Kaukolastan
10-05-2006, 06:33
OOC: Hi! My name is K-stan. Well, it's not my name. My name is Kaukolastan. Wait, that's not right, either. Anyway, you don't know my name, but you can call me K-stan.
It's been a long time since I've been on these boards (nearly a year!), so I thought I'd re-introduce my nation, so anyone who wanted to could open up relations with me. Actually, you'd say you've “always had” relations with me, since I don't think my nation just fell off the planet for a few years. Rather, let's just pretend things have been “normal” while I've been AFK. So, here's a little about Kaukolastan:
Pseudo-OOC Factbook
Population: Approximately 5 Billion, as of posting.
Economy: Frightening since 2003. Basically, it's fricking insane.
Economic Focus: High Technology Industrial, Service, Biotechnology, Nanotech, Research Center. Produces high grade carbonsteel, an extremely flexible, sturdy, lightweight steel far superior to its components. Exports thermally converted oil. Produces special ceramics for extreme conditions, smart plastics, liquid metal alloys, reforming materials, adaptive materials. Medical center for limb replacement/regrowth, gene therapy, nervous system recovery, specialized surgery, nanotreatment. Computer service sector includes AI design, communications hub, information database.
Government Style: Republic/Oligarchy. Citizens vote on the Senate, but true power has been with the Internal Security Agency since a coup over a decade ago. The ISA has offered to return to democracy, but due to the past “golden” decade, people have chosen luxury over liberty.
Capital: Corsingard, Corsis
Territory: The Kaukolastani mainland is a shattered continent (five billion people need a lot of space) located in the Mid Pacific. The continent is broken into four main landmasses: southern (Sorobade), north-eastern (Artems), north-western (Vales), and central (Corsis). These are surrounded by a massive archipelago, a series of thousands of islands that expand in all directions, referred to as the Seabelt. The sea channels between the main landmasses are navigable by large vessels, including battle fleets and supertankers.
Climate: Temperate, but Tropical in southern Terenaus, and Semi-Tundra in Northern Vales and Artems. Interiors of the landmasses are moderate and pleasant, due to currents. Current cycles leave exterior face of Vales permanently stormy.
Population: 99% Homo Sapien. 1% other. Mixed ethnicity. The population is mostly clustered in the cities, with vast unused land between dense metro centers.
Education: Mandatory through four years of college. Families with children are given an Education Waiver, which they use at the school of their choice. Schools then return these waivers for money. Every year, grades K-12 are Neurally Imprinted on their birthday with the knowledge needed for their chosen curriculum. School attendance is primarily focused on actualization and socialization, through sport, art, debate, and focus club activities. College consists of chosen multi-Imprinting and thesis, to ascertain mastery. All citizens are expected to be fully versed in their field, and well rounded. This is not law, but social pressure.
Literacy: 100% of Citizens
Religion: Free, primarily Roman Catholic, non-practicing
Citizenship: Universally granted, so long as not a felon, mentally unsound. Requires a Citizenship test. May be retaken every year.
Suffrage: Universal to all citizens at 18.
Military: Army, Air Force, Navy, Strategic Command
Security Agencies: Internal Security Agency
Foreign Policy: Kaukolastan maintains an active foreign policy, engaging willing nation. An economic powerhouse, Kaukolastan uses its technology to provide solutions to other nations, in the form of economic assistance, infrastructure building, education, genetically superior crops, medicine, and technology grants. The nation generates much of its economy by engaging in long-term agreements with other nations for mutual development. A major stabilizing force in the world, Kaukolastan does not approve of genocide, slavery, or mass destruction, and will act to stop perpetrators against the global good. As such, Kaukolastan will aid any nation that finds itself under duress, so long as they are in compliance with those three conditions, and as long as they are willing to accept the terms. The terms are generally light (buy our stuff).
Overview: Basically, K-stan is a very cultured, very intelligent nation, enamoured with gadgets and technology. The people are generally compassionate, but do have a sort of hidden superiority complex. The common attitude might be summed up as, “Sure, we should help those poor people. After all, we have the good fortune to live here. Imagine what it must be like to be them. We should help. Of course, we should get something back in return... like a base or two. And they should open their markets to our goods.”
Kaukolastan is a patron of the arts, supporting culture for culture's sake, and so is home to many works, from grand Cathedrals to modern sculpture in the cities. With millennia of unified history, and most of it as a power, the cities drip with knowledge of ancients, with many libraries still intact from the Founding Age, (about the time of the height of ancient Greece).
