History Literature / Eldraeverse

* SociallyScoredSociety: The Empire of the Star has multiple reputation networks, your scores on which can affect the price you pay at vendors, job prospects, and in at least one case if you accumulate a low enough score an organization will pay you to leave the empire. The author has claimed that it's not a dystopian feature in-universe because eldrae are not the same sort of inherent bastards humans are.

* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Averted. There's actually a "Speculativism Index" for rough estimates of how easy it would be to sell uncontacted planets stuff based on their science-fiction. The Voniensa Republic plays it straight, though.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: While eldrae skin tone most commonly varies between cream and copper, there is a small minority with skin translucent enough to qualify here. Having blue blood, and all.

* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Averted. There's actually a "Speculativism Index" for rough estimates of how easy it would be to sell uncontacted planets stuff based on their science-fiction. The Voniensa Republic plays it straight, though.

* BlueSkinnedSpaceBabe: While eldrae skin tone most commonly varies between cream and copper, there is a small minority with skin translucent enough to qualify here. Having blue blood, and all.

The Eldraeverse is a {{Transhuman}} SpaceOpera setting rooted in [[Mohs/OneBigLie Hard]] ScienceFiction, developed by Alistair Young. It currently comprises three books of short/nanofiction:

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Self-described as "firm" SF, aiming for around 4 (OneBigLie) on the scale, and has received the [[http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sealofapproval.php#id--Science_Fiction_Novels--Vignettes_of_the_Star_Empire Atomic Rockets seal of approval]], which the author takes as a good sign.

* SpaceOpera: Albeit the "New Space Opera" kind. There's a strong focus on [[MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness hard science]] underpinning the whole thing, but the author seeks to present a vast, expansive, somewhat idealistic AdventureFriendlyWorld within those constraints.

The Eldraeverse is a {{Transhuman}} SpaceOpera setting rooted in [[Mohs/OneBigLie Hard]] ScienceFiction, developed by Alistair Young. It currently comprises two books of short/nanofiction:

* EarthShatteringKaboom: The [[https://eldraeverse.com/tag/burning-of-litash/ Burning of Litash]], when the Empire tested a strangelet bomb on a planet whose economy was based around piracy and slaving. The bomb left a thousand-mile wide crater, incinerated the entire planetary ecosphere, and directly caused some drastic amendments to the Conclave of Galactic Polities' accords concerning the use of weapons of mass destruction.

* OneNationUnderCopyright: The reason that the Empire's citizens are referred to as citizen-shareholders. Back in the dim and distant past, it grew out of a merger of anarchist-style private law providers (a PrivatelyOwnedSociety).

* ProHumanTranshuman: Not exactly pro-''human'', ''per se'', but the eldrae clearly view self-augmentation in a very positive light, to the point that much of Imperial society is built around the fact that everyone who's anyone already has a computer chip in their head.

* AlienBlood: Eldrae have indigo blood, due to their biology incorporating organelles from their homeworld's native "bluelife", in contrast to the Terran greenlife and nanotechnological silverlife.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: Dogs are called "bandal", uplifted dogs are ''dar-bandal''. Though the eldrae homeworld has some animals that are simply referred to by their English names like orcas, octopi, and bears.

* CrapsackOnlyByComparison: Strictly speaking, the Voniensa Republic isn't all that bad, and would almost be a {{Utopia}} by Earth standards. It's just that, next to the Empire's extravagant prosperity, its own claims of superiority are starting to ring a little hollow.

* GalacticSuperpower: The Empire of the Star in terms of overwhelming technological superiority. While the Voniensa Republic has eight thousand systems in contrast to the hundreds of the Empire (the entire Accord is slightly larger than the Republic but much less unified), but their tech is pitiful, [[spoiler: they only have stargates because they found a Precursor weylforge.]]

* HumansAreDivided: Inasmuch as eldrae are like humans, there are hundreds of eldrae polities outside the Empire. Most other sophonts were contacted by and joined the Empire. Though, it's mentioned that there are some kalatri colonies that are independent of the Republic, and there are sefir in the Equality Concord, the League of Meridian and the Empire, at the least.

