Politics

The different planets and groups have different views on how the new era should develop.

New America has visions of grandeur. While the Congress and president doesn’t have any plans for military conquest or anything like that, they (and the population) believe New America has a central role in interstellar politics and destiny. They want to promote trade and the formation of some kind of alliance, with them as the core. The Columbus Project is intended to bring about something like that.

The Arcadian hives are curious about the universe, but not interested in becoming part of anybody’s scheme. Coordinator McCairns-Kendell and his followers are interested in exploring and expanding into the universe, while the cladists are getting involved into Penglaiese internal politics. Over time, the Arcadians will likely have to deal with the very disparate views among the hives, contention that is likely to involve their allies.

Landfall corporations see business opportunities everywhere, and wants to exploit it. The AI rights movement is interested in the possibilities of exploiting the other colonies to get true AI rights. Unity quietly plans to expand to other solar systems, trying to find cultures receptive to their vision. They are especially interested in Dionysian psychodesign; with the help of it they could likely modify individual members to mesh better, likely getting much further towards the Omega Society they strive for.

Penglai feels somewhat threatened. The PCA both has to deal with the sub-colonies, each looking outwards for opportunities, and the other colonies. Its traditional policies have to be updated, but the change is slow. Overall the PCA wants to keep Penglai under control, and secondarily trade with the rest of the colonies. Daonin and Hsu Hsi on the other hand sees a great chance to expand, especially by trading with the Mothers. Hao Chen is to busy with its internal problems to care, and in Tsi-Leng there is a secret movement suggesting emigration elsewhere. The hsien, the anarchist neo-taoist groups and cladists also pose a threat to the order.

Atlantis wants trade, trade, trade. Different subgroups also want to spread their message, found new colonies and do just about everything. Any united foreign policy is impossible. Nova and Atlantis go well together, and they will likely grow ever more connected. New America and Penglai might be less happy about having anarchists on the loose, spreading their message and acting without any easily reached central government.

Mary doesn’t want contact with the rest of the universe. The PM fears the impact of alien views on the closed society, and works against it in all ways. The rest of the universe might have different views-

The Trahan Empire is still somewhat reeling from the shock of contact with the other humans. This is obviously a critical point in history, and it is unique for the last nine millennia. The empire seeks to retain its control and superiority, but it realises the need to adapt to changes. The main problems are how much human influence that is to be allowed to spread – already Atlantean traders have caused problems. The Victoria administration tries to work with the empire, while the xenocreoles are secretly looking for their own solution.

Negsoa has so far had little contact with the other colonies, but the nobles are aware of the problem. They realise the danger posed by superior alien technology, but cannot handle it well. The most foresighted nobles realise that the aliens appear to be weak – they do not appear to be ready to handle violence, and by secretly gaining the ability to threaten death and destruction they can force the aliens to do as they are told.

Ridgewell has not yet decided on how much contact to allow, and how many outsiders to allow in. While many agree that isolation would be stupid, they worry that foreign influence can be disruptive (especially when it comes to reproduction, a sensitive issue). The conservatives are in general favourable to contact, suggesting that the way of keeping family identity is to become asexual – then there will be no contradiction. The liberals are more split, especially since the sexual radicals think out-of-family marriage should be allowed, and the traditional Stevens rules doesn’t forbid it.

On Gaia, Swan is actively seeking to avoid contact with the tox outworlders, while Dolphin has initiated some tentative contact. The Mothers is actively moving against this, but the descendants of the Pine colonists have surprisingly begun sabotaging their agitation. Dionysian dionysos-missionaries might complicate things even more.

Dionysos is interested in more contact with the other colonies: they bring new experiences, new possibilities, new interests. They know they have a great deal of things to sell or give others, and will not miss the chance. They are however not very keen on getting involved in other’s political schemes. On the other hand, ideas and methods can spread from Dionysos causing interesting effects.

The fundamentalists of Bell Islands and the Sinai Valley have realised their mutual bond, and try to mission across human space.

There is an isolationist movement claiming that the higgsram will destroy cultural diversity and create a nivellised standard culture among all humans (as well as bring other threats). The isolationists try to discourage interstellar travel. Currently, their strongest base is among the anti-space groups on Gaia, among the fundamentalists, Ridgewell, and Penglai. They might spread.

The Solarists believe that the Solarians are the hope and destiny of mankind, and want to emulate them. Some solarist groups are little more than religious cults worshipping the superintelligences of the Home Planet, others have political-technological agendas of setting up denser information networks, speeding up development and unifying the colonies.

Among the Mothers, the Shining Engineers Vector is intrigued by the humans: a lot of potential here, likely partners and the possibility of integrating them with their vision. The Balanced Mediators are interested in humanity due to the trade and information potential, but mostly access it through the Engineers.

The Radical Unificiationalists have another view. They think humanity could be integrated with the Mothers into a single species, along the lines of Unity, Arcadia and Traha. They have already recruited some people, and have formed the Linker Movement, a human-mother collaboration to try to create unification. These Linkers try to act in the shadows, not getting involved in overt politics but seeking out new recruits, buying up technology and companies, and developing tools for unification. They have some front organisations, such as PsychoTechnologies United at Dionysos and the Wuntai Trade Organisation at Penglai.