This is the setting timeline and information for my space science fiction setting, running from ~800bc to 1975ad. I should note that this is all AD and in the same universe as my near future setting. As a quick note, "The Playground" is the common term for this section of space used initially by The Keepers. I'm not going into who they are or why they call it that, they don't appear until 2050 and don't become relevent until 2075.
~800bc: (Perene)
On the planet of Perene in the system of Canabi (~9 light years from Sol, opposite direction from Centaurus) two large simini tribes, one calling itself the "Qoc R'je" (Red Sky) and the other the "Z'kao Qutoq" (Blue River) meet for the first time in the centre of their continent. They attempt to be friendly with one another for a while as both are at war with several other tribes and cannot sustain another, but their doctrines both call for the assimilation of all other tribes and they know it. They are still at peace, but the peace is largely uneasy and it's only a matter of time.
~700bc: (Perene)
Both tribes are rapidly becoming successful in their conflicts with other tribes due to superior manpower (at least 2-1) and technology. (Bronze vs. stone, stitches and herbal medicine vs. chanting and liquor, that kind of thing.) With each victory, they assimilate the other tribe into their lower castes and take their technology for their own. (Of course, they also erase their culture and history, thus learning nothing from it.) The two tribes are still not at war, but there are conflicts arising. The leaders seem to know the other tribe is a match for them and are gathering the other tribes of the world to build stronger nations with which to combat one another with.
~600bc: (Perene)
Both tribes are powerful city-states. Their names are retained, but their culture has shifted. They are now not only war engines, but agricultural and economic engines as well. They have large territories and colonies stretching out, although most of their power remains in the city state itself. They're still using bronze most of the time, but iron is entering the foray and they're finding ways to prevent its corrosion in their rainy, damp environment. Medically, they're learning how to make medicines such as disinfectant by fermenting natural materials, which came shortly after discovering cheese and was an accident trying to create a new variety. The tribes have enough relations, uneasy though they may be, to learn that they somehow practice the exact same religion, worshipping a deity named "Kufgs-Fyc" who they claim protects them from their planet's ocean, which they see as a conscious, malevolent entity. (Yep. A religion based around thalassophobia. Interesting how these things develop.)
~500bc: (Perene)
The city-states have now grown into powerful nations covering ~25% of their continent each. Their names have changed to just "Qoc" and "Z'kao" with their original names now referring to their respective capitals and their religious institutions. They run a test war with one another and find it quickly comes to a stalemate as neither can hold the other's land or breach the other's walls. A few failed sieges later, they come to an armistice and go back to trying to take over the rest of the world. The nations are now quite rich, and even their lower class is living comfortably in clean homes with (admittedly primitive) medical care. In this respect, they're already a step above the real world.
~400bc: (Perene)
The nations now each cover ~35% of their continent, and are having minor border conflicts with one another. Still, their conflicts always end with one side withdrawing before the fight can get too large. Perene's culture starts to shift, becoming more and more focused on technological development, which (along with assimilation) is considered the key to victory by both tribes. Qoc is more focused on cheap, rapid manufacture of goods, while Z'kao is more focused on the sophistication of those goods.
~300bc: (Perene)
The nations now each cover ~50% of their continent, and can expand no further. They're having issues keeping moral and stemming dissidence, but they're quickly stamping these out. Now that they can no longer expand, preparation and advancement are all there is to them. Technologically, they've developed a great deal. Iron is now their most used metal in stressful applications, with bronze reserved for those involving water. They're mass producing immune boosting drugs and disinfectant, and beginning to experiment with chemical incendiaries and explosives more advanced than oil and alcohol. Then they go to war.
~200bc: (Perene)
In one hundred years, they haven't managed to do anything, but they are just testing eachother at this point. After this much time, they're both tired of failing to find weaknesses in each-others defences and are ready to return to their normal, uneasy peace. This is supposed to end with the two leaders meeting to make another armistice, but this doesn't go over well. The two begin to argue over blame for the war, which rapidly becomes a wizard's duel. This duel ends with the high priest of the Qoc R'je drawing his sword and disembowelling his opponent. Z'kao sees this as cheating, which by the rules of a duel it is, but the Qoc see this as just a pragmatic victory. The conflict now erupts into a full-scale war. Both sides are now devoting almost the entirety of their military might to crushing each-other. All technological progress comes to a halt, as all funding is directed to the war.
~100bc: (Perene)
The war is going nowhere. And when I say "nowhere" I mean it. The borders are almost exactly the same, as their fortifications are proving impenetrable. No victories are being won, just siege after siege with no end in sight.
