The Aleph Galaxy Index [Synvine Universe Database]

[BANZAI!!!!]

Instead of clogging up the OOC thread with all of this information, I've decided to run a database thread with most of the relevant information for Synvine. While not all of the information here will be required reading, I'd strongly advise at least skimming every section in here.

Enjoy!

[spoiler=The Races of the Aleph Galaxy][spoiler=Eosah]

Home Planet: Eos

Gravity: 1g

Class: Temperate World

Primary Feature: Vast Forests

Description: Pristine, and seemingly undamaged by the growth of civilization and the ravages of war, Eos is a world covered in greenery, interspersed with what little remains of the Eosah civilization. The majority of Eos is covered in temperate, deciduous forest; a result of its incredibly stable orbit smack in the middle of its star's habitable zone.

 

 

 

[spoiler=Kal'dar]

 

 

[spoiler= Bhaldur]

 

 

[spoiler=Tierran]

 

 

[spoiler=Kof'Thee]

Home Planet: Therian

Gravity: .6g

Class: Barren World

Primary Feature: Subterranean Tunnels

Description: An average-sized habitable world with a thinner-than-average atmosphere that gets thicker deeper down. On the surface, this planet is a combination of greys and dark blues, with gigantic fossilized forests dotting the surface. That, and the massive amount of craters and crevices across the surface, gives this planet a feeling of lifelessness.

However, beneath the surface stretch millions and millions of tunnel expanses, rivers, and caverns where most of the flora and fauna live, working off of geothermal vents for energy as opposed to sunlight, with a few notable exceptions.. While most of the caverns are naturally pitch black, and as such the species living there have little variation in color and technical features, giant caves filled with certain bioluminescent plants are not an uncommon sight, wherein species with more color, variety, and even functioning eyes evolved and thrived.

Due to the nature of the ecosystem, species are generally organized into two categories: Intunnel and Outtunnel. Intunnel species, due to their close proximity with one another, are often very hostile creatures, utilizing constant brutal ambushes and stealth tactics to secure resources within each tunnel environment. The latter, however, are species similar to giant worms and other passive creatures, spending more time in caverns closer to the surface, scavenging for scraps or filter-feeding on abundant microbe pockets.

Koff'Thee Species Bio: The mammalian Koff’Thee is the sole intelligent life inhabiting Therian, having naturally evolved there under such conditions. Having evolved, and spent most of their time, nearer to the upper layers of the planet, the Koff’Thee are tall, spindly, mammalian creatures, with long, thin arms and legs atrophied by the low gravity of the planet. Their bodies are cloaked in grey tough skin, with two large toes on each foot and three fingered hands on the end of each arm. Very little natural hair grows on them, with the most being glorious manes flanking the necks of the male, and long strands running down back of the head of the female, typically braided as per cultural tradition. Both sexes are capable of growing mohawk-esque hair at the very top of their elongated skulls, though most shave theirs off, as it’s seen as a sign of poverty or fruitless rebellion.
 

For thousands of years, the Koff’Thee made very little, if any, cultural and societal progress in their current evolutionary form; this came about thanks to an awkward evolutionary quirk that the species experiences. The more violent and aggressive a member of the Koff’Thee becomes, the more muscle mass they tend to gain, and not just simply from exercise. However, at the same time, the typical nuances of an intelligent Koff’Thee dulls with the increase in size, turning them almost bestial in nature. As a result, during the tribal era of this species, tribe leaders and successor candidates had always followed a similar path, growing in strength and combat prowess, all while turning a nose up at any of what might be considered a non-violent pursuit. “Might makes Right” was the doctrine of the day.

However, over time, things began to change. Despite the aggressive nature of society at the time, innovations still occurred, in terms of weapons, education, and general culture. And they all came from the Koff’Thee that lacked the spine, the nerve, or both to follow in the path of their brutish brethren. However, as a result, they were never in a position of any notable power. Disgruntled thoughts began to surface throughout many tribes, as the smarter Koff’Thee began to philosophize over their own existence as a species. And eventually, those thoughts turned to actions.

