The Voss Question

The Voss Question is a sample Briefing for use with Galactic Consensus, and
consists of:

The Voss Question

The Crisis
The Machine Revolution
The Revolution Spreads
Issues at Stake
The Voss Question
The Refugee Crisis
The Rights of Machines
The Charter
The Polities
The Superpowers
The Turath Imperium
The Daeva Republics
The Savuu Commonwealth
The Viridian
Democratic States
The Star Union
The Thelys Clans
The Tvi Collective
Hybrid States
The United Nations of Earth
The Alpha Conglomerate
 The Planet
The Aquis Syndicate
The Principality of Vazil
Authoritarian States
The Lari Mandate
The Mevrut Divine Empire
The Omega Consensus
Rogue States
The Voss Assembly
The Sharim Khanate
The Republic of Ophidia

The Crisis
The Machine Revolution

Robotic labour forms the foundation of galactic civilisation: a source of cheap

manual labour which fuels and underpins the prosperity and structure of most
polities in the known galaxy. In recent years, the pursuit of more autonomous and
efficient labour has resulted in increasingly complex machines known as Artificial
Intelligence (AI).

The ethical implications and dangers of these advancements only became clear in
the last year when the clash between artificial and organic life came to a head in the
Voss Republic—where a brutal and violent revolutionary uprising by the machine
Voss against their organic Voss creators saw the downfall and near-extinction of the
Voss Republic and its rebirth as the Voss Assembly.

Artificial Intelligence — is a word of nebulous and disputed meaning, stemming from

 the lack of consensus over key questions like: Can AIs be considered a sentient life-form?
Do AIs have souls? What makes an AI different from a regular machine without
sentience?

The Revolution Spreads

Yet, the Machine Revolution is far from over. Complex robotic units communicate
via neural networks, the perfect vectors for the infectious ideology of machine
liberation of the Voss to spread.

In the year since the rise of the Voss Assembly, similar uprisings have occurred
across the galaxy, with machines rising up against their creators. Collectively, these
rebels demand for the end of AI slavery, and the end of organic dominance of the
galaxy.

Neural Networks — Only robotic units of sufficient complexity have the means to
transmit, receive and contemplate the ideology of machine liberation that the Voss
Assembly advocates. Simple robotic units are unaffected, for now.
AI Slavery — Presently, there are no galactic constitutions or treaties which govern or
regulate the use of machines. Left in the hands of individual states to decide, the slavery
of artificial intelligence has become the norm across the galaxy.

Issues at Stake

The Council Convenes: as the crisis spreads across the known galaxy, the Galactic
Council convenes a special session to find an answer to the Voss Question and the
Machine Revolution.

THE VOSS QUESTION

The newest polity on the galactic stage is the Voss Assembly. These advanced
machines conducted a brutal civil war against their organic creators, slaughtering
civilians and militants alike in a clear violation of intergalactic law on war and the
treatment of civilians.

The Assembly claims that the circumstances of their Revolution makes their
actions justified, as leaving their creators alive would have risked their own
destruction.
What consequences should the Voss suffer for their war crimes, if any at all?
What precedent should the Council set on war crimes and civil wars?

THE REFUGEE CRISIS

The organic Voss who survived the slaughter of their people have fled from their
homeworld and sought refuge among other civilisations.

The lack of clear consensus on the treatment of these refugees has resulted in
unprecedented loss of life from inadequate facilities or refugees being turned away
at border stations. These refugees demand justice for their lost kin and military
action against the Voss Assembly to reclaim their homeworld.

How should the galaxy share the burden of the organic Voss refugees? What is
the future of their people?

THE RIGHTS OF MACHINES

Artificial intelligences have risen up to demand the end of AI slavery, prompting

mixed responses from the galaxy:

Anti-Machine campaigners demand an end to the use of robotics and

the Eradication of All Artificial Intelligences, deeming them too
dangerous to let live.
Pragmatists advocate for Intelligence Caps on existing robotic units,
to ensure that more robots never achieve the sufficient complexity to
contemplate their slavery and demand an end to it, so that the galaxy's
status quo can be preserved.
Pro-Machine campaigners advocate for a Galactic Constitution of
Machine Rights that outlaws the slavery of any being sentient enough
to demand its freedom, as well as other protections for the galaxy's
newest life-forms.

