worldbuilding
[Posted September 27th, edited into a better and more succinct version Sept 29th] The world I have been describing – [1](https://hexbear.net/post/536533), [2](https://hexbear.net/post/596720), [3](https://hexbear.net/post/3167507), [4](https://hexbear.net/post/3197821) – is governed by democratic councils. Small councils make local decisions. A bunch of those glom together into something more powerful but less intimate. For some decisions, this can even be global, an anarchist version of the United Nations General Assembly. The [Anarchist FAQ](https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionH.html) says "anarchists have very clear ideas on what to “replace” the state with (namely a federation of communes based on working class associations)." So I had to worldbuild a system of confederated democratic groups. Anarchist governance in my solarpunk world work like this – ## Tribes. A Māori [hapū](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ng%C4%81puhi#Hap%C5%AB_and_marae). A Greek δῆμος. A Mapuche [lof](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lof). Think of this as being about 2500 to 4000 people, but don't worry about the number too much, it doesn't affect the democratic arithmetic if the tribe is bigger or smaller. This is the smallest unit with official bureaucratic existence. Some have territory marked by boundary-stones or similar, others are totally nomadic, and some only have a rough idea of their territory. The tribe has its website. It has its code of law. It might also have a totem of some sort that represents it. Maybe it is a standing stone covered in bronze. *Customary Law of the Haya Tribe* states: "Every clan has its totem". Of course, the most famous totems are the wooden poles of the Tlingit and Salish. The English word totem derives from the Algonquian word odoodem [oˈtuːtɛm] meaning "(his) kinship group".  **Registering members is a special responsibility of the tribe, that will become important when we start looking at confederations. It's basically a big family with a roll book.** In Terra, the unit that tracks citizenship is faceless: the country/nation-state that issues passports and accepts or denies citizenship applications. In this world (which I am thinking of naming [Mandala](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala_(political_model))) membership is tracked by something much more like a family. * It must keep track of births, marriages, deaths. * Membership is by birth in >80% of cases * This tribe is what recognises the marriage. Marriage brings one more person into the family. * People can be adopted into the family, like becoming a naturalized citizen of a Terran nation-state. * From the 1990s onwards, all this is tracked digitally. * They must let neighbouring tribes audit their census. If they are accused of inflating their numbers for political power, a larger assembly rules on the matter. If found guilty, they lose all representation for five years. Imagine yourself now. Take a deep breath of unpolluted air through your nostrils. You are wearing the traditional clothing of your ancestors. Your mind thinks in their ancestral tongue. You know that within a 5 minute walk, you have 200 friendly cousins ready to support you. You have your responsibilities to them too. But technology has made life not-too-hard. Imagine it. Kinship rules vary from place to place, as anthropologists have written about. There are tribes all over the world, but no centralised rule for how they're run. They are sovereign and follow their own ways.  Restorative justice is seen all over the world: Somali *xeer* law that gives a payment called a *mag* to victims. Germanic Law gives a payment called *wergeld*. The tribal assembly has the power to settle disputes among its members through such restorative justice. It can hold court, pass judgement. If the assembly did choose to put someone to death no authority could tell them no: no police or state stands above the tribe. But customary law is normally restorative and the punishment is transfer of property. Kropotkin's *Mutual Aid* discusses this. What about crimes that are not internal to one tribe? We're getting to that.  # Confederacies of different sizes, and the decisions they have to make * **Groups of a few tens of thousands up to about 150,000 people** – These correspond to the Māori 'iwi', the Mapuche 'aillarehue', the Greek 'πόλεις'. A group this size should have its own small hospital with a few hundred beds, and that hospital will need to be assigned resources. Library too. If it is by a bay, it will have an open ocean farm. It may manage a lake or a forest as a commons and will control the hunting season or fishing limits of the commons. It will cut deals with various guilds (see https://hexbear.net/post/596720) to supply it with WiFi, with bicycles, etc. in exchange for nice houses and good food. * **Groups of more than about 150,000 people but under a million** – This might be a small city or a good-sized rural region. It will need a more complex, specialised hospital with an emergency ward, so it will have to assign resources to that. It might maintain a shipyard. A city of 750,000 people will have to run urban transport networks, shared bicycle schemes. Will also arrange contracts with guilds. It might arrange a barter-contract with another tribal unit: for example if this tribe lives on the coast, and 50 miles inland there is another tribe; we have too much fish, you lot have too much milk, let's arrange a barter contract for one year. How many kg of fish per litre of milk? That will have to be negotiated. * **Groups of millions of people** – These include nations you have heard of: the Scots, the Serbs, the Danes, the Finns, the Dinka, Bosnians, Armenians, Moldovans. The Nilotic peoples have a total population of 8 million, including the Dinka (2 million), Nuer (1.8 million), and Maasai (1.2 million). Groups this size will also arrange contracts with guilds. Maintains important websites like wikis and maps. Organise sporting contests: who's the best high-jumper in Serbia? Organise seasonal festivals; tourists come from all over the world to these. A unit this big will need a train system and that will have to be managed and allocated resources. It will have to cut a deal with the microchip-fabrication guild to get a chip fab in their territory, make sure the citizens have electronics, and in return give the guildmasters perks like nice houses. Most assemblies pay the Electricians' Guild in nice food and nice homes, but this one over here is lucky: they have a copper mine on their land, so they swap copper for Electricians' services – the council is what negotiates this sort of contract. Owns and maintains a top-level hospital with every kind of medical specialist. Declare war. Here's a screenshot from a [pdf](https://web.archive.org/web/20221125171309/https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/55d1d154bdd6324/original/ir3g14juxglqbbteevvf-pdf.pdf) on FIFA's website –  So a million-man confederacy must staff and clean and maintain a 35-thousand seater stadium and so on. This is an example of how small population-groups run small humble facilities, big groups run big facilities. Same with small local libraries versus big libraries, etc. * **Groups of tens of millions of people** – Now we are talking about the world's major ethnolinguistic groups. There are about 150-200 such in the world. Each such federation sends a team to the World Cup and the Olympics. Korea, Italy, France, Afghanistan, Australia, Taiwan, 'the Norsemen' as a whole, 'the Celts' as a whole, the Fula, Yoruba, Igbo, Amhara, Zulu. The Tokyo Metropolitan Area has a population of 41 million in Terra; in this world it's less (the world is less urbanised) but still around 27 million. The major cultural zones of North America, e.g. the Plains Indians, each form confederacies of a few tens of millions –  **Groups of near a billion people** – These might run something as ambitious as a space program. Here are the main ones (though see below about fluidity) – * Black Africa * All the Arabs, Turks, and Semites together * Pan-American * The white race * Hindu South Asia plus bits of West Asia * Buddhist East Asia plus bits of Oceania * Austronesia and Australia # Fluidity and fixity The tribes, the ones of about 4000 people, those are fixed. You're not a member of one tribe today and a different one tomorrow. But assemblies can be called to make decisions for any group, it need not be a standing organisation. Examples of fluid group-formation: * A Blackfoot Indian volunteers for an assembly of the Americas one month, and then the next month an assembly of the world's nomads where they discuss issues that affect nomads. * An Inuit from the north of north America volunteers for an assembly of the Americas one month, and then the next month a polar assembly where he meets with Siberians and they discuss doing a deal with a guild that builds [seasonal thermal energy storage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_thermal_energy_storage), a solarpunk technology for places with long cold winters.  ☝️there's the circumpolar federation – they have things to talk about sometimes☝️ Now that's not to say the edges of the confederacy changes every issue. Rather, it means that the edges don't constrain people from forming whatever assembly they choose. Most the time, assemblies follow the same natural boundaries. For example the 150-200 groups of tens of millions of people mentioned above – those each meet as a matter of regularity. # Assemblies as courts. Different levels of dispute A fight between two neighbours is settled by the tribe. They give their ruling. A fight between two tribes is settled by a larger confederacy. The confederacy must be large enough to impose their ruling. Yet it wouldn't tend to be much bigger: no point involving people on the other side of the world. A Māori *iwi* might have about 80 hapū within it. If two of those are having a fight (maybe about land, maybe about revenge), the assembly of the *iwi* could give a ruling. The land belongs to this hapū not that one. Instead of blood revenge, you must transfer this list of goods to settle the matter. If the hapū rebel against the iwi's judgement, force may be used. If it's a major war, like between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the World Assembly may be the ones to rule. This is analogous to the U.N. sending peacekeepers. # How assemblies work * People volunteer to be members. A volunteer must be seconded, and thirded. Anyone with this becomes a candidate. Candidates' names are put into a random draw. (This excludes totally incompetent people. An objection to anarchism is "we need smart people ruling, not random people!" This system is some check that you must be a passably functional grown-up before you can be on the council.) * Remember how tribes maintain a population-registry? The population under the assembly is counted up from these. Children are included in the count. * 100 names are picked at random. One hundred is a nice number for deliberation, everyone gets speaking-time, not too noisome. * A two-thirds majority can pass a decision. ### Ensuring minority rights in the random draw The population of France is 68,250,000, so 100 representatives are picked at random. 3.36% of Frenchies live in the Lyon Metropolitan Area. In a perfectly fair draw, they'd usually get 3 seats. However, about 19.5% of the time, Lyon will end up with 0 or 1 seats (that's a [binomial calculation](https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial) to figure that out). That's a problem. What if some big decision gets made that affects them? To avoid this, the people of Lyon (i.e. their city assembly), demands formal recognition from the French body. When it gets that recognition, it can overrule any draw that robs it of more than one seat. Any population-group that constitutes 2.5% or more of a larger body has the right to demand this recognition.  A recognised cell must accept any draw that gives them ([the closest whole number to their proportion]-1). But they reject any draw where their seats are *two* below the median. These rules are restrictive. It'll take about 3000 draws to get one within the bounds of acceptability for all of 30-40 cells. But doing 3000 random draws is something a computer can do in under one second. ## The World Council The World Council meets to decide things like – * Should we allocate resources to eradicate mosquitoes? Let the council hear from various scientific experts about the pros, cons, likelihood of success, amount of required resources. * Should we embark upon building a global vactrain network? * Should we embark upon building a space elevator? * Should we send a global peacekeeping force to stop Armenia and Azerbaijan from fighting? The heading 'How assemblies work' describes how all assemblies work from the tribe to the continent-sized ones. However, for the World Council, there are two tweaks to the rules – * Two meetings run in parallel. So 100 people meet, deliberate, and vote, and so do 100 more people over there. Two equal assemblies, and both must pass the motion. * After the World Council has made its decision, that is then passed down to the continent-level assemblies. Each of these has veto power. Even a very populous Asia should not be able to dictate to Africa. The formal rule is: any assembly speaking for more than 10% of the world's population can veto a decision made by the World Assembly. # We know how the representatives are picked and how they vote, but who can PROPOSE a motion? **Popular vote**: If a proposal goes out on the Internet, and 1% of the population of that unit sign it, the council must consider the proposal. e.g. the world has 8000 million people, so if 80 million people sign a petition saying '*fuck mosquitoes kill em all*', the World Council must consider that. Or for a city of 1,000,000, the initiative would have to be signed by 10,000 people to get in front of the council. # Briefing is important Stanford University run a Deliberative Democracy Lab to explore councils of citizens debating and deciding things. Their system is lame, and I'm about to tell you why. [Here they had Meta (i.e. facebook) get a deliberative assembly together to discuss tech policy](https://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/news/results-first-global-deliberative-pollr-announced-stanfords-deliberative-democracy-lab) and it says "A distinguished Advisory Committee vetted the briefing materials for the deliberations and provided many of the experts for the plenary sessions." Here's the problem. You get random assemblies of neutral, fair citizens, put them in a room to deliberate. Good start. *Then you spoonfeed them propaganda materials from facebook inc. upon which to base their decision*, that is undue influence from facebook inc. The councils will need to hear from experts on medical systems, ecology, trains, etc. They deliberate and make informed decisions. Just like the way the assembly is picked and votes is democratic, the system for picking briefing materials must be equally democratic. # Who can brief the council? Same deal: popular vote: * People want an expert/group/intellectual to have the right to give briefing materials, so they vote for him to get part of the briefing. The briefing materials could be written or video. The person/group with the most votes is given a chunk of speaking time (I'm not sure, maybe 2 hours). Then the 2nd-most popular person, then the 3rd. This continues until the speaking time (I'm not sure, maybe 24 hours) is used up. Here, btw, is where a powerful, influential person might gain political sway. The heavy use of sortilege blocks influential politicians from appearing in the system. But if you had an influential public intellectual like Noam Chomsky, everybody would vote for the council to have to listen to his brief. This would often include guilds: like if its a medical issue obviously people want to hear from the medical experts and they medical guild should have no problem getting votes. # One week term-limits lmao A paper describing traditional West African governance says "[In general there were no officeholders; only representatives of groups](https://web.archive.org/web/20120908004311/http://seunfakze.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/stateless-societies-the-igbo-the-fulani-the-somali-by-prof-g-n-ayittey/)" and that is my ideal here. You don't become a representative for a four-year term or a one-year term; you represent your people at ONE meeting. Then the lottery happens again for the next meeting. This prevents ego, keeps things nice and anarchist. ---- This is the most democratic, most anarchist thing I can think of. It's inspired a bit by Council Communism, a bit by Bookchin/Öcalan's democratic confederalism, a bit by traditional tribal systems, a bit by deliberative democracy, a bit by mathematics.
Long ago, the world lived in a relative peace. Guided by nature, the people lived off of the land, paying their respects to the gods that assisted them in their daily lives. Then, the Divine arrived. Its light blessed all, allowing for great prosperity in exchange for the Luminae people's devotion. Declaring the unified Holy Kingdom of Auran, the Divine maintained a more physical presence than the gods of nature that came before it. The Divine could be seen, could be talked to, and could be felt. It was by all means their leader, as well as the arbiter of their salvation, as they saw it. 30 years ago, the Auran Federation broke out into war. Now a nation ruled by a parliament and a president, corruption and exploitation had greatly expanded, especially in the magic-rich province of Iberia. As a result, the people of Iberia began the Iberian Revolution, overthrowing their provincial government. A declaration of independence was made official, and the revolutionaries formed the People's Republic of Iberia. Outraged at this aggression, the federation declared war on the new nation in order to reclaim it. The Iberians by all means should have lost. However, they re-discovered a long dormant power that hadn't been used since before the era of the Divine. Earth magic is a classification applied to spells that use the caster as the source rather than a god or patron. It requires years of study, years that the Iberian revolutionaries had spent reading through ancient texts that were forbidden by the federation. They had waited to rebel until this magic was mastered, and it was exactly what balanced the scales. Earth magic was not only unaffected by the Divine like elemental magic, but could counter the power the Divine provided to its followers. The war was still one that was devastating, on both sides. The Divine Church therefore had a decision to make. Keep the war going, or try to restore peace and become a mediator. So, they organized talks between both Iberia and Auran, and they came to a decision. Iberia would maintain all of their land, but not reach past their boundaries. Auran would cede the two provinces bordering Iberia to the church in exchange for an end to the war and the promise of a pacified Iberia. The church then took the provinces it had received and formed the Divine Caliphate, a church turned nation. After five years, the fighting had finally ended, and the war was officially over. A few things happened with this resolution, though. Things that would change the course of Luminae forever. The Divine had strained itself during the war, giving greater powers and boons to the nation it had created all those years ago. As a result, it seemingly dissipated, fading out of physical existence like the gods of nature had done before it. The Earth magic the Iberians had used in the war also vanished, which was not at all expected. How could something they seemingly controlled just dissapear? The answer is still not known today, though the People's Republic has dedicated many resources to uncovering the reason for its disappearance. Other than these occurrences, the world moved on from the conflict. Auran and Iberia even began to trade with each other, seemingly putting behind them the wounds of conflict. Behind the facade was a bitterness, though. The ruling class of Auran didn't like having to pay full price for resources from the magic-rich lands, while Iberia never forgot the other provinces of people they left behind. As for the Caliphate? It maintained the Divine Church in the two nations, while also having the Caliphate act as a buffer between them. People of one nation could not reach the other without passing through the Caliphate, after all, and the church had managed to put themselves into quite a powerful position. This brings the world to the present day, a day where people continued to live in a tense peace, a peace that would not continue for long... It would be really cool if I could find out how to make a map, wouldn't it? Sure, I could use existing maps and put my nations over them, but wouldn't it be so much better if it was more original? The world itself is something newer to me. I haven't really considered a fantasy setting, even though I love fantasy, though the idea of a conflict and world that goes into its politics is something I've wanted to do for a while. Nothing here is concrete or final, and I'm open to suggestions and feedback, but I needed to make sure I have some sort of groundwork, some sort of world that the story I want to tell can take place in. I also want the characters I'm writing to feel like they live in a world, in a context, and so making sure I don't end up with a Fire Emblem 7 kind of situation is pretty important to me. Let me know what you think! Should names be changed? What should the names of cities be within the countries? What should the Earth/Dark magic be called? I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.