~0ad: (Perene)
The nations managed to tone the conflict down a bit, so they can devote resources to technological development once again. The war, however, is refusing to end.
~100ad: (Perene)
At this point, the nations have been at war so long they've found a way to make it work for them without it making any actual progress. Now the production of materiel and supplies, the training of soldiers and improvement of fortifications is the source of most of their jobs and the backbone of their economy. Technologically, they're developing once again, and their progress has actually sped considerably as a serious arms race has begun. Their nobles are enjoying the economic boon, but not as much as their workers are. Upon realising something in the world is benefiting the common worker more than the noble class, they decide that simply will not do and begin a push to end the war. Before long, they forget why they were pushing to end it but keep pushing regardless.
~200ad: (Perene)
Enough nobles push for the end of the war that it actually comes to a close. An armistice is signed, and a peace comes. The nobles are happy to once again see the class divide growing instead of closing, but the commoners are not so happy with the sudden increase in unemployment. The nobles promise jobs in other fields, which to some extent they deliver, but they never can supply as many jobs as the war could.<br />
~300ad: (Perene)
Z'kao sees a rebellion begin, and is failing to push it back down. It gains support as demonstrations and protests by the populace are repeatedly met with a rain of projectiles and blasts of "magic." Taking advantage of the situation, Qoc launches a massive assault on Z'kao while its attention is elsewhere. By doing so, they restart the war, fix their economy and avoid rebellion. They even manage to take a few towns and put Z'kao Qutoq itself under siege before they come to a halt. (Trust me, this is extraordinary. Simini have always been good at making things hard to destroy.)
~400ad: (Perene)
Z'kao simply can't fight the rebellion and Qoc at the same time, and although its capital stands tall on its own merit, the lands around it are captured and the city remains under siege. The city has enough industrial and agricultural strength to sustain itself within its walls, but it is rapidly growing weak and poor, with conditions degenerating. Z'kao hopes their recent invention can turn the tide, but when put into practice cannons prove impractical and dangerous to their users. This doesn't stop them, as the effect of a cannon ball is impressive and they believe it has potential as a psychological weapon if they can just keep them from exploding.
~500ad: (Perene)
Not only has Z'kao figured out how to keep cannons from exploding when fired... most of the time, they've managed to develop personal matchlock firearms and get both technologies accidentally leaked. The cannon proves to be a potent weapon for siege, even though it was impractical in defence. Qoc can't fell the walls of Z'kao Qutoq, but they can damage fortifications and hit buildings inside the town with mortars, and many smaller cities can have their walls seriously damaged or destroyed by cannon fire. Z'kao wisely decides to stop making advances in artillery to avoid them being stolen and used against them, only making changes that are better for their purposes, such as canisters. Personal firearms, however, they continue to work on.
~600ad: (Perene)
Z'kao develops pepperbox, wheellock and flintlock firearms, and of course the blunderbuss. Their weapons are getting more and more accurate and quick to reload, although crossbows are still much more accurate and bows much faster to fire. (All early firearms have going for them is psychological impact and ease of use. They're shit in every other way.) A lot of these developments prove a waste, as most of their firearms have issues penetrating armour that bows and crossbows didn't have. (The simple reality is that not only do early firearms not render armour obsolete, they're actually useless against it. It's hard to find a weapon that doesn't penetrate better.)
~700ad: (Perene)
Victory is within Qoc's grasp, as they hold all of Z'kao, save their capital, within their grasp. They are having issues with insurgency, but they are amassing huge bombards firing balls 80cm in diametre, hoping to finally breach the reinforced walls of Z'kao Qutoq. They find that even this mighty artillery can only damage the outer bricks and cannot destroy the walls as they'd hoped. They gather all their artillery on one side of the city and focus on one weak point, hoping to finally breach the wall. It takes several days of continuous bombardment before this is realised, and once inside they discover the district they broke into was some sort of ghetto and is also walled it, and they can't wheel their artillery into the breach they created. Soon, they are informed that every district in the city of Z'kao Qutoq is surrounded with walls. These walls are nothing compared to the mighty barrier outside, but are still too much to breach without artillery. They begin work on bringing artillery into the city, but this pursuit isn't as extensive as their previous efforts to build artillery was and back home the lack of demand is proving an issue as unemployment rises.
