xenaya and the Kyaese retun to their clumps of utility foam. Grepp sheathes the sword.

He claps his hands together. "Let us consider the other great powers then. We shall begin by considering the means of deciding the directorate. Let us move on slightly from the fundamental truth of solving problems through the application of violence. By what authorities can a directorate be granted leadership?"

A Human raises a hand. "God."

Grepp looks at him. "Subject to the observations that the eternal allows a very great deal of autonomy and therefore direct theocracy has almost never been applied, and that the authority of the eternal is often claimed by pretenders that render that application a specific case of a more basic kind of authority. Anyone else?"

"Democracy."

Grepp nods. "Yes. Authority being based on the consent of the governed, although generally without a sufficiently invested and intelligent voting population and sufficiently focused directorate, collapses. Other suggestions?"

"Oligarchy."

"Yes. Much like our own Commonwealth, of course." He smiles. "Or do you guys believe that Naomi is anything other than that rare being, the benevolent tyrant? Or the Holocron anything other than a very relaxed rogue servitor?"

A lot of people murmur.

Grepp licks an eyeball. "Any others?"

The Lukhuinite from earlier raises a tentacle. "Dictatorship."

Grepp looks at her. "Yes. Much like your Vorosh. Any others?"

I uncoil. "Imperial."

Grepp looks at me. He smiles.

 

[HistoryDude]

It's nice to see Lukhuin freed. How long was Appia laughing during that scene, and did anyone find that action suspicious? Also, had Sosoth ever met Appia before that?

I like the chapter about Social and Martial Philosophy. Will we have more chapters like that? Grepp and the new generation talking about galactic affairs could be very fun.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

It's nice to see Lukhuin freed. How long was Appia laughing during that scene, and did anyone find that action suspicious? Also, had Sosoth ever met Appia before that?

Not laughing for long, just enough to make clear that the puppet's strings were cut.

Not personally met Appia, as more important matters had taken over since Gnaea (who Sosoth has met) however, he did know a bit about her.

I like the chapter about Social and Martial Philosophy. Will we have more chapters like that? Grepp and the new generation talking about galactic affairs could be very fun.

Yes, we will. This particular piece has two goals - it stops where it does to highlight Grepp's perspective on Zhao Qing Lung, and I've been looking over the opening post, and the descriptions feel a bit... Flat. The other side of this story is it gives more of an insight into the Prikkiki-Ti, who are one of the greater scope potential antagonists.

As said earlier, we might only have three weeks left of Life2.0, but it'll probably be a lot longer than that to write simply because invading a Ringworld and pacifiying all Septima-aligned forces is not a quick process - with more than a trillion Kyaese in captivity, you quickly realise that is tens to hundreds of millions of sites where Kyaese are kept, which means that we'll have Septima's retreating forces skirmishing with Life2.0/MSI forces as we close the billions of kilometres from Gateway to Ringworld, Tryykad's triumphal arrival, a synopsis of the overall battle by Ruki Of Unity, followed by Elizabeth Herminton's experience as a newly promoted commanding officer falling in her first Iron Rain, liberating one of the concentration camps, then loading back up for the next drop.

Naturally, Mandate Of Heaven won't formally start until Life2.0 is finished, so we have plenty of time for introductions and explanations.

I'm already planning the following as the same kind of introducing characters and polities:
'Ossuhphuhr and Zhao Mei Hua discuss the Arishkan Galactic Empire'
'I'm Naomi Of Unity - Ask Me Anything'
'The Holocron on the Orion Commonwealth'
'Ruki Of Unity on the Xenayan Hegemony'
'Tryykad and the Kyaese Mutual Defence Authority'
'Vorosh clarifying Psionics'
'Livi Unitatis on the Olinbari Republic'

And the following narrative prologue pieces:
'Naomi confronting Grepp about exactly where he stands'
'HK-47b and the final address of Yehoshua Hamaadimi'
'HK-47b and the fall of the Yabuntu Iriphubliki'
'Caeso Canius and Atalyah Hamaadimi on freedom'

More will be added as I clarify my ideas internally, and people are welcome to suggest pieces that they would be interested in.

 

[Mithrill]

And the following narrative prologue pieces:
'Naomi confronting Grepp about exactly where he stands'
'HK-47b and the final address of Yehoshua Hamaadimi'
'HK-47b and the fall of the Yabuntu Iriphubliki'
'Caeso Canius and Atalyah Hamaadimi on freedom

HK? He's still around in some way?!

 

[CBR JGWRR]

HK? He's still around in some way?!