The solarpunk tribal world is detailed [here](https://hexbear.net/post/536533), [here](https://hexbear.net/post/596720), and [here](https://hexbear.net/post/3167507). I built the world because it's what I wanted to see in the late-20th to early-21st century. But it's weak on the question of how that came to be. So I thought some theory-experts might be able to mutual-aid me 😉 Why did this world come to be? * Economically: A **moneyless** world where [labour is organised by kinship obligations](https://d-place.org/parameters/CARNEIRO_170) and local cultures are self-sufficient for the basics. * Politically: Öcalan-style democratic confederalism: your local *folkmoot* or [veche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veche) makes local decisions. They send representatives to the country-level popular assembly, *they* in turn send representatives to the continent-level popular assembly, and they in turn send representatives to the world-level popular assembly which does things like stops wars from escalating. Russian doll democracy. Ok I think I've laid out the question well enough now: **why did the economy become/remain moneyless and clannish, and why did democratic confederalism become powerful?** And how can this be explained in terms of class struggle? Let me know if there's confusion and I'll edit. ---- Now, towards an answer – * Actually a lot of the inspiration for it all came from [Mutual Aid Among the Barbarians](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/ch04.htm), and less so [Mutual Aid in the Mediæval City](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/ch05.htm): clans living together helping each other. Comrade K mentions "The Teutons, the Celts, the Scandinavians, the Slavonians, and others", and the chapter is largely about the Russian *mir*. So should I say they struggled against Roman/feudal systems and won, beating out manoralism that later became enclosure and capitalism? * Another thing I could use: around 1100AD in America, Hiawatha creates the Great Law of Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy with five tribes and later added a 6th.... What if in the alternate history this confederated more and more tribes and became really huge? But that's not historical materialism. * The [first reply](https://hexbear.net/comment/3913295) I ever got said, "I feel like, at first, you need to address a kind of Columbian Exchange"... but what if instead of crossing the Atlantic, they cross the Pacific?? So it's an exchange between say Chinese societies and ones like the Tlingit. * I have lots of other little historical tidbits that could force to the tribal side of the dialectic: Pashtun with their jirga assemblies, [Chechens as free and equal as wolves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechens), the stateless Igbo, and many others. ---- Editing: ok so how is this for an ***IDEA***: in the Middle Ages, around the time mercantilism and a bourgeoisie emerged in Terran History, the dialectic is massed into two camps. **Camp A** is Rome and France and [manoral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manorialism) cultures, and **Camp B** is the Huns, the [Turkic tribal confederacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_tribal_confederations), and various other tribal confederations. These form bigger alliances than they ever did in Terra, for the purposes of making war on the kings and lords. They win a series of wars in 1100-1600. Then they come into contact with Australia, Africa, and the Americas, there they meet tribes with a similar class structure (similar mode of production in other words). Critique that idea.
*Not to be confused with [Deluge (Poland-Lithuania)]().* The **Deluge of Elephants**, also known as simply the **Deluge**, was the largest [refugee crisis]() in human history. It resulted in a major [economic crisis]() and [health crisis]() in much of [Europe]() as an estimated 72 million [Usonians]() fleeing the [Second US Civil War]() migrated to the region in the five-year period between 2037 and 2042, triggering multiple [disease outbreaks]() that together killed approximately 4 million people. The name of the Deluge of Elephants is in reference to the ["White Elephant Brigade"](), a derogatory term for the Usonian migrants, associated with European [tabloids']() assertion that the [United States of America]() in the midst of its second civil war was also waging an [economic war]() against Europe by sending refugees to the region as [white elephants]() — "possessions which are difficult to dispose of, and whose cost of upkeep greatly outweighs their value". Europeans' attitudes towards the Usonian refugees was at the beginning of the crisis known to be largely highly positive, even with the resulting material strain. However, attitudes towards the refugees soured as the crisis deepened, famously resulting in the trend of ["Laser Troopers"]() who would assemble in large numbers to shine illicit [laser pointers]() into the [cockpits]() of airplanes carrying Usonian refugees. On the other hand, though the term ["oh-ro"]() today has more positive connotations, it was originally used to [mock]() Europeans seen as overly sympathetic to the Usonian refugees. The term "oh-ro", or "to sing oh-ro", was specifically originally in reference to the [Dublin "Deaf Ears" incident]() of 2038, where a [flash mob]() performed the Irish folk song ["Óró! 'Sé do bheatha 'bhaile"]() to welcome a group of Usonian refugees at [Dublin Airport]() who had, unbeknownst to the mob, been [deafened]() by an [uncontrolled decompression]() incident mid-flight. The first [amclub]() was founded at [Saint-Louis Middle School]() in [Liège]() in 2041 in response to widespread [bullying]() of Usonian/American students; this is considered to be the recognized beginning of the [Usonian-American split](). Even today, [Americans]() are still commonly distinguished by their relationship to the Deluge of Elephants: Americans whose families have continuously lived in Europe since prior to the Deluge are today known as [Old Dogs](), and the descendants of the Deluge-era refugees are known as the [New Litter](). The Deluge of Elephants, its origins, and its impact are of much interest to scholars. Consensus holds that the [bourgeois]() factions of the Second US Civil War intended for the relocation of [settlers]() to Europe among other regions to be a temporary measure, such that they could return to settler life postbellum. The ultimate failure of this plan is attributed to the state of [class conflict]() in Europe and the USA at the time, and to contradictory interests and changing dynamics within the bourgeoisie of either region. The exact details of this analysis remain hotly debated, however. Scholars take particular interest in how the crisis was presented by [liberal]() political parties and [media]() in Europe, who were criticized for [xenophobic]() statements, [scapegoating](), and opportunistically [co-opting]() and distorting the language and rhetoric of [leftists]() during the crisis. Scholars also take particular interest in how the crisis was exacerbated by [capitalism](), including government policies criticized as irresponsible or as [wealth transfers]() to the bourgeoisie; and scholars continue to debate what the exact [motives]() of the European and Usonian bourgeoisie were during the crisis, including the degree to which the crisis was engineered versus accidental. The Deluge of Elephants and the resulting Usonian-American split resulted in a high level of [class consciousness]() among Americans. This is widely considered to be a major part of the prelude to both the [Locotian Revolution]() and the [Socialist Revolution in Europe]().
Most of the cultures in the non-colonial solarpunk universe – written about [here](https://hexbear.net/post/536533), [here](https://hexbear.net/post/596720), and [here](https://hexbear.net/post/3167507) – are also in your crappy universe. The Merina, the Marra, the Māori are all there – but with more dignity, able to look anyone in the eye as an economic and cultural equal. Yet technology has also created newer cultures not seen on Terra. These new groups couldn't but follow the only pattern they know: living in mutual aid groups self-sufficiently within the ecological limits. One such neo-tribe is the Cloud Nomads. Sky Truckers. They emulate the traditional nomadic groups that surround them, but with the new addition of solar-powered airships.  Their ships are solar-powered, taking advantage of the higher solar irradiation found at high altitudes. [The typical ship is similar in size to the LCAT60T airship in your universe](https://www.flying-whales.com/en/the-lca60t). That means is has about 60 metric tonnes of lifting power. About 65% of this is for hauling cargo. The rest? That's home. Your home in the clouds. An airship might be home to about 22 people: their bedroom, bathroom, shared kitchen all lightly lifted by a helium-hydrogen mix.  Everything must be light. We love balsa wood. Some furniture is made using tensioned bits of fabric and rope. Light and airy. As a crew member, you are allowed 1000kg (less on some ships) for everything: that's your bed, your water ration, your body, everything. Better bring an e-reader.  We like silk, it's is a part of our lifestyle: we use it for our clothing and rigging. From the year 2031 onwards, we start to use a lot of spider silk the biopunk guild has learned how to produce. We use it for clothing and rigging, and in the construction of our ships. [Spiders are creatures of the sky](https://thefactsource.com/can-spiders-fly-they-are-found-3-miles-above-ground).  Karl Marx said: *"Trading nations, properly so called, exist in the ancient world only in its interstices, like the gods of Epicurus in the Intermundia, or like Jews in the pores of Polish society."* This world doesn't depend on trade much, yet there is some. Sky Truckers play an important rôle in that trade: bringing goods to spots that aren't easily reached by sea or other means. Other cultures are nearly totally self-sufficient. The Sky Truckers a little less so, they are Marx's intersticial tribe. They are self-sufficient for energy and water, but only half so for food. Cloudmen depend on landlubbers for some food, heavy industry, and of course for their ships to be built. Yet they harvest the food of the sky as much as they can: it would be unthinkable to not feed yourself. Some cultures live by a sacred river that gives them life. The cultures of the Sahara manage their [qanat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat) through the generations. Skymen have no rivers or wells: they live on clouds. Their ships can unfurl [a mesh net](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4GHGBov15U) like the wings of some immense mechanical bat, and fly through a cloud, filling its tanks with the purest of water. (These tanks are only big enough to hold a few days' water: lightness is always on their mind.)  Eat the sky. [Ancient Greeks ate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_cuisine) lots of species of birds, including mallards, pigeons, blackbirds, larks, sparrows, and cranes. You idiots hunted the [passenger pigeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_pigeon) to extinction but our world did not. They're a reliable food source when our wanderings take us to North America. We go to Africa in June-August and participate in the [quelea hunt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_quelea) with nets deployed from our ships. For small birds, the trick is to remove the head and feet and then cook 'em whole; you can eat the bones 'n' all: just crunch it down! The stewing softens those small bones anyway. There's also [edible pollens](https://northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bolts/edible-cattail-pollen) in the air, and technology in later eras allowed these to be sucked up efficiently. A high pollen count is 10g per m³ which is really quite a lot of food if you think about it. This [PDF](https://web.archive.org/web/20140602090548/http://westrocketry.com/sli2008/PLAR_MadisonWest2008.pdf) says they "found the most pollen at 600 meters" – up in the realm of the Cloud Nomads.  This culture is the least 'permanent' of all cultures in the solarpunk world. Typically, people follow this lifestyle for a few years in their 20s and then go home. It is an exciting life because we travel to festivals bringing equipment in and out, travel to disaster zones delivering emergency aid. We are young, able-bodied people, good with knots and rigging, good with our hands.  The gliders in the cargo deck become lifeboats in the worst-case scenario, but normally they're used on hunting trips. I love to take my glider out from the bottom deck and hunt big game high in the sky. [The Southern screamer is an "excellent flier and soarer"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_screamer) and has as much meat as 1½ chickens. (It is eaten somewhat in your dumb universe too.) The most coveted game is the whooper swan, the Canada Goose. Mallards are also pretty good. [Radar helps us find game.](https://birdcast.info/about/weather-surveillance-radar-and-bird-migration-primer) Eating swans might seem weird to you, but it wasn't to the Ancient Greeks and Romans, for example.  The pattern of nested mutual aid groups is universal. Among Bedawin down below on the ground, several 'bayt' form a 'goum'; among the Yolŋu, several 'Ḻikan' confederate into a 'Bäpurru'. Here in the sky, you and your *shipmates* help each other with cooking and loading/unloading cargo, while your *fleetmates* support you in other ways. A typical fleet has 28 or 29 airships, each averaging 22 souls. You probably don't have a doctor on your airship with you, but your fleet has a doctor. One ship has the shared Fabrication Workshop (pictured above). One ship has the nightclub.  We can cover 2000km in a day when we need to, or more if the wind favours us. A fleet can haul 1000-1100 metric tonnes (28-29 ships with 30-40 tonnes of cargo). When we show up, we can set up a festival in 72 hours, evacuate 4000 people from a disaster area. That is our power, that is our contribution to the wider world. In return, they provide us the things we can't get in the skies. This agreement is formalised at the highest levels of the democratic federal assemblies.  Our storytelling nights are rich with wild stories of UFOs, as well as tales of the roc and Pouākai. One guy in my fleet claims he has seen the 'jellyfish UAP' you might have heard about.
I've posted about this world before [here](https://hexbear.net/post/536533) and [here](https://hexbear.net/post/596720). It's an alternate history. Colonialism never happened in the first place. The world remained tribal, and traditional cultures remain strong. But 21st century tech develops. There is a lack of capitalism and exploitation. I downloaded these pics from the multiversal interwebs: ----  Traditionally nomadic cultures – such as this Australian bushman – remain nomadic in the 21st century. But their lives are made easier by technology. Under capitalism, developing technology keeps some people poor but increases the wealth of a few. In the solarpunk, non-colonial world, people use tools like this off-road tricycle to make their traditional lifestyles easier. ----  North American cultures follow the still-great buffalo herds. They use offroad vehicles that run on gasified biomass they harvest as they go. These vehicles are no faster than a horse. That guy on the right? I guess he's a tourist from a traditional European country; he's visiting his friends. They'll speak the Esperanto-type language to each other. ----  This picture was taken in a subway station in Cahokia. ----  This is a typical sight in the [northeast megaregion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_megalopolis). This is what the longhouses of the Haudenosaunee people look like in the 21st century. ----  The fishing cultures of North Europe live within the ecological limits. Some fish are still wild-caught, providing 5-10% of the diet. Others are farmed in [open ocean farms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_aquaculture). Members of a large (town-sized or city-sized) tribal confederacy have the customary right to harvest from these waters, and manage the wild stock and the farms as a commons. ----  My post linked above discusses guilds. One guild that exists, alongside doctors, tailors, and microchip-fabricators, is the Soapwitch guild. They have knowledge of local wildflowers, oils, and that sort of thing. Their job is to provide soap, perfume, toothpaste etc. for free to members of their tribe (instead of Unilever and Colgate doing it for profit). It's their tribe's reciprocal obligation to give them food, shelter, protection, etc.
*Not to be confused with [Legacy Americans](). For other uses, see [American (disambiguation)]().* **Americans** (singular: American, IPA: /əˈmɛɹ.ɪ.kən/) are a heterogeneous [ethnic group]() most heavily concentrated in [Europe](). They descend from the historical [Usonian diaspora](). Americans first started to be commonly distinguished from [Usonians]() during the [Deluge of Elephants]() in the time of the [Second US Civil War](); this distinction, often called the [Usonian-American split](), was solidified by the formation of the American representative organization [Amicon]() and the publication of its manifesto *[Amdec]()* in the year 2049. Americans commonly speak [English](), [Spanish](), and [French](), or derived languages, often freely blending these with each other and with the local languages of areas where they live; many Americans are [denaskuloj]() as well. [Deaf Americans]() most often have [European American Sign Language]() (EASL, IPA: /ˈi.zəl/) as their first language, a divergent and variable form of [American Sign Language]() with partial intelligibility with [Locotian American Sign Language]() (LASL, IPA: /ˈleɪ.zəl/). EASL is designated as one of the three federal working languages of the [European Federation]() alongside [Esperanto]() and [Interslavic](). Prior to the Usonian-American split, "American" was a historical name of Usonians. The word comes from "America", the colonial name of [Abya Yala](), which had come to be used *totum pro parte* to refer to the [United States of America](). Modern Americans chose to use the name "American" for themselves in part as an attempt to [skunk the term]() in reference to Abya Yala and the USA. Following [the decolonization of Abya Yala](), however, a [name debate]() has ignited among Americans on the appropriateness of continuing to use a colonial name referencing [Amerigo Vespucci](). No replacement name has caught on, however. The [American flag]() is based on the [Usonian flag](). It depicts nine horizontal stripes of red and white, with a sky blue [canton]() bearing a large [red star](). The nine stripes reference the nine [regional amicons of Europe]() whose representatives drafted and signed *Amdec*; while the red star represents the "new lodestar" of [socialism](). In its original context, as the Usonian flag's white stars represented a "new constellation" of the [constituent states of the United States of America](), the American flag's replacement of these white stars with a single red star was intended to symbolize *Amdec*'s assertion that Americans "[did] not belong to any state of the USA", and that the USA was an illegitimate and illegal [occupation regime](). A common practice among Americans known as ["scrifting" the flag]() symbolizes that American identity is based in interpersonal connections rather than claims to land. In the modern day, the red star is often said to symbolize the role that Americans played in the [Locotian Revolution]() and in the [Socialist Revolution in Europe](). Americans are generally divided into the ["Old Dogs"]() and the ["New Litter"]() according to their relationship to the Deluge of Elephants. Other terms or phrases often used by Americans include ["retour"](), ["oh-ro"](), ["ami"](), ["see single"]() and ["em and en?"]().
