The Sol Imperative is a planned Space Opera series by Vex Cactus.
Most of the galaxy is controlled by four major superpowers, all of which are hostile to the Union to varying degrees due to their rapidly-growing size threatening to upset the balance of power.
- The anhayat Seventeen Banners: A (very) loose union of seventeen syats (translated as House, though roughly analogous to ethnostates), the mammalian anhayat-led Seventeen are the dominant economy in the galaxy; the capital planets of each clan compete to be the Milky Way's most prominent trade hub. Their economic superiority is in part guaranteed by their mastery of espionage and information warfare, their intelligence agencies having eyes and ears in almost every corner of the galaxy.
- The taraigh Greater Dahan-aht Dominion: Comprised of the reptilian taraigh, the Dominion boasts the finest ground armies of the four great powers. The taraigh are the most aggressive of the four, competing with everyone else to expand their territory and influence among the galaxy's unclaimed systems. The taraigh are also highly-skilled industrialists, and public works of impressive engineering prowess can found throughout their territories.
- The chalovei Loreissal Republic: The mammalian chalovei are the most technologically-advanced and culturally-influential power of the Big Four. The Republic's armed forces employs the some of the galaxy's most skilled pilots and their special forces are feared for their lethality. Chalovei culture is renowned for its immense depth, and the species' pursuit of both intellectual and artistic pursuits is nothing short of obsessive.
- The santhsaunt Hierarchy of Santhkiln: The oldest of the Big Four are the amphibian santhsaunt-ruled Hierarchy, and it possesses the largest contiguous swath of territory, spanning hundreds of star systems and organized into five lesser empires centered around the gigantic greater dominion of Rindol. Despite their decaying influence, no other power in the galaxy possesses a more formidable celestial navy than them, and their holdings still have no shortage of worlds terraformed to their needs.
The Sol Imperative provides examples of the following tropes:
- Higher-Tech Species: All of the Big Four to the human-led Union, the awareness of which is the primary driving force behind the Union's rapid interstellar expansion.
Species and Nations
Seventeen Banners
- Homeworld:
- Structure: Military-economic alliance
- Major Worlds: Set Sayat
- Constituent Species: Anhayat (93%)
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A Culture Chop Suey of Switzerland, Taiwan, and the Muisca.
Anhayat
- Homeworld: Settalchat
The anhayat are a mammalian race hailing from the planet of Settalchat.
The Greater Dahan-aht Dominion
- Capital: Dahanu
- Structure: Autocratic empire
- Major Worlds: Basht, Geshwarat
- Constituent Species: Taraigh (89%), fulgos (10%), ut'oek (<1%), yarang (<1%)
- Color Motif: Beige and maroon.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A Culture Chop Suey of the Roman Empire, ancient Persia, and the Aztecs.
- Cyber Cyclops: Legionary helmets are fully enclosed, eschewing a visor in favor of a camera surrounded by thick armor plates. This is because prolonged exposure (even looking at the beams) to their standard-issue laser weapons causes damage to the unprotected eyes and eventually causes blindness.
- Energy Weapon: The basic armaments of Dominion soldiers are laser small arms, and are used as frequently as ballistic weapons. Larger versions are used on various walkers and tanks and other armored fighting vehicles. While lacking in range compared to other weapons (which is the reason the Dominion still uses ballistic weapons), they have pinpoint accuracy and can pierce most contemporary body armor and energy shielding.
- The Faceless: The Dominus, the autocratic emperor of the Dominion. Upon ascending to the throne, the new Dominus will wear a large headdress and elaborate carved mask for the rest of his or her life when in public.
- Kill It with Fire: Taraigh ground forces frequently deploy incendiary weapons.
Taraigh
- Homeworld: Dahanu
The taraigh are a reptilian race native to the planet of Dahanu. Taraigh history, until recently, was one of division and conflict; for thousands of millennia Dahan and its star system was fractured into dozens of lesser empires vying for dominance. Around the human 1500s, a mysterious figure known only as the Dominus began appearing in historical records. While information on the first Dominus himself is very scarce, what is commonly accepted fact is that his empire took surrounding rivals by surprise and relentlessly crushed them one by one. Within a few decades, the Gech-Khetem star system was finally unified into one force poised to conquer the galaxy.
