Vagari
09-04-2004, 17:45
Vagari Factbook
This is intended as OOC information on Vagari, and is provided for the benefit of those who might RP with me at some point, to give an OOC idea of what they'll be dealing with. If you insist on making negative comments, please ensure you have read this through; I really can't be bothered with complaints based on partial information.
-----
Introduction
The term 'Vagari', which comes from the latin 'to wander' (it's also an anagram of 'viagra', but let's not go into that :wink:), refers to a fairly small population of humans, about 1.5 million, who spend their entire lives living aboard their ships, in a fleet numbering several thousand vessels. Vagari have been living this way for over 600 years, and since their ships are not equipped with artificial gravity of any kind, this has had a profound influence on their culture and physiology.
Physiology
Vagari, who are born and die in zero-gravity, and never learn to walk, no longer have the required lower body strength, posture muscles, and balance to be able to survive on the surface of a planet, or other situations that would require maneouvering in gravity. Indeed, compared to other humans who have more experience of living under the effects of gravity, they are quite weak. Also, Vagari generally have a much slower heartbeat than other humans, with a correspondingly smaller heart; although they are generally capable of dealing with the occasional, brief G-Forces that are inevitable in space travel, under the effects of gravity wells they have a dangerously low blood pressure, and are likely to go into shock and even die when introduced to these conditions.
Living in space has not had entirely negative consequences; Vagari tend to have exceptional spatial awareness and depth perception, and, due to the cramped confines of their ships, tend to be extremely supple and agile, and don't have too much difficulty spending hours in positions that most people would find very uncomfortable after even a minute or two. They also tend to posess high manual dexterity, and, due to background radiation and frequent reactor leaks, are more resilient to radiation than most.
Because of their confined living space, Vagari are small of stature, average heights being about 5'4" for males, and 5'1" for females. Although Vagari are typically pale, engineers and those who are exposed to radiation often, develop an odd tan or blotchy complexion, and are usaully easily identified. Eyes are exclusively dark brown, since no other eye colours have survived in the gene pool, and hair is predominantly black, although recent generations have seen the increase of individuals with white hair, or, on rare occasions, an odd combination of black and white. Hair is, by standard, worn fairly long, being cut about once per solar year, due to the fact that regular cutting could cause ships to get clogged up with little bits of hair.
Technology
Although they have lived on their ships for several centuries, Vagari technology is still not extremely advanced. Because resources are always scarce, and the fleet usually has barely enough to survive, let alone waste materials on risky research projects, new technologies are rarely developed. That said, existing technologies are continually refined to make them more and more fuel and energy efficient; it is critical to Vagari survival that they make the absolute most of their resources, and as such, very little ever goes to waste.
Ships are powered by sophisticated fusion drives, which have been refined to use just about anything for fuel. Most large ships also have a backup fission reactor, and solar collectors are quite often used when passing through proximity of a star. The ships themselves tend to be in the range of 30-200m long for combat vessels, and up to 750m long for habitats and hydroponics vessels, although there are hundreds of miscellaneous auxilliary vessels that are anywhere from about 30-700m long.
Numerous ships are dedicated to hydroponics and provide the fleet with food supplies. Vegetables, and the small number of domestic animals carried, are heavily genetically modified, to maximise food production, and minimise the resources needed to grow. Although these hydroponics ships are an animal rights nightmare - chickens, for example, have been heavily modified to remove all non-essential features, including almost the entire nervous system, and could almost be classified as fruit - they are essential to keep the fleet supplied.
Because disease is easily quarantined, nearly all viral and bacterial infections have been eliminated from the population. The fleet still maintains numerous hospital and quarantine ships, however; burns, radiation sickness, g-force related sicknesses, and general accidents are still fairly common across the population. Because they are rarely exposed to disease, Vagari immune systems aren't quite up to the same level as their planet-dwelling cousins, who live surrounded by microbes, and thus Vagari are careful to use strict quarantine measures, and distrubute anti-biotics, when dealing with outsiders. Vagari usually prefer to make contact wearing sealed environment suits. While this may seem a little paranoid, were an infection to enter the population unnoticed, and be spread across the fleet, the effects could be devastating.