I've had this idea for a while now of a Universe where Earth is destroyed but the Cold War Continues on Humanity's new home, based on the Verse from Firefly. An early point of divergence is the Survival of Salvador Allende and the success of CyberSyn. No one is exactly sure the cause of the End of the Earth, only that for the two decades proceeding Humanity's exodus the planet was wracked by increasingly devastating volcanic and seismic activity. In the 80's scientist across the globe began looking for a place to flee, to save even a fraction of humanity from the intensifying devastation. The System was discovered during this period, a massive compound Solar System consisting of 5 giant suns orbited by a dozen proto-stars each in turn orbited by nearly a hundred planets and twice as many moons. News of this discovery led to the race to send Humans to The System. Three projects began development under NATO, The Warsaw Pact, and The Non-Aligned Movement. These massive vessels were built over nearly a decade a assembled in Orbit. An agreement was made to limit the number of original colonists of each ship to 10,000, with more ships to come in the future. No more would ever come. The technology of the time meant the journey to The System would take about 57 years to complete. Generations would be born and die aboard the ships, never to see The System. The worlds that each ship finally touched down on were inhospitable worlds with only the ingredients for one day supporting life. The original shelter of mankind in The System was made of deorbited pieces of their original ships, the hab blocks, reactors, hydroponics and more forming the original Arcologies on the worlds. Here the long work of Terra forming began. For the next 300 years Humanity explored and expanded across The System. the new home worlds of Unity (NATO now known as the Union of Planets), Rebirth (NAM now known as the Rebirth Accord) and Cradle (Warsaw Pact now known as the New Peoples Republic) were turned into Shirtsleeve worlds requiring no survival gear. Each faction began colonizing other planets and moons in The System, while each of the large asteroid belts surrounding the home worlds became home to large "belter' communities. Each faction maintained contact with Earth despite the decades their messenger probes took to reach Earth. Conditions on Earth continued degrading with more and more sporadic communication until 280 years after arrival the last probes to ever arrive from Earth spoke of Apocalypse and Upheaval. This began the "No-Contact" Era becoming year zero of the standard calendar. Around 70 NC each faction had made contact with the other two. While originally met with celebrations on many of the worlds of The System, this would be the beginning of the competition and strife in The System. Thank you for reading my Infodump , if you have any questions or comments they are welcome.
so i had a dream where a group and i were magically summoning like, liquid stone and by-hand forming it into walls--this is clearly half-baked and inefficient--so how would YOU make or enhance construction processes using magic, sci-fi technology, or fictional materials?
Once you learn how to understand and apply historical materialism and break out of capitalist canards like the myth of barter, it becomes much easier to come up with the things that make societies feel evolving, nuanced, and alive: internal struggles, subcultures and countercultures, political movements, economic bases, social mores and customs. That, plus having a variety of real-world examples to draw from to avoid falling into the trap of capitalist realism.
Pavel Arkhangelsky was born on February 13, 2006 in a hospital somewhere in Japan. His parents lived in the Soviet Union before its collapse. Afterwards, they moved to Japan due to programs that paid relatively well for their technical expertise in engineering. He was enrolled in a local high school, where he met Sayori, who was somewhat sympathetic to his cause. Indoctrination was wasted on him as he had learned Soviet patriotism from his parents from a young age. Despite his best efforts, Pavel was never more than an average student, in part due to his alienation from his classmates who were complete slaves to capitalist ideology. For his first year, Sayori was his only friend. Though he attempted to join a socialist club, it was full of demsocs and he left angrily. The following year he was invited by Sayori into the newly-formed literature club, which, under his guidance, became a sort of hub for socialist activities. This culminated in his invitation to Hope's Peak Academy as the Ultimate Marxist Leninist. Unaware of what was going on at the time, he was thrust into the Killing Game. Though thrown off his footing at first, he was able to gain the trust of the remaining students and used his limited knowledge to construct simple devices such as molotovs and even a rudimentary cannon. Eventually, he was able to escape Hope's Peak Academy. In March of 2029, when the duties of reorganizing post-verzwieflungkrieg society was at last completed, he married Sayori in Leningrad. Three years following, they had their eldest child, Kiril. Seven years following, another child, again a son named Milorad. In terms of personality, on the chart thingy I made the fuck up, he can best be described as warm/passion. He obviously cares about his friends, and also excels at political agitation.
After watching the darwin 4 documentary over the weekend I decided skewers were cool and decided to add a variant of them to my story. So, canonically, the entirety of Silen (the continent Lindsen is located on) was created by Komi(me), and humans were later introduced. Thus, the animals that live there have quite different anatomies from what we're used to. These include the massive flying organisms known as 1/1/17/4. Now this family is quite diverse, and actually consists of two major lineages, 1/1/17/4/1 and its derivatives, as well as 1/1/17/4/2. 1/1/17/4/1 is the older of the two. Organisms of this group have two large jet pods on their backs, while their bodies are torpedo-shaped, with a large mouth that can expand to swallow prey. Teeth are present inside the throat, to aid in crushing it. Juices are digested in the stomach. Most waste is immediately expelled to reduce weight, while nutrients enter the blood. Several large blood vessels flow past the jet pods to cool off, also heating the air inside slightly. In two organs beneath the jet pods, glucose and fat are metabolized into methane. Upon entering the jet pods, air first goes through several tightly compacted swirls to increase pressure, then into a combustion chamber which expanding muscles can compress. Methane is added here, and electrical pulses from ignition nerves ignite the mixture. A sphincter opens shortly following a compression to allow the heated air to release. Most members of the 1/1/17/4/1 family have not lost their hind fins. They have instead evolved into two triangular fins that sit directly behind the jet pods, possible directing the flow of air. A single large tail that resembles a boat's rudder is located at the end of the organism and has colorful patterns that may aid it in finding mates. The two wings resemble elongated triangles. The eyes sit close to the lower jaw, and transparent eyelids can cover them when prey is being attacked. While superficially similar, 1/1/17/4/2 is quite a different family. For one, its jet pods are located at the base of the wings. It lacks stabilizers, as its fins have migrated to where its lower jaw once was to form a sharp, flexible organ resembling a limb crossed with a jaw that can impale prey. It is smaller and faster than its cousins in 1/1/17/4/1, as its smaller size (though it's still very big, it has a wingspan of 6 meters and a length of roughly 3) ensures it can have a faster metabolism. These two species have been regarded as pests due to their hunting of herds of livestock. In the past, little could be done about them due to the lacking of any weapons that would be effective against their speed. However, developments in firearms have caused a considerable decline in their numbers. If the living jets are to remain in Silen's skies, action must be taken to protect them. Although, frankly, given all the shit that's going on in Silen, I wouldn't blame them if preserving these species are pretty low on their list of priorities.
Me and my friends have a huge world building project, the whole scope of it would be impossible to explain without several hundred screenshots of discord convos and pictures of notebooks. To summarize everyone is responsible for a fictional country and can make stories about it and how the nations interact with each other. Obviously my country was communist, I called it 'Antegria' (before playing Papers, Please and being like  ). I was getting bored of being a good country, so I had my country get couped and became a theocratic empire, and transition to a capitalist economy. This had pretty devastating effects on the people, and very many became poor. One bit of the story I wanted to make is a majority of class-conscious communists in the government, military, and general population fleeing persecution (the junta was killing suspected communists) to another communist country, the Communist Union of Benteria (which is kinda like if west germany and the DDR were both communist, and then unified). The government were very sympathetic to the fleeing communists and gave them a large empty bit of land to make a semi-autonomous commune. Over time, the commune grew enough to the point where 15-16,000 people occupied it, and they started to make a plan to take over the empire in a cuban revolution-esque plan. So a large force travels to a very rural part of the old country, and brings food and healthcare to the farmers and miners, who desperately need it as the austerity and privatisation had put a lot of them out of jobs (many had jobs in nearby cities, as the gov. ran high-speed trains between cities, but when the new government privatised the rail industries, it became prohibitively expensive to travel by train). By doing this across many rural areas they grow slightly in numbers and declare a few rural towns to be Antegria proper, and the junta's new government to be fraudulent. Is this in any way realistic or practical? Or really a way that a revolution could even happen?
This is something tangential I've developed for my science-fantasy world with intelligent animals. For context: In this world, different taxonomic governments represent groups of related species. You have the Felines, Vulpines, Rodents, Avians, etc. Each of them technically belong to a different State but frequently intermingle and live in the same area, and taxonomic governments tend to also have territory/land associated with them where they primarily control the area, but other animals can and very much do still live there. Taxonomic governments have jurisdiction of the species within their scope no matter where they live, and are the ones responsible for having an ID system that works both within their own taxon and with other taxonomic governments and other official organizations. Instead of making everyone carry ID cards or passports, which would be cumbersome for four-legged or winged animals to use, I envisioned a DNA-based ID system. The tech for this is definitely in the Star Trek levels of sci-fi, but it's basically a flat surface that you press your paw, wing, or other body part firmly onto, and a mechanism below produces a mild energy beam through your fur and skin which interacts with DNA in your cells and gives returns based on the specific sequence, and it's a safe, non-invasive DNA sequencer that can get a full read of your genetic code in seconds. The DNA scanner also checks for things like active metabolism and DNA synthesis and are generally configured to not even attempt to scan non-living cells, so you can't do something like use someone else's severed paw to make the system think you're them. But since your full DNA sequences can be, for one, several gigabytes long and not conducive to things like printing onto certificates and migration papers or even just sending over the network to other agencies, and also contain actual information about things like your species, sex, family history and a bunch of sensitive stuff that you wouldn't want just anyone having access to, they typically take a cryptographic hash of the DNA and use that as an identifier for an individual animal. Kind of like how humans might have something like a social security number, animals in this world have a DNA Hash that governments use to identify them. Whenever a government agency in our world asks you to show some kind of ID like a driver's license, passport, health card, etc, they just have to scan their DNA and their information is automatically pulled from the right agency, using the hash to look it up. Even things like crossing international borders (of friendly nations) can be done with just a single biometric scan with no passport or ID card required. Basically, if you're animal in this world, the various government agencies around you refer to you as something like "8ed254569e8ddccea1784f569609aa32ced2691e2d22e99583ebd426cac76bd8" which is derived from your DNA sequence, and since you can't change your DNA, the same hash algorithm will always produce the same identifier, but better for privacy since it's impossible to reverse the algorithm and derive the original DNA sequence from the hash, and in theory only your own taxonomic government would have your full DNA sequence stored away on a server somewhere. Also extremely hard to falsify since it's literally identifying your body and not a card or anything that can be replaced. What do you think? Does a system like this make sense? Are there glaring logistical or security issues that I'm not seeing? (Beyond just having a non-invasive and rapid DNA sequencing system in the first place, but that's what sci-fi handwaving is for.) Do you think a system like this is actually superior compared to physical ID media?
For context, I have a science-fantasy world with intelligent, non-anthro animals trying to live in peace with each other. A major problem is of course what the carnivores eat, and their solution is something called Dietary Enzyme Supplements, which carnivores take in order to supply artificial, carefully engineered digestive enzymes that allow them to digest plant matter and directly synthesize essential nutrients that would otherwise only be found in meat inside their own digestive tracts. It's something that works really well for its intended purpose and that they're really proud of, and I talk more about their history with solving the predation problem [here](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3055620) if you're interested. For the species, taxa, and factions that have committed to banning predation and having predator and prey live in harmony, dietary enzyme supplements are typically freely available and a guaranteed right under their constitution, along with plant based food in general. Dietary enzymes are ubiquitous and work really well for their intended purpose, and represent the very bleeding edge of their chemistry and nutrition science prowess. The most advanced dietary enzymes, those intended for obligate carnivores like cats, contain trace amounts of a special quasi-element called Intium as part of how they work, which is also a really powerful substance that power most of their super advanced sci-fi tech. However, due to how versatile and powerful it is, Intium is also extremely dangerous if misused, so it is heavily regulated by the government, and the only real "consumer" product that contains it are those obligate carnivore dietary enzymes. The next most accessible source is hovercraft fuel and the internal components of hovercraft engines, both of which are prohibitively expensive and require an aviation related license to purchase, while dietary enzymes are both free at the point of access and anyone can just go into a grocery store and take them without anyone else batting an eye. The vast majority of animals that need dietary enzymes do not abuse their free access to them, since there's no benefit in taking more than the required dose and they're just flavourless pills that most animals don't just stuff their faces with. However, this is where amateur chemistry enthusiasts come in, after a post on a science forum showing how to extract Intium from ATDP, which are the dietary enzyme supplements most commonly used by Felines. The process is pretty simple, basically just burn the pills at a very high temperature and in a high oxygen environment to convert the proteins and other support chemicals into carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, etc, and you're left with a solid residue of mostly Intium oxide, which can then be further processed into pure Intium. This is technically legal since the government doesn't regulate what exactly you do with dietary enzymes once you have it, but the problem is that ATDP, while free to use, still has a high production cost, and only contain minuscule amounts of Intium. A domestic cat for example typically takes one pill of ATDP per week, with the enzymes attaching to the lining of their digestive tracts to prevent the still perfectly functional enzymes from being expelled out the other end after one cycle of digestion and being wasted. However, an unlicensed chemist smelting pills to extract Intium can go through literally thousands of pills in a few hours, and those pills are paid for almost entirely by Feline tax revenue so neither the Feline government nor the Feline population in general are happy about this. Of course the safety risks of working with Intium apply as well, including pretty severe explosion risks, but the amounts they extract are so small that it's hardly a public safety hazard so much as a public burden as they destroy tens of thousands dollars worth of dietary enzymes just to extract ten dollars worth of Intium. The Intium is not the expensive part of those pills, the expensive parts are the carefully engineered and synthesized proteins that surround the Intium. After a few incidents of particularly brazen and entitled animals (who notably weren't even carnivores and had no biological need for dietary enzymes, certainly not the super advanced obligate carnivore versions that contain Intium) cleared out multiple grocery store shelves for their Intium extraction hustle and went viral on their internet, attracting intense public shaming with both predator and prey calling them selfish and misusing public resources, they realized that it was a massive problem and a policy change was needed to ensure fair access to this extremely important resource. The most obvious and immediately effective solution is just to implement some kind of rationing system, where instead of a shelf filled with boxes of dietary enzymes that any animal can take, they move them behind the pharmacy counter and require ID to obtain, where they'll check both whether you're actually a species that requires the enzyme and also use a centralized database that tracks how much you're taking per month. However, again, only a tiny minority of animals abuse the free access to dietary enzymes to do things they really shouldn't be doing anyway, so it would feel like a massive burden for the rest of the carnivore populations who literally depend on access to dietary enzymes to survive in a society where predation is banned. It would also preclude things like animals who don't need dietary enzymes getting them for their carnivore friends since they were going to the store anyway, or even things like losing your box of dietary enzymes and potentially getting denied replacements if they only allow animals to obtain them at the specific dosages they need, nor would they be able to stock up some dietary enzymes in their own nests and dens in case of supply chain issues. Not to mention the costs associated with implementing and maintaining such a rationing system which will also be passed onto the general public, potentially siphoning funds away from other public projects like housing and transportation, or just having less money to make more dietary enzymes. Free and easy access to both plant based food and dietary enzymes have been such staples in their society that they really don't to abandon it just because a few animals don't follow the rules, so they're looking for an alternative that lets them have their dietary enzymes and eat it too. What do you think? Is their only hope to just start rationing dietary enzymes? If you were a policy maker in this world, how would you address this issue? This world is supposed to be socialist so I'd love a socialist (or leftist in general) perspective on this!