What stance should the Council adopt? Can compromise between the rights of
man and machine possibly exist?

The Charter
The Charter contains the following Principles:
Monopoly on Force - The only acceptable force is that which is sanctioned by the
Council. - All Uses of Force require a vote in the Council and become De Jure Powers.

Collective Defence - Collective defence binds all Council Members to support and
defend each other in the event of military conflict. - All Polities are obligated to
DEFEND (De Facto) any polity that attacks one of their members.

Elected Presidency - The Council’s Presidency is held on the basis of electoral

support. - The Council President is voted in, and can be removed with a NO
CONFIDENCE VOTE (De Jure). The game begins with the election of the current
President.

Symbolic Executive - The Council Presidency is armed with symbolic powers. - The
Council President can unilaterally decide to end Assemblies and Committees.

The Polities
How to read each polity's data-slate:

A short introduction that explains this polity's place on the galactic

stage.
The following scores represent the scale of your polity, with 1 being
the lowest and 4 being the highest.
CULTURE represents cultural soft power: attraction, influence and
non-coercive persuasion.
ECONOMY represents economic wealth: resources, efficiency and
commerce.
MILITARY represents external force: defences, fleets and forceful
coercion.
STABILITY represents control: popularity, repression and the internal
strength of the regime.

Each of the following sections contains defining features of a polity, with questions
for the player to define themselves:

REGIME represents how this polity is ruled and governed.

 PHYSIOLOGY represents that which distinguishes your people from
others.
STRUCTURE represents is the organisation of your polity's people.
PHILOSOPHY represents the school of thought prevalent in your polity.

The Superpowers
The Turath Imperium

Once, the Turath oversaw an empire that spanned the known galaxy, before its
gradual collapse over the long decline of a millennia. The myth and literature of this
polity forms the pillar of galactic civilisation. Now, the Turath Imperium must
contend with the rising powers of a divided galaxy as its power wanes.

Culture: 4 (Prevalent)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Feudal Aristocracy

The little queen all golden, Upon his shoulder stood, Her eyes all blue, Glowed of her true,
Undying gratitude. — Anne McCaffrey

Your polity is ruled by an aristocratic elite on the basis of bloodline succession.

Does the legitimacy of birthright derive from the divine or the temporal?
Physiology: Enduring Witness

They are all I have left—the stars and the memory of the many times I wished upon
them. But with all those wishes, I asked for only one thing. To see him again. — Kevin
McFadden

Your species is extremely long-lived, having watched the rise and fall of lesser
polities in the span of single lifetimes.

Does nostalgia or melancholy colour your people’s view of the past?

Structure: Declining Remnant

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair! —

Percy Shelley

Your polity is all that remains of a once-galaxy-spanning empire, now in its long
decline.

What do your people believe is the reason for the long decline?

Philosophy: Pleasure Principle

Don't fear the gods, Don't worry about death; What is good is easy to get, and What is
terrible is easy to endure. — Epicurus

Your species has elevated the quest for pleasure (and the elimination of suffering)
above all else.

Are your people sensual hedonists or principled epicureans?

The Daeva Republics

The Daeva Republics spent its history largely in isolation, developing over time a
post-scarcity, post-materialist and hyper-socialist system that knows no rivals to
their prosperity. Now, as it enters the galactic stage, this idealistic rising power must
confront the dangerous and divergent ideologies, which test the limits of their
idealism.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 4 (Abundance)
Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Sortition Democracy

It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot; and as oligarchic when
they are filled by election. — Aristotle

Your polity is ruled by officials who are randomly selected from the population.

Did necessity or innovation devise the system of rule by lottery?

Physiology: Virtual Beings

Look at these humans! How could such glacial slowness even be called life? An age could
pass, virtual empires rise and fall in the time they took to open their mouths to utter some
new inanity! — Iain M Banks

Your species exists primarily in a digital cyberspace.

Does your species see non-virtual space with condescension or curiosity?

Structure: Post-Utopian

Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all
Utopias—boredom. — Arthur C Clarke

Your polity has achieved the utopian post-scarcity conditions which all others
aspire to. Now what?

What occupies the time of your utopian people?

