NationStates Jolt Archive


Velkyan FT Factbook Entry

Velkya
01-10-2005, 01:06
Allied Union of Velkya

Government

Government Style: Representative Democracy
Head of State: President William Harker
Capital City: Velkya City, Earth

Interstellar Holdings

The AUV is comprised of 89 worlds. Unlike most other interstellar nations, the AUV does not possess a "capital world". Instead, its capital is located in its territory on Earth, the original nation of Velkya. The closet thing the AUV has for a capital world is New Velkya, an Earth-like world several dozen light-years from Earth. Much of the colonial administration is located there, and "The Titan", the HQ for the Colonial Defense Command, is based there.

Demography

Total Estimated Pop.

1.1 billion Citizens, with 92% of that distributed along the various colonies.
Ethnic Groupings:

34% White
21% Selkan
19% Black
7% Asian
3% Other
6% Various Alien Races

Economy

Currently, 30% of all Velkyan worlds are mining worlds. Further more, ten more worlds act as trading hubs, coordinating the massive Merchant Marine of Velkya. The MMV consists of over 100,000 trade ships which traverse the known universe everyday, delivering goods to allied nations and fellow Velkyan worlds alike.

History

Origins

The Velkyan military and government space program has existed since the formation of Velkya at the dawn of the twenty-first century. The civilian arm, the Velkyan Space Agency, was formed in 2001 with the launch of Guardian I, a communications satellite. The military arm, formed in 2054 as the Allied Union Space Force, controlled the orbital cannons and missile defense systems of Velkya, as well as military expeditions on nearby solar neighbors. When the first faster than light (FTL) reaction-less drive (the precursor to the current slipspace method), was developed under the leadership of Dr. Bernard Sharnhorst (2052-2106), the Allied Union found itself the only nation on Earth to possess such an advanced technology.

While Velkya had already established vast, permanent bases on the Moon and Mars, for the first time in human history, exploration outside the Solar System was not only possible, but fast and relatively cheap. Immediately, an expedition, codenamed "HETI" (Hunt for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) was begun. Headed by the V.S.E.V. Orion, the first FTL spacecraft built by human hands. HETI launched on January 1st, 2108. Sharnhorst, unfortunately, never saw his brainchild climb into the heavens. He was struck down by an extremist's bullet 2 years before the Orion's launch.

http://www.ssi.org/assets/images/slide08.jpg
Mass Driver from which the Orion was launched.

Into the Void

Many members of the media, both foreign and domestic, awaited the launch of the Orion with disdain. Most thought the drive would overload and explode into an atomic fireball, instead of carrying the Orion to Pluto, its preset destination. When zero hour came, hundreds of journalists, watching a live camera feed linked to Baker's Ridge Moon Base, watched as the craft began to gain speed, passing the designated checkpoints over the Moon. Then, there was a silent flash of blue light. The Orion disappeared, a trail of magnetic disturbance following it.

The craft reemerged approximately a third of an AU from Pluto, close to its jump point. Sending a laser signal to BRMB, the Orion has successfully completed mankind's first FTL jump. Milliseconds later, the laser signal was received by Baker's Ridge. All over the country, mass celebration broke out in the streets as foreigners and Velkyans alike celebrated this monumental step in human achievement. But the greatest discovery was still yet to come. As the Orion finished an orbit around Pluto, taking never-before seen pictures of the small planet, its primitive sensors detected an incoming object. Expecting an asteroid, the ship used retro-rockets to maneuver, but to the crew's surprise, the object followed it.

http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/tta/images2/pathfinder_1.jpg
The V.S.E.V. Orion

Encounter

Attempting the rocket away from the incoming UFO, the crew fired its retros again, to no avail. The Velkyan crew was being drawn into the ship, and at a distance of one mile, their small rear cameras captured a massive ship, clearly alien, drawing them in. The invisible beam drew them into a blinding light. Once past the blinding light, the crew was told to exit the vehicle by an alien figure. These men, Captain Michael Faring, 1st Lt. Zackary Davenport, and Colonel Ricardo Harlem, would be the first humans to communicate with an extra-terrestrial species. Greeting the humans with a strange gesture (placing their fist upon their breast), the creature proceeded to speak perfect English. The aliens, calling themselves the Aran' Nai (Eldar in their language), were similar to humans, with pale white skin, brightly colored hair, and a slim physique. Standing at about seven feet tall, they towered over the trio, as they told them they were great heroes to their race for taking the first step in reaching out to the stars.