A cultural revolution had erupted throughout the various tribes, wherein with a mix of their superior intelligence, stronger technology, and willingness to work in groups as opposed to acting alone, the weaker, non-brutish Koff’Thee gained total control over their respective tribes, and eventually, the entire species. This time, known as the “Wit’s Reckoning,” changed the course of the species forever, and laid the groundwork for how the species still operates in the present.

By the time the dust had settled, the species had been divided into two separate castes: the Koff’Thar, and the Koff’Kli.

The Koff’Thar, roughly translated to “Those of Wit,” became the dominant caste among the species, ruling every single aspect of society and culture with an iron grip. They, in their weaker forms but sharper minds, were what all Koff should aspire to be, the ideal state, the “Purest of Forms.” As such, they held a great deal of contempt towards their violent, brutish brethren, thinking them as dirty and degenerate.

The Koff’Kli, roughly translated to “Those of Brute,” fell out of the favor of all those who controlled them, and were relegated to slaves and manual laborers for the Thar. However, despite their reputation as being practically abominations, the Thar realized the use that their increased muscle power would bring; innovation was impossible without muscle to back it. As such, the Thar operated Kli Breeding Pits, where they pit their own kind against each other in order to have them gain the necessary strength needed for mining and industry as slaves. And the Kli, lacking the brain power to rid themselves of the slavery they now found themselves in, were stuck as such.

This leads us to the modern day, where little has changed; very few other species ever witness the Kli side of the Koff’Thee, where hundreds of millions still work as slave labor for food, fighting amongst themselves to gain the most muscle mass. The tribes assembled, civilization evolved, and soon enough, the Koff’Thee left for the stars, joining the rest of the civilized species across the Aleph Galaxy.

 

First contact came in BAUC 2329, when a Koff'Thee expeditionary fleet encountered the Eosah in the Geren system. The Koff were the third of the seven space faring races foretold in the prophecies of the seer Muruzain.

 

 

 

 

 

[spoiler=Humans]
Home Planet: Terra
Gravity: N/A
Class: N/A
Primary Feature: N/A
Description: As the race of intelligent hominid apes known to the Aleph Galaxy at large as Humans are of extra-galactic origin, the exact nature and location of their homeworld is unknown. Even the Humans themselves no very little about their ancestral birthplace, as much of their pre-Aleph history has been lost to the passing of the millennia and the splintering of human society into various factions. What is known (read: suspected) about Terra is that it was a veritable cornucopia of life, not entirely unlike the Ny'tli homeworld of Teyoa, brimming with various flora and fauna, with a relatively mild, varied climate. In other words, an ideal (or as close to ideal as a habitable world can get on its own) planet. However, based on evidence of similar occurrences on various worlds within Aleph, it is theorized that some combination of natural climate shifts, Human industrialization, and overpopulation rendered Terra uninhabitable to the point that humanity was forced to evacuate the planet, setting the stage for the events of their arrival in the Aleph Galaxy some (several?) million years later. The lack of information has done little to curb human reverence for their home planet, however, and stories of old Terra, however inaccurate they may be, are still told frequently today. 


Human Species Bio: Human history in the Aleph Galaxy begins (depending on who you ask) anywhere from 2923 BAUC (Before Aleph Unified Calendar) to 2521 BAUC.

[spoiler=Sathsani]
Home Planet: Kan-Kassa
Gravity: 1.5g
Class: Continental World
Primary Feature: Supercontinent
Description: Kan-Kassa is a slightly larger-than-average terrestrial world when compared against the galactic average. Though this, combined with is position squarely in the middle of the habitable zone of its parent star, would lead the casual observer to assume it developed a mild, varied climate, one does not have to look far to realize that this is a planet of extremes. A single enormous continental band, centered around the equator, marks the only land of any significant size on the planet. A small smattering of Islands of varying sizes out into the Northern and Southern Oceans, while certainly attractive for tourists, is not of a great deal of concern to scientists in the galaxy at large.

One of the side-effects of this supercontinent, apart from the sweltering heat of a world the entirety of whose land is solidly within its tropical zone, is extreme weather. Storms build to enormous sizes out in the oceans and sweep across the Continental Band practically without slowing down. The fact that the polar regions of Kan-Kassa are covered with enormous floating ice sheets, comparable to Earth’s own Arctic Ocean on an enormous scale, results in cold fronts sweeping down across the globe with surprising regularity and bringing wintry weather to the tropics with little warning. The concept of Seasons simply does not exist for the people of this world.