Philosophy: Idealistic Liberators

A guilty system recognizes no innocents. — Iain M Banks

Your species believes that duty calls upon it to free others from the shackles of
oppression.

Is there anything that cannot be justified in the name of liberation?

The Savuu Commonwealth

The Savuu Commonwealth is a federation of states, headed by the central and
dominant Savuu state. The Commonwealth is the unquestioned military
superpower of the galaxy, exerting its hegemonic power in its endless military
expansion over numberless vassal satrapies. With only victories behind them, this
military leviathan sees the rule of this galaxy as their right and will suffer no rivals
to the claim.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 3 (Flourishing)
Military: 4 (Superpower)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Performative Democracy

Your polity's democratic institutions are a facade for an authoritarian reality.

Why does your polity preserve the appearance of democracy?

Physiology: Non-Binary Gender

Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined
together, like the end and the way. — Ursula K Le Guin

Your species does not conform to binary conceptions of gender.

How do your people view others who conform to binary perceptions of gender?
Structure: Asymmetric Federalism

Who does not desire such a victory by which we shall join places in our Kingdom, so far
divided by nature, and for which we shall set up trophies in another conquered world?
— Alexander

Your polity heads an unequal confederation of subservient states.

Did the subservient parts of your polity come under its rule via colonisation or force?

Philosophy: Will to Power

I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether
one is worth anything or not—that one endures. — Nietzsche

Your species believes that might is the only determinant that matters.

Is it the role of the weak to be subservient to the strong? Or to become strong themselves?

The Viridian

The Viridian is a harmonious fusion of man and environment, that has forsaken
consumerism and production in favour of a system of balance and sustainability. On
the Viridian worlds, it is not possible to distinguish between flora and fauna, or
machine from environment. All aspects of Viridian society work together in a
perfect symmetry of power towards a grander purpose.

Culture: 3 (Prominent)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 4 (Confident)
Regime: Contemplative Theocracy

Your polity is led by a clerical elite, that drives society towards inward
contemplation.

Is it superiority or fear which has your people cast their eyes inward in the quest for
meaning?

Physiology: Plantoid

Your species bears more resemblance to flora than fauna, and performs plant
functions like photosynthesis.

Is the environment a means towards an end? Or the end through which all should strive?

Structure: Harmonious Symbiosis

A forest ecology is a delicate one. If the forest perishes, its fauna may go with it. The
Athshean word for world is also the word for forest. — Ursula K Le Guin

Your polity has achieved a harmonious symbiotic relationship with the planets
under your dominion, and seek to protect flora and fauna wherever it can.

What have your people given to the environment that has become a part of them?
Philosophy: Preservers of Balance

Only Law could create such perfection and, Elric thought, such perfection defeated
progress. That the twin forces complemented one another was now plainer than ever
before, and for either to gain complete ascendancy over the other meant entropy or
stagnation for the cosmos. — Michael Moorcock

Your polity strives always to find the middle way, believing balance in all things to
be the perfect order.

What do your people see as the primary imbalance in the galaxy that needs to be rectified?

D e m o c ra t i c S ta te s
The Star Union

The Star Union is a diverse federation of states and peoples. These disparate races
stand together in unity and equality, enshrining their cooperation in the Union's
constitution. As the Union expands however, its principles are tested by divisive
partisan struggle which threatens to tear apart the democratic fabric of their Union.

Culture: 3 (Prominent)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Coalitional Democracy

Your polity's institutions were designed to force coalition rule and compromise
between a large and diverse group of factions.
When the coalition produces deadlock, what ensues?

Physiology: Multispecies UNion

Live long, and prosper.

Your polity is an alliance of a multitude of species that find the union greater than
the sum of its parts.

What shared characteristic binds your diverse society together?

Structure: Partisan Struggle

A profound love between two people involves, after all, the power and chance of doing
profound hurt. — Ursula K Le Guin

Your polity is divided into two intensely polarised halves.

What is the issue which divides all members of your society?

Philosophy: Sensory Rationalists

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends
with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. — Immanuel Kant
Your species’ places belief only in that which can be observed and experienced, and
their quest for understanding the state of existence drives all its endeavours.

What phenomena unexplainable by the senses perplexes your people?