They had been monitoring the human race for thousands of years, and with their first FTL jump, had deemed humanity ready for exposure into the galaxy. The aliens then returned the men to their spacecraft, and readied to jump to earth. The alien's jump was highly accurate, more so than the Terran one, and landed within high Earth orbit with the Orion in tow.

http://www.xulu.com/walkthru/images/imgAStarshipAdriana.jpg
Eldar flagship Erosa

Friendship

Displaying themselves to humanity, the aliens then meet with Velkyan leaders in secret, hoping not to cause a panic within Earth's religious sectors. The aliens themselves believed in a religion similar to that of Earth's Hinduism, with a rigid caste system and belief in a singular supreme being. Within years, with government deemed the populace of Earth ready to meet their alien friends. In a grand ceremony in Velkya City, the President, Charles Douglas, presented the Eldar Fleetmaster, Loral' Vashnil, to a large crowd of photographers and newsmen. The Earth was not alone.

Although the shockwave from such a "discovery" would not subside for nearly a decade, the populace accepted the aliens, and soon, the aliens built a majestic "embassy" on a tropical isle not far from Sand Island Naval Base. Disclosing secret slipspace technology to the humans, the Eldar aided the humans in developing a fleet of their own. Soon, a small joint fleet codenamed Winchester reached a habitable world, which they named New Velkya. The Aran' Nai called it Gorl' Zeo (roughly "Paradise of the Stars"). The world, greatly similar to the Earth, would become the first Velkyan colony on another world. Soon, the whole Gorl' Zeo system would be colonized, and other systems followed, as the banner of Earth flew from dozens of worlds.

http://users.pandora.be/Airforcer/DE%20Mod/dark-eldar-lord2.jpg
Female Eldar warrior in battle dress.

Pestilence

All was not well within the Aran' Nai, however. A devastating plague, similar to the Earth's long-forgotten AIDS virus, ripped through the population of the Eldar. Spread via sexual contact and contaminated food supplies, the virus rapidily mutated into different strain even if a vaccine was devolped. Humans were unaffected by the virus whatsoever, and interspecies hybirds shared this resilence. Sadly, over 87% of the Eldar population, a staggering forty billion, fell to the myterious virus in a mere twenty years, before it myseriously died out.

Nonetheless, the once great Aran' Nai Empire was shattered, seemingly beyond recovery. Only the capital system of the Eldar, Ven' Zeo, was totally, spared from the death and decay, with several other systems gutted completely. The once great galaxy-spanning fleets of the Eldar were reduced to a mere few hundred vessels, and it's standing army one million. The roles had switched, and the Terrans became the parent figure and the Eldar the child.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2001/02/23/image.gif
The virus which wiped out the Eldar.

Unity

After the virus died out, the remaining Aran' Knai united with the humans, created the Allied Union of Species (or Allied Union of Velkya, as it was more commonly known). The Aran' Nai began to recapture the once plague ridden worlds, and soon, the alien population recovered to half of its pre-plague population. However, the alliance remained, and both species grew closer and closer together. Reports of inter-species breeding grew common, and hybrids densely populated border worlds.

As the two species intermingled, the human fleets advanced enough to begin to rival their Eldar brethren, as thousands of vessels bearing the golden eagle criss-crossed the void. Worlds such as Moria, New Velkya, Ordinstat, and Barkersville became fleet hubs, and orbital defenses ringed each Velkyan world. "The Titan", a massive 2 mile wide and structure, was built under the ocean floor of New Velkya's Ceres Ocean to house the newly formed Colonial Defense Command, which served as the Velkyan's space "navy".

http://www.nanotech-now.com/images/Art_Gallery/LP-Conceptual_Anchor%202_c-med.jpg
The Titan's surface elevator.

Present Day

Allied fleets continue to travel between the nearly one hundred Velkyan and forty Eldar planets, and the navies of both species number 20,000 strong. Over thirty billion citizens of the twins rise each morning, and a fifty million man army watches over them. The Allied Union is currently one of the largest entities in the galaxy, and will continue to be for many centuries to come.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/6180/trios1yr.png
Velkyan SSF-5S Guardian II fighters on deep space patrol.
Velkya
01-10-2005, 14:07
Bumped!
Velkya
16-01-2006, 07:13
OOC: Your thoughts, FT guys?
Velkya
17-01-2006, 00:44
Any reviews?