Several centuries of expansion followed, and after establishing its reputation by being the first race to ever defeat the Hierarchy of Santhkiln in a direct conflict, the Dominion is now considered the youngest of the so-called Big Four. Shortly after the Sol Union made first contact with the rest of the galaxy, the humans' rapid expansion alarmed Dominion observers. Seeing the Union as a threat, a war between the two erupted... then another one... then another one. Even in peacetime, there is always constant, low-intensity conflict occurring throughout the galaxy wherever the two's respective species are in close proximity.
- Heavy Worlder: Dahan has 1.6G and is comparatively drier and hotter than Earth. As a result, most taraigh phenotypes are, on average, only 168 cm (5'5") in height but have high stamina and endurance.
- Lizard Folk: They resemble a short, squat combination of Earth crocodiles and tortoises.
- Proud Soldier Race: The taraigh arguably have the most superior ground army out of the Big Four. The Dominion's forty-eight Legions contain the most organized and disciplined soldiers in the entire galaxy, and only the Republic, the Hierarchy and later the Union have ever defeated them in a direct war.
Yarang
- Homeworld: Anguryun
The yarang are a mammalian species from the lush garden world of Anguryun. For decades, the yarang had been aware of the existence of life on other planets, but lacked both the concentrated effort and sufficient technology to do anything about it. However, by the 24th century, their discovery of abyssal space and the subsequent invention of a crude FTL drive allowed the yarang to finally embark on a manned expedition to a nearby star system they had long suspected to host alien life in 2403.
Upon arriving in the star system, the fleet's survey teams are shocked to discover a scene of destruction on a scale never before seen in their history; not one but several planets are dotted with wrecked cities and scorched battlegrounds, while fleets larger than their own engaged in combat in orbit. Almost immediately, the yarang make contact with some of the system's many inhabitants and learn the situation at hand: they've stumbled onto Sol Union colonies (among them the prouam homeworld) under siege from Dominion Legions on a campaign to capture the system. Upon making formal contact with the warring powers, the yarang soon find themselves in a galaxy that holds its culture of idealism and universal peace in utter contempt.
- Naïve Newcomer: Their first expedition outside their home system brings them right into a warzone between the Union and Dominion, and they immediately attempt to play diplomat between two warring nations much more powerful than they are. The next few decades has them become more and more cynical as they realize how cutthroat galactic politics can get.
- Proud Scholar Race:
- Wide-Eyed Idealist:
The Loreissal Republic
- Homeworld: Talorei
- Structure: Unitary republic
- Major Worlds:
- Constituent Species: Chalovei (71%)
- Energy Weapon: Plasma rifles are the most common directed-energy weapon issued to Republic troops.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A Culture Chop Suey of the Napoleonic-era French Empire, South Korea, and the Maya.
Chalovei
- Homeworld: Talorei
The chalovei are a mammalian race from the planet of Talorei.
Hierarchy of Santhkiln
- Capital: Santhkiln
- Structure: Constitutional monarchy
- Major Worlds:
- Constituent Species: Santhsaunt (86%)
- Energy Weapon: Ion weapons are a staple of Royal Guard mech-hunter units.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A Culture Chop Suey of the British Empire, Imperial China, and the Inca.
- Matriarchy: Female santhsaunt hold a vast majority of positions of power in Royal society and have been for millennia. The most powerful individuals in the Hierarchy are the Empress, followed by the five Queens of the lesser realms; the corresponding Emperor and five Kings are largely ceremonial figureheads.
- Vestigial Empire
Santhsaunt
- Homeworld: Santhkiln
The santhsaunt are an amphibian race originating from the world of Santhkiln. The territorial extent of the santhsaunt Hierarchy of antiquity, long before the oldest human civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and the Yellow River even emerged, was the largest the galaxy had ever seen; at its zenith, it controlled a sizable chunk of the Milky Way and deployed thousands of advanced fleets and armies to defend hundreds of star systems. Meanwhile, their economy prospered, and their culture flourished, and under their influence were dozens of conquered, client, and allied species. For over five millennia, no other power in the galaxy succeeded in challenging the might of the Hierarchy of Santhkiln until the sudden and unexpected rise of the taraigh.
