Sagittarium
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A faint whisper carries itself across space and time, the sound of a lamentation, worship, hatred, and grief. A black hole containing the heart of Nocturne is the source, a vast complex harvests its energy as it screams its heart into the cosmos. Gravitational waves carry the energy of entire stars away from this black hole, causing turbines the size of planets to rotate, many of which themselves generate enough power to outshine the dimmest stars. This is the center of the economy and society of Sagittarium, a vast sovereign nation-state residing near the core of Cosmoria and Martial Space.Template:!Nation Infobox
The 5 stars it its possession, each of which are satellites of Nocturne, under its control are divided between 73 prefectures, a federal district, 13 provinces, and 5 wards. Compared to its fellow Martial states, the nation has a strictly ordered society in which every individual doubles as a soldier in the juggernaut that is Sagittarium's army. Capable of flipping between a wartime and peacetime economy within weeks, the nation has a long history of hard-fought conflicts and galaxy-spanning wars.
The region comprising Sagittarium was largely untouched for most of its history, trade mostly passing through it with little interaction with its stars. In 13,444 BCE, the region was first colonized by the Triumvirate Civilization, the civilization responsible for many of the megastructures within it today. A military base left behind by the Triumvirate would form a large junta state before transitioning into the Vaplein Republic in 11,711 CE.
Sagittarium was formed out of the Vaplein Republic after a coup lead by the first chancellor, Klein Vay in 21,677 CE. While in power, Vay established Sagittarian hegemony over the entirety of the area around Nocturne and turned Sagittarium into one of the most prosperous members of the Core Worlds Alliance. After Vay's death, Veselko Abedayo, a prominent general, took power. After several more chancellors, instability increased and demand for a change of the system grew. Chancellor Eris Sailem and many other high-ranking officials eventually drafted and passed a constitution, turning Sagittarium into a semi-democratic presidential republic. After leaving the C.W.A. during the Commonwealth's Eclipse, it would enter the orbit of Martial Space, slowly shifting both culturally and politically to reflect this state of affairs.
To this day, ghosts of its authoritarian past haunt Sagittarium. It has a difficult time holding onto democracy and often flips to other systems at a moment's notice. Many chancellors have been corrupt and, among democracies, it has one of the lowest democracy scores in the galaxy. Jingoism is common, especially after tragic events or a particularly charismatic Chancellor takes power.
General Information
Sagittarium | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 | ||
| 21,677 CE | |||
| - | |||
| 5 Stars | |||
| Thalia, Jezreel, Sekhmet | |||
| Unitary Presidential Republic | Mixed Economy | ||
| 701/1000 | 72.812 Quadrillion C-Units | ||
| Usually Equal | Post-Scarcity | ||
| Superpower | Galactic Power | ||
History
Early History
The first intelligent life around Nocturne was the Dökkálfar, an ancient race which would return 4 million years later as the Humans, the star's eventual controllers. Before Humans would arrive, many other species attempted to hold onto the large star-system. For much of history, Nocturne was seen as the frontier, a wasteland that, while plentiful in resources, was so large that securing all of it would take thousands of years. For this reason, the Dokkalfar retained only a minor presence around Nocturne, taking advantage of its resources but they maintained their focus on far more valuable colonies.
As soon as Mahou was able to get its hands onto Nocturne's fertile worlds, it "terraformed" most of them to be hospitable, a shocking turn of events for the Dökkálfar. To them, it seemed as though some deific force was preparing for them a large number of paradise worlds. Many moved onto these worlds and, as their civilization collapsed, gradually diverged to form their own sub-species, grouped in with the Svartálfar despite being unable to create fertile offspring with the rest of that species. This group would eventually become the Myrkálfar as they asserted their unique identity. Ohko's Civilization, the ruler of Martial Space and the civilization of the Svartálfar, partially controlled Nocturne and conducted large amounts of trade with its inhabitants. The collapse of Ohko's Civilization did little to effect the people of Nocturne; they simply began trading with the Providence Union as it emerged.
Sedrua had sovereignty over Nocturne starting in 126,428 BCE, as the nation claimed to be the rightful rulers of all descendants of the Dökkálfar. At this point, the natives diverged into the Vlanoans and Ekrosians. Sedrua established several military bases around Nocturne, beginning the long process of colonization. The Dotsk created a handful of outposts as well in about 100,000 BCE, collaborating with Sedrua to colonize its endless wilderness.
Initial Colonization
It was not until annexation by the Triumvirate Civilization in 59,763 BCE that any significant habitation began around Nocturne. The planet Thalia would be the first settled. When the nation collapsed in 1 CE, the military personnel and colonists it left on Thalia were stranded. Thalia soon became a self-sufficient military junta state. As the trauma of the collapse of the Triumvirate increased, many would begin fleeing to Nocturne to escape political persecution, law enforcement, or simply to search for more opportunity. This would begin the gradual replacement of the Vlanoans and Ekrosians by Human colonists.