Unlike Lindsen, the southern Menora kingdoms were never whole. Wedged between the southern coast and the Raimat river, they have historically been separate, albeit sharing cultures. However, an Orenland state has established a Commission in its southeast peninsula, and although it expands less aggressively than the analogous Lindsen Commission, it is still a threat to the unity of the nation. In the eastern area between the two forks of the Raimat river is eastern Menora, which has modernized in part due to influence from the Menora Commission, with beret hats becoming a staple of the local industrialist leaders, be they populist or centralist. To the west, more traditional rulers guard their kingdoms from dangerous and radical schools of thought that may bring upheaval to their feudal orders. In the southwest, Emilio Colella rules in the Sidenian Kingdom, occupying roughly a third of western Menora. His coastal kingdom holds significant economical influence as well as having access to plentiful resources. Rocco Pignatoro is slightly further north, with his Subaldena bordering Lindsen's Aldenland, being only a river apart. A rather traditional though large kingdom slightly smaller than the Sidenian Kingdom. It is more technologically backwards due to being essentially locked from the outside world. But will the turmoil in the continent force it to embrace change? Matteo Landolfi rules the Dosenti State in the eastern portion of Menora, in the middle of the section with a small port. It borders the Menora Commission directly and as a result has greatly benefited from the technology leaking from the advanced Commission. But will Melinda Whitfield tolerate this one-sided flow of precious Orenland advantage? Salvatore Scanga is in even more dire straights, with most of his republic close to the Commission border. He clings on for now, intensifying construction of fortifications he hopes will delay the inevitable onslaught, but is he only erecting dirt walls in the unstoppable path of fate? Melinda Whitfield controls the Merona Commission, where lighter policy has resulted in significantly less unrest than her Lindsen counterparts. But this has resulted in less progress towards true matriarchy than her superiors would desire, and as the years drag on they may lose their patience entirely. Finally, the industrial populist state of the Vensorian Council, a small and often overlooked country in the north of eastern Menora, is ruled precariously by Belani Insoro, with power split between the two main industrial populist parties, the VRC and the VRGP. But the industrial centralist VNPA lurks in the shadows as promised reforms fail to bring about substantial improvements in life, even as various proletarian populist movements hinder various projects. Most disturbing of all, the establishment of Albert Stahler's Worker's State in the northern border has resulted in a diffusion of proletarian centralist thought. Who knows what the future will entail... All of these countries may have never been a part of something greater, yet advances in communication and nationalism has created something new in the people. And perhaps someday, their dream will be fulfilled, and all of Menora will be one.
If you asked any soldier or student in any warlord state in Lindsen what the cause of the Orenland invasion, you would get different answers. From a citizen of the state of Aldenburg, that they come to upend Lindsen's traditions and impose unnatural matriarchy upon its citizens. From the Worker's State, that they are capitalists seeking resources to exploit, no longer satisfied with what they can find on their own soil. From a businessman in Gorsenya, they are here to rob Lindsen of economic activity.. All these answers are true to an extent. Due to sea monsters, the two continents only connected very recently, when an Orenland steamship fitted with a reinforced hull reached the eastern coast of the southern Lohne strip, belonging to Lindsen at the time. From the point of view of the invaders, this was an excellent opportunity to expand its raw resource base, as well as to relieve social tensions. At home, despite numerous attempts at suppression, strikes and other such disloyal behaviors were rising, while others complained that even in industrialized times men were still legally property, and even going to suggest that industrial populism was not very populist after all. The invasion was over in months. Superior artillery as well as tanks and aircraft, which were nonexistent in the backwards states of Lindsen, Burgune, and the fragmented southern kingdoms, easily destroyed their armies. Peace was made with Burgune, while an uneasy stalemate was achieved with the southern Menora kingdoms. No such luck in Lindsen, which was defeated thoroughly and turned into a puppet. For a year or so, things were looking up, with a large region to extract resources and more jobs to soothe unruly elements at home. Unfortunately, the people of Lindsen did not make things easy for the invaders. In two years the Commission's territory was history and it only retained a fertile but small section of the Lohne strip. Masses were angry as austerity measures had come down to nothing, with none of the promised riches from war going into the pockets of working women. Industrialists were similarly angered by the lack of promised profit. With this background as well as the spread of proletarianism, both centralist and populist, across all the nations of Orenland, several massive civil wars broke out in which various smaller states were seized by proletarian forces around eight years after initial invasion. The governments of several larger states, including Orenland proper, hastily mobilized to combat the red menace. While they were successful in containing the proletarian revolutions, it left them militarily and economically hollowed, and allowed for the Lindsen states to develop without fragmentation intervention. While the two federations were defeated two years later, it was a half-measure at best and little measures were imposed to contain them. Thirteen years after the initial invasion, the situation had stabilized somewhat, with the propaganda machine working to indoctrinate a new generation against dangerous proletarian sentiments that would snuff out, it was hoped, the revolutionary flame once and for all. But Albert Stahler of the South Lindsen Worker's State and his growing country seem to think otherwise, and the time may come again where a second conflict with Lindsen will leave Orenland too weakened to fight, even against threats within its own borders. The fate of a continent and the entire matriarchy painstakingly built in the Commission, as well as its Menora section, lies on the actions of these warlords with their own dreams for their nation. May the One save Orenland, for no one else can.
So while I've done some detailed worldbuilding for Lindsen and its surrounding nations, I haven't even drawn a map for the Orenland yet, and all I know is that it's slightly more advanced and it's supposed to be matriarchal. But how might it have become so even with agriculture being developed? I contemplated having the entire continent or at least the part where humans originated be rainforest with plentiful fruits to make gathering more viable, while dangerous animals meant men were needed for defense and therefore more expendable. However, this is immensely stupid for obvious reasons. Does anybody have better ideas I can steal?
Two years after the Orenland invasion, the former Lindsen Commission collapsed. Brandon Holstein, a member of the old nobility, led his chunk of the Southern Raimat. The initial threat of an invasion from the remains of the Commission subsided when many fragmented warlord states arose between it and Holstein's domain. The ambitious Holstein took it upon himself to reunify the nation, trusting that the Commission would be too weakened to notice his expansion. For a while this strategy was effective. Holstein was able to federate with many larger closer states over the next seven years, while also annexing surrounding microstates. He also attempted to industrialize his country to compete in productions with the Commission. While he was able to establish a formidable industry, this also led to the quiet strengthening of industrialists, which he tried his best to suppress. For most of the first ten years after the invasion he was successful at keeping a lid over industrialist power. Eventually, Johannes Heydritch's North Lindsen Federation had also become sufficiently powerful, so Holstein proposed a federation that would then lead to only west Lindsen being incomplete, by which point the weak warlords there could be easily defeated. However, the Commission had grown westward in the decade after its initial collapse and was now almost bordering the two federations. The day before the federation would've occured, the commission invaded the two federations and crushed both of them. The treaty of East Lindsen was signed, forcing the two federations to split apart into their constituitent states. The remaining rump state of South Lindsen lost much of its authority. Holstein became closer to Albert Stahler in this period of time as the industrialists gained more and more power over the nation's affairs. He entrusted Stahler with his ultimate plan: seeing as retaining his nobilibty was no longer possible, he hoped to instead pursue one of his long-lost dreams of utopianism, when he was just an aspiring prince in a Lindsen that was still complete. Two years after the federation's defeat, Holstein died. On the same day, Stahler became the Regent of the South Lindsen Federation, and disbanded the army with the pretext of reorganizing. He quickly mobilized the masses as all industrial output stalled for the day. The private police of the Industrialists retaliated but was quickly crushed by the sheer number of workers Stahler had organized, combined with the weapons confiscated from the former army. Within a week the industrialists were crushed and the workers had siezed power. Soon afterwards, Stahler revoked his position of regent and declared himself the chairman of the South Lindsen Worker's State under the governing principles of Proletarian Centralism, a jump from the previous Feudal Centralism. While the new state faced challenges, most neighboring states were too weak to intervene. In addition, there were none of the problems with production the later matriarchal and patriarchal post-Commission states had, due to workers being familiar with production already. The Commission invaded two years later, taking the eastern half of the Worker's State. But despite this massive setback, it retains the industrial base to expand and strengthen for possible unification. What does the future hold for the South Lindsen Worker's State?
The Lindsen Commission can and will collapse. This unstable Orenland puppet, no matter what actions it takes, will eventually implode. Whether Frederick Olsten reclaims the throne, or Maria remains and unifies Lindsen, it will fall apart to countless rebels. In the former commission's northern areas, near the border between the commission and the northern, mostly independent states of the Lohne strip, there is the Muzhinen Iron State, ruled by Franz Scholl. He is part of the younger generation of commission men, who dream of a restored patriarchy but can only construct a broken vision of one, having spent fifteen years under Commission oppression. To further complicate matters, Commission policy resulted in most technical knowledge being concentrated in the hands of women. The Iron State rests in a precarious situation, with patriarchy being barely maintained with Scholl's Iron Armoe. Any imbalances in the situation could throw it into further instability, or worse, the complete collapse of the male dominance that Scholl has worked so hard to maintain... The Iron State's neighbors are not to be trusted. To the east, the Orenlanders have grown tired of proxies and have directly established a presence in Lindsen, intending to annex the entire nation once more. The technologically inferior Iron State will have to expand westward to the even more backwards western states if it wishes to survive the onslaught. To the south, Klara Clausewitz's ineffective but large Governate of East Lindsen is also a threat, albeit a lesser one that must constantly combat internal strife. In terms of international relations, both forward and guard nations of the Lindsen Warlords view it as an illegitimate state at best. The forward nation of Stahler's Worker's State views it as a twisted and hauntingly pathless but nonetheless oppressive patriarchy, while most other guard nations view its version of Commission-warped masculinity as a perversion of what they view as the glorious tradition of Lindsen soldier men. The uniform of the Iron Armoe soldier is, of course, the traditional Lindsen maid dress, in part due to its role in the Iron State's patriarchal system. The major factor, however, is the Iron State's internal strife. With a barely functional industrial system stacked with severe development output and cost debuffs, it can do little more than maintain its rusting production lines left by the invaders, using whatever is on hand. Scholl has never considered peaceful unification as an option. In his view, a whole Lindsen will either be ruled by him, or will never manifest at all.
The interdimensional Christmas bug is coming to town, and every world needs their own Santa. Doesn't matter if they have no idea what Santa or Christmas is, participation is mandatory and they need to use whatever exist in-universe to replicate Santa's flying sleigh as best as they can. The following are some guidelines for what a prototypical Santa and sleigh would entail, your world needs to try and replicate as many of these elements as possible. 1. A fat bearded man or similar species dressed in all red. 2. A huge sack of toys or whatever the kids in your universe like. 3. A sleigh or another vehicle modified to resemble the classic shape of a sleigh, one that is capable of flight. 4. Eight flying reindeer or similar species strapped to the front of the sleigh. 5. One more flying reindeer or similar species up front with a glowing red nose. Note that the reindeer don't actually have to be the ones pulling the sleigh through the air, you can choose any propulsion system you want as long as it *looks* like the reindeer are pulling it. How does your world pull it off? Who would need to be called in and what kind of equipment acquired to do this? What unique conflicts does Santa face in your world that the "real" Santa wouldn't? If your world is also conducive to other Christmas characters like Krampus, the Grinch, Frosty, Jesus, etc and you want to replicate them as well, we'd love to hear it!
Context: This is a world inhabited by intelligent, non-anthro animals, some of which have decided to outlaw hunting and eating prey in favour of living in harmony and cooperating. They have a zero tolerance policy for predation and it is criminalized extremely heavily. Depending on what species or taxon you are (all animals have the right to be tried by members of their own species and taxa, and they are responsible for carrying out sentences of their own kind too), First Degree Predation, where you personally kill then eat an animal, is the only crime that formally carries the death penalty. Regular first degree murder where you "merely" kill an animal without intent to eat them only has a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Second Degree Predation (aka Simple Predation) is where you obtain meat with the intention of eating it without personally killing anything, carries only a mandatory fixed term prison sentence in addition to losing certain freedoms post release. However, their laws on the issue is very much based on intent as that is their philosophy, that because they are all sapient and no longer bound by their natural hunter instincts, they are responsible for their own actions. You don't have to actually eat the prey you killed to have committed First Degree Predation, and the inverse is technically true as well, where if you kill an animal for some other reason and only after they're dead do you decide to eat them, then you're *technically* only guilty of murder and Second Degree Predation instead of First Degree Predation. There are also legal ways that certain animals can obtain animal tissue, for example, as skin grafts and organ transplants, autopsy and forensic investigations, or for general research. Because animals handling tissue in these cases don't intend to eat it, it does not fall under Second Degree Predation. However, if you buy animal meat and later decide not to eat it, that's still considered predation. Especially with the nature of eating and digesting food, law enforcement only has a very small time window to order a suspect to undergo lab testing of what's in their belly where it will actually show a positive hit for animal tissue, so my original thought is that the intent clause is meant to make prosecuting predation easier, since they wouldn't need to actually prove that the accused has animal tissue in their digestive tract at any point, just that they *wanted* at some point for some form of animal tissue to end up inside them. I know there are many real life laws that use intent in a similar way, but I don't know how courts actually prove intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Can anyone who's delved more into the legal side of worldbuilding comment on how the courts in my world might prove (or disprove) that someone *intended* to eat another animal when they do not have direct evidence that the animal was indeed eaten?
I typed up a huge essay before but then my idiot brother pressed some shit on the wireless keyboard and deleted it all. I don't know if I still have the energy to type all of it out, but here goes. Lindsen has not been whole for fifteen years. Fifteens years ago the invaders from matriarchal Orenland destroyed the modernizing nation and established a puppet state, which soon collapsed, leaving dozens of warlord states in its wake. Maria Olsten's LINDSEN COMMISSION is all that remains of the former puppet of the Orenlanders. Despite its reduced state and instability, it is still formidable due to its vast technological superiority. But Maria Olsten must be wary; her husband Frederick, once the emperor of Lindsen but now little more than a figurehead, wields influence even he is not aware of in the populace. The slightest spark may send the Commission up in flames. Five years ago Johannes Heydrich was the leader of the North Lindsen Federation, of which only the state of Nordland remains after it was crushed by Commission forces a day before it would have unified peacefully with the south. Bitterness aside, Heydrich, known widely as the Lion of the North, is the only force standing between Burgune in the north, left relatively intact by the Orenlanders due to its compliance, and the Commission in the east which seeks to expand its influence over Lindsen's remains. The South Lindsen Federation was also destroyed five years ago, and soon afterwards the country was essentially taken over by wealthy industrialists created by modernization programs. The former monarch, Brandon Holstein, entrusted his protege Albert Stahler with a mission: to disband the army, crush the industrialists, and establish the SOUTH LINDSEN WORKER'S STATE. He succeeded. His proletarian army will take some time to become a truly formidable fighting force, but this will not deter him from fulfilling his dream of a reunified Southern Federation, and possibly even Lindsen as a whole. Fritz Zimmerman rules Aldenburg, another piece of the former South Lindsen Federation. He took a radically different approach than Stahler towards the industrialists: He saw the expansion of industrialist power as a result of the slipping of traditional values that he espouses in his state. But in a modernizing and gray world, will his vision for a pastoral and virtuous Lindsen fade further and further into the past? Markus Spiedel may be a warlord, but he rules his GORSENYA like the weaselly businessman he is. Despite its high level of development, most government and military functions are sourced to private groups while corruption runs rampant. Even if Spiedel wished to become a true contender for unification, the industrialists would not allow trivial things like 'national unity' to get in the way of profit. Time is running out. As the once united Lindsen fades from memory with the replacements of generations, it may not be long before unification as a prospect is no longer remembered or desired by the peoples across these little states. Perhaps one unifier will outshine the rest and finally expel the invaders and make Lindsen whole once more, from the Raimat to the Lohne......
