Omniverse One

The Major Powers

The Major Powers of Arcane Steel are the superpower nations and globe-spanning megacorporations and great religions of the world. They stand head and shoulders above the other polities and sovereigns. The political, military, and economic power they wield is unassailable. The only thing that can thwart the will of a sufficiently determined major power is another major power. Together, the Major Powers contain nearly half of the world's population and most of its wealth and military power. Though they are frequently in political conflict, open warfare between them is rare, and they prefer to fight using covert operations, mercenaries, and proxies.

Saevenok Clan: a megacorporation/distributed republic of Tyrran extraction. It is one of the wealthiest entities in the world, and the Saevenok Artificer Company has a lock on large-scale engineering projects and space exploration and exploitation. The Saevenok Clan has the smallest population of any of the major powers.

Republic of Tyrre: A federated republic containing the eponymous island republic and a few other, smaller nations. It has elements of a distributed republic, with minor members all around the globe. It is the least populous, but also most advanced of any of the major powers that can properly be considered a proper country. Notable for cycles of belligerency in foreign policy, large numbers of soulforged citizens, and being the originator of two of the world’s major megacorporate clans (The Saevenok and Errynt Clans).

Myreth Empire: the most poorly regarded and most populous of the major powers, with almost a third of the world’s population (1.2 billion). It has a totalitarian government and an extremely insular and stratified culture. The population has been organized into social castes, and mobility between the castes in nigh impossible. State alchemists have concocted mind control drugs that keep the lower castes docile, and attempts have been made at engineering the castes to make them dramatically biologically distinct.

Kingdom of Lysmer: a necropolitan absolute monarchy, with an extensive magocratic aristocracy composed of necromorphs. The ruler is an eidolon, the Maggot King, that has possessed the mind and body of an extremely ancient archmage. The living population is not well treated, and many of the nobles regard them as little more than breeding stock. Others take a somewhat more benevolent approach.

Outremer: a former Lysmerian colony that declared independence two centuries previously, and made it stick with the aid of Tyrre and Altar. It has cast aside the necropolitan traditions of the parent nation in favor of a limited republic, and its aggressive industrialization and scientific mindset have elevated it to the ranks of the world’s leading political and economic powers.

Kingdom of Altar: a constitutional monarchy notable for a somewhat paternalistic foreign policy that has drawn criticism from its ally, the Republic of Tyrre. In the past it established many colonies and still routinely interferes in their internal affairs. It lags a bit behind Tyrre and Outremer technologically and economically, despite comparable living standards.

Aurian Church: established by the living saints after the Deicide. The Aurian Church lacks the explicit economic and political power of the other major powers, but with 1.5 billion practicing adherents worldwide, it wields a staggering amount of social influence. It also controls a powerful military apparatus and intelligence service, which it uses to combat extradimensional and metaphysical threats as well as prosecute violent heretics. The Church is funded by the charity of the faithful and selling the surplus from their arms foundries.

Very interesting. These sorta obviously, but not outright, parallels modern real-Earth factions and while it starts off with a faction known for science and space exploration, we gradually go down to artificers and then fucking "necropolitan" cultures (how the hell does that work?).

Skimming through your Worldbuilding thread, this 'verse sure looks kooky and the focus on industrialized magic is pretty neat.

Necropolitan means rule by dead people. Duh . Basically means the upper crust of society is composed of various undead folks.

I tried to avoid direct parallels to real-life factions, but I obviously failed in some regards. The eternal problem of secondary world building.

It's not THAT obvious, maybe more like "non-specific similarities". It kind of works, because though this 'verse seems to be completely whacked, the vague familiarities also work for it.

Some of the similarities were done pretty deliberately, i.e. Myreth is supposed to be Stalinism+Maoism+Caste-based society turned up to eleven. And Chrome doesn't think Stalinism is a word. Fuck that shit.

Like I said in the original thread, I was going for something like China Mieville's Bas-Lag setting, but a bit more modern and less grimdark.