Once the Mandate Of Heaven narrative properly starts, all pieces will be chronologically ordered.

Prologue pieces will jump around the timeline, and they won't all be in Unity Reckoning either; both of the HK-47b pieces for example, will use our dating system, as that's what the Yabuntu Iriphubliki uses. Of those four, only Naomi confronting Grepp is contemporaneous with Life2.0/Mandate Of Heaven.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: Unitarian Theology"
14th Buri, 26 U.R.
Ruqayya bint Rahil Amah al-Masih
Fellowship Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute​

For two decades now, we have been considering the religions of all the Pre-FTL races represented on Unity, and now the Orion Commonwealth as a whole. We looked for common threads on the assumption that divine revelation, when viewed as a whole picture, would have coherences despite our disparate origins. Naomi was extrapolating from her personal faith here - her expectation was that there would be a singular supreme deity with messianic subtleties with lesser entities ranging from heroes of old through to lesser deities responsible for particular fields or aspects, and analogues to angels and demons.

What we found...

Well, polytheism was very widespread, and what we found most commonly were the same five beings. If you ask me, they are Jinn. I don't like that conclusion, but they do fit the bill extremely well...

They are known by many names, sometimes with particular traits focused on while others ignored entirely, sometimes split into two or more deities. They are, to give them their proper identifications:

The Instrument Of Desire
​

This Jinn specialises in fields of seduction, corruption, greed, avarice, ambition and manipulation, and typically assumes the form of a female of high correspondence with sexual attractiveness, although any form of desire is fair game.

The Composer Of Strands
​

This Jinn is an artificer of flesh, never staying one form for long, reshaping and twisting their followers, growing them in unnatural ways.

The Eater Of Worlds
​

Pummeled to Oblivion by Vorosh, yet sadly not quite dead. The Eater's influence has collapsed in recent years, leading to a unusual peace in galactic events of late. A Jinn of war, it improves man and machine alike in the pursuit of destruction, and it doesn't care whose, as Septima Severus found out.

The Whisperers In The Void
​

A subtle Jinn, this one specialises in seeing the unseen and knowing the unknown, a Jinn of wisdom - but all knowledge has its price.

The End Of The Cycle
​

Many faiths have a destroyer deity, and this Jinn is that base. Inexorably patient, this Jinn offers immense power, at an immense price.

These Jinn are powerful, yes, but not all-powerful - that belongs to Allah alone, and I consider Vorosh's victory over the Eater to be sufficient to demonstrate their limited nature.

Under Naomi's classification, they are formerly mortal beings who obtained vast Psionic power and bent the Shroud to their will, much like our Vorosh has done.

The discovery that these Jinn, and other lesser Jinn from the same Shroud, were channelling their worship was not easy to process for the polytheistic pantheons on Unity; thousands of generations had been abused by these entities to obtain Psionic power from them. Now that we know the true nature of the Jinn, we monitor for their influence, and most especially that of these five.

This led to a reconsideration of Naomi's hypothesis, and a swing towards monotheistic belief among those who remained believers in the Divine.

Naomi has been most insistent on refusing to establish a state religion; instead, the Orion Commonwealth is designed as a loosely secular state with freedom of religion. There is a legal framework based on Christianity however, expanded upon to suit alien cultures; while some do object to the first three of the Commandments that Musa Kalim Allah passed down, the fourth is extremely welcome among ex-slaves and the last six are agreed upon as obviously good.

Of Earth's religions among Humans, Christianity dominates on Unity, while Islam is common in the stars around the SolSys Restoration Mission that is rebuilidng the fallen People's Democratic Republic of Terra and Colonies, largely owing to demographics of colonial expansion following the collapse of hydrocarbon wealth on Old Earth. Judaism remains a minority within a third great diaspora since the destruction of Earth's surface and therefore the destruction of Israel, although the Holocron has stated he intends to restore Earth and build the cities of the new Jerusalem - the plural because his understanding of Revelation is that the text legitimately allows for either a cube or a pyramid, so he plans to build both. Buddism and Hinduism remain common among Humans as a whole, although the latter is uncommon on Unity because of the demographics Hortensus Dexius purchased. Agnostics and atheists remain fairly common.

Among non-Human religions on Unity, they generally conform to four categories, across more than fifty major religions:

Polytheistic religions that struggle with the implications that the Jinn of the Shroud may well be their deities
Polytheistic religions that believe the Shroud is not the originator of their deities
Monotheistic religions that predate Unity
The New Syntheses - belief systems that have been developed here on Unity. Of those, the Rukic Synthesis - Ruki Of Unity's Synthesis for the Xenaya - is the most common.