~800ad: (Perene)
Qoc finally takes the temple of Z'kao Qutoq, the last line of defence in the city. Unfortunately, the peace proves more problematic than the war. Unemployment skyrockets and Qoc faces a rebellion worse than the one Z'kao faced before. So they intentionally sow an insurgency and use intentional blunder after intentional blunder to lose their grip of Z'kao Qutoq and the rest of Z'kao, intentionally wasting resources so they can continue to have a demand for them in the future. This way, unemployment drops and Qoc returns to prosperity. Z'kao also rebuilds, and "defeats" Qoc time and time again. Soon, Z'kao learns the insurgency's origin and realises it's only meant to push Qoc back far enough to maintain Qoc's economy. This doesn't fly with them, as they begin gathering their own forces and push Qoc further and further back. News of the conspiracy is spread throughout Z'kao and soon leaks to Qoc. It is initially denied, but later admitted.
~900ad: (Perene)
Qoc and Z'kao meet to negotiate again. This time, rather than agreeing to peace they agree to perpetual conflict, as neither of them can maintain their economy without it. However, they know full well their descendants and subordinates won't understand this and create a council to play referee and ensure neither of them can ever defeat the other. This council is created over the course of the next several decades, as the leaders of the two nations meet with one another and have sexual relations. The children of mixed blood resulting from this become the new council, which they submit part of their authority to in order to maintain the war. These is the independent royal house, "Naq'n'ko Lurs." (Purple Mist.)
~1200ad: (Perene)
Things are going swimmingly, as the two nations continue to assault eachother by land. Soon, they develop lighter than air flight, starting with simple hot air balloons and extending later to dirigibles. Medically, they have developed sophisticated surgical techniques and are developing and manufacturing drugs. Their materials now include things like stainless steel and ceramics.
~1400ad: (Perene)
The two nations discover a new, smaller continent a ways away from them that does not appear to be host to any simini yet. They begin to colonize it on opposite ends, hoping to create a newer, more remote conflict they can profit from without being in as much danger. They soon discover a non-simini indigenous sapient species on this island. Worse, this indigenous species is larger than them in stature. This simply will not do. They attack quickly, exterminating the entire indigenous populace down to the last child over the course of the next hundred years. Soon, the two are back to shooting eachother again, and they spread stories about exterminating the giant monsters of the distant lands without thinking too hard on what they did. Naq'n'ko Lurs, always more sensible than its charge, is strongly displeased with the two houses committing genocide, and more displeased that they were not consulted first. They begin to move slightly against their original purpose, as they are beginning to realise just how evil Qoc and Z'kao really are. They cannot amass a military on their own and must referee for the two sides so neither can win over the other, but they begin to search for ways to bring them down while still following these rules.
~1500ad: (Perene)
Naq'n'ko Lurs has sown the seeds of discontent on the subcontinent, and this leads to a successful rebellion for both parties. These forces band together to keep Qoc and Z'kao out, names itself "Eokkyw" (Yellow) and builds a capital called "Eokkyw Kimc." (Yellow Land) Strangely, the simini here appear to be avoiding the coast. This is likely just their idiosyncratic thalassophobia. They take a while to build a strong nation, but soon begin to develop new technology on their own. The first major advancement is the airplane, which they see as the ultimate answer to the artillery of Qoc and the walls of Z'kao.
~1550ad: (Perene)
Unable to take its planes across oceans, Eokkyw manages to modify them so they can be carried by zeppelins and rather than having to take off can simply be dropped from a carrying bay on the bottom of the dirigible. They also build rockets that their planes can launch that will prove effective against zeppelins without them having to get too close to the airship's point defence. Fighter craft soon become the focus of aerial warfare, and the airplane replaces the zeppelin as the primary bomber, although they still need zeppelins to carry them within their range in intercontinental conflicts.
~1600ad: (Perene)
Naq'n'ko Lurs finds its scheme to have Eokkyw destroy Qoc and Z'kao failing, as Eokkyw demands their royal bloodline enter Naq'n'ko and Qoc and Z'kao add ensuring they cannot win out either to the charter. As Eokkyw submits to their authority, this is sealed. Now nobody on the planet can stop this perpetual war and nobody can punish Qoc and Z'kao for their acts of genocide. Naq'n'ko seeks a partial victory in forbidding them from driving another species extinct without their permission again. As the atomic bomb is developed and deployed, powerful toxins are developed and they discover other new and efficient ways to destroy one another, Naq'n'ko continues to abide its purpose by preventing these weapons of mass destruction from seeing unlicensed use and uses this to abide its new, moral purpose: preventing the needless slaughter of non-combatants so common in simini conflict.