Sathsani Species Bio:
The first species encountered by Humanity after their arrival in the Aleph Galaxy, and also the first to go to war with them, the Sathsani are a diverse people. This is because they are not a singular species. The world of Kan-Kassa’s extremely hazardous conditions produced multiple answers to survival in it (all of them coincidentally reptilian), and many of those answers harbored enough intelligence for multiple species to arise. Of course this initially caused them problems, and they experienced a period of violent conflict similar to the Human wars for dominance on Sefer. Unlike Sefer, however, this period did not end with a mass exodus of dissident factions from the planet. Rather, it came to an end when Vor Sa’Kol the Conqueror did as her name implies and conquered the sweeping continental band of their homeworld. It is important to note that she did this with a force built from an initially small united empire of many of Kan-Kassa’s dominant species, and furthermore that as she conquered more they were further integrated into her empire. Though she died of the many injuries she had suffered thereafter, her successor Ban Sa’Kol the Uniter stepped up, figuratively speaking, and through tense negotiations, force of personality, and not a small amount of putting down rebellious forces, established the first Empire of Kan-Kassa as a single united force. Shortly before her death, she officially announced the end of the world’s days of being held by many disparate species and declared them all to be One People. In their ancient language, which has since been replaced in use with the adoption of Galactic Common, the word for that is Sathsani.

The Sa’Kol dynasty continued to rule for several centuries after this, but with technological advances and the expanding availability of education the Empire of Kan-Kassa was soon officially dissolved and replaced with the Kan-Kassa Collective, a socialist republic which has persisted to the modern day. Even though all parts of society are equal in terms of governance and benefits, the Sathsani divide themselves into what appears to many at first glance to be a Traditional Caste System. It would be better to call it a Merit Based Caste System, wherein individuals find their way into particular aspects of society based upon what they are best at. That this largely follows the species boundaries with little exception is attributable more to evolution and biology than anything else. These Castes are as follows:


The Labor Caste
Those best suited to performing backbreaking manual labor. The so-called “blue collar” workers of Sathsani society. Almost universally these are made up of the Crocodilian-esque Sathsani, who are much larger and much more heavily muscled than other members of their society. While they are generally slow and lumbering in motion, they are capable of being remarkably delicate when handling fragile things and can exert themselves in sudden bursts of speed when pressed. Furthermore, they are far more intelligent than most members of other species would give them credit for.

The Management Caste
Those best suited to directing the labor of others, and handling things such as finances. Though this has become more inclusive in recent decades, it is still on the whole populated by those Sathsani who bear more resemblance to Iguanas, Gila Monsters, Chameleons, and other small reptiles. Where other Sathsani evolved to face the challenges of living on their world physically, these evolved highly advanced brains. In Sathsani cities, these are the sort that can be seen running around in a state of organized chaos as they go here and there to handle any number of tasks.

The Warrior Caste
Every society needs something to do with its violently minded members of society, and the Sathsani are no different. Though certain combat roles are best suited to other members of society, the role of infantry is filled by the moderately sized, though large by galactic standards, Sathsani. Some have compared them to the ancient Raptors from Earth’s Mesozoic Era, and this is not entirely incorrect. Also worth noting are the Serpentine Sathsani, who resemble anthropoid snakes. They traditionally served as the Naval and Marine Combat specialists in the Sathsani military, and have adapted the best to the low and zero gravity environments common in modern Space Navies.

In spite of these castes, there are many roles which have little biologically defined specializations. The Government for instance is the most representative of all Sathsani, as are the many scientific fields. It is further worth noting that the emergence of Knight Tracers as military technology has caused something of a crisis among the Sathsani. The particular talents required for piloting a KT are not focused into any particular aspect of their society, and so it has been difficult for them to develop a single unified design.