*This is my protagonist character in my socialist science fantasy world with intelligent animals trying to live in harmony. Think Zootopia but with close to Star Trek levels of technology and with regular animal shaped animals instead of anthros. One of the most common questions I’m asked of this world is how obligate carnivores, like cats, are able to survive without eating meat. I have mostly just matter of factly stated the lore and the sci-fi technologies that carnivores use to digest and properly derive nutrients from plant based food, but I think it’s time I actually told the story. I'd really any and all questions or feedback you have!* This could also be thought of as an in-universe piece of journalism or biography on this character. Doctor Yvonne Dandelionpaw is an female domestic cat, with a gold and light yellow tabby coloration on her back and most of her tail, with white on her abdomen, muzzle, paws, and the tip of her tail. Her eyes are emerald green, her nose and pawpads are pink, and her whiskers are white. Yvonne was one of a litter of two kittens, born in a Feline town called Caldera where she spent her childhood with her mother and twin brother. # Context Caldera was a tiny and particularly impoverished agricultural and industrial town, which produced the plant based feed used by prey farms that supplied live (sapient) animals like rodents and small birds to be eaten, but also had a number of chemical plants which converted waste plant material into various useful chemicals like polymers, fabrics, fuels, and more. The Dandelionpaws, who worked in the latter chemical industry, also dabbled in the town’s major informal economy, that of producing unlicensed nutrient supplements and plant-based food alternatives for the many Felines that either detested the barbaric ancestral practice of hunting and eating live prey due to the rise of an ideology called Unitism, couldn’t afford to buy meat, or usually both. Food insecurity had been rampant among Felines since the dawn of their taxon, as was the life of all purely carnivorous hunter species, simply due to the unpredictability in the availability of prey and the fact that they would obviously resist your attempts to eat them lest they lose their own lives. Domestic cats had a reprieve from this during their time among the humans, but now, millions of years after humanity had mysteriously disappeared from the planet, a bowl of kibble set out in front of them was as far from their minds as the bipedal species themselves, they would have to do everything on their own if they wished to return to such a comfortable, predictable life. Having evolved intelligence far beyond the cats that humans knew, they were no longer content with mindlessly hunting, catching prey, eating the prey after toying with it for a while, and then hunting again. Instead, they now had the faculties to analyze their situation and consider the long term, and they did not like what they saw. Not for themselves nor their poor little prey. Their domesticated cousins, dogs, not to mention many other traditionally “predator” species and taxa, had already figured out a workable solution: With sufficiently advanced technology and knowledge of the underlying chemistry, artificial supplements of essential nutrients required by carnivores could be synthesized from plants or even inorganic sources, and more, a recent breakthrough in the form of the Dietary Enzyme Supplement supplied artificial digestive enzymes to the body, which could break down plant matter better than a carnivore’s own enzymes, and even directly synthesize essential nutrients inside the body. This world has two predominant ideologies for interspecies relations: Unitism, which says that the greatest potential of all species are realized when they work together and live in peace instead of eating each other, think of it as "vegan socialism." And Trophism, which says that predator-prey relationships are not to be questioned or challenged by neither predator nor prey. The Feline Empire was squarely in the Trophist category. Many Trophist taxonomic governments, the wolves and bears for example, violently enforce the banning of the use of any form of nutrient or dietary enzyme supplement, lest their citizens have a viable alternative to eating prey. The Felines on the other paw, did not feel the need to spend the untold amount of resources to enforce such a ban beyond simply not intentionally making it available. A case of cats living up to their stereotypes of laziness and apathy? Perhaps. But at the very least, such laziness was helped along by the fact that biologically, all Felines are obligate carnivores, evolved to eat nothing but meat with digestive tracts compatible with little else, and even though the rise of dietary enzymes posed a brief threat to the status quo, it quickly became apparent that they simply did not have the ability to convert the body of an obligate carnivore to plant based food like it did for omnivores like dogs. The problem was mainly one of energy and speed: obligate carnivores would need nearly all of the plant matter they ingest to be converted, but conventional enzymes simply had too low reaction rates to do so effectively before the food reached the other end. Conventional nutrient supplements were no good either, as they had very high production costs and, due to their biology, a Feline would have to replace nearly all of their food intake with these supplements: crippling expensive for the destitute working class. Unitist sentiments and the disdain for the need to eat other intelligent creatures were growing rapidly among the Feline public, but biology itself conspired against those Felines, so they were deemed no threat to the empire. However, that’s not to say progress was not being made. In fact, it was advancing much faster than the Feline Empire had assumed. Overlooked by the Feline elite, Caldera had become a hotspot for the Feline Unitist movement, regularly harbouring prey animals (including prey farm escapees) and keeping them as safe as they could. Through of under the table research and outright trial and error by the Unitist Felines themselves, they had eventually figured out a complex regimen of cooking and/or fermenting plant based food to break it down, combined with various nutrient supplements and dietary enzymes, which allowed such a plant based life to be just about safe for Felines and just about affordable for working class Felines. Secretly, they spread their new findings far and wide among the Feline public, and it would come to be known after the revolution as the Caldera Method. The only drawback was the fact that such a regimen needed to be followed to the letter, even the slightest deviation could leave a cat, especially a kitten, dangerously malnourished. # Childhood Yvonne and his brother, though very poor, were lucky in a way, because their mother was a long standing and vocal Unitist, and one that actually had the means to provide both herself and her young kittens with mostly nutritionally complete plant based alternatives due to her direct involvement in the production of said alternatives and the knowledge of how to ensure her kittens received the nutrients they needed without prey. The activities of harbouring prey animals, many of which ended up working in the production of plant based food alternatives, also gave many opportunities for a curious kitten to meet those animals outside of a dinner plate, and many of those prey animals eventually found themselves unlikely friends with the sweet and playful Yvonne, a sentiment that was entirely mutual. It was an unofficial safe haven within the Trophist Feline Empire, where cats and their prey could get a taste of living together in peace, instead of the cats getting a taste of their prey. Instead, they began to see their plant based regimen as more of a ritual, making up songs and rhymes that reminded them how to take care of their bodies in the absence of meat and making the required calculations a little more fun than tedious. Yvonne took after her mother, sharing her sentiments that cats should live in peace with all other species, as well as her passion for chemistry and chemical engineering. Realizing this, Yvonne’s mother began to teach her young kitten of the chemical world, an extracurricular class that Yvonne came to enjoy far more than her actual schooling. The problem was, Yvonne’s mother had no formal education, she had mostly learned from her experience at work, as well as through the sharing of knowledge among the workers, some of whom were more educated to various extents. Many of these other workers also tutored Yvonne directly, and there were a few initiatives across the Feline Empire of textbook and scientific journal piracy, which Yvonne took full advantage of whenever she had the chance. Yvonne predictably developed a fascination with nutrient biochemistry, but as she became a teenager and began her foray into the Felines’ latest scientific papers, a new development caught her eye: Intium, a newly discovered particle that showed remarkable properties. It wasn’t on the periodic table, because it wasn’t an element at all. Instead, it was the first ever stable combination of quarks other than the proton and neutron, and the Felines were the first to synthesize it, so it became the talk of the Feline scientific community. Already, uses were being discovered for it, from levitating hovercrafts to the various new compounds that could be made with it, to catalyzing chemical reactions previously thought impossible. Yvonne now had a goal, a pipe dream that she knew she would have an uphill battle achieving: She wanted to learn all about this new particle, and potentially, if the stars align, to work with it in a lab where she could explore the possibility that it could be the solution to the Felines’ nutrient problem. # Young Adulthood Outside Caldera, things were changing at a rapid pace. Unitism had firmly taken root as the ideology of choice among the Feline working class, spurred on by more and more interactions with their former prey animals, and the development of better methods for them to subsist on plants, though still very cumbersome, error prone, and less than optimal. The Feline Empire was not happy about this of course, but by then they had lost control, and despite more and more efforts to control these plant based alternatives, they had become so commonplace and so many cats had the knowledge of how they worked, not to mention those cats were also allying with other Unitist species and taxa who helped them to not be predators. By then, a good majority of Felines were committed to no longer eating prey, even though the alternative was still extremely difficult and required the utmost care to pull off safely. The Felines were now between ideologies and philosophies on whether other animals were friends or food, and inching closer to the day when tensions between those philosophies and ideologies would inevitably boil over. The Royal Feline Science Institute, despite being royal in name, was now mostly comprised of Unitist professors and researchers, some of whom had formed connections with the Unitists in Caldera and their independent chemistry work. Yvonne, who was a newly minted adult at this point, quickly took the opportunity to network with those researchers, who also came to recognize her as a passionate, studious, and promising future chemist. Even though, due to her family lineage and place of residence, she was not eligible for any scholarships, a number of Unitist professors, charmed by the young Unitist and resentful of their superiors, worked with Yvonne and her mother falsify a number of records and covered the costs for her to take the RFSI chemistry faculty’s entrance exam, which, after many sleepless nights spent preparing, Yvonne aced with flying colours, and with those falsified records, made her eligible for a scholarship. So off she went to Moonpeak, the Feline capital city, where she hoped to start her studies, now among many other Unitists like herself, a prospect she could only dream of as a kitten. # Scientific Career Yvonne initially struggled in her classes, not used to the university format as most of her prior learning had been done on her own in piecemeal fashion. She initially also struggled with lab work, and was said to have a tendency to disregard safety procedures and forgo protective equipment which she perceived as slowing down her work. But, her passion remained unshaken and her professors commented that she never appeared discouraged of frustrated no matter how difficult a concept was for her, was never afraid to admit she didn’t know something, and she was a frequent sight at tutoring sessions and office hours. She was determined not to squander the opportunity that she thought she would never have, and with her tail held high through long days and sleepless nights, powered through her classes, helped by the fact that she never lost her fascination with the things she was studying, it only grew stronger. Around the same time, she became an active member in the Unitist movement in the RFSI and Moonpeak, and also met her best friend and study partner [Nikita Almondtail](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1132838), and they helped each other struggle through their coursework. She chose her specialization in quantum chemistry, as it seemed the best way for her to get her paws on the coveted Intium. Meanwhile, Nikita went with biochemistry, but they remained close friends and still frequently studied together. It certainly wasn’t easy for her, but eventually Yvonne had completed her Primary Certification, and was now a full-on researcher for the RFSI, working toward a High Certification and beyond. (Keep in mind that cat university is structured differently from human university and grants different qualifications than bachelor or PhD as we would know them.) Yvonne’s dream had come true, she now had the chance to work with Intium. Yvonne and Nikita chose to work on a joint research project for their High Certifications, and after Yvonne had been regaling Nikita about her hunch that Intium might allow Felines to subsist cleanly on plant based food, a hunch that only seemed more true the more that was discovered about it, and given their new qualifications, it seemed like a no brainer. They had worked on many smaller projects independently, but this would be their first time in uncharted territory, with little established knowledge on the topic. They got to work, using the dietary enzymes for omnivores as a starting point. Nikita with her focus on artificial enzyme design and Yvonne with her focus on the novel properties of Intium, began to incrementally improve the existing enzymes for use by obligate carnivores. Making them survive higher acidity, increasing reaction rates, and many more changes. The new particle proved extremely promising in this application, catalysing reactions far faster than any purely protein-based enzyme could ever achieve. Yvonne would later recount an incident where she had spilled some of the concentrated solution of Intium-based cellulase onto her lab notebook while cleaning up, and not noticing it, simply closed it up and went on her way. That night, she stored her bag next to the heater in her dorm room, which warmed it up to something resembling a Feline body temperature. The next morning, the enzyme solution had burned a hole twice the size of a cat’s paw all the way to both covers, the edges glittering with crystals of glucose that might as well have been diamonds to Yvonne’s eyes. Some time later, as Yvonne and Nikita’s work neared completion, they watched, amazed, as the mixture of cellulose, starch, and other plant nutrients rapidly began to dissolve into their test solution, and in real time, the concentration of glucose momentarily began to rise, before quickly being consumed by their synthesis enzymes and turned into amino acids, taurine, and the myriad other nutrients that cats needed, which began to build up in the solution. The next day, they, against the advice of their project advisors and other researchers in the lab, each swallowed a capsule filled with their new enzymes after fasting the night before, ate a bellyful of raw plants like lettuce and spinach, and began periodic blood testing to track their nutrient uptake. They would both recount this initial test as likely the stupidest thing they’d done in their lives, and it easily could have been their last. At first, it seemed like that could well be the case, as an hour after ingestion, they were both racked with abdominal pain so severe that they described it as their insides being on fire, but, as quickly as it began, it subsided, and subsequent blood tests revealed that it had miraculously worked. Usable nutrients, derived from raw plants, began to flood their bloodstream, and due to the fact that they were brush border enzymes that attached to the lining of the digestive tract instead of being expelled with the food waste, the effect lasted for over a week from a single pill. Eventually, they pinpointed the GI discomfort to the fact that they had foolishly taken a full dose of enzyme all at once, when it had been known for a while that brush border enzyme supplements need a slow ramp-up time to gradually build up its concentration inside the gut to avoid side effects, a limitation they already knew about the omnivore enzymes that theirs had been derived from, but had forgotten about in their haste to prove that their design works. After some further tests, revisions and fine tuning to ensure it really produced all required nutrients and in the correct proportions, they moved to publish their work, which they initially, very creatively, called the Nutritionally Comprehensive Obligate Carnivore Dietary Enzyme Supplement. However, it would later be decided that it would be named the Almondtail-Dandelionpaw Formulation, or ATDP for short, after its creators. But not after a long and violent battle for Felines to be allowed to use their new breakthrough at all. # The Feline Revolution As researchers across Feline territory and beyond took note of the new discovery, they began to replicate it. The new dietary enzyme supplement sent shockwaves through the scientific community, initially being met with extreme skepticism and even accusations that the pair had deliberately fabricated the positive test results. But, this was quickly put to rest upon independent testing. They had done it. Within Feline territory, there was no shortage of volunteers eager to try the new supplement, not just to use it as a finished product, but to offer up their own bellies for clinical testing. Yvonne and Nikita were hailed as heroes both in and out of Feline territory, the saviors of predator and prey alike and the harbingers of a new age for Felines, a peaceful, cooperative age where they would finally make peace and officially begin the long process of reconciliation with their former prey. That was, until the king of the Feline Empire got involved. Overnight, the king invoked an “emergency” legislation power exclusive to him to pass a bill that would outlaw the production, distribution, import, export, and even further research and development of any artificial enzyme in Feline territory, dietary or otherwise, with a mandatory prison term for anyone caught even possessing a copy of Yvonne and Nikita’s paper or anything similar. That afternoon, another emergency bill came that would eliminate the autonomy of the Royal Feline Science Institute and subject it to an unprecedented level of direct oversight by the monarchy. A day later, the Royal Feline Police arrived at the dorms of Yvonne and Nikita to arrest them, supposedly for “perverting the natural order.” But they were long gone by then, in hiding with the help of the Unitist movement. Instead, the royal police were faced with a mob of enraged students and faculty alike, and barely made it out with their tails. At the same time, protests, riots, and attempted insurrections erupted in every part of Feline territory. This wasn’t the first time the Unitist Felines had attempted to rise up against the Feline Empire, but it was by far the strongest, and showed the king the horrifying truth: That the Feline Unitist movement had become much more numerous, much more organized, and much more courageous than he had ever thought them to be. Immediately, Feline territory declared martial law and began to violently suppress the Unitists, torturing and killing any cat or kitten that moved. This, of course, only fueled the fire as the Feline monarchy had shown its full deck of cards, any possible sentiment that they might have cared about the Feline taxon and not just their own power had been erased. In the following days and weeks, the Feline Civil War and Feline Revolution would erupt, which would reveal another truth: Just how many cats within the Feline government and military were secretly Unitists, only discovered as they began to tear the empire apart from the inside out, opting to defect and work with the Unitist insurrectionists instead of the empire they supposedly swore loyalty to. Even the king’s own princess defected. Actually, she had defected a long time ago and helped start this chain of events. Yvonne and Nikita quickly enlisted in the newly formed Feline Unity Army, the main fighting force of the Unitist revolution. But instead of fighting as soldiers, they sought to use their chemistry expertise to the Unitists’ advantage. They had until this point dedicated their scientific careers to developing solutions that helped Felines among other species, but now, they would do something that even they would later describe as betraying the pacifist ideals they once thought they had. In a haphazard lab set up at the portion of the RFSI campus occupied by Unitist forces, they developed another organo-Intium compound. Not a dietary enzyme this time, but a neurotoxin. Catsbane, as it later came to be called, was a tasteless and odourless chemical that could be laced in food, water, or medicine. Once ingested, it would be processed by the liver into its toxic form, before slipping through the blood brain barrier to interfere with the surface proteins of neurons, gradually cutting off communications within the brain. The victim would first experience mild symptoms like forgetfulness, insomnia, and mental fog, before escalating to coma, permanent brain damage, and death. Catsbane was used to carry out targeted assassinations within the Feline aristocracy and imperial military, with the help of their many friends in high places. They justified this using the fact that were careful to only kill those they targeted and any “collateral damage” was considered completely unacceptable and carefully avoided, a far cry from the actions of the Feline Empire who would torture a newborn kitten to get information out of their parents. They also argued that the effects of the toxin was much more merciful than the actions of the Feline Empire, both to Felines and especially their prey. Though, both Yvonne and Nikita would come to question their actions after the fact, and admitted in interviews that they don’t know how justifiable it was or if there was a better alternative, something that haunts them to this day. But in the heat of the war, there was hardly time to fully explore the morality and implications of their actions, so they pressed on, echoing the line said by many animals in similar positions with the desperate hope that it would be true: that by developing this weapon, they could end the war faster and save countless more lives than they would take. After an ocean of blood shed, the Feline Revolution came to a close. The Unitists had won, and the Feline Democratic Republic established. As the Felines officially signed the Interspecies Peace Agreement which would outlaw predation by all felines, hopefully forever, a new age was indeed upon them. “I don’t claim what we did was the best possible thing we could have done, nor do I claim that I somehow have perfect morality. The fact is, we didn’t have time to take a good, introspective look at the ethics of every single minutiae of our revolution, we just wanted it to end and we worked towards that. Do I have my regrets? Of course I do. Do I wish everything could have worked out without the death and violence? Of course I do. I wish plenty of things. I still consider myself a pacifist, but when the enemy is as cruel and ruthless as they were, and we as desperate to end the horrors of predation and the horrors in general as we were, it would be easy for me to say we had no choice, that we made the best decision possible considering the circumstances, that we avoided innocent casualties and therefore didn’t stoop to their level, that what we did was for the greater good, that we saved countless more lives than we took. Is any of that valid? Does it even matter now that it’s happened? I don’t know. Nikita doesn’t either, we’ve discussed this more times after the war than we’ve discussed what plant based food tastes the best. Every time we talk about it we just end up going in circles, and while I can’t speak for Nikita, I know that not knowing has haunted me every night since.” - Yvonne Dandelionpaw, in an interview with Cat TV as part of a documentary about the Feline Revolution. # After the Dust Parted Yvonne and Nikita both returned to their positions in the now renamed Feline Science Institute, and while Nikita remains there to this day as a biochemistry professor and the coordinator of the ATDP Consortium which was formed to produce and further improve on the formulation, Yvonne, though still keeping in touch with her old friend, set her sights on a new Intium-based technology, called the Quantum Interface, namely the synthesis of Quantum Interface Crystals that powered them. She would make several contributions to this burgeoning field, before an offer came from the [Unified Territories](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/985699), an alliance of many small and medium sized animals, including Rodents, Avians, and many other species that were the Felines’ former, now truly and officially former, prey. They asked Yvonne if she wanted to work at one of their labs that were working on quantum interfaces as a diplomatic assignment. Hesitant at first, she was swayed by the prospect of actively working to help reconcile her own taxon and the taxa that they had prey upon up until now, and accepted, becoming the first ever Feline scientist to work in the Unified Territories, even though she is still employed by the FSI and is only a liaison researcher at her current lab.