By the time of humanity's emergence to the galactic scene, the Hierarchy is decaying. Their territories now comprise only a small fraction of what they once did, much of them lost to centuries of Dominion conquests and Republic annexations and the rest becoming independent powers. Despite that, however, it still remains one of the Big Four and is certainly going to be for a few more centuries. While they are behind the martial prowess and industrial capabilities of the taraigh, the cutting-edge tech and influential culture of the chalovei, and the powerful economy and masterful espionage of the anhayat, they compensate by being good enough at all of these traits, all the while possessing the largest navy the galaxy has ever seen.
- Frog Men: Resemble a bipedal cross between Earth salamanders and frogs.
Sol Union
- Capital: Ishtar
- Structure: Military-economic alliance, gradually becomes a federal republic
- Major Worlds: Shamash, Earth, Nuon, Apsikaavu, Sumi-sathes, Mazu, Hyozotam
- Constituent Species: Humans (76%), iyansi (13%), ongurum (10%), prouam (<1%), ica (<1%)
- Agri World:
- Ishtar, the political capital of the Union. A vast majority of Ishtari settlements are located on the southern continent of Freya, where one region in particular is covered in fertile and nutrient-rich soils.
- New Cascadia, one of the Union's earliest and most remote colonies. Most settlements on the planet are in the form of large plantations that cultivate local varieties of edible fungus, some of which had to be genetically modified to make them so.
- Essendine, a human world bordering the hotly-contested Sea of Glass. In addition to providing the majority of agricultural shipments to nearby Union military bases, Ossett has had a centuries-long military tradition as a result of being the first Union colony to be attacked by palegan forces during the War of Glass; the planet remains an important staging ground for both Union and private expeditions into the Sea of Glass.
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Pioneering Initiative has this principle towards pre-spaceflight species.
- When the Union discovered the roughly medieval-level prouam in 2449, they intended to take a hands-off approach and were preparing to establish an exclusion zone around the Busup system until a smuggling freighter evading a Union Navy patrol accidentally crashed on the planet in 2453. The crash site and the survivors were found by a local kingdom, forcing the Union to scramble a small first contact delegation, but even afterwards the Union remains reluctant to fully integrate the prouam; Union personnel are restricted to interacting with a a few, carefully-vetted prouam in a handful of orbital monitoring stations and traveling to the surface (much less interacting with the locals) is forbidden.
- Artificial Meat: Lab-grown meat has replaced conventional animal husbandry in the Inner Systems, due to economic advantages (meat vat facilities produce a lot more food while taking up significantly less time, space, effort, and resources than ranches or farms) and ethical considerations (over the perceived cruelty of raising animals for slaughter).
- Bio-Augmentation: Gene therapy became widespread in everyday life as early as the 2040s as advances were made and applications for it grew. After first contact with the iyansi, the field of genetic engineering and its many applications boomed as both species shared a mutual interest in improving their physiological qualities and correcting genetic diseases that have plagued them since prehistory. Following first contact with the ongurum, they too began contributing to and benefiting from the two's research initiatives, an effort the ongurum appreciated given the conditions on their homeworld. In the Union armed forces, all personnel are subject to genetic screening and then undergo tailor-made correction and enhancement procedures.
- By the 27th century, most children are examined at birth to correct any defects, and from adulthood on they are free to pick and choose from dozens of commercially-available procedures to enhance their physiology. Most gene therapy is meant to perfect the subject's base traits, so the most common applications are increased muscle mass, faster reflexes, and expanded lung capacity.
- Death World: Apsikaavu, the ongurum homeworld.
- Fantastic Ship Prefix:
- SCV (Sol Union Celestial Navy Vessel) designates Celestial Navy commissioned military starships.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: On a general stereotype level, the humans are fighters, the iyansi are mages, and the ongurum are thieves.
- This also carries into in-universe media, especially fantasy settings involving all three species; one highly-popular novel series features a human sword-and-shield paladin, an iyansi psychic mage and an ongurum crossbow-wielding ranger as its heroes.
- Multiple Government Polity: The Union itself, at the highest level, is a military alliance and economic union between several interstellar nation-states, and its responsibilities are restricted various large-scale issues like defense against external threats (such as the Big Four and the palegan), managing the vast integrated market comprised of almost a dozen economic blocs merging together, arbitrating international disputes, and delivering mail.
- Over the decades, however, the increasing demands of interstellar administration and dozens of (sometimes simultaneous) wars with outside threats pressured the Union into gradually centralizing into a more conventional federal republic.