For me?

I remain Ruqayya Amah al-Masih.

 

[Macavity116]

Woah. Detailed imaginings of the Shroud-Beings. The Stellaris AAR forum has entered a new era.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Woah. Detailed imaginings of the Shroud-Beings. The Stellaris AAR forum has entered a new era.

Well, they can transform their appearance at will, so...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: For The Republic"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
The Holocron
Governance Faculty, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute​

"The first duty of a ruler is love.

That may not be what you are expecting, but it is the truth. One day, you will leave this institute. Some of you will fail the test. Most of you will govern provinces, some states, some regions, some continents. A few will govern planets, the best will govern star systems; our Commonwealth covers some four hundred and seventy systems at present, of which only around twenty percent qualify as settled. I intend to invert that by the end of the century, and to do so I will require trillions of sophonts and hundreds of quintillions of sub-sophont automata. As my fellow Councilor has said in an address to your class, our Commonwealth is not a democracy. We are an oligarchy made up of four immortal beings who were there for the Commonwealth's beginning, and will be there when it ends. It is our project, our vision. We would die for it, and we have killed for it. And above all, we love our Commonwealth."

Grepp does not deserve the distrust he faces, because he has poured his life's work into our project. Before the diplomatic restructuring after the Last Great War, he and his batch of Xenophile Starborn Prikki spent thousands of years in storage as a backup plan after the destruction of the Auridan and Repucid Fallen Empires meant they were unneeded. Our Commonwealth is his dream he spent that waiting envisioning.

Myself, well, I am the Commonwealth. Every single one of you relies on systems and objects that I design, that I maintain, that I build, that I resource, and when you graduate, you will govern with my assistance. When you go to war, you will fight with my weapons, my ships. My industry is the lifeblood of our Commonwealth, and the economic base of our Utopian Abundance, the fuel and the engine of our society.

Naomi Of Unity is the wolf who shepherds our Commonwealth, and Appia is the mother who birthed it.

Now, some may say 'How can you have a republic that isn't democratic?' The answer to that goes back to ancient Greece, on Old Earth. A res publica is strictly a 'common thing'.

Democracy is a form of inducing sophont engagement within that common thing, on the assumption that the enfranchised class are willing and able to make correct decisions on policies that define the functioning of the whole. That the average sophont is not capable of this leads to representative democracy and constitutional governance forms that aim to structure in guidance for the nation. But, those too have issues. It is a known fact that psychopathic individuals are more successful in achieving public office than mentally normal individuals, which skews representative democracy, and a constitution sees people apply their own interpretations, with varying degrees of adherence or concern for the beliefs and intentions of the founders, or simply ignore them.

We do not want that.

However, we also want the sophonts in our care to be engaged with our great project - certainly, it is not enough to me to have trillions of mindless drones running around. This means our oligarchy takes on a slight adjustment. and we have a democratically elected head of state, who we advise on how to run the Commonwealth. Maybe one day, one of you will be in that positon; we shall see. This naturally leads to your end of studies test. One of the things that has changed since Life2.0 became the Commonwealth is that back then, Naomi had to rely on spotting talent in the field; setting up a training regime beyond a crash-course was too long a duration for her to rely on as she needed results now. Today by contrast, we have this habitat orbiting Unity where we can gather all the candidates who we consider to have potential to lead, and give you the training you need.

At the end of this course will be a test where we will set up a scenario for you to demonstrate your brilliance in, and I look forward to meeting each of you when the results are measured."

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: Classmates"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
Zhao Qing Lung
Food Court J, Orion Commonwealth Advanced Studies Institute​

I coil on a foam puff in the food court with my tray.

It still makes me smile, watching people here. To make things more efficient, the OCASI is the only place in the Commonwealth that does this kind of study. Students from more than fifty species attend, and The Holocron likes to operate student-facing elements in a way that demonstrates his people-first philosophy.

Feeding me and other herbivores is easy; we get a selection of fruits. nuts and vegetables that are designed to be specifically nutrious for each species - the Holocron has designed entirely new genera of food plants that are grown aeroponically under UV light from recycled waste. They even do meat-plants for carnivores.

But, take Xenaya.

Xenaya have a physiological need for the chase-kill hunting behaviour, cooped up too long without a hunt and they start getting weirdly anxious and naseated. Naomi resigned herself to thinking Xenaya would never form traditional societies because of it.

The Holocron?