The Vaplein Republic formed as a civil war destroyed the junta state of Thalia. Upon forming, it would become a semi-democratic republic. With time, it would come to conquer or make vassals out of every polity around it, its original inhabitants becoming citizens while the conquered were non-citizen subjects. Much like Erstes Konsortium, the republic had little in the way of sovereignty over its territory. Hundreds of smaller organizations administered parcels of territory while the Republic made sure to keep these small para-states in line. Much the mirror image of the rest of Martial Space, it was its unique position and history that would eventually cause the region to diverge both culturally and economically.
As Erstes Konsortium expanded, it would soon gain de jure control over the Republic. With the support of its neighbors, Erstes Konsortium was the only legitimate government in all of the Triumvirate's former territory. This did not stop the Republic from administering its territory mostly unbothered. Apart from paying a small tax, the Republic did little to interact with its rulers in Martial Space.
Prelude
This somewhat stable order was threatened by the Great Empyreal Crusade. In 18,991 CE, the nation of Empyros invaded all of Martial Space. While the Republic was not directly involved, many of its client states or sub-organizations were. By the dozen they fell as Empyros swept across space. The Republic mobilized its forces in 19,025 CE, forcing every polity under its control to contribute production towards the conflict. With the alternative being literal extinction, the polities around the Republic had little choice in obeying. The Republic soon began producing the lion's share of the arms in the conflict against Empyros.
The last battle, the Battle of Thalia, saw heavy fighting around their capital. This battle, determining the fate of the conflict, was a hard-won battle involving not just the forces of the Vaplein Republic, but dozens of other nations in the galaxy including Erstes Konsortium. In 20,904 CE, Empyros was driven back and not only the battle but the war was won.
While the Vaplein Republic was able to survive, its sister states were not. Wrung dry by the Republic's demands for arms, most of them collapsed under internal pressure or were obliterated by the forces of Empyros. Its clients destroyed and any other political influence in the region crushed, the Vaplein Republic would soon become elevated to the status of Great Power, a nation with influence across all of Aylathiya. The Republic soon fully integrated the territory around itself.
Founding
After the end of the war, Grand General Klein Vay, the most well-known general of the war, would run for Chancellor. Popular amongst the proper citizenry for his brilliant strategies and popular amongst the non-citizens for his populist rhetoric, Klein Vay was predicted to win the election in a land slide. The then-current Chancellor of the Vaplein Republic, Uriel Ibrahim, likely engaged in great election fraud to manage to win. Despite the outrage across the nation, Ibrahim suppressed protest and even went so far as to exile Vay.
Vay went to the supreme leader of the Neo-Terran Party, Jayvyn Drusus. Drusus, who believed that Vay would make a good ally, gave him the supplies, funds, and materiel to lead a coup against the unpopular Chancellor. Popular with the Vaplein military who he was supreme leader of during the Crusade, there was little resistance to this takeover. Broadcasted live, Vay himself would execute the unpopular chancellor, declaring himself the rightful ruler of the nation in 21,677 CE.
Reform and Expansion
Once in power, Vay immediately began a series of reforms meant to further his own power while also making himself appear more favorable to the people. A change in the name from "Vaplein Republic" to "Sagittarium" symbolized the transition away from broken democracy to much more war-like nation, "Sagitta" meaning arrow. Vay made it clear to the populace that Sagittarium would be the "arrow" which cut through corruption across the universe. While Vay initially attempted to "cleanse" Sagittarium of corrupt officials left over from the Vaplein Republic, the vast armies of bureaucrats highly entrenched in the government proved impossible to root out. Facing increasing resistance from them, Vay soon stopped, instead opting to erode their power instead.
At the time, Sagittarium was a heavily state-based economy, with most industry nationalized and using the products thereof to supply the citizenry with a post-scarcity existence. With razor-thin margins that caused every little drop in growth to threaten state security, this system was entirely antithetical to Vay's goals. It gave the "managerial class," the bureaucrats, vast amounts of power and prevented much of anything from getting accomplished.
This is when the opportunity presented itself, the promise of infinite energy not through fusion power or Dyson swarms, but from Thaumaturgy. A deeply non-magical society, Sagittarium had little experience with that field of study. With only a handful of magi in the entire military, Vay drafted everyone with an once of potential and collaborated with the Core Worlds Alliance, a nearby transnational treaty organization, to train them. This would have been a waste of money were it not for Laborosoarchod, a nearly legendary member of the Ekrosian Guardians. The capture of Laborosoarchod within a small artificial black hole was the path towards limitless energy, its attempts to escape released large amounts of energy in the form of gravitational waves. These waves, caused by the black hole nearly tearing apart as the singularity was ripped into multiple pieces, deformed, and collapsed into its proper shape, could be harnessed to power the whole civilization. As Laborosoarchod's prison was launched into Nocturne, the amount of energy at Sagittarium's disposal increased dramatically; the gamble paid off.