Vagari ships don't really posess sophisticated long-range communications and detection capabilities; most systems are still radio-based, and sensor frigates are equipped with radar, lidar, and other radiation-detection capabilities, although due to the speed of light, these systems become inaccurate at ranges greater than a few hundred thousand kilometres. Dedicated communications frigates act as information relays and data-processing centres for the fleet, and provide the data-storage and information handling of the fleet's 'internet' system. For long range communication, typically for distances greater than radio can effectively be used at (interstellar communications, for example), communications frigates and various other ships carry unmanned 'courier' vehicles, equipped with hyperdrives, that carry messages between systems.
Vagari have an extensive military, required not only to protect their vulnerable habitat and auxilliary vessels from raiders, but also to provide part of their income; by hiring themselves out as mercenaries to planets who do not have large militaries, or do not wish to endanger their own. The Vagari as a whole have been labelled a race of space mercenaries before, and it is not an entirely unjustified monicker. Vagari military technology relies almost exclusively on long-range guided missiles, of various calibers, carrying both conventional warheads and nuclear warheads in the 0.5-10 kiloton range, although a few cruisers carry weapons in the megaton range for planetary bombardment. Weapons in the gigaton range have also been appearing of late, due to an increase in available resources, and the higher quality of local militaries. The Vagari attach no stigma to nuclear weapons, having no real concern for planetary environments and such, and use them wherever it is tactically and logistically appropriate. Ships are equipped with high-energy lasers on rapid-tracking turrets to act as Close-In-Weapon-Systems, and protect against missiles or small, lightly armoured craft that evade the initial missile strike. Vagari units typically engage the enemy at ranges greater than 150,000km (0.5 light seconds). Although traditionally, Vagari have rarely used Starfighters, finding them inefficient when compared to missiles and rapid-tracking turrets, newly acquired technology has caused them to reassess the combat potential of fighters for sustained and flexible firepower projection, and a number of fighter wings have been comissioned of late.
Vagari posess no uber-tech such as cloaking devices, self-aware AI, or similar super high technology, although a new type of high-energy radiation shielding is being field tested on a number of vessels. The most advanced devices in the Vagari inventory are their hyperdrives, or 'Dimension drives' as they are perhaps more correctly known. These drives work on the principle that many alternate 'proto-dimensions' occupy the same space as the prime material plane, yet distances between locations in these dimensions are shorter. The dimension drive effectively shunts a vessel between the prime material plane and these proto-dimensions, which are completely devoid of matter, and serve little purpose other than a shortcut for bypassing large distances. These devices consume a great deal of energy, and are used sparingly. Gravity wells tend to disrupt their ability to function, so they are usually used on the outskirts of star-systems. Navigation is a complex affair; gravity wells on the prime material plane leave 'footprints' on the proto-dimension, which can be used to navigate.
History
The original Vagari fleet, which consisted of several hundred colony-ships and escort vessels, set out from a now unknown human-inhabited world, to settle a new colony on a recently discovered S3-class planet. However, the fleet ran into an unexpected problem, when they strayed into the path of an unstable wormhole, which threw them a considerable distance off-course; into another galaxy, in fact.
They found this galaxy to be heavily populated with all manner of alien civilisations, and were expressly forbidden from settling on any planet within the range of their drives. Before long, they came to the realisation that they would have to learn to live permanently on their ships, or die out.
The aliens were not completely hostile; many hired the fleet for a miriad of purposes, from transport to combat, and with their comparatively superior weaponry and tactics, the Vagari soon developed a reputation and considerable wealth, as space mercenaries. This era is looked upon by many Vagari as a golden age, during which the population experienced rapid growth, and comissioned new ships and space stations at a rate of several per year.