Designed NeoGen prey animals that can be eaten alive, don't suffer pain and treat being hunted as a game. Coiled in my utility foam chair in the food courts, and about twenty metres away a pack of Xenaya are chasing these undying food things around; whenever one detects that it's edible flesh is eaten, they make a bleating sound. The Xenaya then puts them down, and then they run back into the kitchens to be fattened back up again.

"It is amusing to watch." I recognise the voice; Hypatia Of Hephaistos.

I look at her. "Miss Hamaadimi."

The bronzed elven woman sits next to me, the floor rising to meet her as a chair. She tucks her auburn hair behind her pointed ears. "Please, it's Hypatia." She flicks a glance at a nearby food dispenser, then turns back to me as it starts whirring away. She sighs. "Do you feel like they are propagandising us, a little? You know, with all this." She waves her off-hand around her head.

I skewer a fruit on a claw. "Of course, and we are supposed to realise that. And then contemplate it." I smile. "Have you not talked to your aunt about it?"

She laughs. "Please; my aunt is many things, but everywhere at once is not one of them." The foam bends with her as she leans back. "Tomorrow's lecture is actually the first time I'll see her face to face this year."

"Your parents then?"

She shakes her head, eyes sparkling. "Nope. They left to go do their tour of all the crazy stuff my father got up to before he arrived at Unity that they've been meaning to do since before I was conceived, stole Loveboat One from the Unity Defence Fleet."

"Stole?"

"Yeah. Thando could have asked, but he wanted to steal a ship." She sighs. "He said it had been too long since the last time."

The Kyaese that Grepp had face off against a Xenaya alights on a perch. "May I join you?"

Hypatia smiles at him. "Sure. Datnaq, right?"

"Nope, Kataag." He chirps his amusement. "People always mix us up."

I look at him. "I heard Tryykad is retiring this year from the post of Star Marshall? Is it true?"

He preens his feathers. "Yes, father is stopping. After fifteen years, he's ready to stand down. The Guardian Council are in deliberations as to who will follow him, but the candidates are a secret."

A table forms to catch a Human-sized bag of books as a Xenaya flops on a foam puff. "Hey, it's the table of kids of heads of state. Mind if the one who actually is a head of state joins?"

Hypatia laughs. "Hey Livi. Bored of the Olinbari yet?"

Livi stares, smiling. "I am an Olibar. Just with a bit more fur."

I look at her. She stands a little over two metres before her horns, wearing a white toga with purple detailing. "And horns. Gone classical?"

"Yeah. It's quite nice actually, feels authentic." She sighs, then yawns with a low growl. "It's hard being a Consul. I picked up our course to top up my understanding, but... Well, I am glad I have just got this year of it."

As the dispenser beeps it's arrival, a table forms beside Hypatia for her food. All she has to do is take the plate from it.

Livi looks at the dispenser. "Stake, very rare." She pauses. "Thank you." It starts whirring.

Hypatia smiles. "Not used to saying please and thank you to food dispensers Livi?"

Livi shrugs. "I forgot these ones are sophont." The dispenser moves to Livi as it beeps. Livi stares at the floor. "Excuse me, where's my table?"

I look at the other Xenaya.

None have got tables.

A table forms for Livi. "Thank you. May I have some cutlery too? Please?"

Kataag chirps, watching a Xenaya pounce on an undying food thing. "It's used to Xenaya eating from the floor."

Livi growls. "Not all of us are savages."

The Xenaya looks up, his meal in his jaws, and stares at Livi as she uses a knife and fork.

Livi sighs. "Maybe that was a little too loud."

I look at her. "How long are you here for?"

"Until grandmother leaves. It's why I have physical books to read, being Consul means I get special dispensation to learn from home on Brigantia."

I check the time. Ah. "Well guys, I've got my next class, see you soon."

The dispener offers a bag for the remaining fruit and nuts as the others say goodbye.

 

[Mithrill]

Boy, it's sure nice having an all-seeing super-AI in command of couple metric tons of smart matter watching your every moment, right?

Just joking, but really, this is probably the best PR/power grab the Holocron can get. He is master of life and death for this place, and plays nice. Pray he never stops playing nice.

 

[HistoryDude]

I like this format.

First of all, is Hypatia Thando and Alexandria's child? Did we see her birth in Life 2.0 yet? Do I just not remember that part?

What is the Rukic Synthesis? What is its theology?

How did the Shroud-Beings influence active Earth religions like Hinduism or (mostly) dead ones like Hellenism or Kemetism, etc? Do you have any thoughts on what deities they might have been/inspired in historical religions? Did some inspire more than one deity?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Boy, it's sure nice having an all-seeing super-AI in command of couple metric tons of smart matter watching your every moment, right?