It is a very open nation, eager to receive visitors, to sell them goods, to send them home with good impressions, so that they'll come back with friends. It exports its metropolitan lifestyle around the known world, through its economic and social influences. Many come to party in the crystal city of Corsingard, or to see the ancient Archive under the mount, with the tomes and parchment from long dead societies, or to make deals in Sorobade, or to be healed at the University of Efrena's Hospital, or a thousand other sights.
The Seabelt: Most of you would interact with Kaukolastan through this construction. Due to the shattered geography of the nation, it is far faster to travel through the central channels than to sail around the nation. Due to the size of NS Earth, this Seabelt serves an interesting function. As the fast route is in territorial waters, we have the right to close it. However, this would not be in the interest of anyone, so instead we offer to let any nation pass through the Seabelt.
In order to pass through, ships must be willing to submit to inspection. (The only cargoes seized are slaves (freed), and cargoes intended to harm Kaukolastan.) The toll to pass is a quarter credit per tonne, although nations/corporations may choose to prepay a set fee (calculated from last year's shipping averages) for a year of free use. Security is provided in the Seabelt by the Directorate Defense Forces, comprised of Kaukolastan and her allies on the Shattered Continent. (They are currently AFK, but they do exist.)
Why would someone pay to use the Seabelt, and accept the inspections?
One, to go around the Shattered Continent would take days/weeks. Two, due to the size of NS Earth, ships may very well need to resupply, or crews need to take shore leave. Three, anything goes in the Seabelt, so it's a rousing good time. Four, there's no piracy, nor privateering. No war is allowed in the Seabelt, or the DDF will deal with the offender. Nations at war are expected to “check the conflict at the door” when they enter, and their fleets may not engage in conflict.
The Seabelt is mostly in the southern area of the region, being tropical in nature. Spanning the thousands of islands around the main masses, there are dozens of major ports. (Have you played Far Cry? The islands look like those.) Acting much like the Caribbean at the hight of the New World exploration, it is a multicultural, swashbuckling affair. As long as you don't start a war, everything goes. Everything is for sale, anyone may sell what they want (as long as it's not slaves). In a single hour, a visitor will hear a hundred languages, experience a thousand new experiences (and probably get their pockets picked, but hey). The DDF just keeps the chaos to a dull roar.
DDF headquarters is on Taupran.
Want to learn more about the Seabelt? Click this link (it's posts #4, #10-12, #14) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=427388) And yes, I'm going to finish that, but Templa went into the Air Force, so I can't really work with him, can I?
And now, the ISA in detail!
The Internal Security Agency
Fools want the control. They want to hold all the answers, to make the people bow before them. True power is not in answers, but in questions. Give them the questions to ask, and help them find the answers. You will be a friend, a mentor, and a guide down their "freely chosen" path. You will own their very mind, and while you will not have "Control" in the mongoloid sense that many think, you will have true power over them.
- Internal Security Agency Director Anderas Kerrik.
The Veil of Illusion
Everything is as it should be. Prosperity has continued for decades, and crime is nonexistent. The cities shimmer in perfect crystalline lines, and nature itself bends to present only perfection. There is civility, wealth, and happiness.
The past twenty years have been a blessing, a blessing long earned.
- Senator Wilhelm Steiner
The Test
Every citizen is given a test at the end of Secondary Education. This test determines aptitude in a wide range of topics, and allows the taker to choose a form of Service. This service will be civil or military, and will last for two years. This allows every citizen to feel that they've contributed to the nation, and to unify the social strata through several years (more if willing) of communal working and living. But, if a student is capable and willing, there is another choice, another service to give.
All citizens, natural born or naturalized, upon graduating from Secondary Education, or upon attaining a waiver for post-Secondary Education and completing this path, shall take the Public Service Exam, proctored by an official of the State.
- Revised Education Code 37.86
The Veil Removed
Joining the Internal Security Agency is not a career, it is a lifestyle. You will give up everything, you will forsake all your possessions, all your ownerships. You will be a servant of the State and of the People. You live not for yourself. But, you will know the truth.
The Internal Security Agency has existed for centuries. It served as advisers to Dranem himself, and it will serve long after I am gone. You will serve as well, and it will survive you.