The golden age couldn't last, however. Eventually it got to the point where the Vagari had been hired to fight just about everybody at some point or other, and nearly all the races in the nearby galaxy were becoming increasingly intolerant of them. As dozens of civilisations began to build up their militaries to eliminate them once and for all, Vagari high command realised it would be futile to try and fight, so that left only one alternative - to run. But there seemed to be nowhere to go; inhabited space stretched for hundreds of lightyears in all directions. Eventually, high command decided to gamble everything, and attempt to replicate the wormhole that delivered them to this galaxy in the first place, and find their way back to the space their ancestors had left.
The project took almost all the spare resources they could muster, over a period of several decades, during the latter part of which, Vagari fleets came under increasing attack from hostile aliens, losing almost all their permanent stations and shipyards, as they were forced further and further into interstellar space to complete their project. Eventually, the wormhole was ready to open for the first time, and the fleet returned to the comparative safety of the Milky Way galaxy.
Society and Culture
Having had centuries to develop in relative isolation from other humans, and under unique and difficult conditions, Vagari culture has a distinctive flavour of its own. Much like the Vagari language, which has developed from english over 600+ years, picking up bits and pieces of alien languages along the way, until it has become a unique, and perhaps slightly confusing language (being even more erratic than english) in its own right.
Vagari language has evolved from english in a number of ways; most words and terms used in a working or combat environment, have been shortened and clipped for more rapid communication, and this truncating and compressing of thousands of words has caused irreversible changes in the language structure. Accordingly, Vagari names tend to be short and clipped too, either monosyllabic, or easily truncated, for rapid communication. Furthermore, words relating to emotion, and personal relations have suffered the inverse; stretched and often pronounced in a longer, almost crooning manner. The extensive capacity of english to deal with different temporal states has been reduced somewhat in the development of the language, as Vagari are more concerned with their present situation and survival. More terms to express compassion and empathy have been introduced, and different versions of older words have been duplicated or modified to indicate emotional states more readily.
Because of the scant resources and unforgiving nature of space, Vagari society is highly streamlined and engineered towards efficiency. Every member of society is raised practically from birth for a particular role, and because of this, social equality is paramount; since nobody's social position arises through the choices of the individual, nobdy should suffer social inequality for it. Vagari society is close to true communism, not through ideaology, but because it is the most efficient way of managing the fleet. Reproduction is strictly regulated, and females are usually subject to permanent contraception to prevent unwanted births that could jeopardise the fleet. Births are organised through artificial insemination of professional surrogate mothers, using genetic material donated by the more capable members of society. These women, as 'Mothers of the fleet', are typically accorded great respect. Children are raised and educated by equally dedicated professionals, and spend time onboard academy ships to prepare them for their future roles.
For Vagari children, 'Going outside to play' has a whole new meaning. After having safety procedures drummed into them from an early age, most Vagari are usaully ready for extra-vehicular activites from the age of twelve or thereabouts. Spacewalking is an important release for Vagari, who spend their lives living in the cramped interiors of their ships. Spacewalking isn't for everyone, though; not surprisingly, agoraphobia is quite common.
Because of the complete lack of a nuclear family (although many Vagari know, and are on good terms with their biological parents), the focus of Vagari social life is the crew. Especially the case on small ships, crews spend most of their time in each other's company, in confined quarters; Vagari ships are rather tight and cramped in design, to maximise the amount of equipment that can be crammed into a small space - Vagari live like sardines. As such, the bonds of affection and loyalty between crew members are often the equivalent of those between family members in other societies; this is particularly the case with small vessels, where individuals often display considerable separation anxiety when removed from the company of their crewmates for extended periods. Most ships, especially combat vessels, actually have two crews, one on duty, and another on recreational leave aboard a habitat vessel, with the roles alternating every couple of months, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. 'Recreational leave' usually includes a lot of health and fitness checks, as well as psychological testing; unproductive members of society are a drain on resources.
The work ethic is critical to Vagari survival; the fleet simply cannot support those who do not contribute effectively. While specialist training and breeding means that most Vagari are happy in their roles, and are enthusiastic about work and study, unproductive members of society inevitably appear at intervals. Since Vagari are on the whole quite compassionate, and close-knit as a society, these individuals aren't immediately cast out of an airlock; they are generally put on periods of re-education and training that last a year or two, in an attempt to re-integrate them. However, if this fails, then there usually is no choice but to have such individuals gently terminated.