Just joking, but really, this is probably the best PR/power grab the Holocron can get. He is master of life and death for this place, and plays nice. Pray he never stops playing nice.

Quite. Although in terms of gameplay mechanics, it's meant to be envisioning Utopian Abundance living standards in a highly automated society, and not a full Rogue Servitor state - The Holocron envisions the Orion Commonwealth as a partnership of biological and machine life, and not one serving the other in either direction.

I like this format.

First of all, is Hypatia Thando and Alexandria's child? Did we see her birth in Life 2.0 yet? Do I just not remember that part?

You're right that Life2.0 finishes before Hypatia is born - Alexandra is pregnant before the end, which is why she made Thando stay with her instead of him going after Septima.

You might also have noticed that from Hypatia's description and wireless communications with the food dispenser that she's Homo Tipheret with tweaked appearance. Alexandra and Thando have both undergone a transformation like that of Naomi and Buri, as alluded to with Hypatia's identification as elven, Alexandra has adopted the appearance of a Noldorin Elf, and Thando now... Well, imagine General Martok from Star Trek dressed as Elvis Presley.

What is the Rukic Synthesis? What is its theology?

Essentially it's an Alien-understanding of Christianity that strips back thousands of years of Human geopolitics, and starts from core principles to define what the church should have been.

In brief, the complications arise from the New Testament. The issue is that it's teaching covers how to live in a state; it does not teach how to structure that state. While this was perfectly reasonable in the 1st century AD when Christians were a small minority and the apostles and their successors were primarily concerned with spreading the gospel, it did mean that they did not plan for a future when spreading the gospel was no longer required.

Which meant as the church was caught up in geopolitics - using a degree of simplification, what began as a Pharasaic Jewish Messianic cult known as 'The Way' was brutally fractured by the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 thanks to geopolitical considerations for Rome dealing with a rebellious population, and subsequently fractured into Chalcedonian, Miaphysite and Nestorian Christianity, and of course Chalcedonian Christianity split into Catholic and Orthodox, and Catholic in turn split at the Reformation, which in turn became dozens of denominations. A large amount of why theological disputes became what they became was geopolitical influences as nations vied with nations and kings disputed with popes and colonies disputed with their founding nations... Etc.

So, for a non-Human of the late 22nd century looking at Christianity, one of the big tasks is separating out the Human political issues, and figuring out what it should have been from the start.

The concept of Synthesis is therefore a conceptualisation of the structure generalised to make it suitable for non-Human species, identifying non-Human species as being part of the crowd identified in type (but presumably not that specific crowd) in Revelation 7:9 and the other nations from outside the City of New Jerusalem from Revelation 21:3-6.

Then Ruki's Synthesis applies that to the Xenaya, with their own blank slate of a future from their effectively stone age starting point, with prior worship of the Shroud Beings under other names done away with. (of the two named Xenaya deities in Life2.0, Tira-Toru is the Instrument Of Desire, while Zaru-Toru is the Eater Of Worlds)

Unlike most of the other races on Unity, who were more developed, Ruki is primarily planning ahead for the developments of future Xenaya and planning possible means of stabilising the Xenaya into settled polities. (Humans were driven to that by the development of agriculture; for the Xenaya, that isn't an option)

Obviously, this is very much in-keeping with the EUIV-Stellaris crossover theme Mandate Of Heaven has going on, as it is akin to Unity being a Centre Of Reformation.

How much of the Rukic Synthesis will survive to Rivi B'Uniti's future story, Stars Of Wonder, I am yet to decide.

Relatedly, this does lead to something else that will be added for Mandate Of Heaven - the various Advisor types from EUIV will also be adapted into Stellaris' Leader system.

How did the Shroud-Beings influence active Earth religions like Hinduism or (mostly) dead ones like Hellenism or Kemetism, etc?

It isn't just religions that the Shroud Beings draw on; think in terms of leeching off strongly held beliefs or especially mentally/emotionally significant actions in general - stuff that influences Psionics. But it is easiest for the Shroud Beings to siphon off genuine worship in a polytheistic religion, or get themselves directly to be venerated. We could easily see modern society from the perspective of living in hedonistic pleasure that venerates the Instrument Of Desire by it's actions, for example.

Mainly, I'm drawing the Shroud Beings from Warhammer; after all, that's the main inspiration for the Shroud Beings. And like in Warhammer, they draw off of all actions and beliefs to varying extents. But this setting not being grimdark like Warhammer is, the Shroud beings are also not wholly evil. Just mostly evil.