P.S. obligatory plug for Wolfhounds, the story set in this universe that I've been posting over at SD net. I'll post it over here at some point.

The Myreth and Lysmer sound positively nasty. Now that I think about it, the Myreth's bioengineering attempts sounds similar to what the Draka planned on doing to their serfs once they reached the Final Society.

Republic of Tyrre
Capital: Tarres (population 5 million)
Population: 250 million (10% abhuman, 3% soulforged)

It is difficult to properly identify the historical antecedent of the Republic of Tyrre beyond a few hundred years because it has been such a cultural crossroads. The semi-tropical Tyrran Archipelago (of which the eponymous island is the larget) was originally settled by sea-faring nomads. At some point, they were conquered and assimilated by another group of invaders. The most recent of foreign cultural invasions were colonists from the Luxiferes’ Empire, bearing Edessan culture and government. When the empire collapsed upon the rulers’ ascension to godhood, the Imperial governor crowned himself king. The Kingdom of Tyrre was an expansionistic power that would establish footholds in the south and north of Ephyri, incorporating elements of Altar and Arran. When the kingdom was overthrown, the citizenry looked back to pre-Imperial Edessan government for inspiration. This resulted in the Republic that persists in the same essential form to the modern day.

The Republic has a reputation for getting involved in situations where it is not wanted, diplomatically and militarily. An area of contention between Tyrre and its usual ally Altar is the tendency of Tyrre to become involved in Altar’s former colonies, which Altar regards as its unquestioned sphere of influence. Tyrre was heavily involved in the Eidolon War, allied with Myreth and Outremer against Eidolon Forces. Lysmer’s participation on the opposite side further increased tensions that had already been high between the two nations since Tyrre had supported the rebellion of Lysmer’s colony, Outremer.

Government and Politics

Tyrre is a quasi-distributed republic with an upper and lower house, as well as an elected head of state, the Consul. The legislature (upper house: senate, lower house: national assembly) and the head of state are responsible for foreign policy, as well as playing a minor role in regulating the economy. In regards to internal policies, each region of the Republic is more or less autonomous. Tyrre’s national politics tends to be fixated on foreign policy, as neither economics nor social issues are very contentious except in times of crisis. The primary axis of foreign policy debate is over overt intervention as a way to further ideological goals versus covert intervention/non-intervention as a way of furthering (theoretically) pragmatic goals.

People and Culture

Tyrre is an extremely cosmopolitan nation, partly as a result of the multiple cultural/ethnic groups within Republic territory, and partly as a result of a mercantile culture. Tyrran culture is able to assimilate and homogenize foreign cultures fairly easily. In Tyrran culture, social success is measured primarily by material success—people who attempt to parlay political success in to wealth are typically viewed dimly, compared to those who do the opposite. Tyrran culture also has a reputation for being extremely socially liberal and hedonistic, with very few taboos on what is acceptable. Social conservatism increases further away from the Tyrran archipelago, but even comparatively conservative regions like Arran are more old-fashioned in their hedonism than truly conservative. This is one of the reasons for Tyrre’s unusually high population of soulforged individuals (the other prominent reason being the generally high level of wealth).

Military

The Tyrran military, being the tool of a Major Power’s foreign policy, is quite powerful. In particular, the high technological level and strong industrial base means that the Tyrran Air Force is the most largest and most powerful in the world. Tyrre’s Army is similarly strong, and likewise relies on a doctrine of relatively small groups of high trained and equipped volunteers with high mobility. It is one of the only military or paramilitary organizations where soulforged augmentation has become commonplace. The Tyrran Army Grenadier Corps have a reputation as the best mobile infantry on the planet. The Army and the Air Force working together are capable of delivering a very high level of military force against a target in a very short period of time. In contrast, the Navy and Marines are underfunded and undermanned. They lack the prestigious reputation and state of the art equipment of the Army and Air Force, and their purpose is generally regarded as redundant, with the large airship fleets of the Air Force and Air Assault divisions of the Army.

It's liberal and hedonistic, and is situated in an archipelago, but foreign policy wise they seem to be complete assholes.

