NationStates Jolt Archive

Forsake the land that is your birthright, my children. Mankind was not meant to languish on mere worlds! Take to the stars, and claim enlightenment as your prize!
- The Prophet of the Nuravada


Among the stars, there are thousands of nations. Some construct empires so great as to dwarf the imagination. Others build fleets in revenge and anger, attempting to strike down enemies, ruining entire worlds with their hatred. Some live as cults, others devotees only of reason, and some merely trying to survive.

It is easy, among such a diaspora of nations, to miss the Perioklai. Or perhaps they have not been missed, but rather noted by races, and left alone, as they have little practical use to the outside world. Though they are part of humanity (though they do not consider themselves so), they are a part which follows no creed of expansion, no grand scheme to spread their beliefs through the universe.

They are aware of others existing, and have made no true attempt to contact others. For they know much of the worlds outside the Wander, and know that there are those who would crush them without mercy, enslave or annihilate them, merely for the mutable resources they own, or simply because they are strange, and thus might be a threat.

It is the way of the Perioklai to exist quietly, as probes are far and few between. Those races with the resources to search the entire Wander for such a small people as they, are races that could never perceive a threat coming from the Perioklai.

Among the Perioklai are two factions. Factions is not the best word, for there are three seperate powerful entities within the Perioklai. There are two cultures, however, seperate and distinct from one another. Each consider themselves the true path for the Perioklai, each believing that their way alone can allow them to continue in the peace they now possess.

Two thousand years ago, there was a world named Ikallidi. The name is a little gaudy, but it was a gaudy place. The history of this time is not exactly clear, for the Perioklai had been thrown from their planet most violently. A colony from lost origins, the Perioklai were on a world that sought to expand, be a power among the stars. To forge an empire, and gain the wealth from it, was the desire of many leaders on this world.

However, it was a world with nations. Though their names, too, are gone, they all desired resources. As faster-than-light travel is limited, and star systems are few in this region of space, they competed most bitterly. Then, a world that could support life was discovered. The bickering transformed into full-fledged war. As the Perioklai know, war with antimatter is short, but the consequences are eternal.

Their world was transformed into a barren hell, and, as a colony ship had been prepared for the habitable world, the remainder of the two fleets banded together, taking a vow to never again perpetuate such destruction.

They left their world, and colonized a new place, many hundreds of lightyears away. It was named Sontraldy, and it was here that the first dispute arose. The two factions among the Perioklai became evident, as one, naming himself the Prophet of the Nuravada (Which, in Perioklaise, means “Unhomed”), took up the position that the Perioklai should not colonize Sontradly. Rather, they should use it only as a supply base, and construct more ships. They would build only what they needed to support themselves, and, since fusionable fuel was abundant in gas giants, they would most easily be able to supply their ships with fuel. The abundance of energy would allow them to wander the stars forever, without ever binding themselves to a world that could be destroyed.

For, the Prophet argued, the destruction of their old homeworld was a clear proof for his argument. Wandering among the stars would give them safety, and, if they no longer fought over worlds, they would never again war amongst each other. They would not expand in population haphazardly, but would be born as their ships were built – a control over their population, preventing any resource-based wars.

Many found this attractive, having seen firsthand the destruction of Ikallidi. Because of this, they agreed to join the Prophet, taking most of the ships from the fleet, and leaving. They explored many worlds, and built stations and ships. They charted many systems, and, when they found another race, they left, never again wishing to be involved in the affairs of expansion, believing it brought only death.

The systems they charted that were uninhabited and unused they named the Wander, and each of the Nuravada travels from system to system, in their ships, seeking out new things, learning more about the universe, and storing their knowledge within their ships. Each ship is a library, and each is written anew upon each ship – only the basics of physics and ship maintenance is given to the young Nuravada, who are cast into the Wander to find enlightenment.

