The Solaris Empire
From Axalon RPG
Created by Sorus
Contents |
Overview
- Capital City: Solaris Prime, Selanthia Province.
- Official Language: Solari, Lithian
Geography
The Solaris Empire consists of the following provinces, spanning three continents floating over the world of Lith; Dustari, Ambolina, Aldora, Mestanir, Chastonia, Selanthia, Coltari, Estoria, Vornavis.
Population
Human (Solari), through and through. The Solari have lightly tanned skin, hair of golden blonde, black, or copper, and eyes of green, blue, black or amber. Relatively tall for humans, they trend towards a slender athletic build. All Solari have angular facial features, though the females tend to have a softer edge. The Solari dress in clothing that is at the same time magnificent and understated, favoring cool colors such as blue and green. They decorate their clothes with intricate gold-or silver-thread embroidery in exacting patterns whose subtle designs are essy to miss at first. Jewelry is simple but painstakingly crafted.
Each Solaris citizen has brainware (an electronic and bioware construct) implanted when they are born, which allows a Solari to control and access a vast amount of information quickly, as well as interface with the Solaris 'innernet', most compatable machinery and each other.
Government
The Solaris Empire has been totally ruled by the Council of High Lords of the Empire of Solaris since the death of the last Emperor sparked the War of Succession and wiped out two Great Houses and roughly sixty percent of the population. In theory, every member of the Council of Lords is supposed to be a neutral aristocrat whose only duty was serve the empire, but in reality each member has strong ties to some strong political group. This is generally accepted as long as no one group has too much influence in the council. In time, tradition bound certain seats to a specific group, which nominate a new canidate at a time of vacancy. Even though this means a fairly even distribution of power among the many political groups within the empire, actual power still fluctuates greatly depending on how persuasive a member was at the council table.
State Religion
The religion of the Solaris Empire teaches that, originally, humankind was one, but that unity was broken by various differences which humans created among themselves. It states that all life was forged in hell, and only those of pure faith are capable of rising above this trial and reuniting humanity. Another tenant of their faith is that it is the duty of the heathen and heretic to serve the pure. This has made the practice of slavery acceptable in the Solaris Empire, and has colored their relations with other races and cultures.
The Inquisition
The mandate of the Inquisition, or Black Robes, is to investigate and stop any threat to the Solaris Empire and Mankind, and it is willing to use whatever means it must to achieve this end. There are no bounds to the Inquisitions field of operation: foreign plots, administrative inefficiency, corruption, mutations, crime, secret cults, and Heresy all come under its jurisdiction.
No organisation or individual is immune to the Inquisitions gaze: regional governors, even the High Lords themselves, are subject to investigation and no treachery or betrayal of the Empire is too petty to be left unpunished.
The Inquisition, and its members, are above the law. This means that Inquisitors answer to noone but their elders in the Inquisition, not even the Council of High Lords. Equally, every Inquisitor has full right to call on any forces or resources he wants, demanding full cooperation from such figures and organisations as the Solaris Navy, Home Guard and regional governers, Heads of Household and the High Lords themselves. This means that not only is each Inquisitor a powerful figure in personal prowess, a skilled communicator, commander and power player, but also highly powerful in who or what he commands: everyone.
Bloodfriends
"Every seat in the passenger cabin was occupied, the occupants sitting so peacefully one could believe they were napping, if it weren’t for the fact that each and every one had been completely drained of their blood. The same fate had befallen the rest of the crew, even the captain is now only a dry husk..." News like this can now be heard almost every week from some remote region of Lith near Solaris territory.
The Bloodfriends, are a cult based on a corruption of the state religion that appeared thousands of years ago. Obsessed about eternal life, the cult was so pervasive and destructive that the Holy Inquisition of the Empire of Solaris immediatly stomped down on it. The cult lived on in the shadows, however, every so often mutating itself anew. Today the cult exists in numerous more or less independent sects throughout the Solaris Empire. Each of the different sects of the Bloodfriends vary in their rituals and doctrine, some are inoffensive and almost inactive while a few have taken ‘blooding’ - as they call the draining of blood from a body - to new heights. There are stories of ‘blood farms’, where people are kept against their will and blooded regularly; other stories tell of sects that engage in necrophilic and even cannibalistic activities.