Vagari tend to start their working lives around the ages of 14-18, depending on their role. This, they continue until they are no longer able to work effectively in their current role, in which case they are moved to less strenuous activities. When it reaches the stage that Vagari are unable to contribute to society, they are given two years to conclude any affairs they may be engaging in, write memoirs, and say their goodbyes; then they are painlessly terminated to free resources and living space for the rest of the population. To outsiders, this practice may seem harsh, but it has become ingrained in Vagari culture, and ensures that the population never has any members who are a drain on resources. Average life expectancy is about 60.
Despite their generally practical nature, and largely naturalistic outlook, the fact that most Vagari have time to prepare for and await their deaths, means that a certain amount of spirituality has become common. There is a widespread belief, or perhaps hope is a better word, that upon death, a person's spirit, or essence, or perhaps even a self-aware memory of that person, finds its way to another plane of existence, beyond the prime material plane and the proto-dimensions, where they will be re-united with old friends, and exist free from the confines of their ships, as entities of pure thought and expression. There are no deities, and no worship is involved; it is more of a cultural mythos and spirituality, than a religion. There are no priests or services, or anything recognisable as religion, both because the fleet cannot afford to expend resources on such things, and also because there is no real need for them. Each Vagari contemplates his or her own fate personally.
Liesure activities usually come in the form of advanced electronic media, zero-gravity sports (in space, or aboard habitat ships with appropriate facilities), and study, some of which is mandatory. High command takes the opinion that where there is free time, there are too many people, and thus too many resources are being consumed. Personnel who are not currently occupied with their specific role, are usually required to take some of the workload off dedicated IT and admin staff, and the like, and 'paperwork' tends to get distributed among warship crews during peacetime. Many other departments are able to 'double up' and perform an alternate role, when their current one is not fully engaging them. The running joke among warship crews is that they are half warrior, and half clerk.
Because of the limited amount of external stimuli onboard a small, cramped space vessel, Vagari are usually curious to the point of brazen nosiness when anything interesting happens. Although they are invariably of high intelligence and education, Vagari are also somewhat naive of anything that isn't in some way related to their personal tasks. For example, although they are vaguely aware of the existence of lower animals, most Vagari never really see any creature apart from other Vagari. Curiosity is mingled, however, with a healthy level of distrust and suspicion of outsiders; while they are always happy to meet new people, and learn of new cultures, they still prefer to keep them at arm's length.
Military
The Vagari have a lot of ships; somewhere in the region of five thousand or more (although I haven't calculated exact figures yet). Many of these are large, unarmed habitat or industrial vessels, that would make inviting targets for space raiders and the like. In order to safeguard these, and provide a powerful force that can fulfill mercenary contracts, they are accompanied by many smaller combat vessels.
Ship classes among combat vessels fall into roughly three categories; corvettes (length 30-50m), frigates (60-90m), and cruisers. (120-150m). One notable military support category is the corvette carrier, about 230m in length, but these are used solely to carry small craft on hyperspace jumps, rather than for any combat purpose. A new class of Starfighter carrier has recently been comissioned, although these vessels are limited in number. The size of Vagari warships can be decieving, and this often works to their advantage. Because the ships have no artificial gravity, and interiors are generally cramped, compact, and make the most of all available space, not to mention that the Vagari themselves are quite small of stature, a Vagari warship usually carries as much firepower as one would expect of a vessel twice its size.
Fleets tend to deploy in several layers; Furthest out, up to 300,000km from the core of the fleet, is the outer picket layer, consisting of picket corvettes, sensor frigates, and minesweeper corvettes. The next layer, the outer defence screen, consists of specialised anti-missile frigates, and guided missile frigates. The inner defence screen consists of the guided missile cruisers, which generally carry the largest missiles. Inside that is the fleet core, which consists of the auxilliaries and non-combat vessels. Communications frigates are spread across all the layers, and the rearguard picket layer may contain minelayers, depending on the mission.