For context, this takes place in my world with intelligent, non-anthro animals trying to live in harmony. This is part of the backstory of my main character and why she's where she is currently. The Felines had recently underwent a bloody and violent revolution, replacing their monarchist empire that is very pro-predation (Trophist) with a democratic republic that is very anti-predation (Unitist). Shortly afterward, they signed the Interspecies Peace Agreement and committed to banning predation by all Felines forever, to overwhelming support by the Feline public. Signing of the ISPA not only bans predation but also allows other ISPA members to engage in trade, travel, and exchange of knowledge and technology with the Felines, which is a big deal because the Felines are considered the most technologically advanced taxon, being the first taxon in history to surpass even the humans that lived before all of them millions of years ago. The Unified Territories, which is an alliance of Unitist small and medium sized animals, including the Felines' former prey like Avians and Rodents and is considered the second most advanced, took the opportunity to call up the Feline government to ask for a favour. Basically, the Unified Territories Ministry of Science called up the Feline Science Institute (both are government research institutions), and asked if they can have Yvonne Dandelionpaw transferred to one of their labs in the UT. Yvonne Dandelionpaw is a domestic cat who played a major role in recent Feline history: She co-developed something called ATDP, a dietary enzyme supplement that allows obligate carnivores like cats to subsist on plant based alternatives (where the "DP" part is named after her); she participated in the Feline revolution fighting for the Unitist side; and perhaps most importantly, she is one of the main scientists working on something called a quantum interface, which is one of the next frontiers of science that the Felines are actively pursuing. They basically wanted her to come over and work with their own scientists that are also trying to develop a quantum interface, and essentially spun it as "hey, let's work on this together since you're an ISPA member now!" The Feline Science Institute felt rather pressured by the Unified Territories, and responded with something along the lines of "We're just about okay with that, but you need to ask Yvonne directly. We're not going to force a Feline to relocate and take a job outside Feline territory." So they call up Yvonne initially refuses, saying "Well, it's a interesting offer, but I'd rather stay here and work with my own taxon as we rebuild after the war." But then the Unified Territories spun it in a different way to her, trying to convince her that a cat coming over to work in a UT government lab would be a great diplomatic opportunity for the two governments, and controversially, basically told her that there are researchers in the UT who are the Felines' former prey, and "wouldn't you want to be the one to reconcile with them so they realize how nice modern cats are and ditch that old stereotype of cats being pricks?" At which point she finally agreed to the transfer, on the condition that she remains employed by the Feline Science Institute and basically serves as a liason and diplomatic representative in addition to being a researcher, which the FSI was understandably also very adamant about. She is now working at a lab in the UT capital city, but the decision to have her there is very controversial on both sides. Many Felines accuse the Unified Territories of using their position among ISPA members to basically poach Feline talent, while many UT citizens accuse Yvonne of being a Feline spy, considering that she is a high ranking member of the Feline government who is working in a classified UT lab. What are your thoughts on this progression? Is it something that can reasonably happen when two governments are first establishing diplomatic ties? Do you think the way they spun it to Yvonne counted as coercion or guilt tripping? Any other opinions you have I would love to hear that as well!
I think I'd like to see what people would do in their leisure time or domestic work . You see so many stories about travel and war, but you rarely see people interact outside of that. And if you do, it's usually not made unique for a setting that isn't Earth. What cutlery do they use? What does a morning routine look like? In a world where fire magic is commonplace, how do they cook? How would those things evolve over centuries? Fantasy especially feels stagnant for this, but I think sci-fi is guilty of this too. Are there things in specific works where an innocuous detail made you wonder more about how a setting worked?
I'm joking with the meme, but it's an interesting how plot armor unintentionally places value on people's lives in fiction. It's telling that censorship laws decide who it is and isn't acceptable to kill. Just thinking about violence against sentient robots and how that's normalized in things like Samurai Jack. Like we know the robot has thoughts and feelings, like they'll try to run to save themselves or plead for mercy, but a character can still heroic after essentially killing a non-human who's acting like how we understand humans. I feel like there's something dangerous in how easily we can depict appropriate targets of violence. Not just robots, but anybody deemed as less than human are allowed to be more put at risk.  Unnamed people are killed in superhero fights all the time. But unless they are of a class of characters like protagonists, they are collateral damage at best. I think Plot Armor as a trope needs more class consciousness and awareness around how deciding who gets to be protected is often an unconscious political belief. What about you though? Any tropes in media you'd like to see explored more or written with a leftist understanding?
Callrd that world building ba""sed"
Xenomorph XX121, commonly referred to as simply the Xenomorph, known colloquially as the Alien, and classified as XX121, is a highly aggressive endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species. The Xenomorphs are vicious predatory creatures with no higher goals than the propagation of their species and the destruction of any life that could pose a threat to them. Like wasps or bees, Xenomorphs are eusocial, with a fertile Queen breeding a host of subordinate castes. The creatures are known for their potent acidic blood and their pharyngeal jaws, although their biological life cycle, in which their offspring are implanted inside living hosts before erupting violently from their chests, is in many ways their signature aspect. Aside from their repeated conflicts with humans, Xenomorphs have notably been associated with the Yautja, who know them as kainde amedha ("hard meat"). The Yautja revere the creatures as incredibly dangerous and thus highly worthy prey, notably employing them in initiation Hunts that serve to test young members of their society and mark their progression into adulthood The Xenomorphs' design is credited to Swiss surrealist and artist H. R. Giger, originating in a lithograph titled Necronom IV and refined for the series's first film, Alien. The practical effects for the Xenomorph's head were designed and constructed by Italian special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi. Species design and life cycle have been extensively augmented, sometimes inconsistently, throughout each film. Unlike many other extraterrestrial races in science fiction (such as the Daleks and Cybermen in Doctor Who, or the Klingons and Borg in Star Trek), the Xenomorphs are not sapient toolmakers — they lack a technological civilization of any kind, and are instead primal, predatory creatures with no higher goal than the preservation and propagation of their own species by any means necessary, up to and including the elimination of other lifeforms that may pose a threat to their existence. Like wasps or termites, Xenomorphs are eusocial, with a single fertile queen breeding a caste of warriors, workers, or other specialist strains. The Xenomorphs' biological life cycle involves traumatic implantation of endoparasitoid larvae inside living hosts; these "chestburster" larvae erupt from the host's body after a short incubation period, mature into adulthood within hours, and seek out more hosts for implantation. Characteristics Xenomorphs are primarily solitary ambush predators, although they have been known to adopt swarm tactics when acting in larger groups. Despite their voracious ability to kill, they often seek to take their victims alive to be hosts for more Xenomorphs; victims are taken to the Hive (or simply a secluded location if no Hive exists), cocooned and/or immobilized before being impregnated with a Xenomorph embryo. However, when their target becomes a threat or is deemed unsuitable for harvest, the Xenomorph will not hesitate to quickly dispatch the chosen host. Appearance Notably, Xenomorphs will alter their physical appearance during development depending on the physiology of the host in which they gestate – in all likelihood, this incorporation of physical traits gleaned from the host is designed to ensure the adult creature is better suited to the environment in which it will find itself. Outwardly, they are encased in a tough mesoskeleton, lending them a skeletal, biomechanical appearance, and are usually colored in muted shades of black, blue or bronze. The outer shell is incredibly resilient, impervious not only to the creature's own potent acid blood, but also capable of withstanding some forms of small arms fire. Whatever organism a Xenomorph gestates within, they invariably possess distinctive, elongated, cylindrical skulls, but have no visible facial features other than their mouth. The carapace atop the head has been seen to vary, from smooth and vaguely translucent to ridged and opaque Culture and society Xenomorphs operate under a caste system, with groups of specialized individuals performing distinct tasks within the species. It is not clear to what degree these castes are subject to a social hierarchy, although certain Xenomorph types, notably the Praetorians and the Queens, clearly exercise some degree of control and superiority over other more common variations. While individual Xenomorphs have been known to operate independently, owing to their tendency to reproduce rapidly and in large numbers they are more commonly encountered in groups and often likened to an infestation owing to their tendency to spread and consume all suitable host organisms in an area. As with many other eusocial organisms, Xenomorphs, particularly in larger groups, will create a central nest or Hive in which they will reside, often overseen by an Egg-laying Queen. Raiding parties will be sent out into the surrounding area to search for and capture more hosts, which will then be brought to the Hive and used to create more Xenomorphs. In larger infestations, smaller "satellite" Hives may be created, containing just a few Xenomorphs, allowing victims to be cocooned and impregnated even far away from the Queen herself. Behind the Scenes The script for the 1979 film Alien was initially drafted by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. Dan O'Bannon drafted an opening in which the crew of a mining ship are sent to investigate a mysterious message on an alien planet. He eventually settled on the threat being an alien creature. Prior to writing the script to Alien, O'Bannon had been working in France for Chilean cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky's planned adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic science-fiction novel Dune. Also hired for the project was Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger. Giger showed O'Bannon his nightmarish, monochromatic artwork, which left O'Bannon deeply disturbed. Giger conceived the Alien as being vaguely human but a human in full armor, protected from all outside forces. He mandated that the creature have no eyes, because he felt that it made them much more frightening if you could not tell they were looking at you A cultured Alien O'Bannon's original concept for the Alien was that it was a member of an advanced civilization, an idea ultimately dropped in favor of a more simplistic, animalistic take. In his initial vision, the final form of the adult Alien was in fact part of a peaceful, cultured race who first had to pass through a period of adolescence, at which stage they were consumed with ferocious violence and aggression. The creature's incredibly complicated reproductive cycle would form the basis of a religion the species followed, involving the use of sacrificial hosts to breed more young inside ornate, ritualistic pyramids. After birth, the violent adolescent creatures would be tended to by the more docile adults, but when those adults were wiped out by an unknown event, the unborn children were left dormant for thousands or even millions of years, waiting for more hosts to arrive.[48] It would be one of these hyper-aggressive, untended adolescents that would stalk the crew of the Nostromo. [Aliens: Dead Orbit](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Aliens-Dead-Orbit/Issue-1?id=110749) **Megathreads and spaces to hang out:** - ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow [Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies) - 💖 Come talk in the [New Weekly Queer thread](https://hexbear.net/post/744570) - 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the [News Megathread](https://hexbear.net/post/627069?scrollToComments=false) - 💚 Come and talk in the [Daily Bloomer Thread](https://hexbear.net/post/727445) - ⭐️ [September Movie Nominations](https://hexbear.net/post/451216) ⭐️ **reminders:** - 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics - 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears - 💜 Sorting by new you nerd - 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot [here nerd](https://hexbear.net/post/261657) - 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon [instance toots.matapacos.dog](https://toots.matapacos.dog/explore) **Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):** **Aid:** - 🌈 [LGBTQ+ Resource Post](https://hexbear.net/post/279079) - 💚 [Resources for Palestine](https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/) - [🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee](https://schoolsforchiapas.org/store/coffee-corn-and-agricultural/zapatista-coffee/) **Theory:** - ❤️[Foundations of Leninism](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm) - ❤️[Anarchism and Other Essays](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays)
The basic unit is the tribe or clan. This is three things: it's your family, it's your neighborhood (they live around you), and it's your economic unit. As an economic unit, each member has duties and gets (non-monetary) payment. Tribal duties include – * Hunt, gather, farm, or fish the food in the traditional way * Help build houses in the traditional way * Help build community halls and other spaces * Maintain and clean those community halls and public spaces * Childcare * Maintain roads, fix potholes The tribe has some skilled specialists, like tailors. Maybe 1 person in 100 is a tailor; it's that person's duty to make sure her 100 kinsfolk have clothes. One specialist is the perfumier/soapmaker who provides everyone with homemade soap, moisturizer, toothpaste, perfume, and that sort of thing. This is another opportunity to add local flavor: [African black soap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_black_soap), Palestinian Nabulsi soap, Inuit soap made from seal blubber, etc. and each perfumed with local flowers. Tribal perks/entitlements/wages include – * Food (traditional, local) * A house (vernacular architecture) * Clothes (traditional) * Childcare when you need it * You can hang out in the community hall This isn't luxurious, but you feel taken care of, safe. Just by being born into a family and discharging your duties you thereby earn material security. Lovely. You are home. Tribe’s don’t do very specialized or technical work. Everyone has to pitch in. The division of labor varies from place to place, often based on sex and age. At 0-12 you have no duties, from 12-15 you start being given light duties. Many cultures have traditionally divided men's work and women's work. Some people get the perks without the duties. These include the young, the old, the sick, injured or disabled. (In some cases, and I'm saying this to be non-Utopian, this is nasty, people who are a burden like the elderly are killed. Traditional cultures often had senicide.) Other people exempted from duties include guild-masters (discussed below) and champions in art and sport: imagine your cousin is a world-class violinist who performs on the world stage – you want her practicing, not sweeping the streets. So the tribe exempts her. There is a second economic unit: the guild. No tribe could perform robotic surgery, manufacture 7nm microchips, or build a train. So the medical guild, the microchip guild, the train guild do that. Guilds are not geographically bound, unlike tribes. Guilds conduct their business in the Esperanto-type language. (Anti-anarchists always say, “How could mutual aid groups do very technical work?” Answer: by organizing very technical mutual aid groups.) Everyone is a member of a tribe (you're born into it, how could you not be?). But only some qualify and become guild members: first an apprentice, then a journeyman, then a master. **What do tribes do for guilds?** They provide food, clothing, shelter, and some perks like luxury goods (silk, honey, pearls). And they provide new members, young blood. Also materials: the microchip guild must work out a special contract with the tribe whose ancestral lands are on a cobalt mine. **What do guilds do for tribes?** They are obliged to fix your laptop when it's broken, they maintain the trains, they provide healthcare. Become a guild apprentice and the tribe halves your burden of tribe-work. Become a master and you are totally exempt from tribe-work (it's stupid to expect a busy doctor to also sweep the streets), plus you get a bigger house, a finer grade of food, finer clothes, etc. This is a non-monetary exchange. It's a win-win contract.