Humanity
- Homeworld: Earth
Humans are a mammalian species native to the planet of Earth. Since its primitive era, human history has been rife with division and conflict, countless wars waged all across the surface of their homeworld.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The fighter to the iyansi mage and the ongurum thief. In the Union military, humans are most commonly found as rank-and-file soldiers and marines.
- Humans Are Warriors: The Union was able to hold its own in three separate wars against the Dominion, which has the most well-trained, well-equipped, and well-organized armies in the galaxy, along with constant border skirmishes against the Hierarchy and several anhayat Houses.
- Terraforming: Humans occasionally terraform planets and moons they settle on, such as Mars and Ishtar, though nowhere near the routine and widespread extent of the santhsaunt. However, the process is an exhausting and expensive long-term effort, so the Union only marks planets of high strategic importance for terraforming. In addition, they take great care to study, catalog, and preserve as much of any native ecosystems before doing so.
Iyansi
- Homeworld: Nuon
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The mage to the human fighter and the ongurum thief. In the Union military, iyansi are often pilots and starship crewmembers.
- Proud Scholar Race:
Ongurum
- Homeworld: Apsikaavu
- Cold Sniper: Have a reputation as these due to their aloof nature combined with their excellent marksmanship skills.
- Creepy Good: Their semi-insectoid features and their tendency to be far less emotive compared to humans and iyansi is often unsettling to Union citizens who are not accustomed to them, but they are no more inherently malevolent than other species and as a whole they are firmly loyal to the Union.
- Extra Eyes: Six pure black eyes, in roughly triangular clusters of three right below the bony plates covering the upper third of their heads and located roughly where each eye would be on human and iyansi faces.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: The thief to the human fighter and the iyansi mage. In the Union military, ongurum are often scouts and special forces.
- Verbal Tic: When speaking human or iyansi languages, the stereotypical ongurum asks questions by adding "yes?" at the end of statements. This is due to the their lingua franca Sarihal using that grammatical structure as the most common way to ask questions, with many of them carrying the habit over.
Muyul
- Homeworld: Apsikaavu
Prouam
- Homeworld: Samnang
The prouam are an amphibian race from the planet Samnang.
Ica
- Homeworld: Yui
Manhaa
- Homeworld: Tephas (Agusan)
- The Atoner
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Manhaa individuals are comprised of a symbiotic relationship between the manhaa themselves and several small colonies of fungus-like organisms that grow on their bodies. The organisms feed on the oily secretions in the manhaa's skin, and in return act as semi-independent intelligences that augment the manhaa's cognitive processes.
- Creepy Good: They resemble rotting, bipedal insectoid creatures with clumps of mushrooms growing throughout their bodies. Their decayed appearance and the fact that they naturally emit a faint odor that humans find somewhat foul aside, they are largely content to be part of Sanghanan; humans who become accustomed to them often characterize them as a thoughtful and mild-mannered if somber and scatterbrained species.
- Dying Race: The manhaa were discovered on their mostly-empty homeworld by Sanghanic explorers who cracked open several of their sealed underground shelters; millennia of living in closed environments gradually degraded the once-robust species into withered husks of their former selves. After integration into Sanghanic society, the manhaa have begun to enjoy a cultural and social renaissance; a growing number of manhaa scientists are also eagerly contributing to Sanghanic genetic engineering research efforts in the hopes to restoring their species to their original physiological state.
- The Quiet One
- Perfect Pacifist People: Even after becoming a member species of Sanghanan, most of them shy away from conflict after millennia of physical decay and regret over their ancient wars. The few manhaa who serve in the Sanghanic military are found in non-combat roles such as logistics and administration staff.
Palegan
- Homeworld: Gous
- Hegemonic Empire: At least before the War of Glass.
- Starter Villain: The palegan were the first species that the Sol Union made contact with a few decades after its formation. Being a Rising Empire of their own, the palegan rejected the Union's initial attempts at diplomacy and later began aggressively competing against human-led colonization efforts in the Sea of Glass, a region of space both powers wanted to expand into. Tensions grew throughout the 24th century until the War of Glass broke out in 2375; six years of war resulted in a hard-fought Union victory that ended up catching the attention of the Big Four for the first time.