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I daresay there's whole aspects I've missed out, so feedback is appreciated, of course :D
This is intended as OOC information on Vagari, and is provided for the benefit of those who might RP with me at some point, to give an OOC idea of what they'll be dealing with. If you insist on making negative comments, please ensure you have read this through; I really can't be bothered with complaints based on partial information.
-----
Introduction
The term 'Vagari', which comes from the latin 'to wander' (it's also an anagram of 'viagra', but let's not go into that :wink:), refers to a fairly small population of humans, about 1.5 million, who spend their entire lives living aboard their ships, in a fleet numbering several thousand vessels. Vagari have been living this way for over 600 years, and since their ships are not equipped with artificial gravity of any kind, this has had a profound influence on their culture and physiology.
Physiology
Vagari, who are born and die in zero-gravity, and never learn to walk, no longer have the required lower body strength, posture muscles, and balance to be able to survive on the surface of a planet, or other situations that would require maneouvering in gravity. Indeed, compared to other humans who have more experience of living under the effects of gravity, they are quite weak. Also, Vagari generally have a much slower heartbeat than other humans, with a correspondingly smaller heart; although they are generally capable of dealing with the occasional, brief G-Forces that are inevitable in space travel, under the effects of gravity wells they have a dangerously low blood pressure, and are likely to go into shock and even die when introduced to these conditions.
Living in space has not had entirely negative consequences; Vagari tend to have exceptional spatial awareness and depth perception, and, due to the cramped confines of their ships, tend to be extremely supple and agile, and don't have too much difficulty spending hours in positions that most people would find very uncomfortable after even a minute or two. They also tend to posess high manual dexterity, and, due to background radiation and frequent reactor leaks, are more resilient to radiation than most.
Because of their confined living space, Vagari are small of stature, average heights being about 5'4" for males, and 5'1" for females. Although Vagari are typically pale, engineers and those who are exposed to radiation often, develop an odd tan or blotchy complexion, and are usaully easily identified. Eyes are exclusively dark brown, since no other eye colours have survived in the gene pool, and hair is predominantly black, although recent generations have seen the increase of individuals with white hair, or, on rare occasions, an odd combination of black and white. Hair is, by standard, worn fairly long, being cut about once per solar year, due to the fact that regular cutting could cause ships to get clogged up with little bits of hair.
Technology
Although they have lived on their ships for several centuries, Vagari technology is still not extremely advanced. Because resources are always scarce, and the fleet usually has barely enough to survive, let alone waste materials on risky research projects, new technologies are rarely developed. That said, existing technologies are continually refined to make them more and more fuel and energy efficient; it is critical to Vagari survival that they make the absolute most of their resources, and as such, very little ever goes to waste.
Ships are powered by sophisticated fusion drives, which have been refined to use just about anything for fuel. Most large ships also have a backup fission reactor, and solar collectors are quite often used when passing through proximity of a star. The ships themselves tend to be in the range of 30-200m long for combat vessels, and up to 750m long for habitats and hydroponics vessels, although there are hundreds of miscellaneous auxilliary vessels that are anywhere from about 30-700m long.
Numerous ships are dedicated to hydroponics and provide the fleet with food supplies. Vegetables, and the small number of domestic animals carried, are heavily genetically modified, to maximise food production, and minimise the resources needed to grow. Although these hydroponics ships are an animal rights nightmare - chickens, for example, have been heavily modified to remove all non-essential features, including almost the entire nervous system, and could almost be classified as fruit - they are essential to keep the fleet supplied.
Because disease is easily quarantined, nearly all viral and bacterial infections have been eliminated from the population. The fleet still maintains numerous hospital and quarantine ships, however; burns, radiation sickness, g-force related sicknesses, and general accidents are still fairly common across the population. Because they are rarely exposed to disease, Vagari immune systems aren't quite up to the same level as their planet-dwelling cousins, who live surrounded by microbes, and thus Vagari are careful to use strict quarantine measures, and distrubute anti-biotics, when dealing with outsiders. Vagari usually prefer to make contact wearing sealed environment suits. While this may seem a little paranoid, were an infection to enter the population unnoticed, and be spread across the fleet, the effects could be devastating.