Vay spent the rest of his chancellorship diminishing the power of the managerial class, in particular by pushing for growth at a faster rate than they could hurt it with their corruption. With the new energy Nocturne was producing, Vay showered the managerial class with money, so much money that they hardly had any motivation to be corrupt. High-level officials became some of the wealthiest in Cosmoria. This was a very unpopular strategy at first, but as corruption decreased and a culture of anti-corruption formed, Sagittarium became more safe for business. While Vay could have simply left it at that, he believed that giving every citizen a comfortable government job would lead to "a degeneration of the populace into useless wards of the state." Taking a page out of the kingdom of Tenshi's playbook, Vay began a mass privatization, gutting the massive bureaucracy.
Sagittarium became a low-corruption state with cheap labor, perfect for receiving investment from foreigners. Nations in the Core Worlds Alliance invested vast sums of money, building infrastructure that normally the government would have had to. Doing so brought the Alliance and Sagittarium closer together while also greatly expanding Sagittarium's fledgling economy.
In 22,771 CE, Klein Vay, as thanks for the original support from the Neo-Terrans, joined it in its invasion of the Triumvirate remnant. The war emerging from this invasion, called the Mahou War, would soon come to involve nearly all of Martial Space fighting against the Neo-Terrans and Sagittarium. Using its impressive military might, Sagittarium crushed much of Martial Space while the Neo-Terrans fought the remnant. In 23,333 CE, Calithyia was sacked by both the Neo-Terrans and Sagittarium, ending the conflict as their enemies surrendered. With this victory, Sagittarium's status as a military power was fully cemented and with the reparations its enemies had to pay, its economic power increased we well. Following the victory, Sagittarium joined the Core Worlds Alliance.
While Sagittarium would come to dominate the politics of Martial Space, especially in nations of Humans, it struggled to gain influence far beyond. Under Vay, the few campaigns against other regions resulted in only meager colonies, always failing to gain substantive footholds. These colonies in Zalanthium and Florathel were little more than propaganda tools for the state. Even the edges of Aylathiya were areas it had trouble influencing. In an attempt to secure influence over Martial Space, Vay personally lead fleets to begin a campaign of conquest. This, however, would result in a number of space-based organisms, called The Pestilence, to descend upon Vay's fleet, nearly destroying it. Vay died in 23,431 CE as his ship was overtaken, forcing the rest of the generals to flee to the homeland.
Succession Crisis
Vay, having lived for so long already, was seen in a similar way as one would see a law of the universe, permanent and unchanging. His death sent waves throughout not just Sagittarium, but also the galaxy as a whole. While the people of Sagittarium demanded that the military exterminate the Pestilence, the remaining generals and other high-level officials knew that it would be futile. Those with significant power, or those with significant enough social capital to make their way into the elite, would form a Council to decide the future of the nation post-Vay.
The Council, however, proved divided as few agreed on who the next chancellor should be or if there should even be another chancellor. They did not have time to debate. As almost as soon as they met on Thalia, news of an attack by the Ekrosian Guardians began to come in. These beings, powerful weapons created long ago by the legendary Eve, decided to move beyond their usual patrol. While there no answers as to why, the threat they posed was huge. Destroying entire civilizations in the past, not only Sagittarium but the galaxy held its breath as their invasion began.
The various generals and oligarchs, without much direction, attempted to push back the Ekrosian Guardians. Their unorganized efforts without a cohesive plan only barely slowed them down. Veselko Abedayo, one of the leading generals in the military, grew frustrated with the Council's lack of coordination. Once the council began their discussion of the invasion, Abedayo simply declared themself Chancellor effective immediately while heavily criticizing the council for "soiling Vay's legacy." The meeting, publicly broadcast, spurred great fervor amongst the people; they wanted another Chancellor. Abedayo declared a referendum, without official power, and stated that it "would be what Vay would have wanted." The referendum went through with a little over half of the population choosing Abedayo, appointing them the same day.
With power finally centralized, Abedayo had Sagittarium begin its largest successful invasion in history. The campaign to push back the Guardians was largely successful; only a small number slipped through. After the majority were destroyed or pushed back, Sagittarium focused on the planet where they seemingly originated, Ekros. Even though little evidence existed pointing towards a direct involvement of the planet or its government in the creation of the guardians, Abedayo had the planet bombarded and its government officials executed. From there, Sagittarian forces occupied the planet and much of the until-then decentralized space around it. They converted all of Ekrosian-controlled space into the colony of Enkatz.
The native Ekrosians, already pushed out of Sagittarium, had no say in their governance. Despite Vay's attempt to get rid of the divide between "citizen" and "non-citizen," Abedayo enforced this distinction by making it illegal for any Ekrosian to have the status, thus barring them from any government position. Human governors and officials ruled the Ekrosians. Ruling not only the colonies but also the homeland itself with an iron fist, billions would end up executed, exiled, or simply disappear with no official cause given.