Taking a step back into history, Kan-Kassa is the nearest inhabited planet to Sefer. This meant that the Sathsani and Humans were each other’s first contact. Though first contact went well enough, with both species understanding the significance of this event, the two rapidly ended up grating on each other. It is not well remembered who shot first, given there were very few survivors on both sides of their initial highly disorganized fleet engagement, but war soon enough broke out between them. This war waged for decades before it eventually attracted the attention of the Knights of Eos, who intervened to prevent the two highly motivated species from destroying each other, an event still remembered and venerated by both sides today. The peace talks that resulted from the KNights' intervention ultimately bore fruit, and would eventually lead to the founding of the United Systems Coalition as an alliance between the two species, as well as the invention and adoption of Galactic Common as a universal language and the establishment of the Aleph Unified Calendar.

[spoiler=Ny'tli]

 

 

 

 

[spoiler=Factions of the Aleph Galaxy]

 

 

[spoiler=Links]For links to other parts of the database, so that not all the information has to be crammed into one post.

 

Terms & Technology

Ships &Vehicles

Tracers, Symbiotes, and Battle Frames

 

[xlArisenRoselx]

Ummmm.... Currently only Sathsani has any info...

[BANZAI!!!!]

Ummmm.... Currently only Sathsani has any info...

Yup. I'm currently working to update everything, so this thread will be growing very large very quickly.

[xlArisenRoselx]

Yup. I'm currently working to update everything, so this thread will be growing very large very quickly.

O i c. Carry on then. Don't let me bother you from your work.

[BANZAI!!!!]

[spoiler=Terms and Technology of the Aleph Galaxy][spoiler=Hyperlanes]
The means by which every advanced civilization has overcome the need to travel faster than light, the Hyperlanes are without a doubt the most important discovery in galactic history. Though there is some disagreement, most scientists agree upon the following description of a Hyperlane: “...a self-contained path through space wherein the distance between two points is greatly reduced.” Attempts at determining an exact ratio by which the distance is changed has proven frustrating, as it seems inconsistent even within the same Hyperlane. In fact, regardless of the speed at which a vessel of any sort is traveling when it enters a Hyperlane it will reach the other end at exactly the same time any other vessel would. This was evidenced most directly when the USCS Constantine was blasted in half fleeing from an engagement with a hostile INCA carrier, and even crewmen who had been blasted out of the vessel emerged on the other side of the Hyperlane at the same time as the wreckage, though fragments of the ship did resume traveling at differential speed thereafter.

Access to the Hyperlanes is achievable only through enormous constructs simply called Gates. Constructed by the Bhaldur long before the fall of their homeworld, these Gates are absolute monstrosities, seemingly metal rings stretching thousands of kilometers across with large spires reminiscent of orbital elevators stretching outwards from their exterior. Whatever systems are involved in breaching through normal reality to connect to the Hyperlanes are well hidden, as multiple expeditions to multiple rings have failed to discover any leads as to how these things maintain the breach, and the surviving Bhaldur themselves are unsure of the precise mechanisms by which the Gates function. It is also worth noting that the exact number and whereabouts of all of the Gates in the Aleph Galaxy are uncertain, as any maps that did exist were lost thousands of years ago during the Tierran rebellion. "New" Gates are still infrequently discovered, and both the USC and INCA maintain dedicated expedition corps to find and map as many Gates and the Hyperlanes they connect as possible, both for ease of travel and possible strategic advantage in the war.

[spoiler=Mana]Perhaps the least understood force in the Aleph galaxy, mana is the life energy that all intelligent, organic beings posses. Though every race is aware of the existence of mana each has their own interpretations of its exact nature and the significance it holds. Regardless however, there are a few properties of mana that are universally acknowledged:

1. Mana in its natural form is invisible to the naked eye.

2. Each individual poseses a set amount of mana that varies from person to person. This amount fluctuates, influenced by the individual’s health and mood; growing during periods of stress and/or emotional intensity, and shrinking when they are ill or injured. An individual will die if drained of their mana, and likewise when death occurs via some other means their mana will dissipate.

3. An individual’s mana hovers around them in close proximity to their body, referred to as a mana cloud.




certain individuals, known colloquially as Espers, have the ability to sense mana, which allows them to locate other organics at long distances.