Vagari ships don't really posess sophisticated long-range communications and detection capabilities; most systems are still radio-based, and sensor frigates are equipped with radar, lidar, and other radiation-detection capabilities, although due to the speed of light, these systems become inaccurate at ranges greater than a few hundred thousand kilometres. Dedicated communications frigates act as information relays and data-processing centres for the fleet, and provide the data-storage and information handling of the fleet's 'internet' system. For long range communication, typically for distances greater than radio can effectively be used at (interstellar communications, for example), communications frigates and various other ships carry unmanned 'courier' vehicles, equipped with hyperdrives, that carry messages between systems.
Vagari have an extensive military, required not only to protect their vulnerable habitat and auxilliary vessels from raiders, but also to provide part of their income; by hiring themselves out as mercenaries to planets who do not have large militaries, or do not wish to endanger their own. The Vagari as a whole have been labelled a race of space mercenaries before, and it is not an entirely unjustified monicker. Vagari military technology relies almost exclusively on long-range guided missiles, of various calibers, carrying both conventional warheads and nuclear warheads in the 0.5-10 kiloton range, although a few cruisers carry weapons in the megaton range for planetary bombardment. Weapons in the gigaton range have also been appearing of late, due to an increase in available resources, and the higher quality of local militaries. The Vagari attach no stigma to nuclear weapons, having no real concern for planetary environments and such, and use them wherever it is tactically and logistically appropriate. Ships are equipped with high-energy lasers on rapid-tracking turrets to act as Close-In-Weapon-Systems, and protect against missiles or small, lightly armoured craft that evade the initial missile strike. Vagari units typically engage the enemy at ranges greater than 150,000km (0.5 light seconds). Although traditionally, Vagari have rarely used Starfighters, finding them inefficient when compared to missiles and rapid-tracking turrets, newly acquired technology has caused them to reassess the combat potential of fighters for sustained and flexible firepower projection, and a number of fighter wings have been comissioned of late.
Vagari posess no uber-tech such as cloaking devices, self-aware AI, or similar super high technology, although a new type of high-energy radiation shielding is being field tested on a number of vessels. The most advanced devices in the Vagari inventory are their hyperdrives, or 'Dimension drives' as they are perhaps more correctly known. These drives work on the principle that many alternate 'proto-dimensions' occupy the same space as the prime material plane, yet distances between locations in these dimensions are shorter. The dimension drive effectively shunts a vessel between the prime material plane and these proto-dimensions, which are completely devoid of matter, and serve little purpose other than a shortcut for bypassing large distances. These devices consume a great deal of energy, and are used sparingly. Gravity wells tend to disrupt their ability to function, so they are usually used on the outskirts of star-systems. Navigation is a complex affair; gravity wells on the prime material plane leave 'footprints' on the proto-dimension, which can be used to navigate.
History
The original Vagari fleet, which consisted of several hundred colony-ships and escort vessels, set out from a now unknown human-inhabited world, to settle a new colony on a recently discovered S3-class planet. However, the fleet ran into an unexpected problem, when they strayed into the path of an unstable wormhole, which threw them a considerable distance off-course; into another galaxy, in fact.
They found this galaxy to be heavily populated with all manner of alien civilisations, and were expressly forbidden from settling on any planet within the range of their drives. Before long, they came to the realisation that they would have to learn to live permanently on their ships, or die out.
The aliens were not completely hostile; many hired the fleet for a miriad of purposes, from transport to combat, and with their comparatively superior weaponry and tactics, the Vagari soon developed a reputation and considerable wealth, as space mercenaries. This era is looked upon by many Vagari as a golden age, during which the population experienced rapid growth, and comissioned new ships and space stations at a rate of several per year.
The golden age couldn't last, however. Eventually it got to the point where the Vagari had been hired to fight just about everybody at some point or other, and nearly all the races in the nearby galaxy were becoming increasingly intolerant of them. As dozens of civilisations began to build up their militaries to eliminate them once and for all, Vagari high command realised it would be futile to try and fight, so that left only one alternative - to run. But there seemed to be nowhere to go; inhabited space stretched for hundreds of lightyears in all directions. Eventually, high command decided to gamble everything, and attempt to replicate the wormhole that delivered them to this galaxy in the first place, and find their way back to the space their ancestors had left.