Despite the expansion of both economic and political influence, a series of relatively incompetent chancellors followed Abedayo. By the time Abedayo's rule ended, Sagittarium's economy was nearly unmatched. However, the next leaders saw an increase of corruption and decadence, spurring further decline. Sagittarium, going from the jewel of the Core Worlds Alliance to just another member greatly hurt its soft power.
Decline
Margot Vay would be the next chancellor. As Klein Vay's grandniece, Margot Vay held significant influence. While maintaining the policies of her predecessors, Sagittarium's economic growth began slowing as Nocturne became fully utilized. While not outright declining, the economy was not helped by the gradual decline of the Providence Union; it being the largest trading partner with Martial Space.
Following Margot Vay was Azazel Pascuet, a high-ranking official in the government. By the time Pascuet took power, the economy was nearing a collapse as trade all but stopped. With such an export-based economy, Sagittarium had to shift towards a service-based economy, causing a dangerous de-industrialization. Pascuet, ever the nationalist, decided that the government would maintain industrial capacity to produce military arms.
Prelude to the Eclipse
As tensions rose within the Core Worlds Alliance and its neighbors, a massive level of capital flight and a run on the banks caused an economic collapse, further propelling the it into disorder. These tensions, caused by a lack of central authority, was most certainly not helped by Sagittarium's heavy-handed foreign policy and aggression. The Golomian Confederacy, a non-Alliance member, had to constantly open counterintelligence investigations to prevent influence by Sagittarium. It was not alone, virtually every nation in the area were at each other's throats, reducing investor confidence as war seemed imminent.
The economic collapse facing the Alliance caused not only Sagittarium, but the entirety of the CWA to lose its prestigious spot as the number one galactic economy. Both Tenshi and the Confederacy of Borealis surpassed the Alliance in economic output. The humiliation of losing their prestige caused anxiety among the populace. Sagittarium saw the rise of Satella Laghari, an ultra-nationalist who had the goal of returning Sagittarium to greatness. The people greatly enjoyed her rhetoric to the point of essentially begging the government to start a new war. As other Alliance nations experienced similar trends, military spending began increasing wildly. Soon after, a web of alliances formed where nations with similar interests would form alliances or cartels. Sagittarium had no cordiality within the Alliance.
In 40,000, the government seized the assets of most corporations within its borders; due to increased tensions, its economy was weak. They began using a state-capitalist model to revitalize the economy this time using corporations as tools of the state. While resources were mostly managed by AI, minimizing losses and shortages, this was the last strike against the nation as anything resembling an economic power. Its economy effectively at zero growth and debt sky-rocketing, the nation's military was the only thing it now had going for it. Of course, the people blamed the Alliance and Golomian Confederacy for this and began calling for everything from sanctions to outright war.
Commonwealth's Eclipse
Main Article: Commonwealth's Eclipse
In 41,123 CE, tensions between the Core Worlds Alliance and Golomian Confederacy reached their peak, causing war to break out. At once, every nation, which had been yearning for war for so long, sprung into action. Sagittarium, within hours of learning of the conflict, officially left the Alliance and declared war on all of its neighbors. Its troops quickly moved into several Alliance nations near to it, creating a huge surge of morale in the nation.
For the rest of the Eclipse, Sagittarium would take great care not to fire upon ships from the Confederacy of Borealis that were intervening. Sagittarium's weak economy was unable to handle the strain of exerting itself so much holding onto so much hostile territory in addition to its colonies. In 40,137 CE, Sagittarium gave its colony of Enkatz de facto independence, freeing up the occupying forces there to fight.
By the time the Eclipse had ended, the democratic nations reigned supreme and Sagittarium had little to show for the conflict besides a large number of casualties and its colonies being harder to manage. As the central government began losing control over increasingly rowdy external territories, private organizations from the Alliance and Martial Space began moving into Sagittarium. The people, as temperamental as always throughout Sagittarian history, abandoned the government of Laghari in favor of allegiance to these external organizations.
Democratization
These international corporations would soon begin disseminating pro-democracy propaganda because it would create a more stable and more trade-friendly government. Eventually Laghari would be ousted and replaced by Eris Sailem, a pro-democracy advocate who would be the first chancellor to draft a constitution. This constitution was voted on in a referendum, causing it to be approved in 42,057.
Some of the more brutal leaders were "banished" to Ventemir, which really meant that they were given large homesteads on worlds owned by the state. The remaining colonies were given more independence as the historical treatment of its natives was questionable at best. Every state corporation was privatized in an attempt to reinvigorate the economy. This was all in an attempt to save face with the wider galactic community, with the end goal of entering the economic bloc of the Confederacy of Borealis.
Association with the Confederacy of Borealis
In 42,184, the nation adopted the currency and official language of the Confederacy of Borealis, giving the nation access to free trade with the Confederacy. Later in that same year, Enkatz also joined its bloc. The economic boom caused by this was as of yet unseen in the nation. Now that it was moderately stable and open to trade, foreign investment once again poured into the economy.