~1800ad: (Canabi)
Naq'n'ko forces the steady advancement of technology along, dragging the others behind it. Soon, it drags them out into the stars. The simini rapidly begin to colonize their moons and soon their neighbouring planets, seeking new and exciting locations to wage larger and more profitable wars against one another. Soon, this leads to them simply developing too much firepower and too fast of transportation for them to maintain peace on their planet. Naq'n'ko just dismisses itself from the scene and forces evacuation of civilians from the planet. It lets them loose and sees what the three nations can do with nobody holding their leash. The war is long, destructive and bloody, leaving their entire homeworld nothing but wasteland. Naq'n'ko decides they cannot be allowed to conflict over the wastes any longer and they agree. Naq'n'ko takes the main continent and creates a "tribal reserve" out of it. Here, simini are allowed to travel and establish independent towns with sharply limited technology. Naq'n'ko takes the smaller subcontinent as its own personal home from which to oversee the main continent, and the other three houses set up bases throughout the rest of the solar system. Every year, Naq'n'ko allows them to conscript a large number of troops from the reserve, and while this number is fairly small overall (88) it isn't that small compared to the civilization's total population as the simini have never been large in number. (~83 for each house, ~86 in their military, ~88 in the nations they control and ~89 for the entire simini species. As for why I'm marking these all in terms of 8, simini use an octal system.)
1900ad: (Canabi)
Hoping to bring down the other three houses at long last, Naq'n'ko develops interstellar travel technology. This takes the form of massive colony ships with huge engines that can make the 5 light year trip to Sentrus (the nearest solar system) in only 20 years, and smaller military transports that can't carry much but can make the trip in only 10 years. These is unbelievably fast, and relies on space-warping tech of alien origin discovered around 1860. Without this, the trip would take twice as long. Each house is told to pick a system to reserve rights to, and a single right to reserve on each. Qoc reserves Sentrus, and the only terrestrial as their right. Eokkyw reserves Anod, and mineral resources throughout the system as their right. Z'kao reserves Sol, and life on it as their right. Each of them will, of course, go about this in a different manner.
1910ad: (Sentrus)
Qoc's fast transports arrive on Sentrus, pick the largest city and announce their presence with six weeks of orbital bombardment. Unfortunately for them, they didn't stop to scout or study their targets first and the cities and bases their destroyed caused very little damage to the nation they attacked as a whole. They also expended all their orbital munitions, and Naq'n'ko law forbids them from destroying their own vehicles so they can't simply fire their ships at the planet. They don't have any nuclear warheads, and they don't have the technology to manufacture plutonium or even highly enriched uranium anywhere in their empire. Anything beyond reactor-grade is beyond them, and reactor-grade uranium cannot be used to manufacture warheads. Qoc lands their forces on the planet, expecting the bombardment to have weakened the locals to the point where it would just be a police action. As they only sent their forward ships with enough ammunition and enough fuel for their vehicles to run such a police action and instead used the extra room for more personnel, this was a major error. The locals were hundreds of years behind them, and their artillery caused only minor damage to simini vehicles, but the local species was about the worst match-up for the simini. The local ferroningen were over twice as tall, had hard scales on half their body that couldn't be penetrated by simini small arms and leathery fronts that halted shot and shrapnel. Only rifle fire and melee weapons proved effective against them. Even then, simini weapons were simply too small to stop them. (It would be like shooting a rhino with an AR-15.) Simini venom worked, but was insufficient. Their built in energy weapons (a natural feature, their "magic") didn't inflict significant damage, and they were at a massive disadvantage in melee combat. Thankfully, ferroningen firearms were also ineffective against simini body armour and the simini had vehicles. Within a year, the simini took the entire country and began fortifying it so the rest of the fleet would have a landing zone. They began to enslave the locals, as was their original intent, but soon found that there were extensive tunnels under their cities and insurgents were coming through them. Worse, they were making new ones faster than the simini could close them and forcing the simini into serious infantry action where they were at a disadvantage. The simini soon ran out of proper munitions to close the tunnels, and worse found that collapsing the tunnels was damaging the city they were now living in. They couldn't produce fuel or ammunition until the colony ships arrived, they were running low on all, and within two years they couldn't run their vehicles any more. They lost the city and were captured within two years, forced to work for the ferroningen.
1915ad: (Anod)
Eokkyw arrives on anod with its military transports, enslaves small tribes of the locals for mining operations it runs throughout the system, and begins to study the locals' technology. The local tech is much more primitive overall, but strange and creative. Conflict breaks out quickly, and after some losses are sustained Eokkyw pulls back from the planet, already having what it wants from it anyway. They make a treaty with the locals to maintain the peace, and just hang back in the outer reaches and commit to mining and colonizing in low-gravity conditions. Overall, they're doing much better than Qoc as their approach is much better.
