Humanity (Homo Stellar)
Unlike the alien races native to the Astrea sector, humanity is a single race originating from the planet Terra or Earth. While there are differences in appearance between individuals and different ethnic and subcultures do exist, humans are a unified whole, identical in biology. Mammalian, furless bipeds, humans exist as two sexes: males range from 5'0 to 6'4 (average 6') with occasional outliers in excess of 7' and ranging from 145-285 lbs (average 200 lbs). Females range from 4'10"-6'2" (average 5'8") with outliers just under 7' and range from 98-185 lbs (average 155 lbs) with outliers over 250.
Human skin color ranges from pale cream, to pink, to red, to golden yellow, through shades of brown from tan to ebony. Outliers include a genetic mutation that renders humans with pale blue skin with darker blue lips and areas under the fingernails and true albinism in which the body lacks pigment of any kind yielding white skin and red eyes. Skin color is caused by the absence or presence of melanin in the outer layers of skin. Some fair complexioned individuals, especially with red hair, have random unconnected dots of melanin scattered across their skin. These freckles most frequently occur on the cheeks and across the bridge of the nose. Human skin becomes darker when exposed to sunlight.
Human bodies are covered lightly with hair. Both sexes have thick hair covering their skulls and back of the head. The one exception is "male pattern baldness" where in response to an imbalance of hormones, the hair falls out along the top of the head. Males tend to have more body hair than females and have facial hair around the mouth and along the jaw. The way hair is styled and worn is a matter of cultural preferences although in most, women wear their hair longer than men. Members of both sexes shave their heads either in part or the whole, although the practice is more widespread among men than women. Hair colors range from copper red to platinum white, with blonde being the preferred color of choice although black is the most common natural color.
The Exodus of 2148
Over 900 years ago, Homo Stellar (Star-faring Mankind) had established a modest empire consisting of the planets orbiting around its home sun (Sol) using primarily stutter and EM drives. Once developing the first faster than light travel, they began to spread out into the neighboring star systems. Colonies were first planted in the Proxima Centauri, Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti systems
The last century before the Exodus of 2248 was a golden age in the history of humanity. The mining of asteroids and rare earth metals from Jupiter's Galilean colonies fueled great technological and material advances. Orbital factories brought revolutions in manufacturing. With distribution of food no longer a problem or subject to political pressures, the Earth comfortably fed her 20 billion inhabitants. There was prosperity for all who wanted to partake of the bounty
But not all were willing to participate. The Hegemony of Setric took a dim view of the proceedings. Technophobic to the core except for instruments of war and surveillance, the new prosperity was undermining their social dominance over their people. Furthermore, the new age of enlighten-ment went against the words of their holy prophets. They believed that the world would degenerate into such chaos, none but their Avatar could restore it. When human misery had reached its full measure, Setric would come and restore the Earth. In addition, he would show all the other religious leaders of the world of their errors and convince them to join with him in eradicating all "unbelievers." The results would destroy all of the Hegemony's enemies and catapult it into a place of world dominance. Afterward, they would rule for a thousand years over a green, paradise Earth free of technology and opposition to their teachings and way of life.
When conditions on Earth began to improve over a sustained period of time, the Hegemony grew impatient. No longer willing to wait until the Earth's economy, ecosystem and governments collapsed on their own, they took matters into their own hands. They began a series of unrelenting wars, beginning small at first, but within a generation covering the globe. They took advantage of free societies to gain control and inflict their draconian ways of life on the subjugated populations. True to their beliefs, they sowed senseless destruction everywhere they could: their enemy civilization itself. The culture that had taken mankind millennia to develop was destroyed in less than a decade.
Fleeing the Hegemony of Setric, a collection of rag tag ships formed a fleet and headed outward from Sol. Harassed and shepherded by Hegemony warships, they pursued a relentless pace outbound. Other ships joined them as the traveled outward. The entire fleet lived in fear that any moment they would be fired upon by their oppressors. Surprisingly enough, once they reached the jump point, the warships were content to let them go without further threats of destruction. Uncomfortable in the hard technology of travel in deep space, they returned home to wreck vengeance on those who survived the purges and await their Avatar's return.