Its relatively lax laws concerning the creation of androids and its insistence on android rights caused vast numbers of androids to immigrate to the country seeking amnesty. Rather than turn themselves in and risk deactivation, they pooled funds and purchased ships to venture to Sagittarium themselves. Not only did machines immigrate to Sagittarium, but individuals of all kinds made their way into the nation. The cheap energy supplied by Nocturne was a large drawing factor in addition to trying to grab assets privatized by the government.
As time went on, the Chancellor began transferring their power to the newly-created Congress. Even though little more than precedent would keep the chancellor's power in check, referenda and bills passed by congress had new great power. Other changes include the gradual shrinkage in military spending as well as the gradual shrinkage of government authority, all due to foreign influence on the populace. The Chancellor, at any time, could undo all of this and return Sagittarium to its original state, however.
Sagittarium was an economic powerhouse during this period. Widespread stability lent itself well to economic growth. Growth was assumed as a constant as only a handful of years saw shrinkage in the economy. It continued expanding and colonizing stars, however, this was done mostly privately compared to the formerly government-lead colonization of Sagittarium's past. Enkatz, Sagittarium's former colony, would vote to rejoin Sagittarium in exchange for protection against an overwhelming military assault began by the Dominion of Astraeus. Following this, Sagittarium and the Confederacy of Borealis entered into a formal military alliance, creating numerous jointly-administered military units.
Rise of Conglomerates
Once more following Tenshi's example, this time accidentally, Sagittarium's economy slowly became dominated by large family-owned enterprises akin to the aristocracy found across Martial Space. The Gwynn Group, Ojo Merchant Corps, Monday Conglomerate, Andaia Group, and Adam Consortium, would come to rule the country forming a hereditary system of what was effectively nobility. As they crushed all opposition except for the Confederacy of Borealis, its unions constantly fighting the groups in sometimes bloody conflicts, the chancellor had to increasingly capitulate to these groups and could hardly act without approval from a majority of them. This era is characterized by a near constant state of conflict between Sagittarium and various groups in and around it, even its allies.
War of the Order of Yue
In 62,755 CE, the Blume Order, at the time one of the most powerful land holders in Sagittarium, was declared a national security risk as they were loyal to Tenshi. The massive Sagittarian Military was able to eventually expel the group while simultaneously keeping most of the fighting away from population centers. The defeat of the Blume Order significantly weakened Tenshi's influence in Sagittarium. The Confederacy of Borealis remained neutral, not wanting to hurt its relationship with the Grand Duchy of Tenshi.
Un'oit Crisis
In 63,512 CE, Un'oit warlords and oligarchs were officially banned from doing business in Sagittarium, explicitly in the service of maintaining Human sovereignty over Sagittarium's industry. They responded by getting the Rorran Intendancy and its dozens of component orders to strike back, prompting the Sagittarian government to ban Paladins, the members of orders who are powerful warriors. Banning all Paladins and the orders they represented was effectively banning all the competition to the new aristocracy.
First Borealis Conflict
A militia jointly hired by the Monday Conglomerate and Adam Consortium attacked a worker-owned factory on Thalia in 63,734 CE. This factory, associated with the Confederacy of Borealis, prompted a militant response by the Confederacy. As planned, the two conglomerates petitioned chancellor Itanya Abrahms to request protection from "Confederate Aggression against Sagittarian-owned industry." Of course, it was the Confederacy that was sanctioned for their response, prompting the Confederacy to relocate much of its industry out of the country. What remained became heavily guarded. This conflict greatly strained Confederate-Sagittarian relations.
Chancellorship of Luka Caxaro
A Human male born on Sekhmet, Luka Caxaro would come to power in 75,108 CE. Luka Caxaro abandoned any pretext that Sagittarium was not entirely under the thumb of these industrial titans. Caxaro massively cut spending on the expensive Sagittarian military, its pride and joy for all of its history. Instead, it was these companies and their cheaper militias that would maintain order. The central government let its military waste away as it greatly cut taxes for these companies. By this point, Sagittarium had lost much of its prestige, but Caxaro and other top government officials became spectacularly wealthy. The conglomerates showered the chancellor with immense amounts of wealth, while also compensating the now-poorly-paid government officials with bribes. Needless to say, Sagittarium became a much worse place to do business as these large conglomerates removed any semblance of the rule of law from it.
Second & Third Borealis Crises
The Worker Movement was a Confederate-backed project to return democracy to Sagittarium and repair the broken relationship it had with the rest of Martial Space. The Confederacy of Borealis, a thorn in the side of the conglomerates, was the last barrier to their full control. This brazen act to increase its influence within Sagittarium earned only token resistance at first. When large numbers of people began joining the Confederate-backed unions or guilds, the conglomerates realized that they had no choice but to fight Sagittarium's greatest ally.