Strange, that. I love the fact that one nation ended up collapsing because its leader ascended into godhood. That's nuts!

I'll probably comment further on these wacky polities, but quick question: With space age and industrializations now, what role do firearms play, or does magic throw away that need?

They have guns, although hand to hand weapons retain a secondary role for dealing with enemies that have anti-projectile countermeasures. They also tend to combine magic and guns. For example, the Aurian Church has developed a "torque" enchantment for firearms that reduces/absorbs some of the force and energy of the recoil and uses it to accelerate the bullet even more. This is useful for infantry, but it gets really ridiculous with their 13mm anti-material rifles and heavy machine guns.

In short, guns are still the primary personal weapon, although combat magic sees wide application.

Saevenok Clan
Capital: SCO-1 orbital habitat (population 50,000)
Population: 6 million (10% abhumans, 20% soul-forged)

The Saevenok Clan traces its origins to one of the major noble families of the Kingdom of Tyrre. The Saevenok Clan began as a mercantile family in the old kingdom, and during the civil war, it provided most of the funding for the republican faction. Afterwards, it used this to extract recognition of extraterritoriality and sovereignty from the new Republic of Tyrre, a claim which was recognized shortly afterwards by most other powers. With its substantial financial resources, it began to expand into other fields of wealth generation. The result is that after close to two hundred years of expansion, the Saevenoks have significant investments in nearly every kind of product and service. They only dominate in a few fields—space exploitation and mega-engineering—but they are also major players in the field of augmetics, information magic/technology, transportation, medicine, as well as numerous others.

Saevenok interactions with the rest of the world have been mixed. On the one hand, friendly relations are fairly important given the importance of the Saevenok Clan to the world economy. On the other hand, the Saevenoks’ extremely high level of wealth frequently provokes resentment, even from already fairly wealthy populations like Altar and Nova Edessa. The Saevenoks tend to aggressively pursue what they perceive as their interests, using the best foreign policy implements money can buy, though they prefer to act discreetly and induce their opponents to hang themselves, rather than risk open conflict.

Government and Politics

Saevenok Clan government is primarily a meritocracy, where individuals are (at least theoretically) selected for their positions based upon qualifications and accomplishments. The government is divided into numerous branches based around local facilities and the numerous business divisions of the Clan. The top leadership of the company is explicitly limited to members of the Saevenok family, though has been routinely subverted for most of the Clan’s history by adopting promising individuals into the family. The Saevenoks have proven astonishingly good at preventing corruption and nepotism in their hierarchy. This partially comes as a result of their promotion structure, and partly as a result of an aggressive Internal Affairs Units that polices the leadership. The Saevenok Clan relies entirely upon its vast financial empire for revenue, levying no taxes on its citizenry.

People and Culture

Much like their government, the citizenry of the Saevenok Clan tend to be extremely meritocratic. Social status tends to be measured in accomplishments, which may include wealth acquisition, but may also include social accomplishments or technical accomplishments. Much like their antecedent culture, the citizenry of the Saevenok Clan can be bit hedonistic. Augmentations, both practical and cosmetic, are quite common among Saevenoks, and the Saevenok Clan has the world’s highest proportion of soul-forged and homunculi. The majority of Saevenok Clan citizens are non-employees, and operate their own businesses within or near Saevenok territory. Citizenship requires ownership of Saevenok Artificer Company stock, and confers with it certain privileges (most prominently, a dividend of the company’s profits, but also other services).

Military

The Saevenok Clan has a small standing security force that protects their facilities and arcologies worldwide, but do not engage in offensive action for the most part. When they require force projection, they use their high-tech air force and employ mercenaries. They prefer not to engage openly, and rely primarily on mercenaries hired through indirect sources to sow chaos amongst potential threats.

How big are the affairs of these corporatocracies? How do these guys, who seem like mini-states, conduct their business? Is it like today where they just buy and sell stuff, make deals, and everything or do they actually go on and act like real states and wage war, make treaties, send diplomats and whatever?