In the Wander, a great construction was found. A metal planetoid, many times larger than any ship ever seen by the Perioklai. After further investigation, it was discovered that it was a construction yard, fueled by antimatter, which would allow them to construct ships for their young. The Foundry of the Wandering, as they called it, is the centrepoint of the Nuravada, in the Maakmeks Xi system.

The Nuravada also discovered a habitable planetoid, and named it Wanderrest, upon which they built bases on it, and used it as a sort of base. For, if the Nuravada ever needed to meet, the Foundry was not safe enough to encompass them all, and meeting there would reveal them all. So Wanderrest was made as a meeting place, and a refuge for those who had lost their ships.

On the other side, those who desired a new planet (and were many, though they were the colonists, not the fleet), and named themselves the Kathalda, meaning “the true”. For many saw the Nuravada as betraying them, and so conceived an anger against them, believing the Nuravada abandoned them in their hour of need, when settling Sontradly was difficult, and it seemed as if they might fail.

They built a flourishing society on Sontradly, and there they seemed to stay. They built ships, and defenses, but did not abide by the precepts of the Nuravada. Although they did not colonize (seeing the desire to colonize as one that could nevertheless lead to the end of society), they did expand, and across Sontradly, they spread. Over time, their population reached four million, as many as the planet could support. It was not a large or prosperous world, and so they decided to colonize another world.

The only system within the Wander to have more than one habitable world, the Kathalda sent their old colony ship, the Founder, to Kata, a much colder, dryer world. Yet Kata was habitable, and the population grew to half a million.

After this, the Nuravada became concerned about the ideals of the Kathalda, and so built “settlements” on each habitable world they found, of about two hundred Nuravada, who comprised a few ship-families, in order to say they had “claimed” the worlds. The Kathalda respected the rights of the Nuravada, and so they did not built any more colonies. For the Kathalda have recently had huge Nuravada movements, and tend to sympathise with them.

Recently, a third faction has arised. The Incoss Mining Corporation, though unpopular, has sponsored several mining settlements, and it exports raw materials to both the Foundy and the Kathalda. They are restricted by Kathaldan law, and the Nuravada do not allow them on to the Wander, on pain of disablement. The Incoss have an entire system at their leisure, though, that was claimed by the Kathalda (though it has no habitable worlds), one of the two the Kathalda own.

The spirituality of the Nuravada, and the caution of the Kathalda is not found in the Incoss. Though they operate quietly, they are seen to be a faction who desires expansion (as a corporation, this is true), and so both the Nuravada and Kathalda are suspicious of them.

In this last Kathaldan year, however, new events have arisen. The Incoss obtained a large hyperspatial transmitter, which they used with glee. A single mistake was made, and an experimental message proclaiming “peace to all the stars”, found its way not only to the Nuravada Wanderrest, but to, indeed, all the stars.

This development has the Kathalda on edge, and their small star-navy is mobilized, prepared for the worst. The Nuravada have brought many people to the Wanderrest for a grand meeting. It is here, you see, that the fate of the Incoss will come about. Both sides are in agreement, in that the Incoss are foolhardy. However, their materials are needed, and the Nuravada have trouble gaining the materials they need without them. Without the Incoss, the Kathalda would have great trouble maintaining their colony on Kata.

Radicals wish to disband them, moderates wish merely to place observers within the Incoss structure, and conservatives wish to maintain the Incoss, but, with the message, one thing is clear. The way of the Perioklai may be changed forever.

Peace, to all the stars!

The message proclaimed itself loudly across eon-old empires, through republics and hiveminds, into habitable worlds, into the depths of empty deep space. This mistake is easily tracked. A system named Napilchichno, though the name is not given with the message. It is from a people named the Perioklai, though they do not identify themselves.

The question. Are there those interested enough to discover such a people, due to a message such as this?

Truedawn, the Argenthele

Two men stood in front of the grand dome, talking quietly. They had heard the news. Who had not? A message to the galaxy. After almost five hundred years of perfect isolation, the Incoss had, in their prideful belief in their own infallibility, sent a message out.