Do you have any thoughts on what deities they might have been/inspired in historical religions? Did some inspire more than one deity?

I'd say that inspired is the wrong word- I'm very much inclined to the Tolkiensian perspective that evil cannot create, only twist what has been created. From the perspective of the "Of Unity" series, the Shroud Beings are therefore understood as very much parasitic on genuine belief, in much the same way Melkor was parasitic on the works of the Valar and the Ainur.

That said, there are absolutely examples where we can see parallels and possible influences. The Eater Of Worlds we can see in Ares and Hephaestus from Hellenism, or the Instrument Of Desire in the Queen Of Heaven from Canaanite religion. Odin's missing eye sacrificed for a drink from the well of knowledge is why I picked that particular image for the Whisperers In The Void - you'll see that the right eye of the inner eyes within the central third eye is milky. Kemetism is filled with deities who could be interpreted as having been mutated by the Composer Of Strands, and Christianity has had plenty of cults that are disturbingly End Of The Cycle like.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

EUIV/Stellaris Crossover Mechanics​

Mandate Of Heaven is in a thematic sense a crossover between EUIV and Stellaris.

One area where this has impacts is religion, and that leads to tweaks to Stellaris' Leaders. Those who read my posts on the subject of the Leader cap know I am vehemently against it, and needless to say the cap has been modded out.

The current Stellaris Leader set allow for the following:

Commander​	Official​	Scientist​
Admiral	Delegate	Explorer
General	Industrialist	Scholar
Commissioner	Advisor	Analyst
Strategist	Ambassador	Statistician

Plus Envoys.

EUIV has:

Administrative​	Diplomatic​	Military​
Artist	Colonial Governor	Army Organiser
Inquisitor	Diplomat	Army Reformer
Master Of Mint	Naval Reformer	Commandant
Natural Scientist	Navigator	Grand Captain
Philosopher	Spymaster	Master Recruiter
Theologian	Statesman	Military Engineer
Treasurer	Trader	Quartermaster

Comparing the two sets side by side, we can see there are plenty that are better as Councilor positions, plenty covered adequately by existing positions, a few too low in scope to fit in Stellaris, and a few that can be added as Leaders with a few little tweaks.

Which gives:

Commander​	Official​	Scientist​	Societal​
Admiral	Delegate	Explorer	Ambassador
General	Industrialist	Scholar	Artist
Commissioner	Advisor	Analyst	Celebrity
Strategist	Governor	Statistician	Theologian
Logistician	Inquisitor	Philosopher	Trader

Commanders are for running the military of the State.
Officials are for running the bureaucracy of the State.
Scientists are for running the research and development of the State.
Societals therefore, are for running the society of the State.

This assessment guides the decisions of where the new types were assigned.

When we look at the effects the various Commanders have, there is an obvious gap; we have Leaders for commanding the armies and navies, we have Leaders for occupation and disorder control, and we have Leaders (with effects for organising faster ship construction) that have a title that actually refers to the planning of wars at a macro level. The obvious gap is the Logistician, who keeps the massive supply and resourcing effort going.

We see another gap in the Officials class of Leader by restoring the Governor position, making them distinct from Industrialists by theming the Governor as concerned for sustainable governance, the Industrialist for extractionary profit. Missionaries from EUIV were kind of mislabelled; their functionality is far more like that of Inquisitors, not missionaries. Inquisitors therefore, fit in by ensuring adherence to the State religion and State governing a ethics.

When we look at Scientists, the apparent gap is for raw ideas generation, especially when you keep in mind that Scholars are intended as studiers of Anomalies, Astral Rifts and Archaeology sites. That is where the Philosopher - intended in the wider definition rather than the modern restricted definition - fits in by basically doing an awful lot of thinking about issues. Left idle, they modify Empire-wide aspects like new ideas for Policies and Edicts, enhance Research and Traditions and assist Agendas. Assigned to a planet or sector, then they think a bit more practically and come up with ideas to suit their particular assignment.

This leaves one last change to Stellaris before we get into the new Leader type; Ambassadors being moved. Long-time readers of my ramblings on Leaders may remember that I want Envoys to be full Leaders, and integrating them into Ambassadors and Delegates works perfectly to do so - Delegates focus on interactions with the Galactic Community and Federations of course, so Ambassadors take over the diplomatic and espionage functions; they can be assigned to either the home State, where they can either do counter-espionage or diplomatic boosts with everyone, or assigned to another State, where they can build a spy network or improve relations. Assigned to a particular planet in an external State, they can establish an Embassy as a variation on a Holding, or setup a dedicated spy network that allows much more powerful but locale specific hostile interactions.