1920ad: (Sol, Kakara)
Z'kao arrives in Sol, sets up on Mars and Venus, and runs quick covert ops on Earth. It abducts ~1500 humans over the next several years, returning ~500 of them to the original location unharmed and keeping ~500. The remaining are put in different locations with tracking tech for the purposes of study. The 500 kept are mostly children, and are used for biological study and genetic engineering programs. The adults are not tampered with except for the use of a large amount of fertility treatments, and are put into forced breeding programs to increase the number of children available. As humans are much larger than simini, simini usually prefer to deal with human children who, although still much larger and stronger than simini, are usually less aggressive and the difference in stature isn't as overwhelming. Soon, simini have human children making up the bulk of their local work force, still only using adults for breeding. Having noticed some strange readings on their way in, they send scouting vessels out to a location about one light year outside of Sol, and discover another system. The debris fields around the star are especially thick and there are particulate fields many millions of kilometres thick throughout the system. They decide to redirect their colony ships to this location and keep this whole thing a secret from Naq'n'ko and the others. (Naq'n'ko finds out anyway, but pretends it doesn't notice.)
1920: (Sentrus, Perene)
Meanwhile, the colony ships of Qoc arrive and find that in the last eight years the ferroningen have been quite busy. With their natural talent at reverse engineering, unprecedented learning ability and the help of the captured simini, they have managed to advance centuries in under a decade. They were now an early spacefaring civilization with more industrial might than the simini could ever hope to counter. Ferroningen military tech wasn't as mobile or powerful, but it was cheaper, more reliable, logistically simpler, easier to use, easier to maintain and took less to run. The simini were coming all the way from home, the interstellar conflict made for a logistical nightmare, and their enemies would never run out of fuel, medicine, munitions or materiel. The fact that the ferroningen couldn't beat their fleet head on no longer mattered, the ferroningen would simply bleed them white and did. Soon, Qoc was forced to withdraw and regroup. The ferroningen learned from the conflict as always, and came chasing after them with even more advanced tech for it. Naq'n'ko vanishes off into spacs, leaving little behind, and none of what they leave can help Qoc hold off the ferroningen. Soon, however, the ferroningen become aware of Anod and the simini there and change course.
1930: (Anod)
Eokkyw becomes rapidly aware of the local andhieli's rapid technological advance. They start putting more and more into forming an alliance with them, hoping such an alliance will help them crush the other two houses. The andhieli aren't having it, having come to the conclusion that the simini are evil, guns are evil, medicine is evil and so on. Not understanding this situation, they make the mistake of asking why. They find out the andhieli are worshippers of a god called Yboim-fyc, and that the simini god Kufgs-fyc has become its equal and opposite to them, which makes it the great evil in their eyes. (My, that didn't take long, did it?) Negotiations just disintegrate at this point, and the two go to war. The andhieli get their ass served to them on a platter when their fleets meet, finding the simini ships nearly indestructible to the point that their lack of firepower is more than made up for. The andhieli settle for hit and run attacks but find they simply aren't dealing enough damage. They lack the resources to continue, and surrender to the simini keeping only the condition that their planet remain under their own control. The simini quickly stab them in the back, attempting to conquer their planet and finding that the andhieli have them beat in terrestrial conflicts, especially since they adapt their military to fighting simini than the simini military can adapt to the planet's conditions. In the end, Eokkyw cannot take the andhieli homeworld, and the andhieli cannot push Eokkyw out of their system. Quickly, this just becomes a holding pattern.
1940: (Kakara)
Z'kao sets up shop on the four habitable worlds of this new system, using it for genetic engineering experiments as well as living space and resources. They learn soon that Qoc and Eokkyw are having issues, and let out a laugh when they both request their aid.
1940: (Anod)
The ferroningen arrive with a massive fleet and join forces with the andhieli. With the ferroningen resources and practical approach combining with the andhieli technology and creative approach, this new force quickly drive Eokkyw back to Lestria, the outermost planet of the system and Eokkyw base of operations. They can't dislodge them from this position, but they can blockade the planet and keep pressure until they crumble. It takes them nearly a decade, but it happens eventually. They capture the simini and pour through their technology together.
1950: (Anod)
The ferroningen and andhieli form the Coalition of Lestria. Here, their cultures are supposed to converge. They will allow each-other to immigrate onto their planets, establish trade relations, form a military alliance and work together on scientific pursuits. This works better than they expected.