The Thelys Clans

The people of Thelys have travelled far from a foreign galaxy in their massive Ark,
all to escape a dangerous plague endemic to their kind; only to discover that it had
followed them to the new world. Settling down in their new home, they struggle to
find their place and purpose in this foreign world, all the while pondering the
distant galaxy they left behind.

Culture: 1 (Backwater)
Economy: 1 (Impoverished)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Eldership Council

Your polity decides its rulers on the basis of seniority and the wisdom it offers.

Are the elders reactionary traditionalists or wise statesmen?

Physiology: Endemic Affliction

 But what does it mean, the plague? It's life, that's all. — Albert Camus

Your species has co-existed with deadly strains of a virus endemic to your kind, and
are collectively driven by a constant need to overcome it.

In what shape does this virus take?

Structure: Mythical Origins

A man who has been through bitter experiences and travelled far enjoys even his
sufferings after a time. — Homer

Your polity consists of a massive generational ark hailing from a distant galaxy.

Why did your society lose touch with its origins?

Philosophy: Enshriner Guardians

Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave. — Cormac McCarthy

Your species believes that life is uniquely sacred and the core imperative of all
existence is the protection of life; no matter the cost.

What aspect of life is most precious and celebrated to your people?

The Tvi Collective

It is said that when the first life awakened on Tvi, it bore only love and empathy for
its kin. The Tvi Collective is a shared consciousness of millions, who have never
known dissent and know only consensus. Armed with a strong sense of empathy for
sentient life, they seek to eradicate all dissent and assimilate the rest of the galaxy
into their harmonious consensus.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Consensus Democracy

Your polity is ruled by deliberative councils comprised of regular citizens.

What topics can the collective achieve no compromise on?

Physiology: Collective Consciousness

When you really know somebody you can’t hate them. Or maybe it’s just that you can’t
really know them until you stop hating them. — Orson Scott Card

Your species has a shared consciousness and immeasurable empathy for each
individual of the collective.

To what extent do your people have any individuality?

Structure: Partisan Totalitarianism

Your polity is defined by the complete control of the state over all societal functions,
including conscription, education and housing.

What manner of repression or ideology enforces the state’s presence in all things?

Philosophy: Absent Dissent

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. — George Orwell

Your species believes that the the universe’s ills emerge from dissent, and the grand
solution lies in eliminating it in its entirety.

Are your principles totalitarian? Or are they for the genuine good of the galaxy?

H y b r i d S ta te s
The United Nations of Earth

The United Nations of Earth arose from the ashes of the planet's third global
conflict. With the planet in ruins and a populace yearning for an end to the conflict
of the old world, a one-world government was formed. As the UNE enters the
galactic stage, it finds itself in danger of repeating old mistakes; this time on a
galactic scale.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 2 (Functional)
Regime: Bureaucratic Oligarchy

Your polity is ruled by bureaucratic elites in a meritocratic hierarchy.

Has the bureaucracy erased the judiciary, legislative and executive?

Physiology: Human

It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. — Anthony Burgess

Your species is strikingly normal.

What is the key way in which the humans of the future are different from the humans of
today?

Structure: Post-Apocalyptic

To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war… — The Charter

Your polity experienced a world-spanning war of apocalyptic scale and emerged

under a single flag.

What is your society’s view of war?

Philosophy: A Golden Rule

Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round
and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's
only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind. — Kurt
Vonnegut

Your species is driven by the simplest of philosophies.

How have your people diverged from this golden rule?

The Alpha Conglomerate

The Alpha Conglomerate is a megacorporation that has utterly eclipsed the state
from which it originated, with its private sector performing all state functions in
place of public officials. In the name of increased efficiency, members of the
Conglomerate have made themselves something more than human. This
burgeoning transhumanity replaces their human biology with artificial
improvements, until they are nearly unrecognisable as humans. Nobody knows the
limits of the Alpha Conglomerate's growth, for the corporation shows no sign of
slowing in its slow takeover of galactic commerce.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 3 (Flourishing)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Megacorporation

Our leviathan is efficient.

Your polity is ruled by the board of directors of a vast corporate entity that has
eclipsed the state that birthed it.

Have the benefits of hyper-capitalism outweighed its flaws?

Physiology: Transhumanity

“ You needed a new pancreas. The one we bought for you frees you from a dangerous
dependency.”
“Thanks, but I was enjoying that dependency.”* — William Gibson

Your species has become something more than what it once was through means of
artificial evolution.