Cazares Commonwealth
- Capital: Goliad, Chelsea system
- Structure: Federal republic
- Major Worlds:
- Constituent Species: Humans (68%), iyansi (17%), ongurum (14%)
- Animal Motifs: Unlike the bald eagle historically used to represent their American ancestors, the Cazarans adopted the quarter horse
as their national animal. The Texas longhorn is also another popular symbol due to many Cazarans being specifically descended from Texan Americans. - Citadel City: Goliad, the headquarters of the Cazaran Armed Forces.
- Color Motif: Black and yellow.
- Culture Chop Suey:
- Mini-Mecha: The Polecat series of mechs, often used by special forces.
- United Space of America: Descended from a pioneer fleet sponsored by a Texan corporation that colonized the Cazares Rift region. The Commonwealth later gained independence after several mining colonies revolted against what they perceived as an out-of-touch Earth-based leadership.
Socialist Republic of Tianyuan
- Capital: Tianyuan, Shengli system
- Structure: Emergency wartime administration
- Major Worlds:
- Constituent Species: Humans (78&), ongurum (12%), iyansi (9%)
- Culture Chop Suey: The Tianyuanese are descended from humanity's earliest attempts at interstellar colonization - a series of pioneer ships sent by the Chinese
- Emergency Authority
- The Fatalist:
- Forever War: Got dragged into a 30-year war with the anhayat House Tua after multiple diplomatic incidents and increasingly-heated espionage attempts between both sides.
Driessen-Gauthier Confederation
- Capital: Stiphout, Freya system
- Structure: Political-economic confederation
- Major Worlds: Roenhorst, Zéphirin, Gerhardt, Delhausse
- Constituent Species: Humans (83%), iyansi (16%)
- Animal Motifs: Naturally lions, as they were a national symbol of both their ancestral countries.
- Bold Explorer: They have a much stronger celestial tradition than other humans. Driessen-Gauthier expeditionary fleets were responsible for surveying much of what would become the Outer Systems of Union territory and later were the ones to make (formal) first contact with the Big Four.
- Color Motif: Light orange and white.
- Determined Homesteader: In frontier systems recently claimed by the Union, it's not uncommon for small, privately-funded Driessen-Gauthier flotillas to settle planets before the Union launches official large-scale colony fleets. They're sometimes derisively called "sooners" by Cazarans.
- Culture Chop Suey: The Confederation is descended from a colonization effort by several Dutch and Belgian (and one Swiss) corporations that eventually formed their own sovereign governments.
- Germanic Efficiency: The iyansi, in particular, tend to consider them to be dispassionate yet obsessive towards their pursuits.
- Intrepid Merchant:
- One Nation Under Copyright: Several nations, in their early years. Like Sanghanan, they each gradually formed nation-state governments as their colonies grew and developed into industrialized worlds. Unlike the Republic of Sanghanan and their violent Consolidation, they did so peacefully.
- Proud Merchant Race: Because Driessen-Gauthier territory is surrounded entirely by other Union nations, all of whom they have prosperous trading relationships with, they have much less need for aggressive militarism than the rest of the Union. Despite this however, they are still humans, and they don't lack for teeth with their thriving arms manufacturing industry and their mercenary companies operating throughout the Union frontier.
The Geshwaset Expanse is a large lawless region between Union and Dominion territory in which the underlying abyssal space is far more unpredictable than usual, significantly impeding travel - and subsequently, exploration and settlement. Almost all of the star systems in its deeper interior remain uncharted, and the largest settlements have historically been scattered outlaw and pirate outposts due to the apparent lack of strategic value to the area.
Nevertheless, both the Union and Dominion have an interest in the abundant mineral resources and that supposedly lay within; the opposite edges of the Region have been colonized and fortified, and every year both sides send survey and colony fleets to the inner Geshwaset systems despite the immense risks involved. Many are never heard from again.
Tecton Industries, later the Republic of Sanghanan
- Capital: Saginsing, Francesca system
- Structure: Closed corporation, later becomes a unitary republic
- Major Worlds: Basilan, Malasiki, Baras, Suphanburi, Sagaing, Pasuruan
- Constituent Species: Humans (71%), iyansi (15%), taraigh, (10%) ongurum (3%)
Tecton Industries began on Earth from two different businesses: Titan Energy, an American nuclear energy company led by Victor Fernandez, and the Nishimura Group, a Japanese experimental agriculture firm founded by Hikaru Nishimura. With the two heads of the companies being university friends, the two corporations collaborated frequently on various research efforts in sustainable industry and agriculture. After a series of successful projects in the 2040s they agreed to a merger, naming their new conglomerate Tecton Industries.