Now we are into the new class of Leader.

Societal Leaders deal in soft-power, their effects relatively small, but able to extend beyond their home State and time.

Artists for example - EUIV covers 1444 to 1820, which in artistic history covers Gothic through to Romantic art. Now, you may ask what would the art of a Stellaris civilisation be like? Well, there's different sensory experiences to our own - some might see in UV or infrared, others working from sense of smell for example - and entirely new mediums that can be used as a canvas. Stellaris base game has one megastructure of course, but it can be so much more - genetic engineering, terraforming, stellar manipulation, Psionic art, new kinds of sculpture with advanced materials, and as always, architecture, new construction technologies and the freedom of microgravity construction.

Put simply, Artists make it possible to have Buri fight a T. Rex. I think we can all agree that is such a cool idea that it needs to be written.

Celebrities are perhaps a controversial idea, so I'll explain my rationale.

Consider pre-FTL interstellar economics; there are very few rockets able to do interstellar missions quickly, and even fewer that can do it cheaply as well. Which means any cargo has to be extremely high value per kg to make it viable. Multimedia are one of the very few forms of cargo that meet these demands - load up all the best of Earth's media onto an SSD, put the SSD onto an antimatter rocket-propelled probe, license out the media stored on arrival several years to decades later. Load up the probe with another SSD containing all of that system's best multimedia, bring the probe home, license out that multimedia.

In an advanced far future such as Stellaris where you have FTL ships and communications, you can expand the present status of celebrity on Earth effectively galaxy-wide. The right celebrity has an audience of quadrillions of people, with resulting marketabillity.

Add Gateways, and you can even have them going on tours.

Theologians have similar mechanics of course, but have religious effects rather than morale/financial effects.

Traders I envision as like Merchants and Trade Companies from EUIV, as part of a ground-up revamp of commerce that makes it far more dynamic than the near-autarkic nature of trade in Stellaris currently; I envision them when left idle to be off making their own businesses, or they can be assigned to their own MegaCorps, allies for normal interpolity trading, general trade steering along shipping lanes, and of course, piracy. Septima Severus - Life2.0's villain - is a perfect example of a Trader Leader.

 

[Mithrill]

Is this going to be a mod or a headcanon (in a sense: this person does that, so they have position X even if the game says they have Y)?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Headcanon.

Yeah, I probably could have made it clearer - while the mod list used for Life2.0/Mandate Of Heaven/Stars Of Wonder is over 50 mods, I can't get any mods I make to work with Stellaris, so that's more how I would like things to work.

But you know how it is, need to get the ideas written while you have them, and I'd already lost a much more detailed evaluation of how Artists led me to the image of Buri fighting a T. Rex because of my phone having a previous draft and the desktop having the draft I was working on, and the forums picked the first to save...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prologue: Mage-craft And Psionics"
15th Buri, 26 U.R.
Vorosh
Seeker's Landing, Lukhuin​

I look across my students. On my left, Lukhuinite Mages-Aspirant wo have come to this sacred place of learning that has been the home of so many of Lukhuin's best mages. Six are mine and Daas' children. Twelve percent of our children being Mages-Aspirant makes me proud.

On my right, a portal to the Institute, where a lecture hall is filled with students of Social And Martial Philosophy.

Right in the centre is my husband.

I look at Giis and Yuuda, our sons, and Nodess, Vordoss, Kaless and Abthogg, our daughters. "This place, Seeker's Landing, is the most Psionically potent places on Lukhuin. I trained here under Shelk, she trained under Gnashol, and he trained under Bassoneg, and he trained under Yegg. In the past, it was second only to what is now called Sunken Spiral; in it's prime, Deep Spire had a history of Mages reaching back to the beginning of history, and it was where Yegg trained, before Sosoth the destroyer overthrew Deep Spire and cast it to the abyssal depths. Those of you on my left - the following years, decades and perhaps centuries of continual improvement as Mages begins here. I will pass on to you the warning that Shelk gave me, when I was a Mage-Aspirant sat where you are now." I point a tentacle at the preserved skeleton of a Shkiganor. The Lukhuinites shudder at the beast's jaws."Attempting to Dominate Mind this Shiganor is what killed my teacher." I then look past my husband, to the chasm Seeker's Landing rests beside. "I had to cast what remained of him after I slew that Shiganor into the abyssal depths. Make no mistake; the path our predecessors took was hard, and harsh. The old Mages accepted that if they took in a hundred pupils, in the region of eighty would not survive the first year. With modern understanding, teaching techniques from Tunkuni Amothetet, and the Holocron's Engenerators, I hope to reverse that ratio." I exhale deeply. "But, that being just a hope is why I have waited so long to train my own Mages-Aspirant here on Lukhuin, despite freeing our world forteen years ago."