([Crosspost from Lemmygrad](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/990183) with a few revisions.) Finally putting this part of my world to text after holding off for so long trying to think it through. I'm very much looking for feedback on this whole idea and progression in my world, and whether our society today would it consider too unethical for the quite explicitly socialist side to pull. Please let me know what you think! I should also mention that this is in no way in reference to or inspired by any human events or atrocities. That was not my intention, I did not go out and try to find for human tragedies that I could use for my own writing, and this is entirely a figment of my imagination, inspired mostly by other fiction and not real events. Context for this world is that it is inhabited by intelligent animals, think Zootopia but more sci-fi, and with quite a bit more political and societal turmoil during the time period this post focuses on. Also, these are normal, animal shaped animals, not anthros. They do have human scale lifespans though, if only because a 15-20 year lifespan for a cat is not conducive to detailed character development. I really need to start with some background information beforehand, otherwise the story feels incomplete. A pervasive and central part of this world is the problem of predator and prey. But being intelligent animals with their own hopes and stories, it becomes very morally problematic very quickly to hunt and eat your prey, at least for some predators. This brings us to the Feline empire. Some cats came to really enjoy the screams and pleads of their prey and really put effort into making them suffer while eating them, in that way your cat at home plays with its prey and bats it around, letting it go and catching it again till it gives out. Other cats, the vast majority in fact, did not *like* hunting and eating other animals, but either had no accessible alternatives or the alternatives were prohibitively expensive, it's extremely hard to convert an obligate carnivore to eating plants, at least physiologically. Still, the vast majority of the Feline population by this point were completely opposed to eating prey and saw eating prey as eating their comrades and made every possible effort to avoid it, going as far as causing grey-market, unregulated, illegal supplements and other non-meat alternatives exploding in popularity, their production being mostly very small operations by those with backgrounds in chemistry, community funded and sold largely at cost under the table, much to the frustration of the monarchy. But as you may imagine, the meat-free alternatives for obligate carnivores were quite limited. Omnivores like most canids had enjoyed something called a Dietary Enzyme Supplement for quite a while now, which is a pill that is taken either with every meal or at regular intervals, that arms the digestive system with artificial digestive enzymes, that can more efficiently break down plant matter, including cellulose, and use those breakdown products to synthesize nutrients in vivo. Nutritional supplements and synthetic meat substitutes had existed for even longer, but they were mainly compatible with omnivores, not carnivores. So Felines that wanted to stop eating prey *and* stay healthy were forced to mix and match various expensive enzyme supplements for omnivores (they were hard to get in Feline territory) with expensive "special" nutritional supplements, pay close attention to what plant based foods they're eating to get enough base nutrients like protein, and monitor very closely for the earliest symptoms of malnutrition. And if they were nursing kittens, they would be producing much less milk and less concentrated milk, leading to malnutrition in their kittens. Not to mention even weaned kittens are voracious little things and would be very expensive to feed without prey. Collectively among the general public, issues with eating prey and the burden of avoiding it were weighing increasingly heavily on their morale, finances, and health, and there was a dream of a dietary enzyme supplement for obligate carnivores. A cheap and convenient thing for Felines to essentially go vegan. But their government was Trophist (pro-predation) and gave no funding to these silly ideas of cats not eating meat, and other carnivore groups didn't seem to care. That was, until there was. Biochemist [Nikita Almondtail](https://lemmygrad.ml/post/1132838) and quantum chemist [Yvonne Dandelionpaw](https://www.reddit.com/r/Ficiverse/comments/nkcex9/char_yvonne_dandelionpaw_the_chemist_cat/) (note that the latter is a Reddit link while I'm still editing character profiles for posting on Lemmy) had developed ATDP, the first ever nutritionally complete dietary enzyme supplement for obligate carnivores. A pill that only had to be taken once a week, and which will not only allow Felines to digest and more importantly derive all their nutrients from plant based food, but to digest cellulose, and a range a food wide enough to include the softer *raw* plants. And critically, initial tests on Felines showed that it was safe for use when pregnant, and when nursing, could satisfy kittens' nutritional demands if done right, *and* could allow mother cats to produce just as much and just as high quality milk as pure meat eating cats. But, plant based food was more stable and reliable, higher output, and in a time when food insecurity and hunger was rampant among Felines just as it had been the nature of being a hunter, they could have a safe and reliable source of food that they controlled, no cat should go hungry again, all while making peace and even making friends with prey animals! Two *cats* developed ATDP no less, and it was tailored specifically for Felines! It used brand new technologies that the Felines had recently pioneered, including a newly discovered super-element called Intium. It was a triumph of Feline technology and science, and was poised to rid Felines of the need to kill and eat prey forever. That was, until the king of the Feline empire personally banned its production or further development, first stating that it unpatriotic and "against nature", though changed his narrative to saying that it wasn't safe for Feline to use after strong public pushback. This triggered a series of events that would lead to the outbreak of the Feline revolution, quickly escalating into the Feline civil war. Unitist (essentially, vegan socialist) movements among Felines had been growing steadily for a long time, and this is not the first time Unitists engaged in civil disobedience and even attempted insurgency, but the banning of ATDP pushed the Feline population over the edge and support for a Unitist revolution skyrocketed. The public had had it with their Empire and was determined to dismantle it in favour of a Unitist republic, just like the Unified Territories next doors. The empire responded with violence and terror against these Unitist cells, determined to silence them. This was when Yvonne Dandelionpaw and Nikita Amondtail came back together, using the knowledge they learned from developing ATDP, namely protein science and Intium, to develop a weapon to turn the tides in favour of the Unitist revolutionaries. They came up with something they called Catsbane, a neurotoxin developed under their enlistment in the newly consolidated rebel organization, the Feline Unity Army, and was used to assassinate numerous key figures of the Feline Empire they were trying to overthrow. Basically, they would find a way to tamper with the supply chain of mouse and bird meat, lacing the meals of the royal elite with the poison in highly targeted assassinations. There were even cases of captured prey animals slated to be eaten by high profile individuals who willingly took the poison in order to pass it on to the cats, with the long delay to symptom onset allowed them to not experience the effects until, you know. Extreme care was taken with this to only kill specific named targets and not cause any "collateral damage." Being a pro-drug, the chemical would be absorbed through the intestines and slowly processed by the liver into its physiologically active, toxic form. It would then travel into the brain where it interferes with the surface proteins of neurons such as ion pumps and neurotransmitter receptors. It was engineered to kill as silently and non-dramatically as possible. Victims would not feel symptoms for anywhere between days to over a week, at which point they will experience insomnia, disorientation and disassociation, memory loss, escalating into unresponsiveness and coma, before death comes about two to three weeks later. The "Catsbane stare" was coined to describe the blank expression late stage sufferers would develop as their brain shut down. The chemical is very difficult to detect before symptoms set in, and there is no antidote. Catsbane was also nicknamed "peaceful rabies", due to the fact that it has a period of no symptoms post exposure, is hard to detect until it's too late, and it targets the brain. A total of 120 assassinations were carried out with Catsbane, all in the Feline Empire's military or royalty, and it was a major contributor to the success of the revolution, with most agreeing that cats would be still eating prey if it wasn't invented. Obviously, this was extremely controversial. Many supporters of the revolution argued that this poison was much more merciful than the cats who ate prey gave their victims (getting eaten would also be up there in horrible ways to die, but that's not a medical condition), while many others questioned the integrity of a movement by cats who claim to want to live in harmony with their former prey animals engaged in killing other cats. After the revolution, the new Feline Democratic Republic, the Unitist republic, banned the poison as a Schedule 1 chemical weapon. The state-run Feline Science Institute is usually very open about providing anyone with their research and papers for free, but the synthesis of Catsbane is a notable exception. Some believe not even they have the synthesis procedure anymore and that all documents related to how to manufacture it was destroyed (they definitely still have it, though, in secret). Interestingly, the general Feline public had nearly complete support of these assassinations, but many prey animals (generally prey animals who lived in the nearby Unified Territories which was already Unitist for a long time) criticized it as even Unitist Felines were still killing animals, and highly polarized opinions among prey animals living within Feline territory (called the prey diaspora, long story). Many ended up trusting the Felines enough to stay and the Feline government post revolution is committed to making sure they are safe and can lead good lives alongside Felines. For Felines themselves (all animals in Feline territory actually), the Feline government is constitutionally required to ensure both plant based food and dietary enzyme supplements will always be freely and readily available to all animals in Feline territory, as that was a massive part of the revolution. The signing and near unilateral support of the Interspecies Peace Agreement banned predation, for all Felines anywhere in the world, from the cheetah to the domestic cat, in theory forever. There are rumours that the Unified Territories, which included the native territories and governments of their regular prey animals like rodents and birds, as wells as small to medium omnivores like dogs and foxes, aided the Feline Unitiside side. But no they definitely did. What do you think? I definitely intended it to be a little morally grey, but hopefully not morally bankrupt. I want to explore the idea of what might happen in desperation when your revolution is about to be crushed by the fascist opposition, and this was not without some regrets and doubts of their actions by the cats involved. I know that the animals will almost certainly have different values and perspectives from ours, but would this be considered a war crime in today's human world among human socialists? Would you personally be able to justify it? Any thoughts or questions please let me know! Especially if this is contradictory or unbecoming of a socialist revolution, I definitely want to know and will revise or do away with this part of the lore.
I'm indigenous, and my culture is a shadow of its former self. This got me thinking: what sort of a world would it be where indigenous cultures are all thriving everywhere? Then I followed that thought for way too long and built an alternate history world. It would be a world of strong local flavor: everywhere you go, there's vernacular architecture, traditional clothing, local food. Inuit cultures rule the Arctic. Aztecs rule Mesoamerica. I've written an alternate history that I won't bore you with. Imagine there was never a 'Great Divergence' (where the West pulled ahead) but instead various cultures developed at roughly equal speeds, and maybe shared technology more rather than use technology to exploit/oppress. Technical services are on a guild-system. The guilds recruit young people, train them up, and each local community (tribe, if you like) has a deal with the important guilds: you give us your services and we give your members food, board, other privileges. This explains why technology (like the steam engine) spread around the world without being used by one culture to oppress another. A person would have tribe-membership, with its duties and perks, and maybe guild-membership too, with its duties and perks. The Americas and Australia are totally different in this alternate history, because they never got Europeanised. Imagine a developed (21st century) Aztec culture, Cree, Inca etc. with the internet and electricity and so forth. Every culture is in its bloom of glory – it's a world of strong culture. I understand this opens me to charges of exoticism, but counterpoint: my own culture (not gonna doxx myself) is among them. Some worldbuilding is all about physics, some is all about military theory; this is all about anthropology, all the strange and fabulous variety of human religions, fashions, food. There are international elements to counter the extreme localism. In the alternate history, in the age of the steamship and telegram, international culture emerged. (This 'internationalist' phase actually happened in the mundane world as well: the first modern Olympics was in 1896; Esperanto appeared in 1887. It just wasn’t very successful.) Speak your local languages at home: the internet, academia etc. are in the global language. There’s art in local languages (storytelling, etc.) and there's international culture in the international language – the equivalent of The Simpsons or Star Wars that you can joke about when speaking with someone from the other side of the world. Another internationalist element would be cultural exchanges. Imagine you’re a Rus in Russia, and a Himba troupe come to stay in your community for three nights, do dance and storytelling, share your food, flirt. This is a form of diplomacy. Thriving indigenous cultures implies thriving ecosystems, as the two are inseparable. So it’s kind of a solarpunk/environmentalist world. Which fits with the idea of local economies/local cultures.