The first years in space were difficult and many died. In the rush to escape, many ships had fled before the Hegemony that were unprepared for deep space. One in three perished in their flight: equipment failure, hunger and thirst killed a few; radiation poisoning killed the rest. They faced a hard choice: to pursue the route of least radiation or the route with the most opportunity for healthy, earth-like worlds. In the end, they chose the road through hard celestial real estate. Unlike the welcoming sun of earth, three quarters of the suns in the immediate vicinity were brown dwarfs. These stars were too cool to support life on their planets, but also posed less threat from radiation storms. What planets that did support life became temporary way stations for the beleaguered fleet as they stocked up on what materials they could find. These refugees never stayed for longer than needed in any one place for fear that they were being pursued by Hegemony warships.
The Diaspora
As the human fleet straggled into the Astrea sector, it began to splinter. Different groups based on common nationality, ethnicity, culture or even ship identity began to split off from the main fleet. The catalyst for the diaspora was the discovery of the Aslan world K'gawra in 2188. The Aslan were the first sentient race they had encountered. It was here that humans experienced their first sense of safety and hope that their journey would soon be coming to an end. The Galilean moon refugees decided to settle on planets close by. Looking for more privacy than living side by side with the Aslan, these sought to jump a star gap to rimward that would insure privacy. The first planet settled was Earth 1 in 2190. Earth 2 and Earth 3 were settled the following year.
The L5 and L3 colonies decided as a group that they would settle close by the Aslan forming mixed colonies on Solara and Kagro. They were granted permission by the Aslan Hierarchy in 2192 to settle. The principle colony on Solara, although small, was of Aslashi descent. These were refugees of another sort, having been shunned by their clans for their mixed racial descent. To the humans, a talking lion is a talking lion - except that the Aslashi are nearly twice the height and mass as a regular Aslan. To the humans, it only made sense to be on the good side of creatures that towered over them. The L5 and L3 colonists, not caring about such matters as racial identity, became fast friends with the Aslashi.
The humans were guest of the Aslan for nearly four years while they refitted and built new ships. As Aslan and Human engineers worked side by side, they developed a mutual admiration for one another. The humans admired the Aslan for their skill and commitment as warriors. The Aslan admired Humans for their inventiveness and advanced techniques in the arts of war. New ideas from both sides infused their work and a renaissance of shipbuilding swept the industry. Now, for the first time in nearly a century, humans now had warships of their own to protect the remnants of the fleet.
The main body of humans that remained were Terrans, Centaurians, Eridani, Cetians, LeLanders and Procyons with a smattering of survivors from other four exo-colonies. Encouraged by ship maintenance and repair, along with newfound Aslan friends seeking off world adventure, they pressed onward. Over the next 300 years, humans would make their presence felt on over 400 systems. They are still actively settling worlds at the time of this writing.
Of historical note, one of the last planets settled in the first Human wave of expansion was Mathiev at I-101 Osmani. It has grown into one of the principle arms manufacturers and developers in known human space. Because the rest of the Human community has considered it a threat to the safety and security of the Confederacy, it has been interdicted by the Scout Corps: no ships allowed in or out of the system except for humanitarian aid. In the greatest of ironies, the planet is ruled by adherents to the Hegemony of Setric.
The Eighteen Nations of Mankind
As the human fleet straggled into the Astrea sector, it began to splinter. Different groups based on common nationality, ethnicity, culture or even ship identity began to split off from the main fleet. The catalyst for the diaspora was the discovery of the Aslan world K'gawra in 2188. While many had decided they could go no further or their ships could carry them no further, the majority of the fleet pressed on. Eventually, the human refugees divided into eighteen factions, five from Terra itself, two from Terran system colonies and 11 from the first wave of interstellar settlement.
1. Confederate Stellar System (Confederacy) Western Hemisphere Terrans
The largest and lost formed of these groups is the Confederate Stellar Systems, or Confederacy for short. Named after the form of government, each member state is responsible for their own welfare. It is the Confederacy's responsibility to safeguard trade and travel between planets. These services are paid for by revenues from licences, import/export taxes and levied fines. There are also in addition "federal colonies" founded and maintained by the Confederacy itself and Client States with a special, non-voting, protection status. The Confederacy does not maintain a standing army, but Marines only. The Navy is tasked with supporting border security and the Scout Corps for resettlement and exploration. An Aslan - Human federation within Kucera, Triumastra, Chichewa, Threshold, Osmani, Langlais, Covia, Terminus and Sukaris subsectors.