This culminated in the Second Borealis Crisis, the beginning of government persecution of Confederacy-associated unions. The last form of organized labor, the move was greatly unpopular. Pressure from the Caxaro administration kept protest activity minimum, however. What began was a cold war between the Confederacy and Sagittarium that was, in actuality, a cold war between the conglomerates and the Confederacy. It boiled over into an outright war between a Confederate Syndicate and the Monday Conglomerate in 75,348 CE. The Syndicate would end up winning, but this only caused Sagittarium to crack down even harder on Confederate activity, officially declaring that organized labor was inherently anti-Sagittarian.
The Third Crisis saw the Confederacy banned from Thalia, strangling much of its ability to fight back against these policies. The Confederate government officially removed all of its assets from Sagittarium in 75,361 CE, an economic crisis for Sagittarium but a win for the conglomerates nonetheless.
Tenshin Crisis
The arch-duchy of Tenshi, at this point a shadow of its former self, nationalized and re-privatized all Sagittarian-owned industry in its territory, prompting governments across Eos to do the same. Unlike Sagittarium, its vast conglomerates having completely bought out the government, Tenshi maintained an autonomous state despite dealing with the same large companies. While ideologically similar, Tenshi gave up on any prospect of Sagittarium returning to its previous trade-friendly state. It prevented these vast conglomerates from expanding much into Martial Space.
The reason this is referred to as a crisis is because it greatly hurt the income of these conglomerates, leading to a rise in crime as they cut back on security expenses.
Ojo Crisis
Eos War
The War of the Ancients
Main Article: War of the Ancients
When the War of the Ancients began in 88,073 CE, Sagittarium began rapidly increasing its production of arms. Additionally, it began increasing the amount of funds it spent on research and development of weapons. Shielded from the conflict by its distance from the Quintet Payotari Association, Sagittarium mostly fought the conflict far from its borders. Numerous times, especially during battles such as The Battle of Sekhmet, the Vaults proved to be a problem for the juggernaut of the Sagittarian military. Where Sagittarium had numbers, the Association had incredibly effective large ships capable of fast deployment as well as matching even the largest of navies.
Learning from the example of the QPA, Sagittarium restored the ancient ship known as the VSS Readymade, a four-dimensional craft created by the Triumvirate Civilization. It spent most of its time defending vital Hyperlanes and worlds, preventing further Association attacks on Sagittarian worlds. After the fighting left Sagittarium's borders, it still fought, supporting its sister-states in the conflict. The sudden freeing of Sagittarium's military from engagement, as well as the looming threat of the Commonwealth of Aggregate Aylathiya served to end the War of the Ancients by armistice in 88,433 CE.
Post War
WIP
Contemporary History and Diplomacy
WIP
Generatrixes
A generatrix is a generator capable of turning gravitational energy into usable power. Ranging in size from transistors to planets, the generatrixes are the backbone of Sagittarium's economy. Appearing like turbines, a generatrix works in reverse to the typical Warp Drive, causing space to become flatter and releasing energy in the process. Exotic Matter with a negative mass is essential for these devices, the gravitational waves causing the generatrix to spin as the conventional matter affixed to it is tugged along. Most of this energy is turned into electromagnetic radiation as light is injected into the generatrix, causing it to gain energy through super-radial scattering. In other words, space is warped in such a way by the generatrix that matter put into this device would accelerate in a circular direction around it. Since light cannot be accelerated in the same way, it instead gains energy. Conventional Dyson Swarms accompany each large-scale generatrix that harness the power output of these bodies.
Government and Politics
Sagittarium, while historically semi-fascist, slowly transitioned to its democratic republican form. Sagittarium consists of 73 prefectures, a federal district, 13 provinces, and 5 wards. The nation typically scores poorly on Corruption Indexes and Democracy Indexes as things such as term limits and checks on executive power are minimal.
Elected officials are elected using an approval based system, where citizens can vote for as many candidates as they please, the candidate with the most approval overall is elected. This tends to move parties towards the center, pushing radicals out of government. This crucial protection acts as a buffer against jingoist leaders seizing power, a common problem in Sagittarian history.
The Federal government is divided into 1523 Ministries. Each ministry is responsible for running a certain aspect of the state. For example. the Legislative Ministry is the Congress as well as all the other individuals that help to run it. Other major ministries include the Chancellor's Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Colonization. Rudimentary checks and balances are put in place on these ministries. A Chancellor can remove or add any ministry head they want from power for any reason. The Legislative Ministry is exempt and has the power to reject these placements within forty five Thalian days.
The Congress itself has exactly ten thousand members (the round number was intentional as they use the base ten system in Sagittarium). They remain in office for 20 Thalian orbits (equivalent to 31 years) before they must run again. The Congress is the only body allowed to make laws, however, due to the huge size of the nation, a large quantity of laws need to be passed. Whenever a law needs to be passed, one hundred random representatives will be selected to form a panel. This panel will then read and approve or reject the law. Rarely does the Congress vote as a collective body on things, as the panel system typically represents what the collective body would pass overall. The Chancellor is the head of state and government as well as the president of the Congress. They have the power to break ties in Congress and are also the supreme leader of the military.