During the third wave of human colonization, Tecton grew into a massive multisystem corporation that spanned almost two dozen star systems ruled independently of any government until the late 2300s, when the pressures of interstellar administration strained the corporation's leadership. For two years, Tecton's board of directors (and its most prominent shareholders) raged in debate over whether the corporation needed to formally nationalize itself or not until conflict broke out on Tecton's largest colony Saginsing. Four years later, the war that would later become known as the Consolidation ended in a victory for pro-nationalization forces, and the Republic of Sanghanan would join as the newest member of the Union.
The post-Consolidation Sanghanan is a somewhat xenophobic and reclusive nation, one whose government and people only trust their immediate neighbors in bonds forged from historical hardship. Sanghanan is a federal republic divided into five (later six) Regions that each maintain their unique identities
- Agri World:
- Basilan, in the Hanan system. In addition to being the Republic's most populated colony outside of the Mayari system, Basilan supplies the majority of Sanghanan's agricultural demands and is host to several of the Union's most prestigious biological and chemical research institutes.
- Suphanburi, in the Saengkaew system. A mostly-uncharted world with an infamously chaotic climate, Suphanburi serves as the capital of the mostly-agrarian Phosop Region, most of whose colonies are also AgriWorlds such as Sukhothai and Agutaya. Suphanburi itself is a lush ocean world with far less land area than planets like Earth and Saginsing but with a diverse ecosystem that fuels much of Sanghanan's agricultural and pharmaceutical industies.
- Xianyuannote , a small but rapidly-growing outpost on the edge of Sanghanic space. Xianyuan's largest continent is home to various species of highly-prolific lichen analogues, though almost all of them are toxic to humans. The planet's scattered settlements are comprised of sprawling mega-greenhouses that use the continent's highly-fertile soils.
- Animal Motifs: Water buffaloes and cattle due to them being national symbols of several of Sanghanan's ancestral nations and them representing Sanghanic virtues of industry, diligence, and humility. The Sanghanic flag features a carabao skull in its center.
- Bio-Augmentation: Gene therapy is more prevalent among Sanghanics than in other human nations, though still not as much as the ongurum.
- Color Motif: Black, dark orange and white. All three colors are present on their flag and insignia.
- Culture Chop Suey: Sanghanan's five largest ethnocultural groups are comprised of Filipinos, Khmers, Malays, Bamars and Han Chinese (mostly from mainland Guangdong and Taiwan), a vast majority of whom had ancestors who were born and/or raised in the United States and Australia and were already different from their ancestral nations to begin with.
- The Republic also has small minority of Pacific Islanders, mostly Māori.
- Fantastic Rank System:
- The enlisted equivalents to privates, corporals and sergeants are derived from medieval Western terms - respectively paikos (from pike), armigeros (from armiger) and palatos (from paladin). Sanghanic squads are called lansos (from lance), evoking the image of a squad of European spearmen.
- Officers equivalent to lieutenants are tauares, roughly translated to bannerman.
- Fantastic Ship Prefix:
- RSC (Republic of Sanghanan Consolidated Command) designates commissioned military starships regardless of Directorate origin.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Other militaries make widespread use of energy weapons, but Sanghanic forces prefer to deploy railguns and coilguns. They still use energy weapons when tactically advantageous to do so.
- Language Drift:
- Sanghanic Tagalog and Sanghanic Malay are both no longer mutually intelligible with their Earth counterparts, in part due to extensive linguistic modernization reforms implemented throughout the 22nd century. Both now share a unique writing system developed in the mid-2060s, feature completely rebuilt grammar systems and have replaced almost all of their European-language loanwords with new equivalents derived from Old Malay, Sanskrit and Mandarin Chinese.
- Sanghanic Khmer and Myanmari still use their respective scripts and retain much of their grammar and morphology, but have a greatly expanded vocabulary thanks to the advent of space travel and artificial intelligence.
- Sanghanic Cantonese only has mild deviations from Earth and Tianyuan counterparts due to Chinese Sanghanics being far more conservative.