1955: (Anod, Kakara)
A rebellion starts against the simini on Kakara II. This is put down, but gets off a distress signal. Then there are rebellions on Kakara I, III, IV, II again, I again, III again... it just won't end. And they manage to capture a few ships and take off into space looking for aid. Z'kao knowing what comes next, agrees to join forces with Qoc to avoid defeat at the hands of the Coalition. They build a massive, mighty fleet and set course for Sentrus.
1965: (Sentrus, Kakara)
The simini arrive in sentrus and start attacking the ferroningen industrial complex. The ferroningen fleet is smashed in under a month and they begin to work on taking the planet, the reinforcements from Anod arrive too late and can only strike at the seemingly invincible simini fleet from the sides. They soon find this isn't dealing much damage, but they had a better idea anyway. The bulk of their fleet arrives at Kakara, which has been left largely unattended. They still can't beat the remaining simini fleet head on, but they can wear it down from the sides and force it to flee. They quickly invade the planets and prepare for the enemy reinforcements.
1970: (Kakara)
The Coalition and the rebels finally succeed in driving Z'kao out of Kakara. They have ~5 years to prepare for the first wave of simini and ~10 before the bulk of the fleet reaches them from Sentrus. The locals develop their own military-industrial complex with their help and form a nation called the "Empire of Kakara."
1975: (Sentrus, Kakara)
The main planet of Sentrus remains contested, but the insurrection there isn't a big issue to the simini because it can't harm their fleet yet and they have other issues that can. They dispatch a force of genetically engineered soldiers called "bahaar" and have them work on the local insurrection, bomb the areas too north for them to travel enough to make them think it's handled, although not enough to actually accomplish anything major, and leave it in their hands. The first wave of the simini fleet arrives in Kakara and although it still can't be matched head on, within a year it has to withdraw for repairs and resupply as it is being cut off logistically and is constantly taking damage in hit and run attacks. After managing to repel the simini fleet through indirect conflict (that's as good as it gets, you can't beat them toe to toe) the Coalition prepares for the rest of the fleet's arrival.
The game this is attached to is supposed to be a multiplayer RPG shooter/action game, with large vehicle simulation and RTS elements, and runs from 1980-1985, when the simini and Coalition are fighting over Kakara.
Setting information:
Species:
Simini:
Simini are small, humanoid canids ~80cm in height and ~12.5kg in mass. They have the ability to emit directed energy from their body in a number of ways. They can emit electricity from their skin, apparently as a self-defence mechanism, but some have figured out how to use this to achieve levitation and primitive flight. They can emit radiation from their palms, which ranges from near infrared to high-frequency ultraviolet. They can also emit incendiary, toxic and caustic chemicals from their hands, the soles of their feet and their mouths. They have feline retractable claws on their hands, which are sheathed in sacks that have venom glands around them. This venom is an anticoagulant and haemotoxic, meaning somebody scratched by a simini can't stop bleeding and will quickly become anaemic in addition to the loss of blood. Simini finally feature detachable quills on their head that appears to be regular fur until it is raised. These quills are barbed when extended and inject a haemotoxin and vasodilator, causing anaemia and low blood pressure. These are strangely universal, and work on most carbon based life. Simini are very flexible, very fast, have excellent senses and are great at spotting details. They have mild extrasensory perception, and are natural marksmen. However, they are also small and have thin, frail builds. They are biologically immortal, their ageing eventually ceases. By that point, however, they're quite frail and most do not live that long.
Ferroningen:
Ferroningen are large, powerful crocodilian humanoids ~160cm in height and ~65kg in mass. They have thick, tough beta-keratin scutes covering their backs, the front of their arms and legs, the back of their necks and the uppermost of their heads. They have powerful, crocodilian jaws, spikes running down their backs, pointed fingers sharp on their long ends, curved claws on their toes (like a velociraptor) with a powerful tail ending in a beta-keratin blade. If it seems like every part of them is intended to be a weapon, that's because that is the case. Their underbelly, neck, chin and inside of their limbs are not covered in scutes, instead a leathery hide that is still very protective. Ferroningen lack in dexterity, sensory perception, creativity, stamina, constitution, physiological adaptability and raw upper body strength, but more than make up for it with speed, natural armour and plethora of melee options. There is no deadlier sapient in close quarters, not even humans can go toe to toe with them without a good force multiplier.