They were Nuravada. As such, the Argenthele was alien to them. The grand meeting-hall of the Kathalda, the Argenthele was the symbol of Kathalda government, towering almost a thousand feet above them. Structurally sound, but little more, it gave the lie to the Kathalda claim of aesthetic buildings. Stout, grey, and decked out with the occasional gaudy artwork hanging from balconies, it seemed like a dignified statesman wearing a clown's-nose.

"Illara. I do not believe we can trust the Kathalda to support us on this."

A man spoke, quietly, edging closer to his female companion, as if she could cloud out the unforgiving blue-green of the sky.

The woman next to him nodded. "Indeed. The Kathalda are greedier than we are, however. Their unbridled colonization of Kata shows this. They disobey the tenets of the Nuravada, and risk their entire people on a single world. I cannot fathom them."

He chuckled. "My love, I think you are even more biased than I am. They are strange, perhaps, but are we not to them?""

Her face deeped into a frown, and she shook her head. "Aren, I have the right of it. If we cannot disband the Incoss, we risk the repetition of such an event."

"And then what? The Nuravada abhors all violence, Illara. What power do we have to disband them? Self-defense may be justified against those who are not sentient, but.."

"Yes, yes. Violence against sentients can only lead to war. I merely hope the Kathalda have the reason to see why the isolation must be maintained."

Aren sighed, and walked into the Argenthele. The melding of metals and plastics, he found, had no real beauty to it. There was a beauty to success, surely, but merely constructing something for the sake of construction was to accept expansionism as a way of life.

The building's lobby alone was massive, covering as much space as any one of the greatest halls of the Nuravada on Wanderrest.

It took him a minute to thread his way through the pillars and desks of the nigh-abandoned lobby, towards the two great doors at the other end. After a few minutes, with Illara trailing behind him, he pushed them open, the material the doors were made out of practically gauze in its weight, sturdy enough to block only light and nothing more.

Inside, chaos reigned.

Men and women argued at the top of their lungs, shouting, some talking furiously to the person next to them, others seemingly on the verge of throwing the very chairs they say upon.

It would be natural for him, Aren mused, to simply wait for the hubbub to die down. Among the Nuravada, shouting was uncommon. But they were a different people, with different ways. If he did not interrupt, he would not be heard. The noise only intensified as other Kathalda noticed him, and shouted at their comrades, trying to quieten them, to receive louder roars in return.

Aren did not have the capacity to yell. He had never been good at it. For he had lived his life on his ship, along with one or two of his children, who then left, to receive their own ships. Occasionally he had spent time with his lifemate, Illara, yet such meetings were sporadic and short - absence prevented the relationship from ever becoming tiring.

So he looked down on them, and walked up to the podium, at which a single defeated-looking man stood.

He tapped the man on the shoulder, and spoke softly to him.

"My friend, I am from the Nuravada. May I address this assembly?"

The man's eyes lit up, and he left the stage quickly, being only too glad to cede the troublesome task of quietening the Argenthele to another.

For a few moments, Aren stood. He motioned Illara up beside him, and, as the noise continued, from a pocket in his vest, he pulled out a tiny golden bell. He tapped it once, and then a second time.

The roar did not seem affected in the slightest.

The third time, however, was different. The air seemed drawn out of the room, as the sound ceased, a single, high-pitched chime overwhelming all other sound, negating the energies on which they were built. Apart from one voice.

His.

"Lost of the Perioklai. I am one of the Nuravada, and here I address you today."

Silence, though the bell had ended.

"I come to speak to you about what has happened. That the worlds beyond the Wander have been contacted, there is no doubt, and so we must prepare ourselves."

A single voice. "How do we know the worlds beyond your Wander have been contacted?"