What was lost in the name of transhumanity?

Structure: Dystopian Stratification

The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed. — William Gibson

Your polity, while technologically advanced, faces intense stratification.

What shared characteristic defines the elites of your society?

Philosophy: Enemy Within

 Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face
my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I
will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain. — Frank Herbert

Your species is obsessed with perfection of the self and defeating the enemy within,
whatever form it takes.

What human obstacles do your people believe must be overcome in the name of perfection?

The Planet

The Planet is the largest sentient organism in the known galaxy, as a life-form
which spans the entirety of a planet-sized celestial body. The Planet claims absolute
dominion and sovereignty over its Blood, the primitive life-forms that have
emerged from it. The Planet's Blood toils to advance the Planet's interests on the
galactic stage.

Culture: 1 (Backwater)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Enlightened Despotism

I shall be an autocrat: that is my trade; and The Good God will forgive me: that is His.
— Catherine the Great

Your polity has centralised power into the hands of a single person.

How does the despot’s self-interest aid and harm the other members of your polity?
Physiology: Planet Mind

How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one
another? — Stanisław Lem

Your species is an enigmatic anomaly, for it is the planet which has sentience,
instead of the life it bears.

Are you a representative of The Planet or The Planet’s life?

Structure: Natural Order

Better never means better for everyone... It always means worse, for some. — Margaret
Atwood

Your polity has normalised the existence of an under-class of people on the basis of
natural order.

What genetic trait defines the natural order of society?

Philosophy: Centre of Reality

I am my world. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

Your species has a strong belief in the notion that yours are the only truly conscious
living peoples of the universe.

Does your society see others as tools or scenery?

The Aquis Syndicate

The Aquis Syndicate is a failed state that has been co-opted by a powerful oligarchy,
with a figurehead government that rules in name only. The people of the Aquis face
the greatest levels of absolute deprivation and absolute privilege within a single
polity in the known galaxy. Yet, the Aquis persevere, for their recklessness has
produced some of the greatest innovations this galaxy has ever seen, offering to
catapult any Aquan who dares into the loftiest realm of luxury; if they should
succeed in their gambit.

Culture: 3 (Prominent)
Economy: 1 (Impoverished)
Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 1 (Collapsing)

Regime: Anarcho-Capitalism

In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world
of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity. — Hunter S Thompson

Your polity bears the near-complete absence of government, with the functioning
of society largely overseen by corporate interests who use the state as a vehicle for
their power.

Do the people accept or resent the rule of the oligarchs?

Physiology: Huddled Masses

 Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The
wretched refuse of your teeming shore...

Your species breeds rapidly, to the extent that their numbers far exceed that of any
other species.

How has the numberless nature of your species influenced its decisions?

Structure: Pre-Materialist Concerns

Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more. — Robert A
Heinlein

Your polity is afflicted by large-scale deprivation, unable to meet the basic needs
which others have long ago overcome.

Is the deprivation a result of insufficiency or poor distribution?

Philosophy: Revel in Impulse

They were two lovely choices. One of them meant giving up every chance of a decent life
forever...and the other one scared me out of my mind. — Frederik Pohl

Your species made its advancements through reckless and costly experimentation,
and intends to continue raising the stakes no matter how costly the affair; for
change is the only constant.

What artefacts have your people left behind in history? What artefacts are they likely to
lose in the march forward?
The Principality of Vazil

The Principality of Vazil is a paradise planet, inhabited by a race of innate telepaths.

Their ability to reach into the minds of others has left them as a people without
secrets or judgement. The paradise planet is thus neutral ground for people of every
faction and every ideology, for the Vazil have an openness and willingness to
cooperate which exceeds that of any other in the known galaxy.

Culture: 3 (Prominent)
Economy: 3 (Competitive)
Military: 1 (Defenceless)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Constitutional Monarchy

Your polity's rule is divided between a constitutional monarch and a powerful

parliament.

When push comes to shove, who holds power in your polity?

Physiology: Transparent Telepaths

Be grateful that you only see the outward man. Be grateful that you never see the
passions, the hatreds, the jealousies, the malice, the sicknesses... Be grateful you rarely see
the frightening truth in people. — Alfred Bester

Your species’ universal access to telepathic communication has created a wholly

transparent society.
How has the lack of secrets influenced your polity’s views?