Magical orbital habitats!

It's tricky, because the Saevenok Clan is only sort of a corporation. For the most part, its subsidiary corporations do business normally, while the Clan itself focuses on ensuring the security and pursuing the interests of its citizenry and subsidiaries. It will make treaties, establish embassies, etc... but its constituent organizations will not. So if your government nationalizes Saevenok Crapcountry Bank, the Saevenok Banking Company isn't going to be sending ambassadors and corporate ninjas after you, the Saevenok Clan is. Conversely, the Saevenok Clan itself does almost no "business" beyond setting very general policies for the various subsidiaries and occasionally going to bat for them with whatever damn hippy country is trying to tell them they can't build a space elevator on their mountain.


Fuck yeah!

Kingdom of Lysmer
Capital: Carieville (population 6 million)
Population: 400 million (10% abhuman, 5% sentient necromorph, 70% slave necromorph)

Lysmer is most readily identifiable as one of the successor states to the Lightbringers’ empire. In the wake of the collapse, a young Imperial Archmage broke into a very old tomb. He was expecting a trove of pre-collapse arcane artifact, which he found. Unfortunately for him, the tomb was also the prison of a manifest eidolon the called itself the Maggot King. It proved trivial for the Maggot King to overpower the mage. This provided he/it with a vessel with which to interact with the world. Possessing the body of an Imperial Archmage gave the Maggot King access to the resources of the Imperial province he had governed, including a pair of legions. This provided him with a basis for the army of necromorphs he would eventually form and use to conquer much of the Lightbringers’ former empire. Along the way he recruited numerous talented followers with promises of immortality, forming the beginnings of the maggot king’s priesthood and necropolitan aristocracy. The Maggot King’s expansion was finally halted by the efforts of the Edessan general Julian Casca, and, faced with gathering opposition, choose to make peace.

In more recent times, the Kingdom of Lysmer has grown into one of the world’s major powers. Its foreign relations are generally poor thanks to the nature of its government and the role it played in the Eidolon War. Nevertheless, it is an important player in world politics thanks to its military and economic power. It is cautiously allied with Myreth, and has converted many nearby minor nations into client states in an effort to prevent Tyrre and Altar from gaining any more footholds near Lysmer’s borders.

Government and Politics

Lysmer is essentially a theocratic absolute monarchy. The Maggot King holds all the power, including near-complete control over the military and the pure arcane power that comes with being a physical god. Of course, he finds it necessary and desirable to delegate much of his authority to the aristocracy. Most of the day to day issues of local governance are delegated to the cadaveri nobles. Internal security, social issues, and national bureaucracies are handled by the Maggot King’s priesthood, the Ministry of Decay. Ascending the ranks of either aristocracy is largely dependent on cutthroat (figuratively speaking, for the most part) internal politics—aside from a few chosen, protected favorites, the Maggot King prefers to let those desiring power fight their way to the top. The result is a fairly corrupt but reasonably talented aristocracy that is mostly kept distracted from rebellion by a need to protect their own status. The foreign policy of Lysmer is handled by a mix of the two, resulting in frequent infighting between the two aristocracies. Lysmer’s foreign policy tends to be cautious, as the Maggot King has no desire to become involved in another major war.

People and Culture

Lysmeran culture is extremely insular and oppressive and deliberately so. Foreigners are limited to a handful of cities, and are kept far away from much of the day to day functioning of Lysmeran society. Adherence to the state religion is mandatory. The majority of the population is composed of low-quality, near-mindless, slave necromorphs. These provide the main labor force for the economy, and maintaining a steady supply of them is one of the driving factors behind Lysmeran social organization. Of the remaining population, roughly 1.5% is made up of free, sentient necromorphs of various sorts. Most are strigoi, a type of necromorph that maintains human appearance as long as it can regularly feed on human flesh. Consequently, living humans are mostly regarded as cattle, raised on farms for breeding and food. Extensive use of drugs keeps them docile. For the nobility, life tends to revolve around political intrigue. There is the ever-present threat of losing status to a competitor, and the ever-present possibility of displacing a superior by impressing the Maggot King or one of his favorites.