Andhieli:
Andhieli are small, quadrupedal silicates with a strange form and gait. Their legs are positioned around an upright trunk, extending outwards from the "corners." These legs are strong and good at absorbing shock, allowing them to leap in any direction at any time and move just as fast sideways or backwards as forwards. They are the best jumpers of any sapient species, and they are also the best climbers as their "feet" (four protruding digits from the bottom of each legs) can close and grip on their own, or form a spike to impale into objects and terrain. They also have four arms, two in a humanoid position atop their rigid trunk that are small and weak, but very flexible and dextrous. These end in hands with seven digits. (Two of which are thumbs.) the other two arms originate from their back, just under their upper shoulder blades, and resemble the tail of a scorpion. These are very strong, but a bit unwieldy. They can land devastating blows with these hands, and as such tend to use them for melee combat. They also have great grip strength with the six digits on these hands. (Two of which are thumbs.) Their heads are not on necks, instead just being a protrusion directly out of the top of their trunk. They have two feline eyes, three humanoid eyes and a single compound eye. Their jaws are large, powerful and quadruple-hinged, with rows of gripping teeth and an elastic throat allowing them to swallow unusually large prey. That said, they can only digest silicon based life forms, and although they can swallow carbon based life forms the would-be prey has access to air and the andhieli digestive juices act only as a mild irritant for them. They have three stages to their lives: child, juvenile and adult. Each has significant differences in composition, and they can postpone their metamorphosis for quite some time. That said, they will continue to grow older and older in each stage and this age will only be reset once they undergo metamorphosis. The final adult stage is immortal and does not age, but is overall the worst for all purposes. As a child, they are the most flexible and have a very slow age progression, but cannot reproduce and are very small in size. (~60cm, ~8kg) They can remain in this form for ~60 years, and must be in this form ~5 years. As a juvenile, they are larger (~120cm, ~30kg) and can reproduce, but are less flexible and age very quickly. They can remain in this form for ~10 years, and must be in this form ~5 years. Finally, as an adult they can no longer reproduce and are the least flexible, but they no longer age and are the largest. (~180cm, ~100kg.)
Kokome:
Genetically altered human variants, granted the simini biological immortality and slightly modified. Some are modified for greater strength, speed and intelligence at the expense of constitution, fortitude and resolve, some the opposite. Some have greater dexterity, perception and charisma at the expense of the other six. All have a bit of extrasensory perception and regenerate when unconscious. Unfortunately, they also lack in blood volume, stamina and physical stature. (~160cm, ~65kg)
Humans:
Basically normal, modern humans. Compared to other species, humans have incredible stamina, high blood volumes and a great deal of brawn. ~180cm, ~80kg. They're strong, tough and resistant to shock, making them almost alarmingly difficult to kill in a way other species simply aren't.</p>
Bahaar:
Large, ursine beasts with wildly varying physical stature. Created by the simini and dispatched on the southern half of Sentrus in an attempt to keep the Ferroningen insurrection occupied, they've largely been left to their own devices. There was a sharp limit in industrial capacity, so they've been forced to improvise and use the genetic engineering facilities to change their stature and clone soldiers to compete with the (vastly superior) ferroningen forces. Bahaar range from 150cm and 65kg (pilots) to 200cm and 120kg (regular) to 250cm and 180kg (supersoldiers) or even 300cm and 225kg. (warpriests) They have thick hide, little sensitivity or blood flow outside of their vitals, sturdy builds, strong clotting factors and powerful cardiovascular systems. They also lack flexibility, intelligence and charisma. Larger bahaar tend to lack physiological adaptability.
Locations:
Perene:
A small, mars-sized planet with two small continents. One is raised high above the sea with cliffs descending into it. This is the simini home. The other is not, and has coasts the simini refuse to visit to their their tharassophobia. Around their planet's cold core is an "ocean beneath the ocean," although what fluid makes it up is unknown. The simini are unaware of this at a conscious level, as they are terrified of the ocean and everything to do with it. (We really don't know why.)
Sentrus:
An earth-sized planet with a strong greenhouse effect and tipped on its axis so its northern pole is pointed towards the target. The north pole is too hot and the southern pole too cold, greenhouse or no, so it's mostly the "temperate" zones that sustain life. Ferroningen are north of the equator, bahaar south both share the equatorial regions.
Anod:
A small, mars-sized planet with broken pieces of crust floating around on its molten lead mantle. The planet is too hot, with too thin and toxic of an atmosphere to comfortably support carbon-based life. The local life is silicon-based instead, does not require air, can't be poisoned and has a high temperature tolerance. Still not a nice place to live, even for them, but life arising in inhospitable environments isn't that strange.
Kakara I:
A hot planet with an insignificant axial tilt, covered ~50% in water. There are no oceans on this planet, just a lot of seas and rivers on the otherwise mountainous landscape.