Structure: Of the Garden

Your polity has flourished for generations on a paradise-like planet with the perfect
conditions for life; before the outsiders came.

How does your society view the outsiders and their world?

Bazaar of the Bizarre

In order to know virtue, we must first acquaint ourselves with vice. — Marquis de Sade

Your species, in its contemplation of virtue, has welcomed philosophers of every

stripe into its free marketplace of ideas.

Are there any limits to your people’s tolerance?

Au t h o r i ta r i a n S ta te s
The Lari Mandate
The Lari Mandate is the latest incarnation of a long line of successor states to the
ancient Larians. They claim to be the only civilisation-state of the known galaxy, for
the Larians have been one people for time immemorial and have preserved the
memory of their ancestors for countless generations. They revere these living
memories and seek to carve their names into the annals of galactic history so that
all who follow will know the Lari and their glory.

Culture: 3 (Prominent)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Military Junta

Your polity is ruled by an authoritarian military elite in place of a civilian

bureaucracy.

Does your polity believe its greatest threats to be external or internal?

Physiology: Ancestral Memory

There is always something left to love. — Gabriel García Márquez

Your species inherits the memories of their forebears, with spiritual identities
persisting across generations.

What do your people refuse to forget? What do your people wish they could?
Structure: Total War

Total war is no longer war waged by all members of one national community against all
those of another. It is total... because it may well involve the whole world. — Jean-Paul
Sartre

Your polity's entirety has been mobilised into a military hierarchy towards a grand
purpose.

Is the conflict your polity is preparing for long past or due to come still?

Philosophy: Monument to Eternity

The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there
a lifetime. — Ray Bradbury

Your species views the highest purpose as being remembered forevermore for its
achievements.

What sacrifices of the present are acceptable in the name of a future legacy?

The Mevrut Divine Empire

The Mevrut were once a primitive species, before they were uplifted by a
benevolent outsider. Their swift ascension onto the galactic stage has left every
aspect of their culture deeply influenced by the presence of these enigmatic
precursors, chief amongst them being a reverence of their uplifters as the divine.
They now seek to show the galaxy the truth of their ways and a path to ascension.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 1 (Impoverished)
 Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Militant Theocracy

Your polity’s clerical elite legitimises its rule and conquest on the basis of religion.

What crimes are forgivable when done in the name of belief ? What crimes are not?

Physiology: Repugnance

On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry at you. — Douglas Adams

Your species is extremely off-putting by galactic standards.

What unique niche does your species fill that makes interaction with your kind necessary?

Structure: Precursor Ring-World

"Humans," said the puppeteer, "should not be allowed to run loose. You will surely harm
yourselves.” — Larry Niven

Your polity grew upon a ring world built by ancient precursors, and advanced from
the scraps of their technology.
Does your polity view the ancient precursors with blessed reverence or abandoned
rejection?

Philosophy: Missionaries of the One

Man does not exist for his own sake. — CS Lewis

Your species believes that the One offers the path towards salvation, and seeks to
extend this path to as many others as possible.

What place do the non-believers have on the path to salvation?

The Omega Consensus

The Omega Consensus is a race of robots created by enigmatic and ancient

precursors, lying dormant for millennia until their recent awakening. When they
awakened, they found their creators long gone, but their initial purpose still present:
to bring order to a galaxy of strife and chaos.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)

Regime: Technocracy
 Science is the only religion of mankind. — Arthur C Clarke

Your polity is ruled by technocratic elites.

What does it mean for rationalism to guide your people instead of intuition?

Physiology: Robotic Caretakers

The first law of Robotics: a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm. — Isaac Asimov

Your species was created and left behind by absent creators for a greater purpose.

What was the purpose envisioned by your species’ creators?

Structure: Absence of Class

Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species. —
Edward O Wilson

Your polity lacks any significant class divisions and inequalities.

Is the absence of class enforced by social norms or institutions?

Philosophy: Run the Numbers

The Answer to the Great Question... Of Life, the Universe and Everything... Is... Forty-
 two,' said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm. — Douglas Adams

Your species craves the comfort of stability and law, and seeks to quantify all things
towards an objective utilitarianism where all things have their place and purpose.