The project took almost all the spare resources they could muster, over a period of several decades, during the latter part of which, Vagari fleets came under increasing attack from hostile aliens, losing almost all their permanent stations and shipyards, as they were forced further and further into interstellar space to complete their project. Eventually, the wormhole was ready to open for the first time, and the fleet returned to the comparative safety of the Milky Way galaxy.
Society and Culture
Having had centuries to develop in relative isolation from other humans, and under unique and difficult conditions, Vagari culture has a distinctive flavour of its own. Much like the Vagari language, which has developed from english over 600+ years, picking up bits and pieces of alien languages along the way, until it has become a unique, and perhaps slightly confusing language (being even more erratic than english) in its own right.
Vagari language has evolved from english in a number of ways; most words and terms used in a working or combat environment, have been shortened and clipped for more rapid communication, and this truncating and compressing of thousands of words has caused irreversible changes in the language structure. Accordingly, Vagari names tend to be short and clipped too, either monosyllabic, or easily truncated, for rapid communication. Furthermore, words relating to emotion, and personal relations have suffered the inverse; stretched and often pronounced in a longer, almost crooning manner. The extensive capacity of english to deal with different temporal states has been reduced somewhat in the development of the language, as Vagari are more concerned with their present situation and survival. More terms to express compassion and empathy have been introduced, and different versions of older words have been duplicated or modified to indicate emotional states more readily.
Because of the scant resources and unforgiving nature of space, Vagari society is highly streamlined and engineered towards efficiency. Every member of society is raised practically from birth for a particular role, and because of this, social equality is paramount; since nobody's social position arises through the choices of the individual, nobdy should suffer social inequality for it. Vagari society is close to true communism, not through ideaology, but because it is the most efficient way of managing the fleet. Reproduction is strictly regulated, and females are usually subject to permanent contraception to prevent unwanted births that could jeopardise the fleet. Births are organised through artificial insemination of professional surrogate mothers, using genetic material donated by the more capable members of society. These women, as 'Mothers of the fleet', are typically accorded great respect. Children are raised and educated by equally dedicated professionals, and spend time onboard academy ships to prepare them for their future roles.
For Vagari children, 'Going outside to play' has a whole new meaning. After having safety procedures drummed into them from an early age, most Vagari are usaully ready for extra-vehicular activites from the age of twelve or thereabouts. Spacewalking is an important release for Vagari, who spend their lives living in the cramped interiors of their ships. Spacewalking isn't for everyone, though; not surprisingly, agoraphobia is quite common.
Because of the complete lack of a nuclear family (although many Vagari know, and are on good terms with their biological parents), the focus of Vagari social life is the crew. Especially the case on small ships, crews spend most of their time in each other's company, in confined quarters; Vagari ships are rather tight and cramped in design, to maximise the amount of equipment that can be crammed into a small space - Vagari live like sardines. As such, the bonds of affection and loyalty between crew members are often the equivalent of those between family members in other societies; this is particularly the case with small vessels, where individuals often display considerable separation anxiety when removed from the company of their crewmates for extended periods. Most ships, especially combat vessels, actually have two crews, one on duty, and another on recreational leave aboard a habitat vessel, with the roles alternating every couple of months, unless circumstances dictate otherwise. 'Recreational leave' usually includes a lot of health and fitness checks, as well as psychological testing; unproductive members of society are a drain on resources.
The work ethic is critical to Vagari survival; the fleet simply cannot support those who do not contribute effectively. While specialist training and breeding means that most Vagari are happy in their roles, and are enthusiastic about work and study, unproductive members of society inevitably appear at intervals. Since Vagari are on the whole quite compassionate, and close-knit as a society, these individuals aren't immediately cast out of an airlock; they are generally put on periods of re-education and training that last a year or two, in an attempt to re-integrate them. However, if this fails, then there usually is no choice but to have such individuals gently terminated.