Aren looked down at the voice. "A reasonable question. However, the Nuravada are always exploring, as so to expand the systems we may call our Wander. Two of your planet-cycles ago, we received the message from the Incoss, in a system we had never before visited."

The voice was silenced. Aren continued.

"So. That we are now known is certain. Perhaps we were known before, but, if we were, it was to powers who never sought to bother us. Now, though, the entire sector, if not the galaxy, knows of our existence. For the Nuravada, it is considered this may mean the loss of little. If the Wander is expanded into, we may simply leave, and create another. The loss of the beauties we have found will be wept over, yet there is much to gain, from such a loss."

He looked down at the Kathalda assembled there. "You, though, are bound to one world. It is the intent of the Nuravada to know. What will you do if there are those who desire to take it from you?"

The room erupted into furious sound.

OOC: This is completely open. If you just want to jump in as a ship exploring a system of the Wander, and coming upon a Nuravada ship, or perhaps tracking the message given back to its source, or even some ancient observer of the Perioklai with ub3r seeing powers.. that's all good.

IC: Mirrordawn, the Argenthele

The great light-mirror came over the horizon, heat and light cascading down into the world, giving life to plants, stripping snow from the ground slowly, but certainly. It was summer on Sontradly, one of the few times the snow evaporated from the ground. Even then, only when both the sun and the orbital mirror was in alignment did the snow melt, and remained so only for a few weeks.

This year had been a cold one, and it seemed only a week would be given to melt the snow. Though plants were grown in sheltered hothouses, the sun was still required, as was the mirror. Plants geneered to grow as quickly as possible, using all the energy and water available, so that the burgeoning population could be fed. The tiny planet now housed four million people, and the food production was stretched to its limit.

Kata, by comparison, was even more desolate, though the atmosphere was breathable, and the gravity close to fine, if a little heavy. Food was expensive, though affordable, and the economy was expanding. Life was good for the Kathalda, and they knew it.

Disbanding the Incoss Mining Corporation would mean a loss of much of this stability, and the economy would collapse. For the politicians, this was unthinkable.

So, as they spoke to the Nuravada, they were cautious.

"We would intend, my friend, to cede not one jot of this world! It is our world, and we shall FIGHT for it!"

Aren raised an eyebrow. "And if you defeat them, and they return to their own worlds, pledging to destroy you?"

"We would.. we would.."

Another voice took up the call. "We would follow them to their homes, and take their worlds as they would take ours!"

Aren's face almost collapsed with shock. Could a few hundred years of planet-dwelling remove the memories of war entirely? Surely, it had not done so for the Nuravada. He shook his head.

"So, you have all abandoned the old creeds? The ways that swore we would never again follow?"

The Argenthele grew silent. But, slowly, the mood became one of assent. The silence became uncomfortable, and then awful. Finally, a single man nodded, slowly, painfully.

"We would do so. It would not be our choice, though. We would never inflict this upon an undeserving people."

Aren looked at him. "Then you are Lost, as I named you. For what right have you to decide who is deserving and who is not?"

He captivated their attention for a few moments longer, and then Illara darted out of the chamber, unable to take the strain any longer. He looked after her, and closed his eyes.

"I would advise you against this course of action, yet I see there is no advising you. I came here believing you would be willing to disband the Incoss, and, in their removal, to allow our people safety once more, or what little we could obtain of it. Now..."

His voice trailed off.

The same politician who had spoken at the start spoke once more.

"Now we are willing to defend ourselves, as we rightfully should?"

Aren looked at him. "You. What is your name?"

"Kadent."

"Kadent. I would ask you, in the future, to remember that you have advocated this course. Along with those who do not dissent. I ask only that, when the hour comes that we face annihilation, you do not blame the Nuravada."

He turned on his heel, and, ignoring Kadent's furious rebuttle, walked out of the room, slowly quickening his pace as to catch Illara. He was the first of the Nuravada to address the Aregenthele in many years, and the shock he felt would soon be reflected throughout his people.