- Magnetic Weapons: Railguns and coilguns are a common armament, ranging from man-portable anti-tank weapons to spinal-length main guns on capital ships.
- Mecha-Mooks: Due to having much less soldiers to spare than most of their rivals, Sanghanan relies heavily on autonomous and surrogate frames to supplement their ground forces.
- Mighty Glacier: Tecton was a corporation that focused more on protecting their territory than offensive warfare (as the interstellar governments do), and their combat doctrine reflected that. Even after the Consolidation, Sanghanic forces are slower compared to most other human militaries and still just as hard to dislodge once they've taken their positions.
- Mini-Mecha: Sanghanic battlesuits are frequently used in urban and jungle warfare, being infantry-sized fire-support platforms that are able to go where conventional vehicles are too big and unwieldy to reach. Civilian variants of these suits for commercial, industrial and agricultural use are also prevalent.
- One Nation Under Copyright: For over a century, Tecton Industries controlled several frontier systems bordering the Geshwaset Region independently.
- Our Weapons Will Be Boxy in the Future: Due to the ubiquitous use of powered armor, Sanghanic weapons are larger and heavier than their contemporaries (notably compared to the Republic's and Alliance's arsenals).
- Powered Armor: Sanghanic soldiers are clad in heavy powered exoskeletons. Civilian workers also make frequent use of exoskeletons for labor.
Novoistarska Republika
- Capital: Istra, Zhyvana system
- Structure: Stratocratic republic
- Major Worlds: Zincenko, Sokoljuk
- Constituent Species: Humans (96%), ongurum (3%), iyansi (<1%)
- Culture Chop Suey: The Istrians are descended from a corporation founded by German and Austrian Croats that failed to join the initial bidding for what would become the first Driessen-Gauthier colony fleet; the company later ended up launching its own smaller flotilla decades laternote . Two of their colonies in the deeper Geshwaset were founded by ethnic Ukrainian settlers and often resemble the autonomous, semi-military communities of ancient Cossacks.
- Gas Mask Mooks: Istrian soldiers often wear sealed Powered Armor suits with rather imposing filtration helmets.
- Mini-Mecha:
- Viteznote -class battlesuits, which are compact mechs that accompany and support mechanized infantry.
- Patriotic Fervor
- Powered Armor: Istrian powered armor typically strikes a balance between Sanghanic toughness and Tagesse mobility.
- Proud Soldier Race: At its founding, Istria was unique among the Union's nations for being the only one that restricted voting and holding political office to veterans of the National Servicenote . Decades of being situated dangerously close to both Dominion territory and the lawless Geshwaset Expanse almost cut off from the rest of the Union resulted in a nation that gradually became even more militarized until, by the 25th century, the Istrian Armed Forces became one and the same with the civilian government.
- Settling the Frontier: As of the 2600s, Istrian forces are conducting a colonization campaign in their side of the Geshwaset Expanse, aided by Sanghanic and Tagesse fleets as they expand throughout their own sides. All three efforts are opposed by the various independent communities and pirate bands in the region, some of which are covertly funded and backed by the Dominion.
- Space Cossacks: Literally with Zinčenkonote and Sokoljuknote , two colonies that mark Istria's furthest reach into the inner Geshwaset Region.
- Founded under contract with Ukrainian settlers, the two planets also act as research stations and listening posts bordering space too dangerous to go further into; in the late 2600s-2700s, they become important strongholds against increasing Dominion incursions and pirate and mercenary raids from other side of the Region.
- Due to coming from the most isolated worlds in the Union, both in constant yet uncertain threat of attack, Zinčenkan and Sokoljan colonists have since gained a reputation for being eccentric roughnecks.
Habeshia Federation
- Capital: Birukederja, Berhanu system
- Structure: Federal republic
- Major Worlds:
- Constituent Species: Humans (99%)
- Humans Are Diplomats: The Habesha are seen as this the most out of the humans settling the Geshwaset. The myriad alien races residing throughout the region tend to trust the Habesha more due to their perceived compassionate and open-minded natures compared to the ruthless, belligerent, militaristic Novoistrians and aloof, haughty and somewhat xenophobic Sanghanics.
- Proud Merchant Race: The Habeshians act as the unofficial economic liaisons between the Geshwaset humans and the rest of the Union, along with the various alien communities throughout the Geshwaset Expanse.