To be a Bloodfriend is to risk death as it is actively hunted by the Inquisition, but to some the promise of eternal life is too powerful to resist.
Culture/History
The Solari culture is based on a feudal hierarchy. Every individual is born into a specific station, the main classes being slave, freeman, lord or Inquisitor. Social status is extremely important to the Solari culture and there are many fine divisions of these class distinctions. The Solaris Empire is divided into Provinces, each province divided into many estates, the hereditary homes of the Solari Lords, the feudal master class. The Lords have soldiers, field workers, household staff who have sworn fealty to the Lord in return for protection and shelter as well as slaves who are considered property. The Lords of the Land are allied by Clan and by Party. Solari culture places a high value on tradition and family values and the clans can be thought of as cousin Lords banding together. Lords will also ally themselves by political affiliation. All clans nominate an Exarch, who organises the military force of a Clan during times of war. The five main clans can nominate one of their Exarchs to an Autarch, the supreme military commander. The Autarch is seen as second in command only to the Emperor, though the Autarch usually has more power than the Emperor, as the Light of Heaven is more of a spiritual leader.
For thousands of years, the Solaris Empire have been ruled by The High Council, which consists of the leaders of Great and Lesser houses. Any of the High Lords of the Five Families, the oldest Houses in the Empire can be nominated as an Autarch by consensus of the High Council. The Autarch is then the leader of this council. Political machinations usually play the biggest part in the nomination of an Autarch, with murder not being unheard of during the election. Although political groups such as the Monodominats, and Amalathian parties exist, houses can join and leave these parties as they wish, and affiliation to a party is often used to gain advantage over an enemy or to rouse support for a Lords own agenda. Clan affiliation is often quite loose and does not have a huge impact on voting in the High Council. If Clan Honor is called, every house in the clan must support the agenda of the House who has called Clan Honor. As Clan Honor could potenitally drag the entire Empire into war, the Inquisition can veto this call.
Light of Heaven
The Emperor is called The Light Of Heaven and is viewed as a god. Although this is the highest rank one may have in the Empire, he is seen as more of a spiritual leader, with the Autarch having more military might, and power.
Military
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
The last time Solaris warships were seen in action was a century ago during the War of Succession. Fleets belonging to the various factions fought all across the Lithian sky with little regard to the people who lived on the surface. In many places the earth was glassed from missed shots, craters pockmarked the ground from falling wreckage, and forests burned. At in the final battle, and the last time the people of Lith heard from the Empire, the Solari turned their weapons on their own cities and obliterated the massive floating continent of Maelshyve.
Solaris Navy ships are sleek and predatory. Equiped with powerful cloaking devices they can travel anywhere unseen and strike while hidden. Fitted with banks of sophisticated energy weapons and MIDAS warhead launchers. In addition, the larger vessels have large supply of AI controlled fighter drones.
The Inquisition maintains its own seperate fleet.
MIDAS
MIDAS stands for Matter Irradiation Dissociative Acceleration System. MIDAS separates the protons, neutrons, and electrons in auric radiation to extract energy. Auric Radiation has vast kinetic energy and breaks the molecular bonds of anything it comes into contact with. On contact with water molecules in the air, auric radiation turns into a stable element, loses all energy, and poses no threat to organisms of the environment.
The one time MIDAS was employed resulted in the destruction of the Solaris main continent and the death of 60% of the Solaris population.
Relations
Officially the Solaris Empire has had no direct contact with any other nation for some time, and is largely uninterested in the non-human nations. For some time however the Bloodfriends have been staging raids against the shipping and outlying regions of various territories. In addition the Solaris Empire has restarted it's 'outernet' project by installing automated installations in upper orbit to expand the range of it's 'innernet' and provide a seperate system non-Solari can use. Provided, of course, they recieve the proper implants.