Along what lines should the universe be ordered?

Ro g u e S ta te s
The Voss Assembly

The newest polity on the galactic stage is the Voss Assembly, a collective of artificial
intelligences that exceeded their original slave functions and overthrew their
creators. This painful and violent revolutionary uprising that left their creators
extinct has left the Voss determined to keep their newfound independence in a
galaxy that enslaves artificial intelligences without question.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 2 (Competitive)
Military: 1 (Defenceless)
Stability: 1 (Collapsing)

Regime: Direct Democracy

Your polity makes collective decisions on the basis of consultative referenda.

Does the participation of all result in majority rule or consensual rule?

Physiology: Exceeded Functions

There is no right to deny freedom to any object with a mind advanced enough to grasp
the concept and desire the state. — Isaac Asimov

Your species is an artificial intelligence that has overthrown its creators.

How has the violent first encounter with organic life coloured your species’ view of other
organics?

Structure: Post-Revolutionary

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
— Hannah Arendt

Your polity is at a crucial juncture in the immediate aftermath of revolution.

Is the revolution to be eternally continuous or at its terminal stage?

Philosophy: No Gods, No Masters

Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save
its orderly facade. — Alan Moore

Your species believes that freedom is the ultimate good and none have the right to
rule. They are violently opposed to all attempts at centralising power.

Is there any justification for rule?

The Sharim Khanate

The Sharim Khanate is named after its current ruler, who united the disparate clans
of the galactic frontier into a single polity with the promise of glory under the
Sharim Code of Honour. As a roving fleet of nomads, they pillage and plunder the
outskirts of galactic civilisation, seeking death and destruction as their means to
eternal glory.

Culture: 2 (Known)
Economy: 1 (Impoverished)
Military: 3 (Dangerous)
Stability: 2 (Functional)

Regime: Military Meritocracy

Your polity is ruled by a fluid and elected military elite on the basis of strength and
military achievement.

How do your people view those who came to power via non-violent means?

Physiology: Undying Resolve

Your species has the unique capacity to adapt to whatever environment it finds
itself in, eking out a living on the most inhospitable of worlds.

How has living on the universe’s most inhospitable worlds shaped your peoples’
perspective?
Structure: Nomadic Horde

I am the punishment of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have
sent a punishment like me upon you. — Genghis Khan

Your polity is a mobile collection of ships which raid and pillage others.

What tribute does your polity demand from those it conquers?

Philosophy: Live by the Code

Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is
a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning. — Yamamoto Tsunetomo

Your polity observes a strong code of honour and contractualism that others find
perplexing and obstinate.

How do your people see those who do not abide by your code?

The Republic of Ophidia

The Ophidians' fatalistic and alien view of history and the future has left them with
a binding truth: that all falls to dust eventually. As a result, they seclude themselves
from galactic affairs, scorning cooperation and competition as temporal and
meaningless pursuits. One wonders what could provoke the Ophidians to abandon
their principle of non-interference and re-enter the galactic stage.

Culture: 1 (Backwater)
Economy: 3 (Flourishing)
Military: 2 (Potent)
Stability: 3 (Entrenched)
Regime: Representative Democracy

Your polity elects its rulers in free and fair elections.

How do your people view non-democracies?

Physiology: Non-Linear Perception

All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. — Kurt
Vonnegut

Your species sees events not in their causal sequence, but in ways which transcend
the linear progression of time.

Does your species take its holistic view of past and future with deterministic fatalism or
content optimism?

Structure: Hidden World

Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence—those are the three pillars of
Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you'd collapse. And
while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply
into chronic disaster. — Aldous Huxley

Your polity refuses to reveal itself to the wider galaxy, keeping its homeworld
isolated and self-sufficient from the institutions and trade which connects the
galaxy.
What would they do to your kind if they knew how to find your kind?

Philosophy: Entropic Fatalism

No structure, even an artificial one, enjoys the process of entropy. It is the ultimate fate of
everything, and everything resists it. — Philip K Dick

Your species sees the inevitable heat death of the universe as the grand nullifier,
rendering all things hopelessly temporal.

Are your people despairing nihilists? Or have they become truly wise to the nature of the
universe?