* PsychicPowers: Technological imitations at least. The Precursors genetically engineered Eldrae brains for ElectronicTelepathy and injected them with self-replicating vector-control effectors for [[MindOverMatter psychokinesis.]]
* PurposeDrivenImmortality: A key aspect of eldraeic society is something they call ''qalasir'', roughly glossed as "purpose" or "leaving one's stamp on the Universe" with overtones of Friedrich Nietzsche's "will to power." An individual is expected to have high-minded, grandiose ambitions and devote themselves to seeing it fulfilled, regardless of cost.

* ResurrectiveImmortality: Thanks to the ubiquity of BrainUploading, coming back from the dead is no more difficult than copying the most recently updated version of your personality into a new body. You'll be none the worse for the wear, except maybe some incidental amnesia -- and not even that, if they recovered your [[HeartDrive cortical stack]].

** The Core War actually details a "hot" war when the Republic suddenly sends a battle fleet into Imperial space with no explanation. [[spoiler: They were trying to seize what they thought was the Empire's source of wormholes, it ends up not only failing but bankrupting Voniensa.]]

* TechnologyUplift: The Empire engages in a great deal of uplifting primitive cultures, both officially, with at least one corporation based on providing Uplift services, and unofficially, such as opening a "Rent-a-Thought" franchise in their embassy on a planet whose government restricts off-world tech and encouraging the natives to visit.

* LibertariansInSpace: Examined. The central setting, the Empire of the Star, is portrayed as a libertarian {{Utopia}}, where respect for liberty and personal choice is balanced by an admirably cheerful general attitude of voluntary civic-mindedness. On the other hand, it's mentioned that there are plenty of outliers outside Imperial space where a narrow, dog-eat-dog, almost Randian interpretation of self-interest is practiced; it's implied that these are not nice places to live at all, especially if you can't afford decent protection services. Subverted somewhat in that the modal Imperial is not so likely to criticize these other places as greedy, but rather to rail at them for doing greed ''wrong''.

* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Averted. There's actually a "Speculativism Index" for rough estimates of how easy it would be to sell uncontacted planets stuff based on their science-fiction.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Eldrae ethics is incredibly propertarian (considering property metaphysically part of its owner), preoccupied with balance and obligation, worships cold-minded rationality, considers pride a ''virtue'', and is individualist enough to utterly fail to understand why anyone might consider 'peer pressure' or 'community consensus' a thing at all. Naturally, this produces, ah, distinctively inhuman results.

* GalacticSuperpower: The Empire of the Star in terms of overwhelming technological superiority. While the Voniensa Republic has eight thousand systems in contrast to the hundreds of the entire Accord (including the Empire), but their tech is pitiful, [[spoiler: they only have stargates because they found a Precursor weylforge.]]

* HumansAreDivided: Insomuch as eldrae are like humans, there are hundreds of eldrae polities outside the Empire. Most other sophonts were contacted by and joined the Empire. Though, it's mentioned that there are some kalatri colonies that are independent of the Republic.

* LibertariansInSpace: Examined. The central setting, the Empire of the Star, is portrayed as a libertarian {{Utopia}}, where respect for liberty and personal choice is balanced by an admirably cheerful general attitude of voluntary civic-mindedness. On the other hand, it's mentioned that there are plenty of outliers outside Imperial space where a narrow, dog-eat-dog, almost Randian interpretation of self-interest is practiced; it's implied that these are not nice places to live at all, especially if you can't afford decent protection services.

* MachineWorship: [[ZigzaggedTrope It's complicated.]] The eldrae worship the ''eikones'' (roughly, divine manifestations of virtuous archetypes) that manifest in their Transcend, but they coded those into the system in the first place -- although some suspect in-universe that the ''eikones'' [[StableTimeLoop somehow inspired the prior faith's creation to guarantee their own in the future]].

* HeartDrive: The cortical stack, which functions more or less identically to that from the ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series -- a black box that records and stores your memories and personality, specifically designed to survive anything that destroys the rest of you and allow you to be restored in a new body.

* HeartDrive: The cortical stack, which functions more or less identically to that from the ''[[Literature/TakeshiKovacs]]'' series -- a black box that records and stores your memories and personality, specifically designed to survive anything that destroys the rest of you and allow you to be restored in a new body.