Kakara II:
A warm planet with a small axial tilt, covered ~65% in water. It has one super-continent surrounded in islands and a shallow ocean.
Kakara III:
A planet with an intermediate temperature, earth-like axial tilt, covered ~80% in water. It has no continents, just a lot of islands, marshlands and shallow water no deeper than the littoral regions of Earth.
Kakara IV:
A cold planet with a strong axial tilt, covered ~95% in water. It has a few islands, but since most of the planet is cold enough to remain frozen permanently, there's no shortage of space for land-bound creatures.
Earth:
You know this one. Not going into it.
Technology:
Simini:
Simini are the most advanced species in materials technology, medicine and especially genetic engineering. They are excellent at manufacturing strong materials cheaply and in a short timeframe. They can manufacture steels with tensile strengths of 1.2-1.8GPa quickly and cheaply enough to make them their primary building material. They can mass-produce carbon nanotubes with strengths of ~14GPa and use them in body armour and construction. They are also competent with cryogenics, and can manufacture enough drugs at a low enough cost to provide them for free to their citizens. (Doesn't mean they do.) Most simini food and drink is heavily laced with drugs ranging from immune supports to stimulants, as adding these drugs to food is cheap enough that it's a non-issue. Genetic engineering is still a fairly primitive science, but they have managed to alter physical composition and brain chemistry of subjects a great deal, with their crowning achievement being the creation of sapient bahaar from barely sentient ursine creatures native to Sentrus.
Ferroningen:
Ferroningen are the most advanced species in industry and manufacturing. While they can't create anything other species cannot, everything they can make they produce much faster, cheaper and more reliably than any other species. Further, everything they make is built to be as reliable and cheap to operate and maintain as they can possibly make it. For example, the ferroningen can build a main battle tank at roughly 20% of the cost the US can, and run it at roughly 40%. With five years of normal operation, this equates to them spending roughly one third as much on their tank, allowing them to run three times as many for the same price. Better yet, the vehicle is designed multiple-redundant, making it much harder to stop despite its less sophisticated armour and lower top speed, and unmaintained it could last an estimated twenty years without breaking down as long as it was not damaged.
Andhieli:
Andhieli are the most advanced species in weapons and energy technology. They have created a number of (overly fancy and not especially practical) weapons including explosively formed projectile weapons, (these use explosives to fire hypersonic copper blobs at targets) coilguns, (magnetic mass drivers) several varieties of laser, (beam, pulse and drill) plasma projectors, (effectively lightweight flamethrowers) electrolasers (name says it all) and particle cannons. They've perfected nuclear fission technology and have relatively safe nuclear reactors small enough to power automobiles and power tools with them. They can make chemical explosives with yields as high as three times the equivalent in TNT, can produce low-yield pure fusion explosives, create incendiaries that burn almost as hot as thermite almost as long as napalm, and have engineered a few plasma-based explosives as small as hand grenades. They've managed to make fusion reactors in the same size range, but those require a jumpstart and thus far have a lower power output. Unfortunately, they tend to prefer "awesome" to "practical"and their funding system uses public votes to issue government grants. As a result, many items are developed that look or sound impressive but are neither practical nor effective for their intended purpose and success in securing funding is based more on your pitch than the merit of your design.
Kokome:
Kokome are the most advanced species in nothing (as of 1975) but are advancing faster than any other in computer and sensory technology. They've recieved no support from the simini, ferroningen and andhieli in their advancement, but they've already managed to reverse engineer enough tech to run effective (albeit crude) armoured combat vehicles and military aircraft. They seem to have a gift with sensory equipment, having manufactured compact, long-ranged radar and infrared before they managed to build even semi-functional jet engines. Their best field, however, is electronics. They're already creating video games comparable to those of the real-world in the mid 1990s. Further, their typical home computer has nearly 500 megabytes of RAM, and their typical internet connection is ~100kb/s. All and all, not bad for people who've only been making their own computers for less than a decade.
Bahaar:
Bahaar are the most advanced in nothing and are advancing the slowest of any species. They are good at improvisation, out of necessity, but that's about it. They've managed to make projectile weapons out of spare parts, including HPA-powered weapons that fire fastening spikes, fully-automatic nail guns, and spring-powered nail guns. They've made operational vehicles and even light spacecraft out of simini, ferroningen and andhieli spare parts and refuse, and have are using them in military service. They have proven themselves terrible at making things on their own, however, and the most advanced weapon they can make from scratch is a musket.
EDIT:
This is the THIRD TIME in this ONE THREAD this site has failed to read its OWN FORMATTING CODE. I am getting REALLY tired of fixing this.