- ISA Director Iams (Retired)
The Truth/The Agency
Everything the people have is a careful illusion. For this heaven, there will be hell in another land. The Agency protects this twisted karmic balance, this zero sum game. Any enemy, foreign, domestic, real or perceived, will be neutralized. It will happen in shadows and in darkness, in back alleys and in marble halls. And no one will know, except those inside. This is the Burden, the Duty, to serve and protect, to sin, to commit vileness to preserve the innocence of others.
I kill so you can live. I steal so you can eat. I conspire so you can pray. I take your sins upon myself, and redeem you with my fall.
- Commander Riven
The Bargain
This is the silent deal between the People and the Agency: the People will turn a willing blind eye to the dealings of the ISA, and they will not question what happens behind closed doors. In return, the ISA will deliver them a dream state, a perfect world with “freedom”, prosperity, and peace. Some people have forgotten this deal, and have become blind to the perfect illusion, accepting the magician's cloak as truth. Others despise the ISA for their power. But few work against this reality, because they have everything they want.
Do you think this is real? Do you think this just happens? That life is fair and just? That you can help a policeman one day and win the lottery the next? This is fake, this is a lie, this is cheap! Look past what you want to see and find the truth!
- Field Commander Darius Jensen (Discharged)
The Man
For twenty years, Director Anderas Kerrik has ruled through emergency fiat and popular consent, a power seized and offered back, but refused by the people. They want the illusion, and Kerrik is the master magician. A genius and mastermind, he cut his way through the ranks, and works day and night on a secret project, one he believes will save all humanity, and end the zero sum game of loss/gain. With one fell swoop, he will bring mankind into a bold new future. But is the puppet master dangling from his own strings? Is he sane or has he fallen to his own genius, driven into madness? He rarely emerges, and relies more and more heavily on a cabal within even the ISA, headed by the enigmatic, faceless killer, Commander Riven and the smooth snake skin salesman, Chief Ghast.
If they [the people] want the power I have taken, they can have it. I do not want it. If they ask, it is theirs. Until then, however, I will believe that I have their trust, and I will work to create a better world, one which I will hand over to them for all time.
- Director Kerrik
Want to know more about the ISA? Click this link! (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Internal_Security_Agency_%28Kaukolastan%29)
Well, that's it for now.
So, who wants to open relations? I don't bite... hard. Besides, we sell shiny stuff!
It's been a long time since I've been on these boards (nearly a year!), so I thought I'd re-introduce my nation, so anyone who wanted to could open up relations with me. Actually, you'd say you've “always had” relations with me, since I don't think my nation just fell off the planet for a few years. Rather, let's just pretend things have been “normal” while I've been AFK. So, here's a little about Kaukolastan:
Pseudo-OOC Factbook
Population: Approximately 5 Billion, as of posting.
Economy: Frightening since 2003. Basically, it's fricking insane.
Economic Focus: High Technology Industrial, Service, Biotechnology, Nanotech, Research Center. Produces high grade carbonsteel, an extremely flexible, sturdy, lightweight steel far superior to its components. Exports thermally converted oil. Produces special ceramics for extreme conditions, smart plastics, liquid metal alloys, reforming materials, adaptive materials. Medical center for limb replacement/regrowth, gene therapy, nervous system recovery, specialized surgery, nanotreatment. Computer service sector includes AI design, communications hub, information database.
Government Style: Republic/Oligarchy. Citizens vote on the Senate, but true power has been with the Internal Security Agency since a coup over a decade ago. The ISA has offered to return to democracy, but due to the past “golden” decade, people have chosen luxury over liberty.
Capital: Corsingard, Corsis
Territory: The Kaukolastani mainland is a shattered continent (five billion people need a lot of space) located in the Mid Pacific. The continent is broken into four main landmasses: southern (Sorobade), north-eastern (Artems), north-western (Vales), and central (Corsis). These are surrounded by a massive archipelago, a series of thousands of islands that expand in all directions, referred to as the Seabelt. The sea channels between the main landmasses are navigable by large vessels, including battle fleets and supertankers.
Climate: Temperate, but Tropical in southern Terenaus, and Semi-Tundra in Northern Vales and Artems. Interiors of the landmasses are moderate and pleasant, due to currents. Current cycles leave exterior face of Vales permanently stormy.
Population: 99% Homo Sapien. 1% other. Mixed ethnicity. The population is mostly clustered in the cities, with vast unused land between dense metro centers.