Sagittarium has some of the loosest laws when it comes to androids and mind-uploading in the entire galaxy as a result of its history of using them in society. So long as they cannot process anything much faster than a typical person or are incapable or proliferation, they are entirely legal and have full rights.
Bureaucratic Privilege
The several billion government jobs within the nation are ultra-competitive, nearly every citizen desiring to join the government. Government officials each get an asteroid's worth of resources at their disposal at the lowest level. At higher levels, government officials become nationally-relevant in the amount of energy they own, the vast generatrixes available for them to use. At the upper echelons of government, vast swathes of space, government-owned assets across Cosmoria, and even military power generation opens up. The Chancellor, much like a feudal king, officially owns everything in the nation and has the power to allocate it, to a certain extent, without congressional approval.
While the citizenry spends most of their time exploring virtual reality, most government officials have to spend most of their limited brain power on managing the affairs of the government, usually approving otherwise automated processes across the nation. This is why the reward is so great, as most would refuse the job without serious financial incentives. Most bureaucrats use their fabulous wealth to purchase private systems or generatrixes and then retire extremely wealthy. This system actually keeps corruption fairly low, with most officials too busy managing the government or their personally-owned systems to spend time defrauding anyone. Even so, there is still vast amounts of energy siphoned away from the government every year.
Political Divisions
In the federal system, planets or systems typically have limited abilities to govern themselves. Groups of settlements are sectors, and sectors are further grouped into prefectures. Enkatz is divided into provinces, a remnant of its time as an independent state, who each have limited self governing power. Enkatz itself is one large prefecture with significantly more self-governing power than most prefectures. The last major division are what are known as "wards," planet-sized prefectures whose population is so great that they would dominate the politics of any prefecture they would otherwise be in.
Military
The Chancellor has absolute control over the military and can deploy it anywhere with or without congressional approval. The military itself is divided into three major ministries: The Ministry of Defense, The Ministry of War, and The Ministry of Internal Stability. These three ministries respond to orders from the Chancellor and will implement them as best as possible.
In total, there are 5.1 trillion active military personnel with the rest of the population serving in the reserves. The bulk of the military might of the nation is contained in semi-automated ships accompanying them. The average soldier controls over 20 craft, known as "augments," simultaneously. The military was originally mostly automated, but fears of another super intelligence, such as Beatrix, arising caused every ship to need approval to act from a sapient being, hence the large number of personnel required. For the sake of appeasing the nations around it, Sagittarium does not have any artificial intelligences within its military; however, much of its reserves are made up of artificial intelligences such as androids.
Sagittarium has military bases scattered across Cosmoria that are mostly remnants of when it was the most powerful nation in the galaxy. A large number of these bases are located around the core in neighboring nations, most of the rest are in Aylathiya, and exactly one is in Florathel, although this base is jointly controlled by Sagittarium and Thalvett. Over 12% of the nation's GDP is spent on the military, the highest percentage in Aylathiya for a great power.
Previous Government
Before the democratization of Sagittarium, the Chancellor was the most powerful public figure in the nation. Just like the current Chancellors, they had broad power over the military. Every ministry that existed answered to the Chancellor alone. The difference is that this power had no limits to protect human rights, meaning that the Chancellor often ordered for large numbers of dissidents to be killed. Several times in history, entire planets were destroyed and propaganda painted it is a noble act.
Demographics
To this day, humans have a slight majority in Sagittarium. For quite some time before the War of the Ancients, things were more equal; however, a large influx of mostly human refugees and subsequent immigration from Aylathiya pushed the percentage of humans up to where it is presently. Despite the slight majority of humans, Sagittarium is fairly equal as far as nations go. It lags behind some of its cohorts in the rest of Aylathiya, mostly due to its long history of Human supremacy. The human majority is expected to diminish within the next millennium as immigration and other factors cause non-human populations to grow (in particular Dotsk populations as more and more Dotsk leave their home system, Mili).
Economy
A vast economy abounding in resources, Sagittarium has a tremendous amount of energy at its disposal. The cornerstone of its economy is the mighty black hole of Nocturne. Technically an artificial structure, the body was first harnessed in about 24,000 CE as Sagittarium struck a deal with Vaspujian to handle a space-time anomaly within the center of Aylathiya in exchange for a small amount of funds. The disturbance would be contained within a series of gravitational wave generators and singularities and, at a few percent of light speed, removed from Vaspujian's territory into Sagittarium's. From there, the disturbance was transported into a vast container that would turn its constant thrashing into a form of usable energy. At this point, Sagittarium's modern economy was born, the cheap energy from the disturbance greatly improving their economy.