Vagari tend to start their working lives around the ages of 14-18, depending on their role. This, they continue until they are no longer able to work effectively in their current role, in which case they are moved to less strenuous activities. When it reaches the stage that Vagari are unable to contribute to society, they are given two years to conclude any affairs they may be engaging in, write memoirs, and say their goodbyes; then they are painlessly terminated to free resources and living space for the rest of the population. To outsiders, this practice may seem harsh, but it has become ingrained in Vagari culture, and ensures that the population never has any members who are a drain on resources. Average life expectancy is about 60.
Despite their generally practical nature, and largely naturalistic outlook, the fact that most Vagari have time to prepare for and await their deaths, means that a certain amount of spirituality has become common. There is a widespread belief, or perhaps hope is a better word, that upon death, a person's spirit, or essence, or perhaps even a self-aware memory of that person, finds its way to another plane of existence, beyond the prime material plane and the proto-dimensions, where they will be re-united with old friends, and exist free from the confines of their ships, as entities of pure thought and expression. There are no deities, and no worship is involved; it is more of a cultural mythos and spirituality, than a religion. There are no priests or services, or anything recognisable as religion, both because the fleet cannot afford to expend resources on such things, and also because there is no real need for them. Each Vagari contemplates his or her own fate personally.
Liesure activities usually come in the form of advanced electronic media, zero-gravity sports (in space, or aboard habitat ships with appropriate facilities), and study, some of which is mandatory. High command takes the opinion that where there is free time, there are too many people, and thus too many resources are being consumed. Personnel who are not currently occupied with their specific role, are usually required to take some of the workload off dedicated IT and admin staff, and the like, and 'paperwork' tends to get distributed among warship crews during peacetime. Many other departments are able to 'double up' and perform an alternate role, when their current one is not fully engaging them. The running joke among warship crews is that they are half warrior, and half clerk.
Because of the limited amount of external stimuli onboard a small, cramped space vessel, Vagari are usually curious to the point of brazen nosiness when anything interesting happens. Although they are invariably of high intelligence and education, Vagari are also somewhat naive of anything that isn't in some way related to their personal tasks. For example, although they are vaguely aware of the existence of lower animals, most Vagari never really see any creature apart from other Vagari. Curiosity is mingled, however, with a healthy level of distrust and suspicion of outsiders; while they are always happy to meet new people, and learn of new cultures, they still prefer to keep them at arm's length.
Military
The Vagari have a lot of ships; somewhere in the region of five thousand or more (although I haven't calculated exact figures yet). Many of these are large, unarmed habitat or industrial vessels, that would make inviting targets for space raiders and the like. In order to safeguard these, and provide a powerful force that can fulfill mercenary contracts, they are accompanied by many smaller combat vessels.
Ship classes among combat vessels fall into roughly three categories; corvettes (length 30-50m), frigates (60-90m), and cruisers. (120-150m). One notable military support category is the corvette carrier, about 230m in length, but these are used solely to carry small craft on hyperspace jumps, rather than for any combat purpose. A new class of Starfighter carrier has recently been comissioned, although these vessels are limited in number. The size of Vagari warships can be decieving, and this often works to their advantage. Because the ships have no artificial gravity, and interiors are generally cramped, compact, and make the most of all available space, not to mention that the Vagari themselves are quite small of stature, a Vagari warship usually carries as much firepower as one would expect of a vessel twice its size.
Fleets tend to deploy in several layers; Furthest out, up to 300,000km from the core of the fleet, is the outer picket layer, consisting of picket corvettes, sensor frigates, and minesweeper corvettes. The next layer, the outer defence screen, consists of specialised anti-missile frigates, and guided missile frigates. The inner defence screen consists of the guided missile cruisers, which generally carry the largest missiles. Inside that is the fleet core, which consists of the auxilliaries and non-combat vessels. Communications frigates are spread across all the layers, and the rearguard picket layer may contain minelayers, depending on the mission.
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I daresay there's whole aspects I've missed out, so feedback is appreciated, of course :D