Education: Mandatory through four years of college. Families with children are given an Education Waiver, which they use at the school of their choice. Schools then return these waivers for money. Every year, grades K-12 are Neurally Imprinted on their birthday with the knowledge needed for their chosen curriculum. School attendance is primarily focused on actualization and socialization, through sport, art, debate, and focus club activities. College consists of chosen multi-Imprinting and thesis, to ascertain mastery. All citizens are expected to be fully versed in their field, and well rounded. This is not law, but social pressure.
Literacy: 100% of Citizens
Religion: Free, primarily Roman Catholic, non-practicing
Citizenship: Universally granted, so long as not a felon, mentally unsound. Requires a Citizenship test. May be retaken every year.
Suffrage: Universal to all citizens at 18.
Military: Army, Air Force, Navy, Strategic Command
Security Agencies: Internal Security Agency
Foreign Policy: Kaukolastan maintains an active foreign policy, engaging willing nation. An economic powerhouse, Kaukolastan uses its technology to provide solutions to other nations, in the form of economic assistance, infrastructure building, education, genetically superior crops, medicine, and technology grants. The nation generates much of its economy by engaging in long-term agreements with other nations for mutual development. A major stabilizing force in the world, Kaukolastan does not approve of genocide, slavery, or mass destruction, and will act to stop perpetrators against the global good. As such, Kaukolastan will aid any nation that finds itself under duress, so long as they are in compliance with those three conditions, and as long as they are willing to accept the terms. The terms are generally light (buy our stuff).
Overview: Basically, K-stan is a very cultured, very intelligent nation, enamoured with gadgets and technology. The people are generally compassionate, but do have a sort of hidden superiority complex. The common attitude might be summed up as, “Sure, we should help those poor people. After all, we have the good fortune to live here. Imagine what it must be like to be them. We should help. Of course, we should get something back in return... like a base or two. And they should open their markets to our goods.”
Kaukolastan is a patron of the arts, supporting culture for culture's sake, and so is home to many works, from grand Cathedrals to modern sculpture in the cities. With millennia of unified history, and most of it as a power, the cities drip with knowledge of ancients, with many libraries still intact from the Founding Age, (about the time of the height of ancient Greece).
It is a very open nation, eager to receive visitors, to sell them goods, to send them home with good impressions, so that they'll come back with friends. It exports its metropolitan lifestyle around the known world, through its economic and social influences. Many come to party in the crystal city of Corsingard, or to see the ancient Archive under the mount, with the tomes and parchment from long dead societies, or to make deals in Sorobade, or to be healed at the University of Efrena's Hospital, or a thousand other sights.
The Seabelt: Most of you would interact with Kaukolastan through this construction. Due to the shattered geography of the nation, it is far faster to travel through the central channels than to sail around the nation. Due to the size of NS Earth, this Seabelt serves an interesting function. As the fast route is in territorial waters, we have the right to close it. However, this would not be in the interest of anyone, so instead we offer to let any nation pass through the Seabelt.
In order to pass through, ships must be willing to submit to inspection. (The only cargoes seized are slaves (freed), and cargoes intended to harm Kaukolastan.) The toll to pass is a quarter credit per tonne, although nations/corporations may choose to prepay a set fee (calculated from last year's shipping averages) for a year of free use. Security is provided in the Seabelt by the Directorate Defense Forces, comprised of Kaukolastan and her allies on the Shattered Continent. (They are currently AFK, but they do exist.)
Why would someone pay to use the Seabelt, and accept the inspections?
One, to go around the Shattered Continent would take days/weeks. Two, due to the size of NS Earth, ships may very well need to resupply, or crews need to take shore leave. Three, anything goes in the Seabelt, so it's a rousing good time. Four, there's no piracy, nor privateering. No war is allowed in the Seabelt, or the DDF will deal with the offender. Nations at war are expected to “check the conflict at the door” when they enter, and their fleets may not engage in conflict.
The Seabelt is mostly in the southern area of the region, being tropical in nature. Spanning the thousands of islands around the main masses, there are dozens of major ports. (Have you played Far Cry? The islands look like those.) Acting much like the Caribbean at the hight of the New World exploration, it is a multicultural, swashbuckling affair. As long as you don't start a war, everything goes. Everything is for sale, anyone may sell what they want (as long as it's not slaves). In a single hour, a visitor will hear a hundred languages, experience a thousand new experiences (and probably get their pockets picked, but hey). The DDF just keeps the chaos to a dull roar.