Come on, people!
Free Farmers
17-01-2006, 01:09
OOC: Your thoughts, FT guys?
I thought the history section was excellent, but the other important sections (Government, Economy, and Demography) need more information. The history is very important, but unless you are roleplaying the history of your nation, then you'll want more information about things revalent to the current state of your nation. It was very well written though.
Weyr
21-04-2006, 09:16
Um, okies. Comments are comments, and let's see if there's life in this thread yet. ^.^

Regarding thread format.
I strongly suggest reducing your picture size. It's almost impossible to comfortably view the posted images even at 1280x768. There is absolutely no need to have images take up an entire screen at high resolution, unless it is done for IC reasons. This is not an IC thread. You can scale your images in almost any image editing program, including Microsoft Paint, in less than ten seconds. This will make it much easier to read your threads.

The headings could be improved by using a Wikipedia-style article format. In fact, the NSWiki is an excellent place to put up your articles, and has more than a few excellent and experienced editors to help you with layout and content.

Regarding thread content.
In terms of demographics, I'm not entirely sure what a Selkan is. That may be ignorance on my part, but consider adding more detail about any racial or ethnic tensions that may or may not exist, and why this is so.

Consider filling in the subsections for the economy section. Outline what your nation exports, and what it imports. Consider how the lack or abundance of resources or of manufacturing capabilities affects your domestic and foreign policies. For example, Weyr has few natural resources. As a result, its entire foreign policy in the past rela-life year has revolved around securing lines of communications with nations that export raw materials. Weyr has also worked quite a bit on making sure it will have allies to draw on should its only current resource of heavy metals - Mars - come under threat.

Also, regarding your interstellar holdings, consider the impact of having to defend close to a hundred worlds that are formally a part of your nation will have on defense and travel policies. Without some sort of wonky instant communications and travel technologies, or without an interstellar navy rather a bit bigger than your nation should be able to afford [in fact I seriously question the capabilities of anyone to realistically be capable of defending more than a few solar systems with standard garrisons], it is almost impossible to hold this many territories so far flung against a dedicated opponent. Note the difficulties the United States and Japan, as well as European colonial powers, had in holding onto their possessions during the second world war.

Of course, if by 'worlds' you include a few dozen Earth-sized moons orbiting gas giants, then the situation becomes a bit saner.

In any case, I suggest clarifying whether or not you claim 86 systems or 86 astronomical bodies.

Regarding history, if you plan on interacting with nations inhabiting The Planet Mars, I suggest revising the segment about Martian colonies. From what I have thus far found, you have never In Character had anything on Mars as it is recognized by the vast majority of nations currently inhabiting it. [I'm going to ignore the Mars B nations that popped up a couple months ago, for the moment.] Anyway, returning to the subject at hand, as far as I am aware you have never actually Role Played staking out claims, and as such there's no plausible way for you to have had anything there 'before' Sunset, who has colonized Mars in the In Real Life timeline sometime in late 2002, which makes him just about the oldest nation on Mars in existence today. I suggest talking to him about integrating the timelines if it is essential for you to have had a Martian colony sometime in the past.

For further reference, go to the NS Wiki article on the matter (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/The_Planet_Mars). If the link doesn't work, try refreshing the page several times. It will work eventually. The article linked to above will give you a rather good outline of various events that have occurred on or around Mars within the past four years -- pretty much since the start of NationStates. The NSWiki, like all other good Wikis, also has articles on many of the nations currently active around on or around Mars. I suggest dedicating a bit of time to looking over the various nations you will most likely be interacting with.

I hope this post helps. It was written sometime between 2:00 and 4:00 in the AM, and spellchecked via MSWord. As always, don't forget to spellcheck and proofread your posts; unreadable postage is nothing more than a sign of disrespect towards your fellow players.
Velkya
21-04-2006, 20:06
This thread's as dead as disco, I'm bascially rewriting my history here as the Eldar thing just doesn't interest me anymore. So, let it lay in peace, m'kay? :D