A small fraction of the living population is “free”, though they are constrained in occupation and forbidden to leave the country (many attempt to do so anyway). They have an awkward relationship with the nobility, being necessary for performing tasks the slave necromorphs cannot but also a potential threat. Most of the free, living population prefers to keep their heads down and avoid political involvement, but a few attempt to groom themselves in order to increase their chances of being selected for elevation to nobility.

Military

Lysmer’s military is, of course, one of the most powerful on the planet, largely by dint of its size. It relies upon heavy armor and artillery supported by millions of necromorph infantry. Thanks to the large number of civilian necromorphs in the nation, Lysmer’s war machine can push on even through extremely heavy casualties. Its air force is somewhat primitive and under strength compared to the other major powers. On the other hand, Lysmer has access to a number of bizarre weapons fueled by the Maggot King’s power, giving the military a unique edge over opponents.

How bizarre do the weapons supplied by the Maggot King get, anyways?

All manner of freaky deaky arcane stuff, I'd imagine, since the Maggot King is an actual-factual god.

This is a very interesting take on a god-king ala Sauron and so forth, with necromungers and all that. It's cool that he's NOT some frothing at the mouth psycho-grinning moron and instead has decided to play the geopolitical game smartly and very humanly by NOT declaring all out war and by instead forming a functional nation. Even if it IS a tyrannic craphole where humanoids become cattle for the vampire and undead populations (man, that's horrible). It's like North Korea and Nazi Germany with a bit of Talibanistan, but with NECROMUNGERS and magic and ruled by a Dark Lord Maggot King GOD!

Man. You can imagine all sorts of awesome political ramifications of that. The Aurian Church calling them diabolus, and Tyrre and Altar calling them an Axis of Darkness or something like that. I wonder how the Myreth Empire can even be MORE poorly regarded. I also wonder what its relations with Outremer are - since you mentioned them as being propped up by Tyrre and Altar... as a bastion of freedom and democracy!

I'm very interested in this 'necropolitan' culture. It sounds pretty damn dark and dystopic.

Imagine the weirdest thing you can think of. Okay, it's weirder than that. Alright, I'm not that creative.
Some examples include self-expanding/repairing zombie giants with integrated firearms, weapons that ignore inorganic matter and cause the extremely rapid decay of organic matter (handy for armored and urban warfare), and war machines powered by the souls of the damned (or at least those unfortunate enough to die in the influence of the Maggot King). Hmm...I should start a gunfucking thread.

I'm working on it. Probably a consequence of foreign policy rather than social structure.

How about pseudo-mechanical machines that eat the enemy dead for power? Typical zombie plague weapons. Uh... and yeah, having the soldiers generally use the fallen dead for sustenance? How about a bunch of special forces necromorphs who - since their already dead - set themselves on fire, allowing themselves to do wicked crazy close-quarters-combat with enemy spies and soldiers and ninjas and shit? Ninjas can't touch you if you're on fire. Mobile necromorph factories, that collect the torn and disemboweled dead and stitch them back together and apply LIGHTENING to turn them into Frankenshroom monsters ready for the next battle? Crazy torture contraptions that enhancedly interrogate people so much that they die, but revive them as zombies/whatever and continue to interrogate them? Plagues of infected animals, like those swarms of GODDAMN CROWS in Resident Evil: Shroompocalypse?

Oh, they've got a lot of those things and more (they've better, since ordinary necromorphs are pretty mediocre fighters). In particular, salvaging the remains of old necromorphs and corpses and quickly turning them into new necromorphs is a big deal in Lysmer's military.

Below is a link to an image (obviously not mine in concept or creation) giving some idea of the aesthetic I had in mind for Lysmer's military.
linky

Oh, awesome. Perhaps the Maggot King can have crazy biomechanical centipedes that crawl into people's orifices, kill them inside out, and then turns them into necromorphs with all sorts of biomechanical tendrils sticking outta them!