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2. Nova Scotia (Langlais) North Western European Terran
Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, is comprised of descendants of primarily Scot-Irish descent. Traveling on board three liners; the Highlander, the Highbrook and the Highmoor, they decided to keep the same friendships and family connections that they had for the last eighty years. The Highlanders as they are also called are easily recognizable by the rolled "r's" of their local accent.
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3. Centarian Union (Covia) Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B
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4. Imperium (Covia) Eridani
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5. Lang Imperium (Covia) East Asian Terran
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6. Neok Alliance (Zaand) Tau Cetians.
Origin
The Neok Alliance are Terran descendants from Tau Ceti, a G8V star (Main Sequence Yellow Star), 11.9 light years (3.7 hexes) from Earth. It was the first of Earth’s interstellar colonies. Seven planets orbited Tau Ceti, (b,c,g,h,d,e,f) with e and f being in the habitable zone and d, e, and f being earth like in size, temperature and pressure. Tau Ceti had a massive debri disk stretching from 35 AUs to 50 AUs exposing the colonies to a higher than normal percentage of debris strikes. To survive, the first Tau Ceti colonies were established underground. As technology increased, cities were built under armored domes. This is still the preferred way of dwelling for the Tau Ceti descendants today.
History
Aurora (Tau Ceti e) is on the inner edge of the habitable zone. With minimal axial tils (.5AUs) weather is warm but seasonal changes are mild. Its orbit is 162.9 days. Its mass is 3.9 of earth, but is a metal poor world. Gravity is 1.14 G. Eccentricity of orbit minimal at .18 AUs. This was mankind's first extrasolar planetary settlement. Aurora was the name of the 89 year generation ship that made the first journey from Terra.
Hyperion (Tau Ceti f) is on the outer edge of the habitable zone. With a super-axial tilt of 1.3 AUs, seasons are of irregular lengths with differences in the northern and southern hemispheres: 636 days (Northern Hemisphere: 4 months winter, 3 of spring, 2 of summer, 3 of fall). Surface water is liquid in equatorial zone in spring, summer, fall, but only liquid in temperate zones during high summer (53 days northern hemisphere, 106 days southern hemisphere). It’s mass is the same as its neighbor Aurora at 3.9 AUs, and is also a metal poor world. Gravity is 1.16 Gs. Eccentricity is minimal at .16 AUs. Hyperion was colonized by Aurora.
Culture
Neok Cetians are descendant from the original Terran colonists of Tau Ceti. They are genetically heavy worlders and are stockier, stronger and shorter than average Terran humans. Fiercely nationalistic, they have a chip on their shoulders for those of Terran descent, who they view as inferiors while Terrans are superior in terms of technology and matters of interstellar community. An overtly formal society, good manners (according to Neok standards) will go a long way to curry favor just as ignoring conventions will quickly do the opposite. They currently have no known interstellar military alliances but fiercely maintain a burgeoning mercantile empire.
The Neok Cetians Alliance is a 10 planet primarily human nation (3% Aslan) located Coreward in the Zaand subsector. It’s capitol is located on Neok at O304 Zaand/Astrea on the Asa-King Astrocartography system. It is a Cat One Upper Tier Interstellar society on the Bara technological scale with an average 2.7 Star Port rating. The Alliance is capable of building and maintaining jump 4 ships.
7. Hispania Republica (Zaand) South Eastern European Terran
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8. Sarni Union (Zaand) Procyon
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9. Galilean Federation (Solara) Galilean Moons
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10. Chichew Union (Chichewa) South African Terran
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11. Sukaris-Colchis (Sukaris - now CSS) Proxima Centauri
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12. Solara-K'gawra (Solara - Now CSS) Lagrange Terran Colonies
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13. LeLander Alliance Proxima Centauri
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14. Sirius. (Alpha Canis Majoris)
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15. Canopus. (Alpha Carinae)
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16. The Imperium (Arcturus Colonies)
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17. Vega
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18. Rigel
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