Abthogg raises a tentacle. I nod to her. "Mum, we already know all this."

I nod. "You do. But not all of them do, and very few of those on your left do."

She looks across at them. "But none of them are Gifted."

"That remains to be seen. Regardless, we Lukhuinites are part of a greater and wider society now. Our Commonwealth has trillions of people within the hundreds of stars it encompasses, and those attending the Social And Martial Philosophy course at the Institute will one day need to make decisions that could require our aid. Therefore, they listen in to these first principles of Psionics."

I gesture a tentacle to the etchings in the stone behind me. "In classical Lukhuinite Mage-craft, there were six generally practiced fields of Mage-craft. Artificery, Alchemy, Vitalitics, Violences, Mystics and Mentalics. Artificery - Mage-craft that constructed items, tools and artefacts, especially involving the use of arcane-fire - was the staple Mage-craft owing to it's economic importance. Alchemy - Mage-craft that tried to turn one material into another - was also commonly tried, but infamous for spectacular backfires. Vitalics - the Mage-craft for healing and hurting bodies - was also well regarded in the main, however there were.... Unnatural practices that came under it's purview. The Violences - a collective Mage-craft that primarily consisted of arcane methods of destruction - were always valued and feared in equal measure. The Mystics - a Mage-craft that covers many useful utilities - was the bedrock of pre-Sosoth Lukhuinite society with it's portals and communications, a discipline that I expect will be extremely important in the future as portal-making that connects places hundreds of lightyears apart in a single step has incredible utility in the galaxy Lukhuinites are a part of. Mentalics - the Mage-craft that concerns itself with power over the mind - was always viewed with suspicion and fear on Lukhuin, and contributed to the rise of Sosoth the destroyer."

I take a few steps, and write out seven words on a display with a tentacle.

"A more modern understanding groups Mage-crafts under five headings. When you act in the arcane, you are always manipulating one - or more - of matter, energy, space-time metric, forces, and natural laws. This leads us to the first consideration - when we consider the laws of science, we usually think of them as prescriptive laws. That is, we think of them as a compulsion on nature. To a Mage, we recognise that they are not quite absolute. There are restrictions of course - some examples are that you cannot do perpetual motion. You cannot make new energy, although you can take it from other dimensions if you factor in the added exhaustion it causes to be manipulating multiple realities simultaneously. You can't go backwards though time, but you can speed it up or effectively stop it locally. While under the arcane influence you can make something stand in defiance the square-cube law, don't expect it to stay that way if you stop. But, a lot more of the time than you might realise, the laws of nature are instead descriptive, and powerful Mages can affect what natural law describes in a way that suits us."

Abthogg raises a tentacle again. "Can we make stuff go faster than the speed of light?"

Hmm. "What exactly is the application?"

"Warp drive for spaceships."

"I would have to review the literature from Tunkuni Amothetet. But... I'm afraid we'll now consider the drawback of trying to become a Mage. The danger. When we draw on Psionic power, we are actually drawing of a vast sea of potential, known as the Shroud. There are of course entities within the Shroud, and they are mainly evil. But the biggest problem is that the Shroud takes something of you as you try to learn to manipulate Psionics. All living beings have a portion of Psionic potency, and as life grows and shrinks, so does the Shroud. And one of the perverse mysteries of the Shroud is that it only yields secrets at the cusp of death. And that is before you get into magical accidents. Now, modifying the local speed of light can be done, but when you do that you are modifying so many factors of physics at the same time that your battle to keep everything else the same becomes exhausting. Likewise, while metric manipulation is a well-understood part of Mage-craft, many, many, many Mages-Aspirant have gone and flung themselves into other dimensions trying to learn how to do it, and well..."

She shivers. "They never come back."

I nod. I look left, and then right. "So, it is perfectly fine to conceive of ways that a Mage might cast some arcane manipulation that accomplishes some desired effects. But both groups should remember that sometimes the price of learning a new Mage-craft is too high to stomach."

I look at each of my children. Then the rest of the Lukhuinites. "When I sat where you sat, I was fifteen years old, like many of you, a newly shell-lipped Lukhuinite enthusiastic about learning, in a crowd of more than a hundred. By the time Shelk was half-eaten, I was the only one who wasn't dead and hadn't walked away from further study." I run my eyes over the Engenerators. "I hope I don't lose more than half of you."