DDF headquarters is on Taupran.
Want to learn more about the Seabelt? Click this link (it's posts #4, #10-12, #14) (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=427388) And yes, I'm going to finish that, but Templa went into the Air Force, so I can't really work with him, can I?
And now, the ISA in detail!
The Internal Security Agency
Fools want the control. They want to hold all the answers, to make the people bow before them. True power is not in answers, but in questions. Give them the questions to ask, and help them find the answers. You will be a friend, a mentor, and a guide down their "freely chosen" path. You will own their very mind, and while you will not have "Control" in the mongoloid sense that many think, you will have true power over them.
- Internal Security Agency Director Anderas Kerrik.
The Veil of Illusion
Everything is as it should be. Prosperity has continued for decades, and crime is nonexistent. The cities shimmer in perfect crystalline lines, and nature itself bends to present only perfection. There is civility, wealth, and happiness.
The past twenty years have been a blessing, a blessing long earned.
- Senator Wilhelm Steiner
The Test
Every citizen is given a test at the end of Secondary Education. This test determines aptitude in a wide range of topics, and allows the taker to choose a form of Service. This service will be civil or military, and will last for two years. This allows every citizen to feel that they've contributed to the nation, and to unify the social strata through several years (more if willing) of communal working and living. But, if a student is capable and willing, there is another choice, another service to give.
All citizens, natural born or naturalized, upon graduating from Secondary Education, or upon attaining a waiver for post-Secondary Education and completing this path, shall take the Public Service Exam, proctored by an official of the State.
- Revised Education Code 37.86
The Veil Removed
Joining the Internal Security Agency is not a career, it is a lifestyle. You will give up everything, you will forsake all your possessions, all your ownerships. You will be a servant of the State and of the People. You live not for yourself. But, you will know the truth.
The Internal Security Agency has existed for centuries. It served as advisers to Dranem himself, and it will serve long after I am gone. You will serve as well, and it will survive you.
- ISA Director Iams (Retired)
The Truth/The Agency
Everything the people have is a careful illusion. For this heaven, there will be hell in another land. The Agency protects this twisted karmic balance, this zero sum game. Any enemy, foreign, domestic, real or perceived, will be neutralized. It will happen in shadows and in darkness, in back alleys and in marble halls. And no one will know, except those inside. This is the Burden, the Duty, to serve and protect, to sin, to commit vileness to preserve the innocence of others.
I kill so you can live. I steal so you can eat. I conspire so you can pray. I take your sins upon myself, and redeem you with my fall.
- Commander Riven
The Bargain
This is the silent deal between the People and the Agency: the People will turn a willing blind eye to the dealings of the ISA, and they will not question what happens behind closed doors. In return, the ISA will deliver them a dream state, a perfect world with “freedom”, prosperity, and peace. Some people have forgotten this deal, and have become blind to the perfect illusion, accepting the magician's cloak as truth. Others despise the ISA for their power. But few work against this reality, because they have everything they want.
Do you think this is real? Do you think this just happens? That life is fair and just? That you can help a policeman one day and win the lottery the next? This is fake, this is a lie, this is cheap! Look past what you want to see and find the truth!
- Field Commander Darius Jensen (Discharged)
The Man
For twenty years, Director Anderas Kerrik has ruled through emergency fiat and popular consent, a power seized and offered back, but refused by the people. They want the illusion, and Kerrik is the master magician. A genius and mastermind, he cut his way through the ranks, and works day and night on a secret project, one he believes will save all humanity, and end the zero sum game of loss/gain. With one fell swoop, he will bring mankind into a bold new future. But is the puppet master dangling from his own strings? Is he sane or has he fallen to his own genius, driven into madness? He rarely emerges, and relies more and more heavily on a cabal within even the ISA, headed by the enigmatic, faceless killer, Commander Riven and the smooth snake skin salesman, Chief Ghast.
If they [the people] want the power I have taken, they can have it. I do not want it. If they ask, it is theirs. Until then, however, I will believe that I have their trust, and I will work to create a better world, one which I will hand over to them for all time.
- Director Kerrik
Want to know more about the ISA? Click this link! (http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Internal_Security_Agency_%28Kaukolastan%29)
Well, that's it for now.
So, who wants to open relations? I don't bite... hard. Besides, we sell shiny stuff!