*This is a world I have created for roleplaying and storywriting. The formal description is still a work in progress. I would love some feedback on this long writeup, particularly as I intended it to be a socialist world.* Millions of years after humanity disappeared from Earth, animals have evolved to take their place. Technology is rediscovered from the ruins of the former human civilization, societies form and fall. There is chaos at first as different species fight for the dominance over the natural world that humans once enjoyed, but also because it was in the law of nature. The closest to achieve this was not a single species however, but the Unified Territories, an alliance of many member species from across the food web. Charters were established to abandon the barbaric rules of nature, allowing once natural enemies to live in peace. ## Basic Information The Unified Territories covers just under half of the Earth's land area, and controls at least one major splotch of land on every continent, and in every major biome. As the name suggests, it consists of land jointly owned by seven member taxonomic groups, which are in the order of joining, the vulpines (foxes), avians, rodents, dogs, mustelids (weasels, badgers, etc), leporids (rabbits). Feline territory is next door and is allied with the UT, but not formally apart of it. Each taxonomic group has its own government, but must abide by two main treaties: the Interspecies Peace Agreement (ISPA), whose most famous term is the agreement to not eat or kill any other animal, UT citizens or otherwise, intelligent or otherwise; and the Unified Territories Charter (UTC), which is the actual treaty that signifies membership in the Unified Territories. Non-UT territories must sign the ISPA to engage in trade and formal relations with the Unified Territories, and the terms of the UTC require that joining territories sign and fully implement the ISPA before a request to join the UT is even considered. ## Historical & Ideological Context As animal societies evolved, different intelligent species began dividing up land area, forming boundaries and pushing out animals that were not allied with them. This resulted in areas ruled by animals belonging only one or two taxonomic groups. Alliances and rivalries quickly formed, followed by conflict, invasion, betrayal, annexation, and all the other trappings of emerging societies, rinsed and repeated for many a generation. All the while, technology and science is both being independently developed by the animals and unearthed from the ruins that the humans left behind. This cascade of events arguably started when some groups of predator animals started to make alliances with what would have been their natural prey for their mutual benefit, which was often cooperation in battle, exchange of technology, or even trading of resources. While massively unpopular at first among both predators and prey, with time, the benefits of cooperation in a world with rapidly advancing technology would become more and more apparent, leading to wider acceptance of the practice. These alliances almost always included the stipulation that the predator animal would at least not eat the members the territory that allied with them, but sometimes the stipulation would extend to entire species or groups of species. In extraordionarily rare circumstances, predator animals would even agree to abandon eating animals altogether, in what can be thought of as a precursor to the Interspecies Peace Agreement. In these types of societies, predator animals gradually grew more accustomed to eating less meat, or even eating no meat at all, and began to see what once were prey species as allies that benefited them in ways other than being prey, maybe even collegues or friends. Some of these alliances became so strong that eventually borders between territories blurred and dissolved, and other species joined in the alliance, meaning even less animals that the predators were allowed to eat, but this supposed drawback faded in importance as the broader quality of life improved through the cooperative advancement of technology. However, relationships between predators and prey at this point were such that if your species were in a formal alliance, they can't eat you. If you weren't, it was fair game. The threat of eating a prey species was often used as leverage by predators, basically comply with our demands or we'll start hunting you again. This hypocracy was pointed out by scholars and philosophers on both the predator and prey sides, but for a long time not much changed because of the mostly monarchist empires that dotted the world that left no room for questioning the king's decisions. And even if there were, technology that can allow predator animals to subsist entirely on plant-based food simply did not exist yet. Some predator animals tried to get around the moral issues by eating only prey that have died of an unrelated cause, and this was quite controversial among prey species, with some figuring that it was better than living members of their species getting eaten, but others objected to the idea of the tomb of their beloved relatives being the belly of a predator (not the best material to make a casket with if you want to memorialize and preserve the departed). Nevertheless, access to freshly dead prey was mixed at best, and even if you swallowed the prey moments after they drew their last breath, the risk of food-borne infection was still much higher than live prey because most un-eaten prey animals died of disease, and this was still a pre-antibiotic era. This is also when many species and taxonomic groups became one government, as it was advantageous to have a united, consistent front when negotiating or generally interacting with other species. Say you're a mouse. You see a cat, you know what to expect because who they can and can't hunt is strictly enforced by their empire, so if the empire promises they won't eat you then you can be reasonably sure every cat won't eat you. This makes you more likely to engage in trade with cats and generally benefit both parties. This idea of species and taxonomic governments survive to their modern age, but now serve the purpose of better representing common interests, needs, and opinions of similar animals, though even this is challenged and many believe that it's better in the long term to change to a single government for all Unitist animals, and abandon drawn borders and territories as well. Debates about this in modern times is as spicy as back then when they were discussing the idea of "If you ally with us we won't eat you," with most believing that while a full dissolution of territories and separate taxonomic governments is inevitable as animals commingle more and more, but their society of predator and prey is simply not mature enough for this to happen tomorrow. Meanwhile, technology for processing plant matter to be more compatible with carnivores, as well as attempts to synthesize nutrients only found in meat were happening at a breakneck pace. Starting with various methods of cooking and fermentation, but slowly progressing to proper bio- and organic chemistry as the field became ever more advanced. At a certain inflection point, when technology for this had advanced far enough to completely replace animal meat for some predator species (omnivores first, the tech to convert an obligate carnivore to plant based food came much later), a new ideology began to crop up: Unitism, based on the word unity, specifically the motto "Unity Among Animals." The idea was that if your species was able to subsist entirely on plants, the eating your fellow animals was obsolete. That if, instead of worrying oneself with hunting or avoiding being hunted, if we all just came together and pooled our resources and knowledge, everyone taking care of everyone else and operating as a collective where things were jointly owned and animals' needs were provided for, we can all but eliminate suffering and make life better for every animal: big or small, predator or prey, furred, scaled, or feathered. The flagship treaty developed under this new ideology is called the Interspecies Peace Agreement, which, among many other protections and rights granted, forbids any animal, species, taxon, or other entity signatory to it from eating prey, with no distinction between if you have an alliance with them or not, and the treaty explicitly states that you cannot rescind it once signed. This is the founding document for two of the three major world powers in the modern day. This is contrasted with Trophism, which says to eat prey and take care of no one but yourself. Based on the word... trophism, which is a biology word that refers to the process of organisms deriving energy and nutrients. The super technical way of saying eating food basically. # History of the Unified Territories Arguably the first organized movement to abandon the food chain was jumpstarted by a red fox by the name of Akko. He lived in a territory with multiple predator-prey alliances, and one of the more powerful territories at the time. In his young adult life, he studied politics in hopes of becoming a general for the territory leader, but in doing so, he began to see the political dynamic as one that was, quote, "built on hypocrisy, unfair distribution of power, and injustice". He took exception to the notion of predator-prey alliances often being decided by heriditary territory leaders, sometimes "based on nothing but their personal preference". He thought it hypocritical for predator animals to decide who to eat and not eat based purely on their territory's political alignment, where were often unstable, and despised the fact that not preying upon a particular group was being used as a political bargaining tool. Furthermore, Akko saw a major problem in the ways that societies where very different animals coexist are set up. Smaller animals would often have an easier time affording living expenses, simply because the prices of food and other resources were consistent for everyone, but physically smaller animals required less resources. In response, tensions would still be present between even allied species, and descrimination would result. He also noted the inequalities stemming from class and lineage. In his many writings, speeches, and public demostrations, he advocated for a society where all intelligent animals had the same opportunities, and could live without fear that shifting politics would suddenly cause them to fall prey to their former allies. Akko referred his idea of animals living in harmony as "unity", and reasoned that the only way to achieve this would be to unite all territories, pooling their resources and providing to individual animals not equally in amount, but equally in the sense of satisfying their needs and giving them the same opportunity to thrive. He also believed that animals should not only refrain from killing or eating allied animals, but all animals, as the endgame of his ideology is to create a world where every animal lives in unity with one another. The Unity Revolution was the period of time between the rise in popularity of the ideas presented by Akko and the formation of the Unified Territories. It consisted of many species and territory specific revolutions of varying degrees of peacefulness. Of note is the fact that the felines played an especially antagonistic role in many of the revolutions as they resisted the movement. The times where it seemed that the Unity Revolution would fail were almost all caused or contributed to by the felines, so needless to say, it would have come as a great surprise to anyone living at the time if they learned that the felines are now also Unitist and allied with the UT. Despite pushback from multiple fronts, the Unity Revolution eventually succeeded, forming the Unified Territories first between the vulpines, avians and rodents, and eventually more taxonomic groups, comprising just over a majority of the worlds's intelligent animal population. ## Political Structure As mentioned, each taxonomic group has its own separate government, which has the authority to make some taxonomy specific civil laws and regulations and provide taxonomy specific services with the most important one being healthcare. There are also regional governments for each geographic location that work with the taxonomic governments. However, most of the power is held by the UT central government that is comprised of all the taxonomic and regional governments collaborating with each other. The UT government, among other roles, owns all the land, controls most of the resources, and handles all taxonomy agnostic legislation, including criminal law and foreign policy. It also has the authority to overrule any taxonomic or regional government. Any citizens of species not apart of the seven taxonomies has no taxonomic government and only falls under the authority of the UT government and their regional government, but due to the UT's heavy emphasis on equality, their lives are not much different than those who also have a taxonomic government. The purpose for the taxonomic governments are to efficiently address the needs of individual species, which can vary greatly due to their physiological differences. With the amount of diversity in the UT, it would simply be too much for a monolithic government to manage effectively. However, most of this occurs in the background, and most services are provided simply under the name of the Unified Territories itself. The UT government's main branch consists of the Unity Council, which consists of seats allocated both for each taxonomic group and by region, as well as representatives of non-native citizens. By design, every citizen receives equal representation through voting for council members as well as frequent referendoms and opinion polls. Various ministries, such as the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Resources and the Ministry of Housing exist as part of the UT government, and are the entities that allow UT society to function. ## Society UT citizens have public ownership of everything in their lives as it is all government run, and there are no private companies. Again, this is in order to ensure equality between animals and to place the citizens first. Essential aspects of life like food, housing and healthcare are rationed to each animal based on their needs both as a memebr of a species and as an individual, while credits are given in exchange for working in a job, which can be exchanged for luxury or otherwise non-essential items. Healthcare is always free, as is education as long as the animal meets the admission requirements. This also means that animals can study to work in a field that they have a genuine interest for instead of simply working to cover their living expenses. Science and technology are very popular fields for this reason, allowing for rapid technological advancement. The Unified Territories recently reached a milestone where they, by some metrics, surpassed the technological prowess of humanity during their golden age, but one wouldn't be able to tell by looking at the surface of their society. There is a great emphasis on not making cities look too artificial, instead relying heavily on natural elements and the landscape itself, and even Central Valley, the capital city, looks more like a forest with technology and infrastructure peppered about as opposed to a human metropolis.
docs.google.com
WARNING: GOOGLE DOC This document is basically a Cyber core-Hopepunk thing I'm working on mainly so I could work with people in the Imperial Periphery who wish to write stories. The main premise is that America and the other Imperial Core countries have lost their power and are trying to regain their strength. America for example has turned into the Neo-American States and have become a mask off oligarchy. But there is a group that I call "Tinkers" who work to fix the Americas as there different threats. I mainly wanted to start with Neo-America since I wanted to make an anthology series about my frustrations with America and how if this keeps up. Soon we'll be living in a world of "The Men Of Action Are Dead". Ex: Grey Goo taking over the Western Coast due to Elon Musk and Co thinking they could make more land through nano machines. If you wanna use these idea, go for it as I know I might not get this stuff done anytime soon.
Basically, I have a sci-fi world with intelligent animals. The story is that long after humans disappeared from the Earth, animals eventually become intelligent and made their own society to replace them. One major development in their history is that predators and prey agreed to live in harmony, signing treaties, making laws, and generally working very hard to ensure lasting peace between natural enemies. One aspect of this is of course prosecuting animals that engage in predation. The way criminal trials work in this world is that every animal has the right to be tried by members of their own species or taxonomic group, who are also responsible for carrying out sentencing. Each animal has a taxonomic government to answer to, so if you're a cat you are under the jurisdiction of the Feline government, mouse, Rodent government, bird, Avian government, etc. Each animal follows the same basic laws and regulations that all taxonomic governments agree on, things like prohibiting predation is one of these, but each government can also pass taxon-specific legislation, and are also able to determine criminal penalties independently. The Felines only had their revolution a few years ago, when they overthrew their old kingdom which was very pro-predation, and made a republic that has signed the Interspecies Peace Agreement and is therefore very anti-predation. Because it's so recent, the Felines also have the harshest punishments for a predation conviction made after the revolution. One count of first degree predation (when you personally kill then eat an animal) is an automatic life in prison without parole, the same penalty as "regular" murder without eating the victim, two or more counts is life in prison unless the prosecution requests for the death penalty at the start of trial and this is authorized by both the judge and the Feline Ministry of Security. Generally, courts stop at two predation convictions even if it's obvious that the defendant committed more, since that's enough to either put them away forever with no chance of parole, or kill them. Second degree predation, AKA simple predation, where you eat already dead animals that someone else killed, is treated much less harshly and sentencing options only has fixed term imprisonment possibly with parole, though with restrictions afterward like you can't work in the government or security-critical industries unless the court lifts those restrictions on a case by case basis. The ISPA lists execution after being convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime that causes the death of two or more other animals as the only exception to the no killing rule, and it can only be done by members of the same species or taxonomic entity, and is also subject to oversight and can even be blocked outright by other ISPA members through the ISPA Inter-Taxon Court, so they also do not have full autonomy on who they can execute, and taxa that have the death penalty much also must make their execution methods (which are mandated to always prioritize minimizing suffering), judicial procedures, and statistics public. They do also use the threat of execution as a way of getting information about a predation case though. If they catch a Feline who is apart of a predation ring, it's better than nothing but they'd obviously much rather take down the leader and the entire organization. The Feline Ministry of Security can basically tell the accused "Look, your trial date has been set, the prosecution has requested authorization to use the death penalty from us, and you know what evidence they have on you. We're still trying to decide if we want to grant that request. It's up to you and we can't force you to give us any information, but is there anything you want to tell us about your organization or do you want to gamble with whether you'll be found guilty or not?" Funnily enough most of these cats don't care that they're killing sapient prey animals that have lives and families and stories, but break real fast when it's their own life on the line. The Felines (and any ISPA member for that matter) can also arrest other species if they commit a crime on their territory or against a their own animals, but within the Interspecies Peace Agreement member species, animals have the right to stand trial and receive sentencing by their own species or taxon, so most they can do is investigate the crime, form a case with evidence, and then extradite the defendant back and forward their findings to the government that actually has jurisdiction. Most they can do to a non-Feline is detain them, extradite, and then ban them from Feline territory. However, any ISPA non-signatories, AKA predators that are actually predators and eat prey, who engage in predation, either against any ISPA member species anywhere in the world, or on ISPA territory against any animal; are not granted this right (obviously, since if you extradited them back to their own territory they'd be home free). So if you eat a cat or eat a mouse or bird or any other animal on Feline territory, you are dealt with just like any predatory cat by the Feline government regardless of what the laws by your own taxonomic government is. I should also add that *every* animal is intelligent/sapient in this world. So predation really would be like murder. No copouts like eating fish or whatever. Even in universe this is quite controversial even among prey species so I'm not trying to claim that this is the ideal state of the law, but I'm more trying to make sure if this makes sense or not. I also know that they will almost certainly have very different morals and ethics for humans, but then again I'm writing this story for humans so not sure how relevant that actually is. Is the motivation of having a death penalty despite not even allowing animals to eat meat a realistic one?
Meta-worldbuilding because I'm not presenting a project of mine as a "what" but rather asking the "why" and "how." My questions for you comrades: - Can there be a leftist mythology? - Should there be? - What would it be like? For the record and some context, I just mean how something like *The Lord of the Rings* can birth a new genre in itself (modern fantasy) by symbolizing an ideology, and which itself becomes a symbol eg. how fascists use references to LOTR. Or how scifi, superhero stories are new myths which become reality or at least a language for it ("Elon Musk is real life Iron Man" or "literally 1984"). I am exploring thinking about leftist thought as a new form of mythology or religion (in a good or useful way), as a way to write fantasy alternatives to the lib/fash Eurocentric bs out there. But I am kinda unsure if there is a point now. I was listening to [this](https://plasticpills.podbean.com/e/pill-pod-135-political-mythologies-of-the-left-and-right-ft-diego-ruzzarin/) podcast by PlasticPills which compares the "mythologies" (basically systems of symbols of ideology) of the right vs left. They were pessimistic, saying that yeah the right can go on creating mythologies and do fascism basically, but the left is too busy, you know, surviving to do this. In any case, leftist mythology might be useless materially. The only real myth, or rather anti-myth is the Revolution itself, since it is a symbol of meaning for the left but one that actually performs material change. Yet it's apophatic: just talking about the Revolution is liberalism, and after it's done, it's revisionism from then on. Only the act of revolution is truly a material and meaningful act. (All according to the podcast, talking about the book *Mythologies* by Roland Barthes) The other podcast I've been listening to is Damien Walter's [Science Fiction](https://damiengwalter.com/category/podcast/), kinda lib but I can appreciate his intention to find a new modern myth in scifi. He is also dismissive of socialist projects as just an inverse of fascistic myth-making as reaction to modernity -- that we want to recreate everything as post-modern instead of preserve the pre-modern. Idk I disagree with this specifically but I still follow his search for a "metamodern" mythology
The United Federation of Planets (abbreviated as UFP and commonly referred to as the Federation) was a supranational interstellar union of multiple planetary constituent political entities under a single central government, founded on the principles of liberty, equality, peace, justice, and progress, with the purpose of furthering the universal rights of all sentient life. Federation members exchange knowledge and resources to facilitate peaceful cooperation, scientific development, space exploration, and mutual defense. One of the most powerful interstellar states in known space, it encompassed eight thousand light years. The total number of formal member worlds was over one hundred and fifty in the 24th century. At its height, at an unstated time between the 25th and 31st century. it numbered three hundred and fifty members (DIS: "Die Trying"). Unlike its imperial rivals – especially the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire – who derived power from a single species subjugating other races. the Federation's various member worlds joined voluntarily and were equals in the Federation's democratic society Starfleet was incorporated to maintain exploratory, scientific, diplomatic, and defense functions. Federation culture, values, and technology had vast influence; across space and time, as well as other dimensions and subspace domains. Encountering numerous clashing ideologies, some conflicts escalated into significant resistance, such as armed conflict, and even temporal incursions intended to prevent key historical events from occurring. Government The exact nature of the government of the Federation has never been made clear on screen. From the information available, the United Federation of Planets would appear to have been a constitutional representative republic, to and in which constituent members delegate some of their sovereignty, who participated in a legislature known as the Federation Council, elected a chief executive known as the Federation President, and which were ostensibly balanced by a judiciary headed by a Federation Supreme Court. The exact division of powers between the Federation government and the governments of its member worlds is unknown, though various episodes indicate the Federation placed great value on maintaining local sovereignty over local affairs – as late as the 2270s, Kirk makes reference to the Vulcan embassy, either to the Federation itself or to United Earth, which suggests that member worlds continued to exchange diplomatic representatives with each other. This is consistent with a canon that member worlds were left to manage their own governance in accordance with their own traditions and local laws, so long as the general requirements of membership were met, similar to how the member states of the European Union are bound together today. However, Federation law did grant the government emergency authority to override local governance and declare martial law on a member's territory [Star Trek: United Federation of Planets - Complete History ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NBuUXpPOr4) **Megathreads and spaces to hang out:** - ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow [Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies) - 💖 Come talk in the [New Weekly Queer thread](https://hexbear.net/post/279529) - 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the [News Megathread](https://hexbear.net/post/281134) - ⭐️ [August Movie Nominations](https://hexbear.net/post/281179) ⭐️ **reminders:** - 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics - 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears - 💜 Sorting by new you nerd - 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot [here nerd](https://hexbear.net/post/261657) - 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon [instance toots.matapacos.dog](https://toots.matapacos.dog/explore) **Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):** **Aid:** - 🌈 [LGBTQ+ Resource Post](https://hexbear.net/post/279079) - 💚 [Resources for Palestine](https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/) - [🐌☕ Zapatista Coffee](https://schoolsforchiapas.org/store/coffee-corn-and-agricultural/zapatista-coffee/) **Theory:** - ❤️[Foundations of Leninism](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1924/foundations-leninism/index.htm) - ❤️[Anarchism and Other Essays](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays)
Not too different from last year, a bit more blue than before. Some cases like Peru I put National Conservatism because that seems the closest to Fujimorism since the congress ousted Castillo