Where dyson swarms power most of Aylathiya, the energy released by Nocturne in the form of gravitational waves is the dominant form of energy generation within the nation. Vast streams of coherent gravity waves, gravitational LASERs or GLASERs, constantly flow across the nation. Without the need for stars as a form of energy production, Nocturne's constant emission far surpassing that of any stars in the region, much of them could be disassembled and sold to outside nations. To this day, Sagittarium remains a titan in material exports, bringing in much-needed revenue to fuel their expansion.
Major Worlds
| Name | Description | Location | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thalia | Thalia is the capital of Sagittarium and was the first planet colonized in the region. Thalia is the most important world in Sagittarium and has large numbers of military units stationed nearby to it, despite never having been directly assaulted in its history.
|
Aylathiya Core | 1.2 Quadrillion |
| Jezreel | Jezreel was originally a gas planet an astronomical unit away from Thalia. To fuel massive fusion arrays, most of the He-3, Tritium, and all other elements capable of being easily fused were harvested. At the same time, large amounts of gas were stripped off of the planet and shipped to black holes to be thrown into them to gather power.
Over the millennia, the planet slowly began losing mass until its core was occasionally visible to the naked eye. At this point, the core was able to be terraformed. A lack of insight on the part of the Sagittarian government meant most of the planets around the area were harvested. Jezreel, over several more millennia, was converted from a lifeless gas giant core to a proper habitable world. |
Aylathiya Core | 912 Trillion |
| Sekhmet | Sekhmet is a planet in the core controlled by Sagittarium. It is the third most populous planet in the nation and has a large amount of influence over the rest of the nation. It started as a minor colony which quickly sprouted into an Ecunmenopolis once Sagittarium came to be. It was one of the oldest colonized worlds, having a history going all the way back to the 10,000s CE, before the formation of any state in the region. | Aylathiya Core | 104 Trillion |
Society and Culture
While designations such as "Human" and "Dotsk" do exist within the nation, this mostly applies to non-citizens. Those which are citizens are almost universally Thalians, artificial machines, complete with Artificial Pylons, that spend most of their time in simulation. With nearly 25 megawatts allocated to each individual citizen per day, the average Sagittarian citizen has access to a tremendous amount of resources as well as the capability to save up funds for large purchases. Many citizens are capable of buying asteroids, planets, and some even own stars. Citizens are encouraged to purchase military equipment to be stored in their systems or asteroids as desired.
Since Sagittarium is so large, much of the purchasing takes place in an informal economy. While non-citizens are barred from owning much beyond the habitats they live in, many non-citizens who still hold onto their natural bodies have only one option for acquiring capital, the black market. Non-citizens can be drafted at any time, are automatically taxed by unmanned drones from the central government, and even have the option of gaining citizenship if desired.
Sagittatium is home to many cultures from across the galaxy. Relatively lax immigration laws put in place after democritization caused large numbers of individuals to migrate to the nation. Even more immigrants entered the nation after the War of the Ancients due to the nation's relatively untouched state. Planets such as Thalia and Jezreel were flooded with refugees.
The government struggled to make room for all of these individuals, many of which required their own orbital habitats or accommodations entirely unavailable within Sagittarium. Many people were crowded onto O'Neill Cylinders while space for them elsewhere was being freed up or created. In these cylinders, dozens of cultures mixed together, all with influence from the previously mostly-human Sagittarium. The product of this was a distinctly Sagittarian culture that can trace influences from dozens of places around Aylathiya and beyond.
The mixture of cultures as well as its time separated from the Confederacy before the 40,000's caused Sagittarium to speak and write a form of Boreal Basic called "Sagittarian Basic." This dialect of Basic is fairly easily learned by non-native users, as it removes five letters from the base alphabet. However, the pronunciation is entirely differently from other human nations using the language. The dialect relies heavily on vowel sounds. Loan-pronunciations for words are common, despite most of the pronunciations being bastardizations of the original languages they came from. In particular, Sagittarium adopted Vexlorian pronunciation for things such as the name of many galaxies and regions, the names of almost every mythological concept, and most words for genres of media (due to the relative ease of speaking Vexlorian as a human and vice-versa).
Artificial Intelligence
Sagittarians regard beings such as androids and AI's as completely alive and worthy of the same treatment as organic beings. Vast numbers of machines, truly sapient or not, have found refuge in the nation's networks. While vast numbers of potentially dangerous AIs have fled to these networks to continue their missions, the majority cooperate with authorities to contain more dangerous programs for the benefit of all.
While the vast majority of androids are not sapient, large numbers possessing high intelligence will usually immigrate to Sagittarium. Upon arrival, they register as refugees given their lack of citizenship in most other countries.
One more interesting phenomenon is the influx of non-android sapient machines. Vast numbers of craft, some well over 100,000 years old, which qualify as sapient have entered the nation. Everything from personal assistants modified by their owners to intelligent swarms of nanomachines have filtered in through the years. The result is quite the cosmopolitan population make up.